Book review : An Affair at Christmastide by Sandra Sookoo

An Affair at Christmastide
a Mary and Bright novel book #1
by Sandra Sookoo
GENRE: #Christmas-cozy-mystery-romance #RegencyChristmas

My rating: ★★☆☆☆
Disappointing !

---> Recommended only for readers interested in steamy romance.
If you are a mystery reader don't waste your time with this.

I was so happy to start a new mystery-romance series and after having appreciated a short story by this author I was expecting to find a good mystery to be solved and a sweet and exciting romance and a nice Christmas atmosphere...
... But some romance writers should stick to romance novels and leave mysteries to those who are more competent at writing them.

__PLOT IN SHORT __ The widow Mary Tomlinson has been living as a recluse in her brother's house for some time to take care of him and her young niece, when one day she has to accompany the girl to a ball.
The ball takes place at the house of a count with whom she lost her virginity as a young woman, only to be abandoned when he was due to marry.

Inspector Gabriel Bright is the brother of the count who hosts the ball, he too is invited to the party as a companion for his twenty-year-old son.
The inspector is also a widower and like Mary has suffered a huge disappointment in the love field.

A mutual attraction instantly sparkles between the two companions and at the ball everything seems fun until an obnoxious butler is found dead.
____________*********____________

I think the story had great potential to be a good book, unfortunately it isn't well developed : 

1) CHRISTMAS ATMOSPHERE = non-existent. If one of the purposes of the book is to "be Christmassy" and the word Christmas is also in the title, then the fact that Christmas is only mentioned in words and there is no Christmas atmosphere, in my opinion it's a flaw !

MORE IMPORTANT : IF ONE WANTS TO WRITE A MYSTERY, ONE MUST ALSO KNOW HOW TO DO IT !!!

2) MYSTERY = not at all well thought and and too many things are so wrong :
--> The Main Male Character, despite being an inspector, takes charge of a murder case that occurred in his brother's house.
Worse: his son was seen by everyone with the weapon in his hands and he's the prime suspect.
How is it possible that this inspector can (on his own initiative, without any permission from Scotland Yard) take on the responsibility of investigating? CONFLICT OF INTEREST!! UNACCEPTABLE
---> Furthermore, he declares that he can only trust himself. I asked myself : WHO MUST ENSURE OTHERS THAT HE IS NOT CORRUPT?
---> Then he names the woman he kissed (another guest of the house which had a past with the owner of the house where happened the murder ) as his assistant in the investigation...

ALL GUESTS ARE SUSPECTS AND MORE SHE ALSO HAD A SOLID MOTIVE TO MURDER THE MAN.
Then the suspect's father, brother of the owner of the house where the murder took place, investigates the murder together with another potential culprit... CRAZY THINGS!! AGAIN UNACCEPTABLE


---> The author also points out that they take everything with gloves and a handkerchief...BUT THE STORY TAKES PLACE IN 1818, THERE WAS STILL NO OPTION TO VERIFY FINGERPRINTS !!
---> His son, found with the bloody knife in his hand, is only 20 years old, if he is not the killer then he found the body...he is presumed to be upset...YET HIS FATHER, THE INSPECTOR, SENDS HIM TO THE ROOM AND FOR OVER 2 DAYS AND IGNORE HIM (without questioning him and without going to see how he is), BUT THE SAME FATHER FINDS THE TIME TO QUESTION 2 OTHER GUESTS (and not his son) AND FLIRT( + ALMOST HAVING SEX ON THE DESK IN THE STUDY ) with a woman he just met.

Hot kisses and sex are entirely inappropriate in that dramatic moment... SHOULDN'T HE WORRY ABOUT HIS YOUNG SON?
Well in 2 days neither the hero nor the heroine of the novel cared about him. Disgusting.
Everything in this book is focused on the attraction between the two MC and their hunger for sex.

---> Another stupid thing:
When they finally question the boy together... suddenly the twenty year old boy (who has an excellent relationship of affection and friendship with his father, as the author shows us in some initial scenes) looks scared and intimidated by his father as if he were a stranger and was too strict and for every movement and response he ( the boy ) seeks comfort in the woman, a stranger he has just met, like if he were a 6 year old little boy as if he's known her forever... it's just ridiculous and it conflicts with everything that was written before. RIDICULOUS!!!

