Cozy Romance

Thoughts on THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this last Wednesday of October? Things here are monotonous. I’m still stuck in the hurry up and wait portion of various things and I’m so fucking tired of remaining patient. Being politely professional when people are just jerking me around. Passive aggression is only amusing for so long. Anyway, on an unrelated note, anyone want to find somewhere to scream into the void with me? No? I guess singing along to loud music will have to do. But you’re not here to listen to me complain. It’s the last Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means… book review time! I don’t know what I was thinking, but somehow I ended up with another cozy romance. The Best Christmas Ever by Sarah Morgan was released yesterday (the 27th) by MIRA Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

The Best Christmas Ever follows Mabel, Brooke, and Izzy as they navigate the difficulties of the Christmas season. It’s the worst snowstorm to be seen in recent history. Mabel is hunkered down with her cats in her home in the middle of nowhere. Brooke is trying to get her husband and two kids to her parents. And Izzy is finishing up one last job before saying goodbye to her business acquaintance and returning to her empty apartment. Fate has different ideas when the storm strands them all at Mabel’s house for the foreseeable future. Will they remain awkward strangers or will they help each other overcome their issues all while entertaining two children?

Plot: standard. Everyone (well, the women) has their own reasons to dread Christmas. Circumstances lead to them being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way out. By some miracle they have everything they need (food, a generator, decorations, etc.) to make themselves the perfect Christmas with little to no discomfort except Izzy having to share a room with the perfect man. But what about their inner turmoil? Don’t worry. Everything is so perfect that one or two conversations heals years of drama and trauma and everyone else involved in the different events magically goes along with everything and peace is found by all. It’s definitely one of those perfect books. Everything is easily wrapped up once they just talk about it. Smothering parents accept that they put too much pressure on Brooke and her husband and instantly change their ways. Mabel’s issues are fixed with an email. Izzy’s issues get better because of a dude. You know… because that’s how life works. Easy peasy. It’s all too tidy and effortless for me.

Characters: same complaint. Everyone is perfectly flawed. The dudes are just perfect. Like creepily perfect. Definitely an idealized version of a man. The children are angels and don’t have any meltdowns. It’s weird. And the three women already understand what their issues are. They’re perfectly self-aware. They just need each other to support each other while they try to fix everything that wasn’t really their faults. Think Hallmark Christmas special when you imagine the characters. I’m not saying they’re bad, just flat. They’re very much cookie cutter characters with a decent icing job. Cute, but not substantial.

Writing: fine. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly engaging. The only thing that was weird was that the American characters didn’t have any problem with the British terminology. A lot of the Americans actually used British terminology (not just Brooke and her family). It was odd.

Ultimately, The Best Christmas Ever wasn’t for me. It was fine, but everything was too easy and perfect for me. Some people enjoy that. A lot do, actually. I’m not one of them.

Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I wasn’t happy with it, but if you’re into Hallmark movies, you’ll probably enjoy it.

Thoughts on CHRISTMAS AT HONEYCOMBE BAY

~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Medicaid is officially taken care for a year(ish) unless the administration keeps screwing with everything. Now, my main concern is the wheelchair (yeah, we’re still not done with that yet). Beyond that, I have a month or so where I don’t have to prove I’m cripple enough or poor enough to anyone. Huzzah! Don’t worry. A new round of that starts in November/December. Anyway… It’s the last Wednesday in September, so you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I ended up with a cozy Christmas romance. Christmas at Honeycombe Bay by Lilac Mills was released by Dell yesterday (the 29th). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

Christmas at Honeycombe Bay follows Eloise and Bart. Eloise (60 and was recently let go from her lifetime job) wants nothing more than to escape all things Christmas, so she runs away to a seaside village that’s supposed to be dead in the winter. Bart (widowed and still wallowing in his loss) owns a B&B that he never really planned on opening again but does so just to prove he can run it alone with the bonus of having an excuse not to spend Christmas with his son’s family. Nobody in the B&B particularly wants to celebrate, but when a house fire a few doors down leaves a single mother and her young child homeless, what are they supposed to do? Bart and his guests decide to give the little boy and his mother the best Christmas they can, of course.

Plot: slow. This is obviously more character driven than plot driven. Yes, you get all the Hallmark romance plot points, but they take a backseat to the characters. Eloise is constantly ruminating on something. Bart is always fretting. And the biggest plot issue is that neither of them can openly communicate to save their lives. Based on the plot alone, the story is cute. It’s standard Christmas fare. There’s nothing special about it. That’s not to say it’s not good. It is. I found it to be very enjoyable. I’m just not going to add it to my list of books I want to re-read. It’s a one and done.

