Kathrine
Kind of cute until the last 1/4 of the book when it started to get a little too church-y. I mean, it's a Christmas themed book set on a Christmas Tree farm, so a little of the religious to sneak in (like saying they're going to a Christmas eve service). But this was more barely anything to suddenly, talking about going to Sunday services and praying for family members to get along.
Oh, and the ending that came out of left field. Seriously, Gavin proposed? He hadn't seen Madison in almost 20 years (his oldest was in college so the math says somewhere in the 18-20yrs range), he helps sell a few trees, goes on one date and suddenly he has a ring and is on bended knee to finish the story. I'd rather have seen a quiet ending and then an epilogue.
This one met my expectations. Mostly.
Which is a kind way of saying, not bad but it could have been so much better.
Usually I like Ali Hazelwood's books, but as this was her first foray into ya, I was prepared to give it a little grace. It needed that grace and then some. There were times when I struggled to pay attention. It was never difficult to set the book down, except maybe the last 20 pages. Pretty sure that was more about me counting pages and continually reminding myself that the light at the end of the tunnel was glaringly bright.
Mallory is a fairly well written mc. She's got her good points and her flaws. I didn't necassrily like her - her childish bs and self appointed matyrdom grated on my nerves -but character wise she was fleshed out. I liked most of the chess related secondary characters, especially Oz. Who didn't I like? Nolan. The character equivalent of a wet paper towel. There was no depth to him. Chess. His grandfather. (who also played chess). And....he's a 20someyear old guy with no relationship experience who has no idea how to take care of himself when he's sick. That's it. We didn't learn anything about him that was comforting or revolutionary or even suggest that his favorite color was something other than beige. He chemistry with Mallory was miniscule at best. To the point where I didn't feel like there was really a romance at all.
My other issues would have been minor if the main story had held my attention better. But since it didn't...Mallory's mom? She was sick? I think? But no idea how she was sick. At first I thought it was depression. Then maybe recovering from cancer. But maybe it was some other kind of chronic illness? Lupus? Chronic fatigue? Arthritis? Fibromyalgia? No idea. Something was needed to explain why Mallory was playing parent even though her mom was in the other room. Mallory's sisters. Good grief. How does Mallory's 12 year old sister know that much about her sex life? Plus both girls were walking, talking Gen Z encyclopedias, practially just spewing lists of jokes and references to try to make the author appear like she knows what she writes about (Riverdale was not that good, but at least she didn't include the horrible, inexplicable Nancy Drew farce). It was all superficial.
One other point of contention: I think this book is mis-genre'd (is that a word?). Based on the ages of the main characters, where they are in life and the amount of sex talk, this should be New Adult, not YA. I wish publishers would stop trying to say something is YA, even when it's obviously not in an attempt to get those who read YA to look their direction.
Overall, 2.5 stars. I'm not feeling generous enough to round it up to 3
One star for the recipes and one star for all the rest, because wow was this book an absolute mess. The original claim was that this was going to be a Practical Magic meets Gilmore Girls story. I did kind of get a bit of a Practical Magic vibe, at least at the beginning. But GG? Nope. Nada. Nothing. Character development was marginal at best and the world building...well...there wasn't much of that either. There wasn't anything to make me understand or even care about these characters.
Sadie, the MC, had the emotional maturity of a 10yr old. Her long lost “love” Jake (I still don't get the long lost part) alternated between doormat and bully. As for Sadie's depressed, emo twin Seth, he's about as interesting as a wet paper bag. With all the other characters - there are a ton of them - the author seemed to be more interested in giving them all specific magical powers (Think Encanto, except the animated Madrigal Family was more 3 dimensional) than making them fulfledged characters.
I have no idea what this book was trying to be: romance? family drama? magical realism? fantasy? It missed the mark on all of the above. And I still don't understand the whole family of practicing witches goes to church. REGULARLY. Like every Sunday morning. Just one more thing that made this story ridiculous overall.
Continuing to enjoy this series, even if this one wasn't my favorite. I wanted to shake both Fran and Mike. I kept thinking that maybe Mike was purposefully acting like a jerk to help the investigation. I get that Fran sticking her nose in everything is annoying (believe me), but being angry and constantly yelling instead of actually investigating was stupid. I still think Mike faking his anger to help catch the killer would have been a better story element. Either that or give the reader some details for why he's not doing his job.
Still like the series as a whole, so I'll pick up the next book in the future.
Not bad but not great. The main character alternated between dumb as dirt and snobby busybody. Wasn't a fan of her sister either, but the other side characters were fun. Mrs. Marple was a favorite. Though I don't get why Mr. Everett can't have a first name? This isn't 1951. Anyway, the mystery was decent enough, though I figured out a couple of the twists way earlier than any of the characters.
I do love the idea of a tourist town with a row of bookstores so I'm willing to overlook some of the surface issues and maybe read book 2 in this series.
More like 2.5 stars, but I'm being generous and rounding up.
I reserved this at my library before Christmas and forgot to remove the hold, so figured I might as well read it. Even though I found it in the “holiday themed” section of book suggestions, it's not really a holiday story. It's more Christmas-adjacent. It takes place in winter, around the holidays, but that's about it. The mystery wasn't terrible, but for me at least it was pretty easy to figure out. Early on I figured out that there were some grand theatrics that would eventually result in a soapy type resurrection of Jennifer (I was correct - almost the whole damn town was in on it). But really that was the not the part that bothered me about this book. I didn't get the purpose in all the psychiatrist scenes. Other than yet again to inform the reader how attractive the narrator was. Because apparently that's the one thing every character needs to tell the reader. Mostly I found him whiny. Whiny about a childhood crush at that. That's what made the grey, melancholy cloud hanging over the whole of this story even darker. And that's why 2.5 stars.
