The ramblings of a bibliophile.
I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. Not just the quick, sharp, fast pace. But the uniqueness of the storyline and the way that it drew me in from the very beginning. The way that the story was broken up into almost mini-chapters helped to lend this fast-paced feeling to the story and moved it forward beautifully.
Read more Numismatics in the Reigns of Naranh and Viu by Alex Dally MacFarlane
Naw. This collection left me with such happy, Christmassy, gooey feelings. All four of these novellas are simple, cute and incredibly sweet. They encompass the feelings of love and giving that to me is the true spirit of Christmas. After finishing every single one of these novellas, I not only bought something by each of the authors, but I just sat there with a feeling of bliss and happiness that there is still goodness in the world.
Read more An Enchanted Season by Nalini Singh, Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy & Jean Johnson
Christmas time has always meant family to me. But, sometimes that closeness and beautifulness of family can become a little too overwhelming. Sometimes becoming an adult means that the tightness of familial ties needs to be stretched and loosened. Hoffman explores this perfectly in this intriguingly different short story.
I read this because it was in a Christmas collection and I really wanted to get into the Christmas spirit. Yet, I’m still completely unaware as to what this has to do with Christmas. Other than the fact that all of the action takes place on the solstice.
I wasn’t expecting a story like this in a collection of vampire romance short stories. For starters, even though a vampire was in it, it wasn’t really about vampires. And for another thing, it wasn’t really all that romantic.
I have watched The Muppet’s Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve since I was in high school. I’ve just never managed to get around to reading the story. Until this year. And now I just can’t believe that I took so damn long to get to it!
I was honestly annoyed at the beginning of this story. Avril was married to a man ten years her senior when she was five years-old. Now, as an adult she is returning to his estate and taking her place as a wife. And he’s quite rude from the very beginning – leaving her waiting, assuming that he gets his “husbandly rights”… he’s kind of a douche. But, he gets better, and even though I don’t actually like him at the end of the story, I do like their relationship.
I literally bought this because I saw the book in a bookstore a few days after I’d watched the movie (I was on a Sandra Bullock binge-watch). Prior to seeing it, I actually had no idea that Practical Magic was even based on a book. This seems to be happening a lot to me at the moment to be fair…
Every now and then it is nice to read a good little poem. And this one fit that bill – it was only four stanzas, and the language utilised is quite evocative. At least, it made me think of shadows whispering along moonlit nights and avenues. Nights where the monsters roam.
After finding the unicorn, the four young heroes on their impossible quest set off to find a Griffin. I love the mixture of fantasy and growing up that are intertwined in this journey. Even though this is only the second book in the series, the four children have already begun to accept each other for their strengths and flaws – the bickering has already almost stopped.