Characters: mixed bag. I didn’t like Eloise. She’s a whiny bitch and everything has to be her way. Her attitude is explained away as stemming from a tough childhood. She is 60. It’s time to acknowledge that other people have agency in their own lives. Also, nothing about her past is severe enough or explained well enough to warrant the hissy fit she throws when she discovers the town is trying something new this year. I also didn’t like Bart’s son. He’s the one who comes off as an uncaring gold-digger, so he has no room to accuse anyone else. And he doesn’t support his father at all even though the book tries to make it seem like he does. That being said, I loved Bart, Mitch, Sarah, and Toby. So, mostly good with a couple of meh characters.

Setting: LOVE! It’s a cozy English seaside village. What’s not to like? It’s a great book in terms of world building. I kind of wondered why it was so fleshed out until I saw a second book set in the same village is coming out next year. Different scenario and different people, but same setting. I don’t know if I’ll pick it up, but in case you were wondering, that’s why Honeycombe Bay is so vividly described.

Writing: not bad. Unobtrusive. I had to look up one or two things because it’s in England and I’m not. But that’s a me problem.

Ultimately, I liked Christmas at Honeycombe Bay for what it is. I’m not particularly interested in future books, but I’m not mad I read this one.

Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. A solid 3.5, anyway. If you enjoy binging Christmas romances (nothing spicy), you’ll probably like this one. If you’re looking for something special, keep looking.

Thoughts on LOVE’S A WITCH

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? We have tomatoes (Sweeties and Black Krims)! Yummy. Be jealous. We also have jalapeños that are good too. But mostly yay for tomatoes! Anyway, we’re not here to talk about yummy goodness. It’s the last Wednesday of August, so we’re (you and I, not the royal we) here for the book review. This month, I went for a witchy little romance. Not like an epic, sweeping romantasy. Just a cute sounding little romance with fantasy elements. It’s the first book in the Scottish Charms series. Love’s a Witch by Tricia O’Malley was released yesterday (the 26th) from Gallery Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. So, let’s get to it.

Love’s a Witch follows the MacGregor sisters as they move back home to Briarhaven in Scotland to try to break the curse that’s been on their family for centuries. Sloane, the oldest, is so used to playing mother hen to her sisters that she’s having trouble acknowledging that they’re all young women now. She’s also struggling with the fact that she’s coming into her magic as her 25th birthday looms. Throwing in a pushy hottie hellbent on running them out of town before their curse quite literally destroys everything, and Sloane can’t get much more stressed. Can they stop the curse and save themselves from a nomadic existence? If they do, does Sloane even want to settle down? Maybe with a certain pushy hottie?

The plot. I love the plot. The whole idea of trying to break the curse because they want a place to call home without having to move all the time. There’s enough family drama introduced to keep the future books connected to this one. I didn’t even mind the enemies-to-lovers trope (it’s not my favorite, but I try to give it a chance). It’s interesting and fun, but I have to be honest… the pacing sucks. There’s lots of talk about breaking the curse, but none of the sisters actually do anything about it. All the information just kind of falls into their laps. They don’t do any research or anything. Hell, when they find out the name of the woman who cursed their family, they don’t even bother asking around about her to try to find her descendants. Everything gets done for them, which makes any step forward unsatisfying. Plus, everything is crammed into the end of the book. It’s not balanced at all.

The characters. I’m going to preface this by saying that I don’t have to like the main characters in order to like a book. That being said, I absolutely hated Sloane and Knox. I don’t give a fuck how hot a dude is. If he comes to my house, drags my bags out into the snow, and tells me I have to leave without so much as a “hey, what brings you to town?”, then proceeds to have the townsfolk bully and blackball me and my family when we don’t leave, the dude’s irredeemable. No way I’d talk to him, let alone have sex with him. And his whole background is supposed to make me sympathetic to him, but it only emphasizes the fact that he’s just a giant walking red flag with too much money and zero communication skills. Sloane’s not much better when it comes to communication. And even though she supposedly took care of her sisters, it’s like she still expects everything remotely difficult to be done for her and if it isn’t, she threatens to run away. They’re both annoying and I hate them. Luckily, the side characters were all wonderful and did a lot of heavy lifting in this story.

The writing itself was fine. Nice description and dialogue. The steamy scenes were disappointingly short, but I guess that’s more realistic than most scenes like that.

Ultimately, I was just kind of meh about Love’s a Witch. I enjoyed the plot and side characters enough that I will check out book 2, especially if it switches to Lyra as the main character as I’m guessing it will since she comes into her magic next.

Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Not a must-read, but if you enjoy little witchy romances, it’s an okay read. Hopefully the next one is better.