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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Book Review: The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was such a really cute book, and I really loved the mystery aspect of the book. I liked how Evan, Al, and Mortimer all had chapters talking about books, solving the mystery of the burned-down library, and how someone really wanted to see someone named Petunia. I also really liked how Evan's father explained how the fire started, and also how he was H.G. Higgins, and why he freaked out the moment he saw Evan's books he picked up from the little library.

I think my favorite part of the book was Mortiner's point of view. I've never seen a point of view from a cat, and I have to say, I really like that in a book. I liked that he became the guardian of the little library, and everyone called him every single name instead of the name he was named. When it came to fire, he got all the mice together and they told the story while he was meowing, and it got the adults in the book to act to build a new one.

The only character I kinda felt sad for was Al, who was actually alive and was taking care of both Mortimer and the ghosts. I thought she was a ghost as well, but it turns out she was still alive after Edward, Evan's dad, saved her from the library's fire. But I quite liked the description of the ghosts and how they left her while it turns out she was human this whole time. However, I did also find it cute that she had given the ghosts cheese and tea while they were living in the history house.

Back to the mystery aspect of it, I really enjoyed that. It was fun trying to solve a mystery through the lens of a fifth grader, who was writing everything down in his notebook and had his friend helping him through it all, including his dad at the end. I really liked that in this book and I want to read more books like this and trying to solve mysteries through a kid's lens-it was really fun and I liked how he and his friend tried to solve the mystery before and after they graduate.

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Book Review: Murder, She Wrote: Aloha Betrayed by Jessica Fletcher

Aloha Betrayed by Jessica Fletcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aloha Betrayed was a really good book. We follow Jessica Fletcher as she goes to Maui to teach a class with retired detective Mike Kane. She meets a botanist professor named Mala Kapule, and she invites Jessica to a luau, where Jessica overhears two men talking about something-maybe Mala? But then the next morning, Mala is found dead, and just like the show, that's how this book kicks off.

I liked how Jessica and Mike teamed up to find out who killed Mala, and I also liked the Hawaiian sayings at the beginning of the chapters as we go around the island to find out who killed Mala. It felt like an old-school episode of Murder, She Wrote, and I loved how both Jessica and Mike figured out who did it. I felt like I was there with them, trying to figure out who did it with them. The one thing that confused me while I was reading this book was the whole Bob and Elaine side story. Elaine kept saying 'Oh Bob' while Bob just says and does the most random thing ever, and then they move on as if this couple was working out their problems while on their trip to Maui.

Abbott and his wife kinda didn't make any sense until the end. I was shocked that it was Mrs. Luzon that killed Mala-I thought it was something totally different that killed her like Jessica thought-but thanks to a little boy who saw something and was kept quiet about it, that's when Jessica knew that something was off. When the boy, Kono, runs away from home, Jessica and the other townspeople try and find him, and the part I liked about this was the fact that Aunt Edie, Mala's Auntie, started to pray to Uli, and Jessica was confused at first about it, but when the boy was found, unharmed because of the cane stalk fires, all of us was relieved.

The ending with Professor Luzon and his wife shocked me the most, mostly because she snapped after all these years of getting mentally abused while Professor Luzon went after every pretty girl he saw. When she finally snapped, though, I felt like Professor Luzon deserved it. It was just odd and weird, and was very unexpected.

I would love to read more in the written books of Murder, She Wrote while watching the show at the same time, this one was a really good one.

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Book Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Death on the Nile was quite interesting. The first chapter when you open the book was broken up into many mini chapters and I got so confused as to why Agatha Christie chose to write the book like this. But then as I read on, from England to a hotel in Egypt to the Nile to the boat and as to why someone would shoot Linnet in the head like that, this book was a ride I was glad to be on, because I was trying to figure out who did kill Linnet Ridgeway. I thought it was her friend Jacqueline-I was spot on-but the whole twist as to why she was killed and why Jacqueline was stalking both Linnet and Simon. Was it because of jealousy? Was it all a plan to get all of Linnet's money so they could do whatever they wanted with it? Was Jacqueline that money-hungry as my mama would say, and wanted all of Linnet's money? Or was it revenge for stealing Simon away from her?

Simon's part of the whole thing confused me. I thought he was faithful to his wife, only to turn around and plan this whole thing, which doesn't make any sense at all. I thought he was happy with Linnet and was glad to marry her. But to surprise me and lie about it, all because of Jacqueline??? Sir. Really?? To me, Simon was one shady bitch throughout this book and I thought to keep an eye on him the whole entire time while I was trying to keep an eye on Jacqueline.

The whole scene in the drawing room, with Jacqueline making a huge fuss and acting weird--to the point that she wanted to shoot Simon to make him pay for leaving her....it didn't make sense. At all. It was one huge weird scene that just threw me off while trying to figure it all out. But then it broke off into some weird 'I saw her do this' and 'he did that' and it didn't make any sense at all. But for some reason....it compelled me though.

The ending was...not that satisfying. I didn't like how both Jacqueline and Simon just died like that, which was sad in my opinion. I thought, 'oh they'll get arrested and go to jail, good for us' but nope, didn't end that way. I'm sad about that part, though, because I felt like Linnet didn't get any justice for what happened to her after we find out it was both Simon and Jacqueline that killed her.

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