Festive Reads

It's no secret that I LOVE reading and I am a sucker for a pretty festive cover!
During the year I don't read an awful lot of Chic Lit yet it's all I want to read at Christmas time!
I love the feel good factor and also a good cry when I am reading at Christmas.
This book has it all Every Time A Bell Rings is basically an Irish retelling off A Wonderful Life
I will be doing a full review of this book at the end of the month but I really did love it
I have been reading some other festive books this month but so far this book ticks all the boxes for me

I also love reading and circling the Christmas TV Guide 

A cuppa, a highlighter, twinkly lights and the Christmas guide...bliss

Yet TBH there isn't much this year that I am looking forward to besides The Call The Midwife Special

and of course a magazine of all the Christmas food goodies!

What are your festive reads this year?

This Month I Have Been Mostly Reading - December

I have read an awful lot of festive chic lit this month! Normally I am not a huge chick lit fan I read an odd one here and there but at Christmas it's different I want happy ending that I can see coming from the first pages! I love reading the cute endings with twists and turns. I can feel the snow, taste the Christmas goodies so here are the festive treats I read this month

Twelve Days of Christmas - Trisha Ashley

Last month I read a book by Ashely that I didn't enjoy that much but I have read other books of her that I liked...this one I LOVED!! It's on my favourite Christmas book list now and one I will go back to each Christmas.
It tells the story of Holly Brown due to her being widowed and raised by her strict religious Grandmother she has stopped celebrating Christmas. She prefers to be alone and takes a house sitting job in a remote pare of Lancashire, of course things don't go to plan at all. Instead of being alone she finds herself with a house full of guests and a tall dark brooding home owner!
The cover is so festive and from the first pages it really got me in the Christmas mood!
I also really liked how it didn't end at Christmas Day the story when on all over the festive period into the New Year. This book made me drooling for some of the amazing recipes that Holly made!! It really did transport me into the amazing big old house beside a roaring fire, looking out at the snow, eating mince pies with a glass of fizz!! I really liked each of the characters once I started I found the book hard to put down. I could see how the how it was going to end but I really enjoyed getting there!

 How To Stuff Up Christmas-Rose Blake
I started this book at the start of December but it took me a couple of weeks to finish, as I put it down a few times
It's about Eve who has found out her fiance is cheating on her she can't bare to be around
the joys of Christmas so she decides to spend it alone on a boat house, where she meets handsome Greg.
I did find this book funny and was smiling at some of Eve's thoughts and conversations but I struggled to get into this book and Blake's style of writing. The love story felt a little rushed and I thought Eve and Greg over thought everything. I didn't feel that the characters had much chemistry together. In total it's an okay book but I wouldn't be reading it again soon!

Meet Me Under The Mistletoe - Abbey Clements
My last book on Christmas and of 2015! I read this while I was stuck in
hospital the week before Christmas and I did enjoy it, I actually read it in two days!
It's about two childhood friends Laurie and Rachel who have two very different lives
Laurie lives in London and is very much a career woman, Rachel lives in her little chocolate box cottage in Yorkshire. Each woman is having problems in there lives, Rachel's mother gets very ill plus her marriage looks like it's going to break down. Laurie is trying to forget the man who has broken her heart. When Rachel's mother needs treatment in London a house swap seems like a good idea to the two women.
I really enjoyed this book, I found both characters very likable and I got into this book from the first page. I enjoyed the ending I always love when chic lit ends differently to what I expect. I did have a lump in my throat at some of the chapters. This book got me through my hospital stay and I will be reading more of Abbey Clements this year!

Outlander Colouring Book
I have been enjoying colouring this book since Christmas day
Hubby surprised me with this book as he knows how much of a huge fan
I am of the Outlander series and of adult colouring books!

What Oisín has been reading this month

Santa Claus Is Coming To Dublin -Steve Smallman
Oisín really enjoyed reading this book over the festive period
He loved the pictures of Santa Clause flying over Dublin's landmarks
Glad we bought this for him as it's a book we will be taking out
and enjoying every Christmas

What did you read over the month of December?

This Month I Have Been Mostly Reading - November

This month I tried to fit as many books as I could in before the madness of December starts and I know I will not get the time to read much! I have been finding reading really helping me to relax this month as it has been a little stressful! So here is what I go lost in this month!

Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander series book 2) - Diana Gabaldon
I finally started this book the end of October but with over 900 pages I knew I would be reading it for a while!
I don't want to give an spoilers here but this is the second book in the Outlander series which has been turned into a TV show now. It was the show that made me wanted to read the books unlike many book adaptations the first season of the show was very faithful to the books and after reading this second book I am hoping it stays that way.
What a book! What author has the balls to put a major spoiler at the very first few pages of a book Gabaldon does! I had to check I was reading the right book after the first couple of pages!
It is set into six books without giving away any spoilers it tells us of what happened to time travelling Claire and her new Scottish husband Jamie Frasier when they have to leave Scotland for France to help Bonnie Prince Charlies. Claire tells Jamie there will be war in a couple of years that will kill many Scottish lives for nothing and end the highland clansmen way of life. So off to France they go on a quest to risk their lives to save Scotland.
It did take me a little while to get back into the era of Claire and Jamie and some of the first chapters where a little boring but it really did pick up after the 200 page mark.  The books are long but if you like a sweeping epic love story that lasts the test of time with some heart breaking time travelling and huge cliff hangers thrown in you will like these books. It has got me so excited for season two of Outlander in the Spring. I will read book three but not sure if I will do before or after the next season of Outlander.

The New Countess - Fay Weldon
This is the third book in the trilogy that I was read last month
You can see my review for the first two books here....
I enjoyed the first book but I think the writing went down hill after that and this book
was my least favourite. It is quite easy to read the chapters are short, so I got through it in two days, but the story left alot to be desired!
This book is set five years since Long Live The King...Adela is married and gone to live with her husband (so not in this book) Minne is blissfully married, so is Rosina but both don't stay that way for long. The family are still in good company with the King and his Mistress who have invited themselves on a shooting weekend with the family.
I found Rosina's storyline dragged and boring, the same with Minne who adored her children I didn't see her getting restless and running off and leaving them
All of the characters including the downstairs staff are not likable and I found myself not caring what happened to any of them! It's a trilogy that I will not be reading again in a hurry!

The Magic of Christmas - Trisha Ashley
I started my Christmas reading early this year and got excited to see this book in my local library
I have read some of Trisha Ashley before and was happy to see another festive offering from her
So I was really disappointed when I started to struggle with this book after a couple of chapters
I felt the name and cover of this book is misleading the book isn't set at Christmas with only the last couple of chapters set at Christmas
The story is about Lizzy who is a writer and to the rest of the village is living the ideal life
But she isn't herself and her husband are living like strangers with the love long gone from there marriage
When an accident happens and Lizzy finds herself widowed it turns out her husband was having several affairs. Lizzy is shocked but goes on with her life with her son Jasper.
To be honest I found myself losing interest with this book half way through it and made myself finish it. I never really liked any of the characters and some of the Christmas Pudding Club characters where very boring!
I did enjoy the last couple of chapters of this book when it was actually set at Christmas
but overall I would read a different Trisha Ashley book to get into the Christmas spirit and give this one a miss!

It Started With A Kiss - Miranda Dickinson

This was my first time reading a book from this author but it will not be my last!

I was hoping this would be a better story than my last festive read and it really was.

 I wasn't sure when I read the blurb on the back of the book if I would like it, but the story in well written and quick to get into, chapters are short and easy to read.

I would say this a sweet easy to read festive chit lit book. 

We follow Romily over the course of a year when at a Christmas market she literally bumps into the man of her dreams, for a few fleeting seconds they kiss but then he is gone. Over the next year Romily makes it her quest to find him again, with the help of her Wedding Band mates, Aunt and Uncle and blog she is set to find her Phantom Kisser again! But maybe for her love is a little closer to home? 

There is a really great twist at the end which I have to say I didn't see coming and really enjoyed. The Christmas chapters are so festive I could almost see the snow and taste the mulled wine! I loved how all the chapters where named after well known songs. I read this book in a couple of days and afterwards wanted to put our Christmas tree up! If you like easy festive reading with a feel good ending you will enjoy this book.

What Oisín has been reading this Month!

One Little Baby - Richard Dungworth & Jane Massey

Oisín has been picking this one for bedtime alot this month
It's just a cute short story about a little baby and his busy day
It's very cute and Oisín likes to say night night sleepy head at the end!

So that's what we have been writing how about you?