Book review : The Earl's Christmas Consultant by Bianca Blythe

The Earl's Christmas Consultant
by Bianca Blythe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice clean romance.

___THE PLOT___
Flora works as a duchess's maid, passing herself off as French. Once discovered by a friend of the duke, who is actually an old acquaintance of Flora, but he does not immediately recognize her, she decides to leave and find work elsewhere.
Through the employment agency she is hired as a Christmas consultant and by chance her new employer is precisely the former friend who had discovered that she is not French.
There's much more at stake than this, because Flora is actually on the run from a cruel murderer...

___ MY OPINION___
Light and unpretentious romance, suitable for those looking for a quick read (say a day or two), pure entertainment, without drama and with a guaranteed happy ending.

The side characters have very few lines, the whole story revolves around the dialogues and thoughts of the two protagonists. Said it this way it may seem boring, yet I gave 4 stars, because although it is not an unforgettable book, it kept me good and cheerful company for every page I read.

The story is also suitable for young adults as it is a clean romance. In fact the two characters spend the nights in bed together, but there is no description or even hot kisses. (so if you're looking for a love story hoping for this, don't read it because you'll be disappointed)

( Sorry for any errors in my review, English is not my mother tongue. Thanks for reading anyway :-) )

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Giveaway : January 2024 Free Printable Calendar

January 2024 free printable calendar

Good morning, the first day of the new year !
Here I am to post a giveaway for the new year, a useful monthly desktop calendar.

You can download it for free and use it as a wallpaper on your PC screen or you can print it ( with his original size or in a smaller size, for example in postcard format ) just to always have the days of the month in view.

To download, simply click on the preview image and save it on your device.

@TizianaFragnerGraphic
January 2024 Calendar
Size 1634 x 1264

I hope my graphics will give you a bit of joy coloring your days between one commitment and another of the normal everyday life.
Greeting you warmly and wishing you a good start to the new year!
Love, Tizi

NOTE : Any errors in my text? Well, I certainly need to improve my English.
You know, I'm from Italy, so English is not my native language. :-) Thanks for reading anyway!

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Book review : A Tale of Two Hearts by Michelle Griep

A Tale of Two Hearts
Once Upon a Dickens Christmas #2
by Michelle Griep
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An engaging Christmas tale by Michelle Griep !

This is the second short novel in a series of three and I read the first one last year, it was also very good ! Each story is readable as a standalone.

____ THE PLOT___ London, 1853: Mina Scott, is the daughter of an innkeeper and dreams of living a life with more adventures like in the books she loves to read so much and dreams of becoming the wife of William Barlow, a regular guest at the inn, with whom she has become infatuated.

William is the son of a gentleman, but due to a dissolute past full of fun and zero responsibilities, he now finds himself working as an employee and longs to become his uncle's heir, also to be able to have the means to care for his very ill mother.
To achieve this goal he needs a wife immediately and must be able to unmask his wicked cousin's evil plans.

___MY OPINION ___ This is a second chance sweet tale.
The story is sweetly romantic in a clean way, so I don't recommend it to those looking purely for a Christmas love story, with passionate kisses or something more extreme, you won't find it here (nor obviously did I expect to find it).

On the Goodread page you will see that it is tagged as Christian fiction, but unlike other Christian fiction that, by chance, I happened to read, fortunately here there you'll not find mental prayers to God every 3 pages. The meaning of Christianity is given by the moral of the story:
forgiveness, the ability to give others another chance and the ability to appreciate what we have, without envy and without considering "the neighbor's grass always greener than ours".

Values that should apply to every good person of any religion (and therefore there is no need to read Christian fiction to be a good believer in God or a good person... sometimes I am shocked by the bigotry I read in some reviews of Christian fiction).

The second chance is given to many characters in the story :

1) to Mina who will be able to understand how much value family ties have and how lucky she is in her simple life.

2) to William who has already had a second chance in the past, but now he will have a second chance to find true love and show mercy towards those who they are hostile to him.

3) to William's uncle who opens his heart to his nephew WARNING SPOILER ___ he will also find the happiness of female company and a marriage to live his old age with love. SPOILER END

4) to Mina's elderly friend, who in her youth had lost her true love WARNING SPOILER ___ and will finally be able get married and be happy. ___ SPOILER END

5) WARNING SPOILER ___ second chance also to the wicked characters ___ SPOILER END .

__ANOTHER THING APPRECIATED __ The quotes from Dickens' novels at the beginning of each chapter and the interesting historical notes at the end of the novel.
I was already aware of many of the notions reported, but I nevertheless appreciated them and a couple of them were totally new to me (read the story to discover them).