This isn't my usual genre of choice and I can't quite give this one just one star because the Deputy with the crush was sweet. But the rest was just meh. And there was crime until the end, where the culprit was promptly arrested. I figured out who Charlotte's secret admirer was extremely early on, so the mystery just wasn't there.
I saw this was available through my local library (yay! for libraries and the Libby app) after reading The Love Hypothesis (which I really liked). Ali Hazelwood is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. Cute, fun, fast read. A little on the tropey side and a lot predictable, but sometimes that's exactly what I'm looking to read.
4.5 stars. I rarely give books 5 star ratings, but this one came close. I just couldn't quite bring myself to hand over that extra 1/2 star. Maybe it was too tropey. Or maybe there were a couple of plot points that were a little too convienent. I'm not really sure. But I did enjoy the book and all its inherent sweetness and geekiness over all.
I'm really behind in getting reviews posted...finished this one back at the beginning of February...so this is going to be short and....well....short.
2 stars is probably being generous, but I didn't all out hate every part of this story, so 2 stars. The depiction of CFS was well done - that's the part that allowed for the 2nd star. The rest was meh at best, irritating at worst. I despised what was supposed to be the romantic pairing of the story. While Rachel could be annoying and over the top, what I really didn't get was why she bothered to give pretentious, spoiled jerk Jacob the time of day. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to root for them as a couple, but I spent more time internally screaming at Rachel to leave his immature butt outside on some sidewalk somewhere. never speaking to him again. Honestly there are 6 year old with more maturity than these two characters had when they were together. Made it hard to not throw this one across the room.
Terrible. With a capital ‘T'. I wasn't expecting fabulously fantastic, but this didn't even meet the Hallmark movie bar. The author needs to learn to actually do research when she doesn't know something, not just make things up to fit whatever fantasy she has in her head. Things she should have researched at a library or at least googled: the city of Phoenix. Adoption, abandonment and the termination of parental rights (yes they can be terminated without a parent signing paperwork). Asbestos (most likely it wasn't the floor tile that had asbestos, but the black mastik glue used to adhere the tile to the floor. It's not an issue unless it's disturbed - meaning someone has to pry the tile off the floor. The same goes for anything above the ceiling - just don't disturb it).
As for everything else, the story was thin. (Who takes a job in a far away small town without researching anything about it?) Insta!Love always annoys me. The main character was a cross between bland and obnoxious. Her precocious daughter was over the top (for the longest time I thought she had to be 4 maybe 5. Turned out she was 8.). The villain was the written equivalent to the evil magician in the Frosty the Snowman animated Christmas special.
I'm usually willing to give holiday themed stories a lot of leeway and forgive a lot of things, but where this book is concerned, you'd be better off leaving it on the shelf.
This sounded like a fun, easy read. The problem was this book couldn't decide what it was supposed to be. A romance? Family drama? Magical realism? Food centered story? It was all too much and as such the story suffered. No one part was able to establish any footing. Instead it felt like a series of story fragments and events that just followed one after the other. And the ending felt too “tie it up with a happy rainbow”. There were some glimmers of good story telling - I enjoyed Vanessa's relationship with Evelyn - but it was covered up by all the over the top foodie meal descriptions. And I'm never a fan of insta-love stories (never mind the taking back the guy with the huge gambling problem because he might go to counseling). Basically, while it wasn't bad, it could have been a whole lot better.
Interesting premise with a fantastic start. Seeing the world through Nina's eyes, even with the trips to the past that slowed the pace was fascinating. Watching a group of cons interact and switch between what was supposed to be a con and what was actually real kept me reading. Where things started to fall apart for me was the introduction of the 2 narrator. Vapid, 2-dimensional, snotty, self-involved with nothing that differentiated her from a half dozen other antagonists in a half dozen other novels. There were a couple of twists that I didn't quite see coming, so I powered through the parts where I wanted to slap a piece of duct tape over Vanessa's mouth (including the long section where Nina was MIA). I actually kind of wish Lachlan had been the second narrator. It would have been an interesting juxtaposition to Nina. Anyway, I had hopes for a powerful final act. Unfortunately, all I got was disappointment. It ended on a whimper that was 1 step removed of sunshine and rainbows.
It took way too long to get to the mystery portion of the story and recipes took up like a third of the pages, leaving something to be desired as mysteries (even cozy-mysteries) go. Hannah and her sisters spent most of that remaining page real estate running around like chickens in a snow storm (sorry/not sorry...the setting is Minnesota and there is a blizzard in the story) and the resolution fell flat.
It never fails that at the end of the year I find myself visiting Snowflake, SC in one of Fischer's holiday themed short stories. There's nothing overly exciting or plot shattering, but they always make me smile. This one did just that, which makes it a good way to finish up my reading for the year.
Meh with a bit of ridiculousness. The elements for a good, if predictable cozy mystery were all there yet they didn't really come together. The writing was rather simplistic and the author was too dependent on cliches - both setting and plot. And that ordering black coffee was the main (and pretty much only) way of weeding out suspects was shake my head, over the top, plot insanity. But Jo seems like she'd be a decent cozy mystery protagonist if she was given more time to develop, so maybe I'd be willing to try another book in the series (if I was looking for mindless, no need to think reading).