---> Then at a certain point the author has the Female Main Character, who is neither a doctor nor an investigation expert, check the dead man... and she examines the corpse like a professional, while the inspector (with 20 years of experience) stands there, staring at her in amazement like an open-mouthed idiot.

The author justifies everything by saying that the protagonist is a reader of crime novels... SO ONE BECOME AN EXPERT PATHOLOGISTS ONLY BECAUSE IS USED TO READ MYSTERY NOVELS ????? ...Come on, this isn't believable even in fiction

MORE : I remember you that they are in 1818, they had not mystery books so explicative as nowadays mystery books like CSI tv series ( and even nowadays I doubt one could know so much only by reading or watching tv ).

  :-(( Of course the book is full of other bullshit that made me very nervous and ruined the reading, but it would take me too long to list them all.

3) ROMANCE = The romantic part looks more like a contemporary romance than one set in the early 1800s.
Audacity in main characters behaviour and double-meaning dialogues that would have been funny in a contemporary brilliant comedy, in my opinion are not so plausible in the Regency era (it is 1818), at least not for a woman who spent 10 years as a spinster, acting as governess in the house of the brother.
---> It looks like the author was inspired by some modern films and adapted dialogues to a regency romance.

---> Furthermore :the book begins by showing the two protagonists respectively as lonely and partnerless people for the last 10 years, disappointed and deeply hurt by those they had loved in the past and almost on every page it is underlined that they will never openly trust someone else again.Suddenly they collide in the carriage house, without even seeing her face he feels the shape of a woman and instinctively kisses her, she feels the hard chest of a man and responds to the kiss by putting her arms around his neck.

Well... I admit that after 10 years of solitude they are hungry for stronger emotions and even sex, but two people who have been alone for ten years wouldn't be so uninhibited, they would be rather awkward, furthermore two people who fear suffering again don't throw themselves in each other's arms so immediately and with such an hot passion as these two.
I find this hardly believable!
 
The plot is full of inconsistencies and seems to be written specifically for readers who want nothing more than to read spicy love scenes and are not interested in everything else.

I WILL NOT READ OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES.

Thanks for reading my opinion and please forgive my bad English, since it's not my native language.

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Book review : Christmas on the Home Front by Roland Moore

Christmas on the Home Front
Land Girls book #3
by Roland Moore
GENRE : #Christmas-war-time-fiction

My rating: ★★★☆☆
Actually 3.5 is my rating.

Looking for a historical romance? Then skip to another book!
Looking for a fiction with strong and stubborn women and a bit of suspense ? Then it could be the book for you.

__PLOT IN SHORT ___ England. Christmas 1944
All the land girls of Pasture Farm, Connie Carter, Joyce Fisher and Esther Reeves hope this could be the last Christmas of this dreaded war.
But as the day approaches, word spreads in sleepy Helmstead that two German Airmen are on the run.
With everyone on alert, the atmosphere is tense and at a certain point the situation becomes really heated because the girls will find themselves face to face with the enemy...

________ *** _______ *** ________

Usually this kind of book/series offers passionate love stories with a little drama, set in times of war... It was what I expected together with a Christmas atmosphere made of simple things, deep feelings and emotions and touching moments involving not only the couple protagonist, but also the other side characters.

None of this!
Unexpectedly, this book led me to experience an adventure made up of reckless women, suspense and danger alternating with a little action, two villains, one of whom is declared and the other sneaky and hidden in the shadows and a nice (and absolutely unexpected) surprise in the happy ending.
All of this made it an ENGAGING and exciting READ.

__ MAIN CHARACTERS ___ the protagonists of this book are 3 girls who work on a farm during the war, they were in fact "Land Girls" (those girls and women, coming from all social classes, who replaced male farm workers who had gone to war.)

I really liked the atmosphere of camaraderie that formed between these women and girls, of different ages, who found themselves united in a common effort to help their country.
I liked the atmosphere of sacrifice mixed with the anxiety of the uncertainty of the future, because nowadays (at least in Western countries and not at war) we take everything for granted and we complain about every little thing and every little lack, not thinking that life is just a flutter of wings.
I liked seeing how these women, despite everything, were animated by tenacity, good will and resilience and I liked seeing how they took the position head on, but always thinking first of not endangering the people they loved.

