Tag: festive books

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese

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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today.

Today I am bringing you my book review for The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese, a very short romance novel that I read at the beginning of December.

He loathes the holidays. She loves them. She’s full of festive cheer. He’s brimming with Bah, Humbugs. Besides unreasonably seasonable names, the only thing Jonathan Frost and Gabriella Di Natale have in common is a healthy dose of mutual contempt. Well, that and the same place of employment at the city’s most beloved independent bookstore, Bailey’s Bookshop. But when the store’s owners confess its dire financial state, Jonathan and Gabby discover another unfortunate commonality: the imminent threat of unemployment.

With the Baileys’ requests to minimize expenses, win new customers, and make record sales dancing in their heads, Jonathan and Gabby conclude—barring a financial Christmas miracle—one of them will soon be cut from the payroll. Neither are willing to step down from their position, so they strike a bargain: whoever has more sales in December gets to stay on in the new year; the loser will resign. With a lifetime’s worth of festive tricks up her sleeve, Gabby should easily outsell her nemesis, except the unreadable Mr. Frost’s every move seems purely designed to throw her off her game.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Gabby’s deceptive ex won’t quit pursuing her, and her anonymous online friend suggests they take a break. Worst of all, as the pressure mounts to save the bookshop and her job, Gabby meets a new, tender side of Jonathan. Is this the same man she’s called her cold-hearted enemy?

Maybe he’s got a motive she just can’t figure out—or maybe Jonathan Frost isn’t as chilly as she once thought. Maybe Jonathan and Gabby already know—and love—each other in ways they never thought possible.

This is an #OwnVoices story for its portrayal of autism by an autistic author.

My Review

If you have seen most of the reviews on this blog you will know that I don’t usually pick up a romance by choice and if I do, it is unlikely I am going to enjoy it. Not because of any bad reason, just because I find them quite predictable and yes, you can say that about this book too. After all it follows the romance plot that they all do really, BUT I did enjoy this book. It was short which I think was a big help in making me enjoy it, it had a lot of plot but didn’t feel too drawn out because it was short.

I love an enemies to lovers, if I am going to read a book with romance in it then that is what I want. Give me some tension. This book had a ton of that, which I very much enjoyed. Plus it was set in a bookstore and I can relate to both the characters being desperate to keep their jobs working in the bookshop. I really can’t say much about this book without spoiling anything but if you are looking for a short, festive romance then I would recommend this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Book Reviews, Bookmas 2021

Merry Bookmas day 23 – 23rd December – Book Review: The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict

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Happy Thursday everyone! Merry Bookmas day 23! Today is going to be very busy for me because it is my sister’s birthday so I will be spending most of the day with her and making her birthday cake.

But for all of you I am bringing you a book review of The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.

The Christmas Murder Game Plot:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The plot of this book is basically that the Grandmother of the main character, Lily, dies and some of the family are invited to take part in a game to find twelve keys and the winner gets the deeds for the house but then there is a murder. There were so many elements to this plot that I usually like, such as locked room mysteries, isolated settings for murder mysteries, so I thought that I would love this book. It gave me the feeling of a modern take on an Agatha Christie but for me it felt almost too similar to her book – And Then There Were None, it also felt quite similar to The Inheritance Game. The other thing that wasn’t the best about this book was that I had guessed the ending within the first 100 pages. This book was okay but I don’t think I would reread it – except to use it for my PhD.

The Christmas Murder Game Characters:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

So Lily is the main character in this book, I won’t give my thoughts on any of the other characters because it could give away the story, and for most of the book I enjoyed her character. She is exceptionally good at riddles and I liked seeing her thought process behind each one. However, I was hoping for a better character arc for her. I was hoping her character would grow in confidence but this only happened a little.

The Christmas Murder Game Writing and Dialogue:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The writing was one of the best parts about this book. It was clear and flowed really well and the dialogue brought out the personalities of the characters.

The Christmas Murder Game Overall:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I gave this book three stars overall because it wasn’t a bad book it just felt like I was reading something I had already read before.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Twelve clues.
Twelve keys.
Twelve days of Christmas.
But who will survive until Twelfth Night?

Lily Armitage never intended to return to Endgame House – the grand family home where her mother died twenty-one Christmases ago. Until she receives a letter from her aunt, asking her to return to take part in an annual tradition: the Christmas Game. The challenge? Solve twelve clues, to find twelve keys. The prize? The deeds to the manor house.

Lily has no desire to win the house. But her aunt makes one more promise: The clues will also reveal who really killed Lily’s mother all those years ago.

So, for the twelve days of Christmas, Lily must stay at Endgame House with her estranged cousins and unravel the riddles that hold the key not just to the family home, but to its darkest secrets. However, it soon becomes clear that her cousins all have their own reasons for wanting to win the house – and not all of them are playing fair.

As a snowstorm cuts them off from the village, the game turns deadly. Soon Lily realises that she is no longer fighting for an inheritance, but for her life.

This Christmas is to die for . . . Let the game begin

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!