Last Book of the Year

 Meet Me Under the Mistletoe  by Jenny Bayliss 

This was very sad for being a Christmas book. This book focuses on Nory and her school friends who are all getting together for a wedding. But one of them isn't there because he killed himself a few years ago. And at his funeral Nory slept with Guy and it wasn't until afterwards that she found out Guy was married so obviously she feels horrible. Fast forward to the wedding week and she now meets the wife how is wonderful and she wants to tell her but doesn't because it's his problem and his marriage so he needs to do it (and his marriage is in enough trouble because he's the worst). They are staying at the castle adjacent to where they all went to school and it's good and bad. The son of the former gardener is now the head gardener and he's hot and Nory is interested in him and they hit it off despite the Marquis no fraternization policy and her older brother trying to keep them apart. Then he shows her his family's big secret; his great great grandmother was a painter and a really rich family took credit for her work. So she tries to help him buy getting Guy involved because he's a great investigative journalist but Guy tries to make a move on her and even though she tries to fight him off Isaac walks in and sees and he ends things with her. They break up and both are miserable. She returns home for Christmas and her brother needs her help to deliver some centerpieces up at the castle which helps them get back together. Fast forward one year and they get married. The friends from the previous year have a baby and name it after their dead friend and everyone is happy. But the undercurrent of their dead friend was prevalent throughout the entire story and it was too real and too sad for a happy holiday story. When you are expecting a cute Hallmark story it's surprising to get a real story with fully developed characters who can have sad backstories and baggage. I think I prefer my holiday books to be more fluff and less real.

Another New Author for a Holiday Book

 Single All the Way by Portia MacIntosh 

This was cute but also a bit of a disaster. The secondhand embarrassment was very real for a lot of this book. I do love a fake relationship that turns into a real relationship which this had. Rex is a stupid name, but I forgive him for that. So, Dani starts the book working for Tom who is her ex boyfriend. And he can't fire her for being his ex, which nobody in the office knew, so he demotes her. Enter Rex. He is trying to empress the new girl, who works in fashion, but it's not working and so he pretends to be dating Dani. Now they have to fake date which has a two fold benefit, first is makes the new girl super interested in Rex and two it makes Tom jealous. But, while fake dating it makes Rex realize that the girl he was into isn't actually worth being interested in because she was willing to break up a relationship because she only wanted him when he was unavailable. So, Dani goes home to visit her parents for Christmas and Rex is headed in the same direction to open up the new office up north. Only, her parents don't know she's coming so they go to France. And he gets stranded in town but doesn't tell her. She reconnects with old friends, including her teenage crush, Ben. She tells the whole town her family knows and have given her permission to host a party while they are gone. Except Ben knows the truth and eventually confronts her about it. They fight. She has already realized she doesn't still have feelings for him because she actually likes Rex. She realizes that Rex is stuck in town and goes to the B&B and finds him and brings him to her parents house. Her parents come home on Christmas and meet him then see the aftermath of the party. Fast forward one year and they are still together; she is hosting another party but bigger and his parents fly in to meet her and it goes wonderfully. It was cute with just enough drama to keep it interesting but not so much that it takes away from being a Christmas story.

Different Author for this Holiday Book

 Christmas Eve at Cranberry Cross by Kate Forster

This was not a typical Hallmark style Christmas story. The characters were much more developed and the story more fully formed than you expect from a Christmas book. I normally don't like an age gap, but it didn't bother me in this because both people were fully grown adults instead of the FMC being barely 18 like in most age gap romances. Eve is an assistant for an editor and Serena, the editor is the absolute worst person to work for; she treats her employees horribly and takes credit for other peoples work. Edward is an author on Serena's case who hasn't delivered the promised book so she sends Eve up to him to get him to work. Eve definitely thinks he's cute. But it's weird because she can't tell if he's flirting with her or not. Then there's the issue of his kids; Myles is 14 and his step-son who he never adopted but his mother abandoned him and he is severely depressed. Then there's Flora who is 7 and burying her dolls in the snow so she can rescue them; unlike her own mother who abandoned her and hasn't shown up to rescue her. But Eve bonds with both kids. She takes them to meet her family. She flirts with Edward. They spend Christmas with her family. Then Amber, his ex-wife shows up and starts smashing his car with a hammer. Then she finds out that she's not getting the editor job she applied for to stay working as Serena's assistant because Edward wants to keep working with her. This was really Serena's way to keep her and not promote her. She leaves the house and returns to her apartment with her roommates. She quits her job. Edward calls Serena and asks why she fired her and she tells her she quit. He says, get her back and give her the promotion or he leaves and finds a new publisher. Serena calls and begs her to come back. Eve refuses. She interviews with a small boutique publisher. She is on her way to apologize to Edward and see if he will take her back when she gets a call from her mother. There was a fire. Amber set fire to the house. Edward was the only person there. Firefighters were able to save him and the kitten Flora got for Christmas but Amber died. But he was severely injured. He was in the hospital for a while. Eve was by his side the whole time. His kids were with Eve's parents. He and Myles started looking for new houses and they found the perfect place and showed it to Eve and that's where he proposed. Then she got the email saying that she got the job with the new publisher, which turns out to be the same publisher that Edward moved his new novels to and neither new that the other was talking so it worked out great. He also adopted Myles. The epilogue was three years later. They had a daughter. She reaches out to one of her friends about writing a self-help book. It had a lot of the expected tropes for a romance, but also some unexpected things as well. I really enjoyed this.

