Book Reviews: Resting Scrooge Face by Meghan Quinn, A McKettrick Christmas by Linda Lael Miller and A Princess by Christmas by Julia London

Resting Scrooge Face by Meghan Quinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though it was short and sweet, this is my first time reading anything by this author, and I have to say, I enjoyed it. I really liked the letters between the two exes, and I almost laughed when they figured it out. I also enjoyed how it was revealed that senior citizens were behind putting the two exes back together! That was the sweetest part of the short story. I also like how they talked through everything in the letters and while they were painting, even though seeing each other around town almost killed them, to the point that one was hiding behind a trash can. All in all, really enjoyed this short story, might pick up more from this author.

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A McKettrick Christmas by Linda Lael Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I do read westerns, mostly from William W. Johnstone, and his westerns are oddly cozy but also have action in them. Now a Western romance is different, and I have to say, I...weirdly enjoyed this. I don't read a romance that much, and all it took was a nice cowboy on the cover to make me say, "Yeah, why not, let's read it." and boy howdy did I enjoy this one. It is very different from the bandits, shoot 'em up type books I like to read, but this one was pretty sweet.

Lizzie McKettrick is on a train heading to Indian Rock with Whitley Carson she was going to introduce to her family and maybe marry when an avalanche hits the train. There on the train, Lizzie meets and falls in love with Dr. Morgan Shane. While on the train, waiting on the promised saviors, she started to realize that Whitley is a manchild who didn't give a flying frick about helping people, and tried to go out in the deep snow, to try and escape. Instead, he broke his leg, got drunk, and told a baby to shut up. Yikes on bikes.

Once they were saved and everyone made it to Indian Rock, that's when Lizzie realized that she wasn't in love with Whitley and was in love, somehow, with Dr. Morgan. Even though she's about to be the new schoolteacher to Indian Rock's bright young students, she doesn't know her feelings for the new doctor, who will have to deal with weird ailments coming from beautiful young ladies who want the doctor's bedside manner. But after thinking about it and spending Christmas with her huge family, that's when she decided, even with the help of an "angel" by the name of Mr. Christian (or "Mr. Christmas" as the children on the train called him), that she did love him, and that she waited to marry him, which she did.

The funniest thing about this short book was the fact that one of the students, whose father was on the train and got sick, made her promise to be the teacher even if she was pregnant, which cracked me up, but I'm glad Lizzie made that promise to him. But the one good thing about this book was that she and Whitley became friends, and he went back to San Francisco and found himself a nice young lady to spend the rest of his life with.

Might read more Western romances if they're written like this, I pleasantly enjoyed this one.

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A Princess by Christmas by Julia London
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was in the mood for a romance with a bit of political intrigue because of the webtoons I've been reading lately. So I picked this one up, and this had the political intrigue in it, but the romance kinda felt lacking, that's why it's a four-star. I did like the fact that the lost prince had a disability, but other than that, and also how the FMC Hollis was strong and a determined woman, but at the same time she feels like everyone is leaving her to go on to live their own lives, and she's stick in London with her servants that has turned into her friends, and all she has is her paper that her dead husband started, and she has been writing for a long time.

Marek Brendan is the lost prince of Wesloria, and he's in London to make sure the Weslorian/Alucian peace treaty is going through, but while that is happening, he falls in love with Hollis and even helps when her butler Donovan gets hurt one night while helping Hollis was information about four soldiers that came on a boat called the Anne Marie and there was a plot to kill the King of Wesloria so the peace treaty won't be valid and then that's when the people behind all of this ruin Alucia.

Even though he couldn't hear in one ear, he was happy on his farm with his dogs and his animals, but meeting Hollis, from what I can tell, changed his entire life, to the point that at the end, in front of her whole family, he asks her to come back home with him, and I got worried a tiny bit that she didn't. She did bring up that her whole life was in London, but then Caroline or one of her sisters said that she was the best wife to her Percy, and she'd been running his gazette for a while now, isn't time for you to follow your heart? And after Donovan told her that they'll be fine, Hollis at the end left to live in Wesloria with her husband and now had a baby with him, and still runs her Gazette from her home.

The one thing that bothered me was when Marek finally met the King and he saved him from the poisoning, but didn't reveal himself to be the lost prince of Wesloria. But it was his decision and I'm glad he stuck with it-because then he wouldn't have Hollis on his small farm with a baby being adorable at the end. Even though this did scratch that romance itch and also the side political intrigue story, it failed a tiny bit becasue of Marek not telling the King who he really was.