__ WHY ONLY 3 (actually 3.5 rounded down to 3 ) STARS THEN ? __
Some things that I didn't like :

1) If I choose to read a book with the word "Christmas" in the title, I expect to be enveloped in a warm Christmas atmosphere.
In this book the only Christmassy thing is the countdown of how many days until Christmas.
Each chapter begins with: 8 days until Christmas, 7 days until Christmas, 6 days until Christmas etc...
Then there is a scene in which characters talk about where everyone will spend Christmas, but there is nothing Christmassy here.

2) The writer while describing/narrating a certain scene, suddenly makes the characters go into their past memories and this even lasts for pages, which led me to forget what was happening in the current scene.
A very confusing writing style.

In the same way, the author goes from scenes on the farm with the girls to scenes of the German airmen or the doctor in the hospital, suddenly and without pauses between one topic and another.
The author divided the chapters according to the days left until Christmas, but in my opinion it would have been better to divide the chapters according to the two realities that were being told in the story (the one of the girls and that one of the pilots, at least until the moment which all these characters found themselves on the same scene).

3) I would have liked the author to delve more deeply into the characters, but probably, having dedicated each of the past books in the series to each girl, he didn't consider it necessary.
I think that giving more depth to the characters in each book, even if they are part of a series, is important, because each book is readable as a standalone (including this one) and it is obvious that not all readers read all the books in the same series (otherwise we wouldn't have time to explore other genres and authors).

Thanks for reading my opinion and for your patience with my text, I'm sorry for any errors but English isn't my native language.

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Book review : A Christmas Carol Murder by Heather Redmond

A Christmas Carol Murder
A Dickens of a Crime book #3
by Heather Redmond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very nice Dickensian mystery.

The author of this book (installment #3 in a series named "A Dickens of a Crime", but readable as a standalone) introduces us to a young, friendly and affable Charles Dickens, not yet a writer (but with a book almost ready to be published), journalist and sketch artist, full of energy and enthusiasm.

The plot of the book cleverly mixes fact and fiction, borrowing characters from his own very famous Christmas story: A Christmas Carol, but changing the names slightly, as if those were the people who inspired him to tell his Christmas tale .
The concept, as I expressed it, may seem convoluted, but if you read the book you will understand what I mean.

__ THE PLOT ___ London, December 1835: Charles and Kate, two of their brothers and a couple of friends are singing Christmas carols to raise money for charity for poor children living on the streets.
Suddenly a man's body, with chains wrapped around it, falls from a window.
The group is involved in the suspicious death as witnesses, but above all, after the magistrate declares the death as accidental, Charles, as a good journalist, decides to see clearly and discover the truth.
Together with the investigation into the murder, we follow the personal events that enter the life of our young Dickens, who finds himself in such an ambiguous and complicated situation that it could ruin his engagement and planned wedding with Kate.

___MY OPINION ___
I have to admit that the murder mystery was interesting to uncover, but not as completely engaging and intriguing as I expected this book to be and this is why I didn't give 5 stars.

However, on the whole, the Dickensian atmosphere of London made up of poor dirty and barefoot children, food stalls and taverns, rich and greedy people, scoundrels and actresses of dubious morality, the enthusiasm of the young Dickens, the disinterested affection of his friends and his brother, the small moments of family life... it's all described so well, that the story kept me good company page after page until the end, without ever getting tired.

I really liked seeing this mix of real characters with fictional characters taken from Dickens' own story and placed in this book as if they had been real.

I also liked the strong feeling that unites Charles and Kate. Dickens's strong desire to have not only Kate's love, but also her trust...however, I couldn't stop thinking for a moment that then he, in reality, later in the marriage, betrayed that trust, having a lover for many years and my knowledge of reality has prevented me a little from enjoying the romantic side of the protagonist.

Up to three quarters of the book it is not possible to find out who the murderer could be, then thanks to some attitudes and jokes one comes to guess, but an unexpected surprise still remains and at the end there's also an action scene that made things more compelling.
It would have been nice if there had been more action scenes spread throughout the story.

The conclusion to the book is satisfying, so for me, overall, the 4 stars are well earned.