Fourth Holiday Book of the Season

 Christmas With the Laird by Scarlet Wilson 

This was one of the better books by this author that I have listened to. It was still very Hallmark, but less rushed. Juilette and Andrew work together on a show about haunted houses. She is the talent and he is the cameraman. She has been recently broken up with. He is single. They have to go and film over Christmas because one of the stars of one of their upcoming episodes has been injured. He has a place they can go in Scotland. Turns out he is a Scotish Laird and owner of a supposedly haunted house that also needs a roof repair that he has to deal with. So they spend Christmas filming and dealing with the ghosts of his past. All while falling in love. And since they have worked together for a while this wasn't rushed. It was cute and appropriately paced for such a short book.

Third Holiday Book of the Season

 A Royal Christmas Princess by Scarlet Wilson 

Everyone loves the idea of finding out you are secretly a princess. It sucks that Holly had to find out that she was also adopted, and that her only living relative, the Prince, is dying. So the only other potential heir to the throne is desperately looking for her because Prince Alfred wants to find his daughter before he dies and she just so happens to have the same baby picture. So she gets swept up in this whirlwind, but an investigative journalist is along for the trip as well and can't figure out why a dog walker is along for the ride because they are keeping her identity a secret. Holly and Felix, the distant heir, spend time together; she meets her father and develops a relationship with him. She spends time out among the people, learning about their customs and charming them without them knowing who she is. The DNA test comes back and it's true, she is the heir. There's a Christmas Ball and Alfred has her wear the family tiara and dances with her then the reporter disrupts everything and spills the secret. Holly runs away. Felix follows with a different reporter. A nice old lady at the airport provides come comic relief. Felix takes her back home. They have both the reporter and the Chancellor escorted out; they should have publicly fired him but having the guards escort him off the premises will have to do. The book ends with Holly and Felix getting engaged right before she gets officially crowned Princess. It was cute, but had an overarching sadness to it.

Second Holiday Book of the Season

 The Jingle Bell Bride  by Scarlet Wilson 

So I'm listening to this book and thinking it sounds really familiar; that's because I've already watched this Hallmark movie. (I liked the movie). But once I realized that I kept hearing the Julie Gonzalo as the narrator even though it wasn't her; but she played Jessica in the movie so that's who I was hearing. When watching a Hallmark movie you expect a short courtship, but reading/listening to it was a little extreme. Four days. That's how long Jessica and Matt knew each other before she decided to completely upend her life. Move halfway across the world. Start a new career. And get married. Four days. Like, be so for real right now. I mean, it was still cute, but that's no way to build a life. Four. Days. I mean, I still love a cheesy Hallmark movie, and this was better than the Runaway Christmas Bride but not as good as the Christmas Contest.

Made for TV cont (again x8)

 Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs 

This was a solid book for this series, better than some but not as good as others. This one centers around NASCAR. We have a couple that have been missing for close to 20 years; are they dead? in witness protection? did they run away? For the majority of the book runaway or witness protection are looking like strong candidates. But, while two FBI agents are here "helping" they aren't actually sharing or helping much. We have a former cop who did time for taking a bribe, but by the end of the book Skinny is thinking that maybe the money really was planted and he was the fall guy. The couple has been dead this whole time; we find their bones. Turns out the guys dad killed them because he 1) didn't like that his son and the girlfriend were leaving the hate group and 2) didn't like the idea of the girlfriend driving NASCAR. He also killed her brother because he was asking too many questions and got too close to the truth. No Ryan in this one. Tempe ended up in trouble. Again. But, not because she trusted the wrong person, but because the bad guy was a bad guy. An interesting premise and case.