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Book Review: Her Christmas Future by Tara Taylor Quinn

Her Christmas Future by Tara Taylor Quinn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book...didn't make a bitter damn sense to me. This book made me have a headache because of how much of a mess this is. This is a second chance, age gap, accidental pregnancy, and for the love of god it was such a hot mess that I needed something to help me get through it. It was so weird and so frustrating that I wanted to DNF it SO BAD. That's how much this book confused me-mostly because it didn't make any sense to me at all.

This book is about Dr. Olivia Wrainwright driving home one night after spending the night over at her ex-husband's house, panicking because oh no, she might be pregnant, oh noes, she shouldn't have done that, and the next day, oh no I might be pregnant with his baby, I can't carry it, oh no what do I do? So she told her closest friend and she suggested taking the plan B pill. But as she thought about what to do with the pill-she called her mama and her ex-husband, Martin, about it, and she still didn't take the darn thing. So then she decided to keep the baby, but since she couldn't carry it because of her uterus I believe, she decided to get a surrogate to carry it for her.

The most annoying thing about this book that just frustrates the hell out of me is the back-and-forth between Olivia and Martin. Do they want to stay away from each other or do they want to be together? It was so frustrating that I just wanted them to decide for one another, or they could just not deal with this and I'll make the decision for them, and then after that, they can just co-parent when the baby comes? That was my plan, but then after they thought about it and spent Christmas together, they decided to get married again, and then they were there when the baby was born.

This book frustrated me so much that I originally gave it a three-star, but then after thinking about it, I'm gonna give it a two-star. It made me so upset and made me get a headache that I had to bring the stars down. I have never read a frustrating book before in my life until now, and I hate it so much.

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Book Review: A Colorado Christmas by William W. Johnstone

A Colorado Christmas by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every time I read a Johnstone Western, it keeps getting better and better. From the action to the cozy days spent in Big Rock, each time I read these books, I oddly feel cozy and warm inside.

A Colorado Christmas tells the story of a Christmas in Big Rock, with Smoke and his wife, Sally, and Chance and Ace Jensen, who may or may not be related to Smoke, and also his brother, Luke. Preacher, the old mountain man, does appear to come to the Sugarloaf, but he came to hide from another mountain man named Eagle-Eye Callahan...for a misunderstanding that doesn't even sound right. Eagle-Eye thought that something was going on between Preacher and his wife after he found some letters that Eagle-Eye's wife wrote to Preacher. Preacher swore up and down that he had nothing to do with it, and that it was all up in poor Eagle-Eye's head.

While the town of Big Rock is preparing for Christmas, someone from the sheriff's past gets out of jail and wants revenge, while a group of people from New York, that is hired by William Litchfield to kill a boy who witnessed his family murder (ow...but why, though?), along with a group of orphans who got stuck on a train, and a private detective following the orphans and the people around, to make sure that they boy called Caleb is the one he's looking for.

This book was pretty funny at times, and also very sweet. The action was there, and it was nice looking up what a bear sign was-which I do believe is cowboy slang for doughnuts. I also really liked how the Jensens opened up their homes to the orphan children, Chance and Ace, and Preacher and Eagle-Eye, through them meeting up again and almost scrapping was funny. At the Christmas Eve pagent, I did get worried that this might be the day something really bad happens to Smoke, but thank god for Luke Jensen (which this is the first time I've meet him, to be honest).

This might be my favorite book to read and come back to every year that Christmas comes around, and I'm glad that I read it.

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Book Review: Lady Osbalderstone and the Missing Christmas Carols by Stephanie Laurens

Lady Osbaldestone and the Missing Christmas Carols by Stephanie Laurens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the cutest book ever. I'm starting to like reading Lady Osbaldestone during the holidays, because of the Christmas spirit and how gentle and kind it is, instead of Stephanie's other books I like. This time, Lady Osbaldestone and her grandchildren, Jamie, Lottie, and George, along with newcomer Melissa are on the case of the missing Christmas Carols. The organist, Richard Mortimer, needs music sheets to play them. While they are trying to find the missing Christmas Carols in time for the Christmas service, romance is in the air with Richard and a harpist named Faith, which is sweet and budding, even though Richard is hiding a secret about himself.

