Christmas Joy by Nancy Naigle- Reshelved Book

'Tis the Holiday Season!

For December, I thought I would be basic and choose a holiday theme for the books I read. 

Kicking the theme off (for me) is Christmas Joy by Nancy Naigle.  (This book would actually be a nice transition, IF I had watched the Hallmark Channel's movie.  Which I did not.  If anyone happened to be around Tuesday, December 4th, Hallmark did show the movie! Totally not a sponsored shoutout. The Hallmark Channel doesn’t know this blog exists. Haha)

I found out about this book when I was looking up holiday books.  Never heard of it until then.  I've never read anything by Nancy Naigle either before this book. 

This book did skew my schedule for December.  Mainly because it took forever and a day to read. 

I found this book to be one that was painfully boring.  There was nothing that grabbed at my attention and held it. Once I was done reading it, it promptly was donated to the book nook at work.

Christmas Joy is about a woman (who is around my age?) named Joy (shocker).  Joy is go-getter, hard working marketing research analyst.  She's always putting her job first before her family.  Joy's only surviving relative, her aunt Ruby falls and break her ankle.  An injury that requires surgery!  Due to the extent of Ruby's injury, Joy goes down to North Carolina to be with her. 

Like any good Christmas story, there is turmoil!  Ruby's injury happens weeks before the annual Cookie Crawl!! (Oh nooooo!) But it's a good thing that Joy will be coming down.  Ideally, she'll be able to help decorate Ruby's house and work with the handyman Ben.  

I think that this is the point in the book where I became TRULY annoyed with Joy and the entire scenario. 

Instead of accepting the help from someone who is aware of the efforts and the demands that are associated with decorating and prepping for the cookie crawl; Joy decides that she's able to do everything all on her own and that she doesn't any help from Ben. 

Of course, while she's struggling to deal with her past and what's going on in the now- she has several epiphanies! All of which Joy basically fights- she accepts them but then she fights Ben still.

The book was just boring (Ugh. It wasn't even boring because Ben was an accountant.)  There wasn't a spark between them.  There wasn't any development between Ben and Joy as characters.  Then out of nowhere, Joy's ex-boyfriend, Todd shows up!  The book also just abruptly ended. 

I am confidently going to give this book 2.5 coffee beans out of 5.  I feel like that rating is rather unfair but I just could NOT stand it.  I could not stand Joy.  She was self described as being stubborn.  I just don't feel like that was the best way to describe her?  That really would not be the adjective that I would choose to use. 


Joy's attitude really ruined the book for me.  As silly as that may sound. 

I wish everyone a Happy Holidays!

~ Jillian
 

The Adults By Caroline Hulse - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

It's time for another Holiday novel review!  The Adults by Caroline Hulse was in my TBR pile for quite a while when I received it as an ARC from Baker and Taylor over the summer and let me tell you this book is FABULOUS!!!

This novel is about four adults: Matt and Claire who are divorced, and Alex and Patrick the respective new girlfriend / boyfriend.   The  two new couples decide to go on a holiday together along with Matt and Calire's young daughter Scarlett and her imaginary friend who is a really tall rabbit named Posey.  Posey wears silver shoes.  With a setup like that, nothing can go wrong, right?  Well... the novel opens with a 911 call (999 because it's England) because someone has been shot with an archery arrow.  

This novel is an absolutely wonderful and captivating read.  It's also extremely funny, which I think is partially because some of the ridiculous moments in the novel could probably happen is real life... or at least the sitcom version of our lives.

While this novel takes place over the Christmas period, it's not primarily a Christmas novel, which is another thing that I love about it.  Quite frankly, I'm sick of reading the sappy, neat, and tidy holiday novels. This was just the book that I needed to read right now.

So Dewey Reader's I leave you with a rating of 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.

Until the next read!
~Jessica   

Remembrance by Mary Monroe - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

Keeping up with December's bookish theme, tonight's review is Mary Monroe's novel Remembrance, which is also a novel that I remember scoring as an ARC with Jillian at this year's Book Con. 

This novel follows the story of Beatrice who was a victim in a hit and run attack while she was jogging in her twenties.  It was bad. She almost died.  BUT death did not come on that terrible day.  Beatrice moves on with her life, marries a decent and wealthy man, and keeps herself busy.  But keeping busy isn't necessarily a good thing, especially when she uses being busy to curb the crippling anxiety caused by the hit and run attack.

I think that we can all sort of relate to Beatrice and her need to stay busy.  When you're busy it's hard to find time to think, and when you can't think your anxiety can't consume you... or at least it pauses for a little bit.  Beatrice's husband fears that she is spreading herself too thin and should probably talk to someone.  Beatrice thinks HE needs to talk to someone.

Beatrice volunteers her time at the local soup kitchen, where she meets a man named Charles.  Charles has become homeless after a series of terrible losses and betrayals in his family.  They develop a friendship that helps to teach Beatrice about all that she has to be grateful for in her life.  

