Hear Them Ring

By: Erynn Mangum
Publisher: Self-published
Dates Read: December 15-23
Pages: 312
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
Erynn Mangum is my favourite author.  Over the years she has released many novellas for Kindles only and since I will never own an e-reader, I had to wait years until she released them in a novella collection and here we are!

Hear Them Ring is a Christmas novella collection that includes four novellas: The Christmas Watch, Merry and Bright, My Revised Christmas List, and O Christmas Bree.  All four are warm, cozy Christmas love stories.  And I won't lie, from the very first chapter you can tell where every one of them is going except for the last one.  Let's just say this, Erynn Mangum really seems to have a thing for blondes with either blue or green eyes.  

One reason I love Erynn's books is because I find that while I am reading them I pick up my own Bible to read along with the characters.  If her characters are going to read a chapter, I am going to read a chapter.  It's one thing to get lost in a story and another to get lost in a story and learn about Jesus.  

My only complaint, as always since she began self-publishing, is the enormous amount of mistakes.  When I say enormous, I really mean enormous this time: twenty-one!  Twenty-one mistakes across four novellas.  Please Erynn, I have been begging you for years, please give me a first peak at your books because I will cherish them and make them less ugly on the eyes!!


Rating: 4/5 

Recommendation: If you love cheese-y love stories, this was made for you.  Warm, cozy, easy reads around Christmas time are always a pleasure. 

A Curse so Dark and Lonely

By: Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Dates Read: November 14 - December 13
Pages: 477
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
I saw someone on youtube say this was a Beauty and the Beast retelling (and I am a sucker for BATB), so when I saw it for $7 on bookoutlet in the middle of a pandemic, it seemed like a no-brainer.  

A Curse so Dark and Lonely switches back and forth between the two main characters: Harper and Rhen.  Harper is a teen living in Washington DC with a mom at home dying from cancer, a dad on the run from not nice people, and her brother working for those not nice people in hopes to repay some debt.  One night while she is on lookout, she sees a man seemingly trying to kidnap an unconscious girl.  Harper attacks him with a tire iron and suddenly finds herself inside a castle from what seems to be another world (spoiler alert: it is).  Rhen is the prince of this castle and land but it is not as it once was.  Every season a new girl is brought to him in hopes to break the curse that has taken everything from him and his people. The land of Emberfall is not what it once was as it is being attacked by a monster that Rhen cannot protect them from.  It is Rhen's last season and last chance to break the curse, but the kidnapped Harper is more eager to get back home to her family than fall in love with a tortured prince.  

I went into this book thinking I would be able to fairly easily predict what it would hold.  How could a retelling of a story from our childhood be almost 500 pages?  We are going to know exactly what is coming.  Wrong.  The basic premise is Beauty and the Beast: girl is held captive in hopes she will fall in love with the Prince and she doesn't like it.  That's it.  That's all they have in common.  This book goes deeper and darker and realer.  

Harper is smart and independent and does her best to get as far away from the prince as possible.  She also has cerebral palsy which, in all honestly, I don't think I have ever read a book with any character having cerebral palsy, let alone the main character.  It was really interesting to read how she works with it and how she explains it in a land where they literally have no idea what cerebral palsy is.  The two men in the castle assume she is weak or injured but quickly find that she is stronger than they think.  

Harper and Rhen end up working together with different goals in mind.  They agree to save the kingdom, if they can, before the season ends and everything probably goes terribly wrong.  I should maybe mention that the other main character is Grey, Rhen's personal (and only remaining) guard.  Grey teaches Harper how to fight, helps them build their crazy plan, and becomes close to Harper because he's not the one trying really hard to make her love him.  

Honestly, I don't think there is much more that I can say without spoilers.  The beast isn't quite what you expect.  The ending isn't at all what you expect.  I haven't wanted to pick up the second book in a series so bad in a long time.

Rating: 4/5

Recommendation: I don't read a lot of fantasy, but this was really good.  I think most people would enjoy.  It makes a childhood classic more suitable for teens and adults with stabbing and fighting and dancing and the mob! 

Everybody, Always

By: Bob Goff
Publisher: Nelson Books
Dates Read: January 12 - December 7
Pages: 223
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
Because Bob Goff wrote it.  