I liked how Jaime, Lottie, George, and Melissa tried to figure out where the missing Carols would be, while at the same time becoming part of the quire that would sing in the Carol service. I did chuckle at a couple of parts of the book, like how Lottie and Melissa knew that the match between Richard and Faith would happen, so they hung back sometimes, and I also really liked how they worked hard on their parts for the Christmas Pagent and the Carol service.

I think my favorite part of the book was the mystery. It was the focal point of the book, and you can see the frustration that everyone has trying to find that book. When they do find it, thanks to the help of a viscount and others, they find it in the most unlikely of places, which is the pantry-turns out, Reverend Coldburn put it there when he did something, I forgot, to be honest. But still, I got worried for a moment that they wouldn't find the book, but when they presented the book to Richard, I felt so much relief from it. But also, the special little quire got some new tenors and bass and others, and the Carol service went off without a hitch.

There was also a little skinny of Richard Mortimer and who he truly was, and when he told Faith who he really was after he fell hard for her, I could tell that he wanted to tell her, but because of his fear of his family he didn't do it, but at the end he did, which I'm glad for. But then, it looked like another budding romance with Melissa and the young viscount, but it didn't happen.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this one, it was so good at the end :)

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Book Review: Last Christmas: A Private Prequel by Kate Brian

Last Christmas: The Private Prequel by Kate Brian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ariana Osgood has become one of my favorite characters of all time. Not because she was smart and everything got dark each time something bad happened, it's because she was smart and quick on her feet to do what she needed to do to survive and get through the holidays, even though she was trapped at Easton Academy during a snowstorm with Thomas Pearson. I liked how she tried to be calm even though she was slowly starting to snap at any moment when the time came, which she did.

This book starts at a Winter's Ball with Ariana, Noelle, and their boyfriends. I had a suspicion that Daniel, the guy Ariana was dating, wasn't a good lad, because he snapped at the Lativan Exchange Student, Sergei, because of him taking a photo of Ariana. Then it started to slowly become worse when Ariana realized that she was stuck on campus after turning in her Madame Brovary paper and had to stay there for two whole days with the boy she hates most of all, Thomas Pearson, whom she started to fall for.

In two whole days, while they fall in love, they realize that someone is watching them. Ariana thought that it was her boyfriend, Daniel, who was supposed to be up in Vermont with his family, waiting for her. Even when she explained that she and Daniel were supposed to lose their virginity together, Thomas started laughing and telling her that Daniel was lying to her-straight to her face. Ariana, not believing him, swore up and down that he was lying. So they went up to Daniel's room and started looking around-only for them to find a spreadsheet of all the girls Daniel had slept with-which is very disgusting, frankly, and Ariana was heartbroken.

So what does one do when she comes across this information?

Why, she turns around and sleeps with Thomas right in Daniel's bed as revenge. Then they went to hide when they heard some footsteps, and Daniel, the bastard whom I don't like at this point, texted her. So because they jumped out of the window and Thomas sprained his ankle, they went to hide in a warm building (Ketlar Hall, I believe?) and then Ariana heard-accidentally, by mistake-Mr, Holmes and Isobel Bautista having relations in their hiding spot, and Ariana took Mr. Holmes's cellphone and recorded it for evidence (and to also use since her phone is currently dead at this point).

She and Thomas, once they left and figured out it was Sergei that took the photo, left their hiding spot and went to the Lativan's room, where they found a whole bunch of photos. When they confronted Sergei, Ariana ran after him over a lake of thin ice, only for Ariana to kill him by pushing his head down and letting him drown. Once that was over, they went back and decided to split apart, only to plan how they could sneak around Daniel and wait till September to finally be with each other.

Well, January rolled around and she and Daniel came back from their trip to Vermont. Ariana got her revenge on Mr. Holmes after receiving a C plus on her paper by playing the video and scarring him, then had a little rivalry with one of Thomas's hookups, allegedly killing her in her own home. Once that was over-the girl showed up at the diner and confronted Ariana about her secrets and threatened to expose her to Daniel and the police, Ariana freaked out and wanted her to disappear, allegedly-everything was perfect again in Ariana's world. Nothing bad will happen.

Until the beginning of senior year, when Ariana saw Thomas-her Thomas-talking to Reed Brennan, the new girl. All of a sudden, Ariana started to get worried, until a thought came to her.

She wondered what would happen if Reed Brennan went missing...

I truly enjoyed this book. Would've given it a five star, but I gave it a four because of Daniel and Melissa and the whole Mr. Holmes/Isobel hookup. All in all it was a really good book and I'm so glad that I brought it and read it.

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