The Christmas Countdown

3.75 rounded up.

I loved the premise of the book, and the couple was a lot more likeable than last year's The Christmas Wager.

It was nice that it was a romance, but there was a focus and growth and relearning to be yourself after a big life change.

I liked how it was obvious the characters were being themselves when with each other.

A sweet story for the holidays.

Solid Hallmarkie Christmas Romance That "Officially" Has The Weirdest Personal Story Ever For Me. This is one of those damn near prototypical Hallmark Christmas movie type romances, and that alone will tell most people whether they're going to like this or not. Obviously, with how much success Hallmark has with these types of movies every year (and with so many of the romance authors I've worked with over the years now getting chances to write some of these actual movies), there is quite a considerable market for exactly this type of story, so kudos to Cassidy (and the actual person behind her) for branching out into this realm. Here, Cassidy even manages to introduce a few wrinkles not *always* seen... but this also ties into the personal story I have to tell.

For those who don't care about my very weird personal history with this book, what I said above is everything you need to know. It was really good for its type and had some interesting wrinkles, and is absolutely worthy of your time if you like these types of tales. Very much recommended.

Now, for the weird personal tale:

As I was reading this book in the week before release in October 2024, I *absolutely knew* I had read this tale before. To the level that it was an exact duplicate of the tale I knew I had already read, which I recognized 100% from one particular scene, among others. As I've known the actual person behind the Cassidy pseudonym online for many years now and have read and reviewed many of her books under her real name, I knew such blatant plagiarism simply *was not* possible. Not the author I've known for so long. And yet... I *knew* I had read this story weeks earlier, back when I last reviewed this author's 2024 release under her real name.

And yet... I had *ZERO* record that I had already read this book. Which is statistically damn near as close to zero as you can get, as I have *extensive* record keeping about literally every book I read in *numerous* different places.

I have an Excel file where I have three different sheets containing different data about every book, and I mark each sheet as I complete a given book. I download the cover to my phone and then create two separate images - one with my Hardcover.app profile on the side and one without - with my rating of the book on both. I then post the one without in a Facebook group on my personal profile where we keep track of all the books the group reads. I then Facebook Messenger my reader profile both images. I then save both images in a particular folder on my computer. Then I begin to actually write the review in Hardcover.app. I then copy the text of the review into Goodreads, BookHype.com, BookBub.com (if the book is there), TheStoryGraph.com, NetGalley.com (if the book came from there, as both the earlier book under this author's real name and this book did), my blog, and at least two separate Facebook reader groups, and I'm trying to get better about making it at least three. (My own group there, Reader Garage, as well as at least Readers Coffeehouse and I'm trying to get better about My Book Friends). I then finish out my review on my blog with imagery and some links, then post the links from my blog to the Hardcover.app review and to the NetGalley review. I then copy all of the other review site review links into the NetGalley review and submit that. Finally, I place the link to my blog review in my LinkTree and get the Hardcover version of the cover image out on my Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Blog Page. I then share the Facebook Blog Page post publicly on my reader profile there.

So there are a LOT of places that *some* record of me reading this book back then *should* have existed in some form. 25 by my count, 26 counting the My Book Friends group.

And YET, I found record that I had read this book in just *ONE* of them - It had been removed from the Excel tab where I remove books as I complete them. Even this isn't conclusive, however, as I've been known to make mistakes and cut the wrong book from time to time over the years.

But y'all, I *KNOW* I read this book, and I even remember having the plan back in July, when I read the other book under this author's real name, that I would read this book immediately after - along with then doing the same thing with another author who had two books releasing around the same time as both of this author's books. (IIRC, the other author's first book released a week or so after "Cassidy"'s first book, and the other author's October book released last week, a week before this book.)

So what I *suspect* and *believe* happened - yet have almost exactly zero evidence of - is that I did in fact read this book back then. It is the only thing that makes sense with everything that I know to be true about everything surrounding this very weird experience. I then noticed that I simply had too many books releasing in August to follow through with my plans for working the other author in a similar manner, and clearly I somehow forgot to go through my review process for this book back then. I honestly have no idea what caused such a lapse, but such a lapse happening is the *only* thing that actually makes sense with everything else I know.

So there you have it. Even the "machines" of the book review space, as some authors have called me over the years, have our breaking points. It seems that August 2024 - whose books I did not fully clear until September 30, with my review of James Rollins' Arkangel - may have been too close to my own for comfort. But at least I'm on the back side of that, and some new opportunities are arising as I begin to slow down the ARC work that has kept me so busy for so many years now.

Hopefully y'all will continue to follow me on these new adventures... and hopefully you'll continue to follow Ms. Cassidy under both this identity and her real one. :)