Thanks for reading my review and forgive my bad English, it is not my native language. :-)
Merry Christmas everybody !


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Book review : The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper D.Basham

The Mistletoe Countess
Book 1 of 3: Freddie and Grace Mysteries
by Pepper Basham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked it so much, but it's a little bit difficult to tag this book:
it begins in the typical way of a #regency-romance, even if as you read it you realize that we are at the end of the nineteenth century, i. e. the Gilded Age (car, telephone and electric light not yet installed in all parts of the house), it continues as a #cozy-mystery, then it goes on like a daring #Dysney-adventure-film (or something like Indiana Jones movies, i.e. where funny jokes are inserted between scenes of action and real dramatic danger), to then end as a episode of #DowntonAbbey.
There are some aspects that didn't fully satisfy me because they were exaggerated in one way or another (I'll explain better later), but overall I liked it, it involved me and even if initially I couldn't get in tune with the characters as I read along, I became fond of them.
More I liked very much the literary references, there are many !

____ THE PLOT____
Grace, a girl whose great passion is fiction books, goes with her father and sister to meet the latter's future husband.
It is an arranged marriage as it occurred during the Gilded Age: an American heiress marries a penniless nobleman, one party brings a dowry and the other brings a coveted noble title.
As often happens in romances, the youngest sister, with an extravagant character and a manner contrary to all etiquette, accidentally meets Frederick, her future brother-in-law and is already making him laugh inwardly at her particular way of being.
An accidental kiss and they already like each other even if they don't immediately understand it, furthermore the sister, perfect only in appearance, hides secrets that will change the course of events.
The book slowly turns into a cozy mystery thanks to other secrets of him and his family, kept well hidden to avoid scandals... there is no real detective investigation, but the curiosity of a young girl with a fervent imagination , will lead to a reality that is darker than imaginable.
However, this is a book about a second chance and a bright new beginning, so a happy ending is guaranteed.

____ MY IMPRESSION__ Although this mix of genres may seem confusing, the author was able to transition from one genre to the other without trauma.
Usually elements of a mystery-romance are well mixed together, here I had the impression not exactly of having a mix, but of moving from one theme to another, without however having a clear separation between one and the other, but introducing the new aspects of the novel in a gentle and gradual way.
The romantic aspect remains throughout the book, but as situations evolve it is normal for different phases to go through and therefore the characters' approach to events also changes.

What the author failed to be truly coherent in, in my opinion, is the WAY OF BEING of the 2 MAIN CHARACTERS:

1) GRACE, the heroine of the novel is initially presented with speeches and gestures that make her seem like a fourteen year old.
She is naive, has no experience and lives in a world of her own, populated by characters from fiction that she reads with great voracity and passion.

It turns out that she is 19 years old, but despite the inexperience and bigotry of those times, she is not at all embarrassed after a very intense surprise kiss... she seems like an extremely casual woman even in situations that would be embarrassing for other more adults, so It's a bit of a contradiction.

After having shown this modern attitude, when she finds herself married, she doesn't have the slightest idea of what happens between a man and a woman when they sleep together... here the author once again uses exaggerated naivety, the girl sleeps for several nights together with her husband without consummating the marriage and without knowing that there is more to it than kisses!

However, in dangerous situations, without having any life experience, she is never intimidated, she acts and thinks like a detective thanks to the fiction she reads and carries out various rescues with action scenes worthy of Indiana Jones... So the readings taught her how to cope in extreme cases of danger, but they didn't tell her that sex exists in addition to kisses? Meh! Too many contradictions.
Yet despite this I liked the character, both for his good heart and for his resourcefulness in making decisions and reacting to events and people.

2) As for FREDERICK, I'll be more brief, he could have been a nice, fascinating character, but he has no backbone, too often the author makes him reticent in listening to the truth or wanting to discover it.
Too often the author makes him a stubborn person who prefers to hide his head in the sand like ostriches so as not to want to look closely at the real problem...he prefers to pretend that everything is normal and there are no anomalies, which are evident to Grace and others .
I like a heroine who is enterprising and who knows how to save herself... but sometimes it is necessary that even the hero of the moment acts without thinking twice and runs to the rescue of his beloved.