 

Everybody, Always is Bob's follow up to the wonderful and whimsical Love Does.  In this book Bob focuses on who we should love and how often.  The answer: everybody, always.  Again Bob brings us through stories from his own life where he learned (usually the hard way) how to love others without inhibition.  

 

Bob is a guy who is filled with love and whimsy and good stories.  He tells stories about his neighbours.  He tells stories about his family.  He has a whole chapter about Walt Disney World!  He attends a croc drop.  In all of this he gives us a little slice of what it means to love others.  

 

Bob always starts of simpler and slowly revs up to some heavier topics to fill the last chapters.  This time those last chapters focus on the work he has done with witch doctors in Uganda.  Bob is a lawyer by trade and has brought cases against witch doctors to justice.  He has also built a school for witch doctors where they read only two books: the Bible and Love Does.  He is loving the enemy always, as they are equally the "everybody" he shares about in this book.  

 

Bob seems to have a way of saying harsh things in the kindest of ways.  This book ends with a challenge for everyone - a challenge everyone needs.  Right at the end, it almost feels a little harsh, but it's a harsh reality that we all need.  He builds us up, gains our trust, and then challenges us to be different.  He challenges us to love everybody, always - not just the people who are easy to love.  Because you know what, love does.  

 

Bob, I tried to see you on Tom Sawyer Island last September, but maybe I'll try again sometime when Disneyland opens up again (or maybe sometime when you're in Canada after the borders open). 

Rating: 4/5

I am giving this one a 4 simply because it is not quite the perfection Love Does was.  Still an exceptional book though.  

Recommendation: This book should be read by everybody, always...well, at least once.  If you haven't read Love Does start with that one and then come back to this. 

The Library of Lost and Found

[Audiobook]
By: Phaedra Patrick 
Narrated by: Imogen Church
Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Dates Listened: September 29 - December 4
Length:  10 hrs 32 min
Source:  Overdrive

Why did I read it?
Yet another audiobook to fill the complete silence of my office.  I seem to be on the search for the perfect book about book-lovers.  

 

Martha Storm is a part-time librarian waiting for her chance to finally be hired on full-time (after a decade plus of work).  One night on her way into work, she finds a mysterious book outside the library door.  However, this is not any ordinary book, it is a book full of stories she wrote when she was a child.  Not only are these her stories, but there is a handwritten note addressed to Martha inside from her grandmother, dated two years after her supposed death.  This sends Martha on a mission to figure out how her stories ended up in a book, how her grandma could have signed that note, and how it ended up at her library in the first place.  

 

The Library of Lost and Found is a nice book about a book.  Martha is a middle-aged woman just waiting for her time.  After leaving the life she knew to take care of her parents when they were sick, she has fallen into a life of taking care of others instead of herself.  When a book with her stories shows up all of that changes.  On her search to find answers, she makes some new friends, reconnects with family, and finds herself.  The story overall is pretty charming and there is maybe even a hint at love, but there were many parts you could see coming long before they happened.  The writing was really good but if you want more of a mystery, this isn't it.  

 

There was a little something at the end that I thought was pretty weird and random.  For a 40 something year old, she reacted (I feel) unrealistically and found herself in another unrealistic situation.  It through me off a fair bit and seemed pretty out of place.  It was used as a climax that sets the book off too finish, but it just did not work for me.  

 

The audiobook was read in a lovely British accent, as all British book should be.  It could make any book better - this one didn't need it, but it's always appreciated. 

Rating: 3/5

Recommendation: It's a charming book about a lady with a book.  If that sounds like something nice to you, go for it. 

Every Little Piece of Me

[Audiobook]
By: Amy Jones
Narrated by: Therese Plummer and Tavia Gilbert
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Dates Listened: 
Length:  11 hrs 36 min
Source:  Overdrive

Why did I read it?
Work was quiet so I went looking for a random book to listen to.  This one was by a Canadian author and mostly took place in Canada's east coast so I fell for Canada.

Every Little Piece of Me follows two women who are in the spotlight in their own right: Mags and Ava.  Mags is the lead singer of a rock band she formed with her eventual husband.  When they finally make it big, tragedy strikes and Mags is left to navigate the world of music amidst her grief and anger.  Ava is, reluctantly, a cast member of her family's reality show in which they run a bed and breakfast in Nova Scotia.  She grows up on the show and watches it broadcast her families ups and downs as it takes a heavy toll on them.  

