A Winter Wish by Emily Stone

3*

This one disappointed me. I just couldn’t engage with it. Although there are moments in the story that take place at Christmas, I wouldn’t call it a Christmas book. It just didn’t give me that feel-good Christmas vibe. It may be because a big part of the focus is on parental abandonment and dysfunctional families and the complicated grief of losing the father Lexie was estranged from, but it could also be that it featured one of my least favorite themes: a main character running away from attachments for fear of getting hurt, which just means they end up living a lonely, shallow existence. I guess I’m just not in a good headspace to deal well with emotional trauma due to bad parental decisions.

So, my 3* rating is more reflective of my personal feelings than it is about the quality of the writing or the appeal of the book to other readers. With her first three books (all of which I rated 5*), Stone has earned a reputation as an author to follow, so I definitely think A Winter Wish will find a very receptive audience and I’ll look forward to her next book.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Dell through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

The Start of the Story by Jane Lovering

 

4*

This story “started” in the mid-1800s with the arrival of Irish immigrants fleeing the famine and settling in the cold, desolate landscape of Yorkshire England. Rowan Thorpe is a folklorist whose current project is uncovering the stories told, and eventually written, about the Fairy Stane, a large, heavy stone set among the reeds and bracken on the moor between her restored mill cottage and the remains of an English manor house. Legend has it that the Stane is the gateway to Fairyland and it isn’t to be moved or the “little people” will escape and wreak havoc on the earth. Although she knows that the tale isn’t true, she’s highly protective of the site, both in honor of those long gone and for more personal reasons. So, it’s no wonder she doesn’t welcome visiting Professor Conor O’Keefe, an historian who is in York to research a possible Roman settlement on land where the Stane sits and who announces when first meeting her that he might have to turn the stone over to check for markings. As these two wounded souls are thrown together, first due to noisy neighbors, then thanks to blizzard conditions, they begin to build a friendship and to realize that they have more in common than they initially thought. Rowan’s job is to record and preserve these oral traditions and Conor’s is to gather facts and uncover artifacts to explain history, but the lines begin to blur the more they share about themselves and the motivations that inform their actions.

Although there is an enemies-to-lovers romance that slowly builds, this book focuses more on how grief, guilt, and shame manifest and the stories that people tell themselves and eventually share with others as a way either to explain things they can’t comprehend or to provide comfort when tragic life events occur with no rhyme or reason, both of which are at the heart of the oral storytelling tradition. The pace of this story is very slow, sort of like an archaeological dig. It’s told from Rowan’s POV, and I would like to have heard more of Conor’s perspective. Initially, I had trouble understanding Rowan’s protectiveness of the Stane, which made her seem very rude and antagonistic. Since she doesn’t believe that fairies are real, and everyone who told or recorded the stories originally is long gone, who besides herself would have a problem with the stone being lifted temporarily? Moving the stone doesn’t negate the value of oral storytelling, especially from an historical perspective, but she argues that it does. Luckily, as time goes on, Rowan’s and Conor’s motivations both become clear, and Lovering does a stellar job of tying all elements of the story together. Anglophiles, history buffs, and readers who like closed door romances embedded in more complex stories will find this book compelling. Recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Boldwood Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A Very Irish Christmas by Debbie Johnson

5*

This is everything I want in a Christmas story: gorgeous Cotswolds and Cork settings; a love triangle with a handsome, generous, and thoughtful English lord, a flirty, gorgeous, dark-haired Irishman, and an Irish-American heroine who has fled to England in the hopes of finding herself after being jilted and left heartbroken; and a delightful cast of villagers and one scruffy stray dog who add heart, wisdom, and comic relief to balance out the (off-page) tragedies that have contributed to the main characters’ feelings about love and second chances. As a former event planner, I also got a kick out of the fact that heroine Cassie shares the same profession, which features prominently.

Debbie Johnson has become one of my favorite romance authors with her talent for writing complex characters who navigate some of life’s greatest challenges with maturity, kindness and hope. As an Anglophile, I also appreciate being able to imagine myself in the rich settings she describes, many of which often seem like characters themselves. A Very Irish Christmas is a gift for the senses and the heart, and with its clean romance, it will appeal to hopeless romantics of all ages. I highly recommend this delightful story which I will be adding to my annual Christmas reading list.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Storm Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Luck and Last Resorts (Love, Lists and Fancy Ships #2) by Sarah Grunder Ruiz

3*

Possible spoilers


Nina Lejeune, former champion gymnast, has been stewardess on the charter yacht Serendipity for 9 years. It’s where she met both Ollie, her long-time love interest (otherwise undefinable, as you’ll see if you read this story) and her best friend Jo (heroine of Book 1) and is the figurative lifeboat that saved her from drowning in debt and despair after the worst sort of betrayal by her parents, the people who should have loved her most. Irishman Ollie, at times surly and other times charming, is the yacht’s chef and has been in love with Nina for years. However, her inability to commit to a future with him has driven him to despair. With both of them carrying some pretty heavy baggage from the past, will Nina be able to give Ollie what he wants before it’s too late?

I was so excited for this sequel after absolutely loving Love, Lists and Fancy Ships. So I can’t help but feel let down by Nina and Ollie’s story for so many reasons. I found it exceedingly difficult to have any sympathy for Nina given how long she treated Ollie with such disregard and flippancy. I’d say that Ollie is a saint for having put up with her, but, by the end of the book, I understand his (for lack of a better word) co-dependency. Nina seemed unwilling to make any changes in her life, still deluding herself that her two rules were in effect: always have fun and don’t rely on anyone. As a result, her near-constant deflections from anything serious and her lies (even to herself) concerning her real feelings had her coming off as exceedingly selfish, immature, and cruel. If I hadn’t cared so much for Ollie, I would have preferred that this not end with a happily-ever-after.

Ultimately, this just dragged on too long, shifting back and forth from present day to chapters showing their relationship’s development and stagnation over the years. I felt like I was reading a version of Groundhog Day, with the same scenario on repeat with no forward progress. It’s very telling, for a fast reader, that I was shocked to see that it was only 335 pages. It’s such a huge disappointment when the sequel to one of my favorite romances is one that stressed me out rather than uplifted me.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.