Third of Three

 The Duke Meets His Match by Tina Gabrielle 

This was the worst of the three books. I do not like age gap romances. And I do not like an overbearing MMC. This book had both. Michael was supposed to be looking out for Henry and protecting him but instead he ends up falling for Chloe, who he sees as only interested in Henry for his money, which she kind of is. He decides that she needs someone with a firm hand to guide her, someone like him. But he can't get married because of the episodes he has from the war, so he propositions her to be his mistress. She turns him down. Henry is going to propose, she tries to tell him not to but he doesn't give her a chance to speak. Henry catches them kissing and then he starts yelling which triggers one of Michael's episodes and he decides he can't marry, even though he had changed his mind and asked her earlier. He gets drunk. Henry gets drunk. Then Henry shows up hungover to apologize and gives him his permission to marry her. So he goes and asks her. And they get married. It just wasn't. He was too stubborn and arrogant. I will not be reading any more from this author.

First Holiday Book of the Season

 The Runaway Christmas Bride by Scarlet Wilson 

This was very Hallmark but less believable. So, she gets left at the alter except she is the one that does the leaving when she overhears her groom say that he's going to go through with the wedding then leave her later because it will be less painful because he wants kids and it wouldn't be fair to leave her now, this soon after the miscarriage and surgery. So she walks out and drives until she can't drive anymore. She ends up in this small town and meets a hot guy who gives her directions to the nicest hotel in town and she uses her ex-fiance's credit card to charge it. Then she gets a job at the hotel and then moves into the local B&B. Oh, and the hot guy starts basically stalking her but it's fine because 1) he's hot and 2) he just wants to make sure she's safe. So he starts showing her around town. Then they start dating. He falls hard and fast but he doesn't tell her he can't have kids. But, she comes clean and tells him why she ran away from her wedding. A few days go by and he shows up at her work and makes a grand gesture and basically tells the whole town he's sterile and asks her to marry him. After knowing each other for less than a month. And they get married the next day. It just felt very rushed. It was cute, but rushed.

Made for TV cont (again x7)

 Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs 

While this was an interesting premise it wasn't as strong as the previous book and the ending felt rushed. Tempe is in Canada. She has a floater that gets identified by fingerprints. But it can't be him because he died in Vietnam and is buried in North Carolina. So she goes back to NC to exhume the body. Then she goes to Hawaii because that's where J-PAC is and that's what is required of this case. Her daughter comes too because her friend/boyfriend got killed in Kabul and she isn't handling it well. While in Hawaii the Medical Examiner asks for her help with some bones and she gets pulled into a gang issue. Ryan and his daughter come out. Lily and Katie do not get along, until Lily finds out that her mom is leaving and she is going to have to stay with her dad, permanently. Then the girls get targeted by the gangs. This is after Tempe gets ran off the road and almost drowns. She did not put herself in danger this time, which was nice (I know she stopped doing that a few books ago, but I'm not convinced she has actually stopped). Back to the main case. Turns out, the floater is who they thought he was. The guy in his grave was in Vietnam with him and died in the crash that they thought killed him. His cousin, who could have been his twin, actually went to Vietnam instead, and put his dog tags on the dead guy. Then he took on the dead guys name and went back to the states. Now, he's dying and shows up to an interview and says he's not the dead guy he's his cousin (the floater) but Tempe figures out that he's actually the cousin and he finally admits to that. So the floater and the original dead guy both get buried in NC. This one was complicated and had a lot of red herrings.

Second of Three

 Real Earls Break the Rules by Tina Gabrielle 

This was the second book in this series. It follows the middle sister and the best friend from the first book. It was fine. Not great. Not bad. Brandon is hosting a house party for his sister because she is getting married. The whole Huntington family is invited. He asks Amelia to paint his portrait and to paint him a copy of a famous painting so he can keep the copy and gift the original to an American friend. We learned that he is dealing with the financial troubles caused by his late father in the previous book. In this one, we find out just how bad they are. And he tells Amelia, but won't tell his family. His grandmother wants him to marry the daughter of a Duke because she comes with a large dowry, but he can't stand her and he refuses to have a marriage like his parents had. He and Amelia have clandestine late night meetings so she can paint and they fall for each other. He even takes her into town to see the textile mill. She goes twice and on the second trip she uncovers a plot that has been occurring at the mill; his father owes 20,000 pounds and either he pays or he gives up 500 acres of unentaled land and the mill so the new mill manager has been sabotaging the machines so Brandon will have to sell. Turns out the land has coal and he would be rich. All of this Amelia overhears. She barely gets away from the two men. Well, the new manager was being blackmailed by the other guy because his mom is ill so he gets off pretty easy but the other guy doesn't and the IOU manages to disappear before the constable can show up. Brandon digs for coal and finds it. And his money troubles are over. He and Amelia are seen in a compromising position and while the Duke and Duchess thought he was going to be offering for their daughter he says that he was going to be announcing his engagement, to Amelia. The epilogue is three years down the road. They have two children. She is painting under her own name. He is rich. They are happy. It was fine.