They advertise this book as the first time they meet, Mags saves Ava's life and the second time they meet Ava saves Mag's.  Everything in the middle they are pretty well separate.  In all honestly, I did not like either character's story.  We go back and forth between each character and watch them grow up and into these broken women who need to save each other.  I guess I'm for the idea of women helping women, but the stories were not great.  It actually felt like both of them were just being dragged along as victims and all we could do was blame the media but don't worry, women support women.  It felt really forced and I don't know if it is the best showing of women empowerment.  We can blame the media for a lot of what happened to these young women, but they did a lot to themselves and were not just victims. 

It felt like the author was throwing grit onto grit and trying to make this as edgy as possible.  Going into it, I thought it would be cool to be in the brains of a reality start and a rock star, but it was all just...blegh.  I think this book was supposed to be heart-wrenching and throw some blame on how the media treats women but it just did not get me there.

I don't have anything bad to say about the narration.  They were fine.  If anything, they almost sounded a little too similar and if they didn't start each chapter with the character's name I would have been lost. 

Rating: 2/5 (This makes it to two mostly for the first few chapters and Canada)

Recommendation: I don't recommend this book.  There has to be better Canadian fiction than this.  There has to be better women empowerment, media shaming, edgy books.  There just has to be.  

Also I would give this book an 18+ because some of the content is not appropriate for high school (in my opinion)

Second Chance Summer

By: Morgan Matson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Dates Read: August 27 - September 16
Pages: 468
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
Morgan Matson has very quickly climbed the list of my favourite authors so I was excited when I found this book in the bargain section.  

Second Chance Summer follows Taylor and her family as they all return to their lake house for their first summer together in five years.  Five years ago, when Taylor was 12, she left a mess behind at their summer home having hurt her best friend and boyfriend.  Now the family is returning to spend one last summer together as her father has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  

Have you ever read the first chapter of a book and thought "oh shit this is going to make me cry?"  Well, if you haven't before, this book will do it.  From the very beginning you know that Taylor's dad is sick and is not going to get better.  When the family goes to their lake house, their dad encourages them all to live normal lives: to spend time with friends, get jobs, and enjoy the summer.  At first, this is difficult for them to do, but they all slowly fall into it as their father deteriorates.  Taylor has to face the old friends that she hurt long ago and, hopefully, get a second chance with them.  

This book was amazing.  Morgan Matson always has the greatest, realest character development in her books.  From the very beginning Taylor wants to run and hide, an emotion we can probably all empathize with in hard times, but in situations like this running is not an option.  We get to be with her as she stays and struggles and grows.  

In regards to Taylor's dad, well, what an accurate portrayal.  Like Taylor, I have watched my dad be diagnosed and deteriorate quickly.  It is not an easy thing to do, especially when you are young like Taylor is (17).  Her emotions are real and valid and spot on.  We also get to watch her siblings (12 and 20) struggle through the same experience differently.  This is the sort of book that every teenager needs to read.  Someday, we will all face these situations.  Mercifully, we will not all be this young, but we will have friends and neighbours and coworkers who are.  Young people need books like this to help give them a glimpse of these situations to understand the feelings of those affected and how to love and support others when these things happen.  

To say the least, I was right: this book made me sob, but in a good way.  Morgan Matson tapped into something real and true and everyone needs to cry over this book.  After I read this I ate ice cream for dinner and watched Gilmore Girls and had no regrets. 

Rating: 5.5/5

Not only is this a perfect book, but it includes a showing of What About Bob? starring the great Bill Murray, earning it an extra 0.5 stars.  Yes, you heard me right.  More books should highlight Bill Murray films like this one has.  

Recommendation: Every person (teens especially) should read this book.  Yes, there is love weaved in but I don't know that it is as strictly a "girl book" as many other YA summer reads.  I think the situations and the emotions are so real it is worth while for everyone. 

Looking for Alaska

By: John Green
Publisher: HarperCollins
Dates Read: August 15-23
Pages: 263
Source: Own it

Why did I read it?
Back in my bush years, one of my staff said this was her favourite book.  So when I found a used copy with a daisy on the front, I figured I should trust her and read it.  This was before I had ever read a John Green book and maybe should have known better.  (After finishing the book I talked to her about it and she said it has for sure changed.  Thank goodness.)