I would have liked Fredrick, despite his internal wounds, to find a way at least halfway through the book to take charge of the situation, but instead everything is always driven by Grace.

I forgive Frederick only because at least he always knew how to defend his wife against the oppression and insults of his infamous mother and overall I liked this love story and I managed to enjoy the novel despite these small doubts about the two characters.

3)This is a #Christian fiction, I didn't choose it for this reason, but prayers and faith in God don't bother me, mostly they are prayers as happens to all of us, to address to the Lord, mentally, in moments of difficulty where we feel insecure and in need of reassurance.

What becomes annoying is the repetitiveness of the same continuous speeches in these prayers... halfway through the book I got tired and easily avoided them since they are written in italics.
This is something you will find in all Christian novels (I happened to read some of them, all beautiful and full of adventure and romance, but with these prayers thought up by the characters and always repetitive because they are almost all the same).

So if you're not a religious fanatic, they might bore you, but I repeat: you can easily skip those lines, because they are written in italics. Or you can read them and draw inspiration from them to face the most difficult moments of your life with more confidence.

4)The TITLE told me that this was a novel with a Christmas setting, unfortunately saying that the protagonist decorates the house with wreaths and holly doesn't make the novel Christmassy.
The only Christmas moment is in the end, when everyone opens their presents at the servants' ball and we can breathe a beautiful, relaxed festive atmosphere of great friendship.

The 4 points above are the reasons why I only gave 4 stars and not 5, but apart from this the reading was pleasant and fun, smooth and engaging in all its phases.
----> This is the first one in a mystery-romance series but you can read it also as a standalone, we have a fully satisfying ending !

NOTE : sorry for any form or grammar error in my text, English is not my native tongue :-)

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Book review : What Happens At Christmas by Victoria Alexander

What Happens At Christmas
by Victoria Alexander
Millworth Manor Series Book 1

My rating: ★★★★★

wowwww ! Brilliant !

___ THE PLOT ___
Camille, Lady Lydingham, requests the pleasure of your company at a festive house party in the English countryside, as she endeavors to coax a marriage proposal from Prince Nikolai Pruzinsky of Greater Avalonia. Given the nature of the hostess’s eccentric relatives ,they will be played by a troupe of actors hired to impersonate a proper Victorian family. What a clever way to fool the prince! And gate-crashing, distractingly handsome first loves like Grayson Elliott are most unwelcome.

But nothing about Camille’s charade goes as planned. Tonight, at Millworth Manor, games will be played, motives will be revealed, the masks will come off, and hearts will be lost—and won—in the most romantic, magical season of all.

___ WHAT I THINK ABOUT ___
It has been so amusing and compelling, it was just like to watch a funny period set comedy-romance movie!
I loved this story from the first page to the last one, each character was so captivating and the dialogues were so perfectly written I was even able to imagine the expressions on characters faces and the tones of their voices.
The funny thing is that this is not my usual kind of reading, I usually read cozy mysteries, classic and golden age mysteries or sometimes, when I need something old classics for children.
I don't usually like love stories, I'm not a romance reader...I was just checking among books including the word "Christmas" in the title.
At one point I was attracted by the cover of this one, I read the plot and it sounded so interesting and intriguing at once that I couldn't resit to check more about it. So I read some of the reviews published, all so good that the risk was to be disappointed by reading it ( you know... when one has too much expetations... ) instead the book and the author were a real pleasant discovery to me.
I really needed a light and funny read and even if I will keep on reading mostly mysteries ( always my favs ), I'll definitely read other books in "Millworth Manor Series" and also others by this author.

I think it would be a brilliant comedy-romance to be played on the stage or to realize as big screen movie. I would definitely go to theather to watch it and I would watch it more than once on TV.

Last, but not least, this humorous novel also talk about forgiveness and how often each of us thinks we are the injured party by looking at things only from our own perspective, while we all should try more often to walk in other people's shoes.

I give 5 stars and I daresay it has been my best reading in 2022 ( I read it the week before Christmas ). Definitely highly recommended if you're looking for fun and a nice clean romance :-)

This novel is the 1st in a series, but is readable as a standalone.

NOTE : I'm an Italian old girl who use to read and now writing this post in a foreign language: please forgive me for all errors you may find in my text :-)

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