I thought this book was written sort of simplistically, but I think that's what one expects when picking up a "holiday" read.  Did I love it? Not really.  Did I hate it? Nope.  So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 3 out of 5 Coffee Beans. 

Happy Reading!
~Jessica

The Christmas Room by Catherine Anderson- Reshelved Books

Hello everyone!

Happy New Year!

I wanted to get this post up before Christmas was here. But that didn’t happen... Even though, I was a speed reading demon for a few days here, lol. Given that the title of this novel involves the word "Christmas" the majority of the book did not take place around Christmas. 

So it is totally okay for me to post this now... three weeks after Christmas. This a no judgement zone, folks! 

The good thing about this book is that it really doesn't take place during the holiday/Christmas season.  It takes place months *before* the holiday season and it ends on Christmas.

As some of you may or may not know, Jess and I both work in libraries.  Which means that we are *constantly* fighting temptation to check out every book that we come across.

I remember seeing the cover of The Christmas Room before it went out into circulation last month and I thought about how adorable the cover art was. Between the AirStream trailer decorated with holiday lights, the Adirondack chairs and the snow mountains that are the backdrop; I was instantly lured to the book. (I'm not ashamed to say that we do judge a book by it's cover! Sometimes, it's just about aesthetics, whether you want it to be or not!)

Since, it's best to hear from the author what their inspiration was behind a story... Harlequin Junkie conducted an interview with Catherine Anderson. You can find the interview in it's entirety here.  When approached by her publishing company to write a Christmas themed novel, Anderson took her own real life experiences (!!) to create a this story.

This is only book that I've read by Anderson... So my next comment might be jumping the gun a little here... But I felt like I was instantly transported to Bitterroot Valley.  I felt like Anderson was able to create such strong imagery using words. 

The Christmas Room tells the story of Maddie and Sam, two individuals in their 60s who have lost their spouses.  Maddie moves to Montana with her son and grandson, Cam and Caleb (respectively).  Cam buys a piece of land next to Sam Conacher and his daughter, Kirstin.  Sam is very much that cranky, mean and nasty man that people don't want to be bothered with.  He's not nice and it makes things harder than they have to be.

What these two neighbors don't know about each other is that they both have lost their spouses.  Sam and Maddie are both grieving and learning to move forward.  Maddie lost her husband two years prior and Sam lost his wife 6 years before. 

Sam is very overprotective of his daughter, Kirstin and this is a cause for most of the tension that occurs in the beginning of the story.  It was made known to Cam by Kirstin, that her father is not afraid to ruin the reputations of those who go and talk to his daughter. 

I think that's why the first interaction between Cam and Kirstin made me think of "I'd be Jealous too" by Dustin Lynch.  I thought it would have been quite appropriate for that first initial meeting.  Kirstin is sort of this anomaly; all of the men in Bitterroot won't speak to her.  (Could you blame them though?? )

The first 1/4 of the book focused on Cam and Kirstin.  Then there was a change to the focus of the story about the 1/2 way mark. 

Around the 1/2 way mark of the book is where Anderson started to lose me with the relationship between K and C... 

Cam went to help Kirsten wrangle in one of the bulls. Okay, easy enough to follow. Then, Kirstin's horse gets spooked and tackled (?) by the bull and Kirstin is pinned under said bull... Cam goes and saves her life by protecting her from this bull....

I kinda stopped rooting for Cam and Kirstin and I started to root for Maddie and Sam.  That was okay because right after Cam's accident, is when Anderson started to shift the reader's focus from the relationship between the young lovers to Maddie and Sam. 

There was something about them that was lovable.  Would I have liked it better if Maddie could have told Cam about her health concerns? Yes.  I would have liked her character to have done that but at the same time, I know why her character didn't. 

Sam was a difficult character to like but, I feel like he was the underdog that you were also hoping would come to the top.  I was hoping that he would be able to change ways and I was happy that he did!  I liked that Anderson gave him the abilities to grow as a character.

Now on to Caleb.. Caleb, Caleb, Caleb...I felt bad for Caleb... The further I got in the story, the more I became confused as to what his purpose in the story was.  He had lines, he had thoughts but there was no character development with him and I kinda felt that he was just dragging along...?

The book didn't leave any open endings, things weren't untied and as the reader, you weren't left wondering what could have happened or what should have happened. 

While the subject of the book wasn't for me, it wasn't a book that I disliked.  Anderson was able to tackle heavy topics in a manner that didn't make you as the reader feel sad.  She gave hope and comfort to her characters.  The best part was seeing that her characters were able to mend fences to trust and love one another.  

 I would recommend it to a friend (or even a patron!) if they were looking for a new release.   That being said, I am giving this book 4 out of 5 coffee beans. 

Hopefully you all will be seeing more posts from me this month.

See you all soon!

~JMB