Looking for Alaska follows Miles aka. Pudge as he begins boarding school in Alabama.  Pudge knows famous people's last words which makes his roommate, the Colonel, decide he is worth being friends with.  Apparently everyone has to have a stupid nickname unless you already have a weird name: like Alaska.  Alaska is an attractive girl who lives just a few doors down from Pudge and the Colonel.  She has a room FILLED with books that she plans to spend the rest of her life reading.  

The book starts "before" and instead of chapters we are counting down the days to some unknown-to-us event.  I didn't care for the "before" portion of the book.  It was a lot of teenagers doing the worst of things people assume teenagers do with a lot of drinking, smoking, and pranks.  Pudge starts dating someone because he is in love with Alaska but she is dating someone else.  I think we're supposed to want them to get together but it just all seems a little to dysfunctional, even for teenagers.  All I can say is that this boarding school needs WAY more adult supervision and people should stop sending their kids here.  

The "after" is where the book is actually pretty good.  We are now counting the days up after the now known-to-us event.  We follow these teenagers as they struggle with grief, mourning, anger, guilt, and shame.  This is the half of the book teenagers need.  We need more real stories about these feelings so teenagers can have an understanding of tragedy and natural responses to it.  Unfortunately for us, we had to make it through the first half to get there (which I almost didn't). 

For whatever reason, John Green always feels like all his characters have to have some weird, out-of-the-ordinary like for something in order for them to be interesting.  Honestly, I am so sick of it but I still own one more book of his.  I will read it and then donate all four to get them off of my shelf.

Rating: 2.5/5 (half of this book was good, half of this book was not)

Recommendation: I don't know why I keep reading John Green's books and I don't know that you should either.  However, I've said it before and I'll say it again: the rest of the world seems to love him so proceed at your own risk. 

Christy Miller: The Baby Years

By: Robin Jones Gunn

Publisher: Robin's Nest Productions, Inc.

Dates Read: June 3-July 21

Pages: 822 

Source: Own it

Why did I read it?

I have always said and will continue to say, every teenage girl should read Christy Miller.  And now I guess every adult woman should as well so they can read into the marriage and baby years.  I've been reading Christy Miller (and friends) for 10 years and will never stop as long as she keeps publishing books.  

 

I have decided to group the Christy Miller trilogy, The Baby Years, together.  I decided to group them because most of what I have to say for one, I have to say for all three. This time around, you guessed it, Christy and Todd are pregnant and have babies!  The first novel, Sandy Toes, follows Christy's first pregnancy.  Salty Kisses follows them being first time parents and (spoiler alert) they have a second child by the time Sunset Lullaby begins.   

These Christy Miller books continue to be what you always expect them to be: sweet books about Christy, her friends, and Jesus.  They warm your heart, teach you a little about God and life, and give you all the general feels.  I think these books would be especially impactful for new moms.  I think the author, Robin Jones Gunn, continued writing books so her readers could grow up with Christy and keep learning from her.  However, when you are in a different life stage (even if you are the same age as Christy) some of the lessons and life experiences don't hit as hard.  There is, of course, still lessons to glean, but I would imagine newer moms would have a much bigger connection with her in these books.  

Sometimes I found that in this trilogy Robin Jones Gunn skipped over the good parts.  There was going to be an event or a commotion and we jumped right over it to the aftermath.  It felt like a little bit of a cop-out.  I mean, Katie (finally) comes back and we barely get any Katie time.  Let's be real, she is everybody's favourite and yet we miss half of her time in California.  In fact, she is in the second book and that is the book that was the slowest with the least happening.  How is it even possible that not much happens when Katie is around?  It just seemed like a waste to me.  

As all of my Robin Jones Gunn reviews end, the books were riddled with mistakes.  Ever since she started self publishing there are so many mistakes that shouldn't be there.  I even counted this time: thirteen mistakes across all three books.  Honestly, that just isn't acceptable.  I've offered before and I'll offer again: please let me read your books before you publish them with silly mistakes!  

Rating: All together, these books average out at a 3.5/5.  Individually, the first and last got a 4/5 and the second got a 3/5 (because slow slow slow).  

Recommendation: Are you a woman?  If the answer is yes, read these books - wait, no - read all the Christy Miller books.