___ THE FLAW __ The book involved me from beginning to end, but in reality I only rate it 4 stars instead of a full 5, because while at the beginning of the story, the reader can find a nice humor that makes the read cheerful and pleasant, from about 40 % of the story this humor disappears.

A quality that I love about this author (and in authors in general) is precisely the sense of humor, the ironic and funny jokes, which are fundamental to me both in whodunits and in romances.
Here not only after a while the story has lost this precious element (precious to me ), but the author wanted even to reinsert it at the exactly wrong moment:
WARNING SPOILER ___ after I waited for the declaration of love and the consequent kiss, throughout the book, I read a scene, which should be very romantic, with 3 people, where the third person makes jokes that should make the reader laugh .
William declares himself under the incitement of the third person and even kisses Mina at the sarcastic suggestion of the third person. A very quick and flat kiss that gave me no emotion or thrill.

---> As I already said, I wasn't expecting hot scenes, but I've read many clean romances where with a simple kiss, the writer gave me butterflies in my stomach! ___ SPOILER END
In this the author miserably failed and made me angry. So only 4 stars.

FINAL NOTE : I'm from Italy, so you will probably have found some form/grammar errors in my text, but I hope I have still managed to convey my thoughts to you in the right way.
:-) Christmas has just passed, so I count on your forgiveness and I wish you a Happy New Year!

READ ALSO my REVIEW about BOOK #1:
12 Days at Bleakly Manor by Michelle Griep


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Advent Calendar 25th December

Advent Calendar 25th December _ 🎄🤶🎅👼💗 It's Christmas !

Good morning and MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY !

And to remember the true spirit of Christmas, which story should I choose if not the one that has become the Christmas story par excellence almost all over the world?
Here you are: A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, first published in London in 1843 ( by Editor Chapman and Hall and illustrated by John Leech).

__THE STORY __ A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a very rich and very miserly old man, who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future. After their visits, Scrooge realizes how stupid and mean he has been, and deciding that he no longer wants to waste his time in such a manner, he transforms into a kinder, gentler man.

Dickens wrote his best Christmas tale at a time when the British were exploring and re-evaluating Christmas, celebrating it with cristian carols, decorating Christmas fir trees, sending Christmas cards and so on.
He was influenced by the experiences of his youth and the Christmas stories of other authors.

The attitude towards the poor and a person's ability to redeem themselves, opening up to the world and others, becoming more empathetic, are the keys to the story, this is also expressed very well by the quote that I chose to put in my graphics..

Published on December 19, the first edition sold out on Christmas Eve; by the end of 1844 thirteen editions had been published.

Since cinema was born, there have been countless transpositions on the screen both with actors and as cartoon animations :-)

... Again : HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY !!!! --KISS--

(Thanks fo reading and please forgive any errors in my text since English is not my native tongue. :-) )

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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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Advent Calendar 24th December

Advent Calendar 24th December _ 🎄🤶🎅👼💗 24th day Christmas countdown

Happy Cristmas Eve everybody !!

We have reached the next-to-last image of the Advent calendar and for today, Christmas Eve, I wanted to choose an iconic film, which I use to watch regularly each year without ever getting tired of it and continuing to move me like the first time I saw it as a child : IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE ( 1946 by Frank Capra ) starring James Stewart and Donna Reed.

The movie is based on the short story and booklet THE GREATEST GIFT self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943.

THE STORY : George Bailey, an honest and unfortunate young family man, wants to take his own life.
His guardian angel appears to him in the guise of a friendly old man and shows him what the world would have been like if he had never been born, giving George reason to understand how, through his very existence in the world, he is contributing to making it a better place.

SOME CURIOSITIES : Due to the film's disappointing sales, some studios viewed Capra as having lost the ability to produce popular and financially successful films.

It became a Christmas classic after its copyright expired in 1974 due to non-renewal and it entered the public domain, which allowed it to be broadcast without licensing or royalties.

Today It's a Wonderful Life is considered one of the greatest films of all time and among the best Christmas films.

THE BIIGEST SNOWSTORM EVER DEPICTED ON FILM : Some newspaper articles reported that two weeks into filming, three hundred tons of limestone and fifty tons of white plaster had already been used to reproduce snowstorm.
The special effects curator was Russell Shearman, who used an innovative type of chemical snow to allow the actors to speak during filming ( previously, snow was produced using crushed cornflakes, which did not allow the actors to speak, therefore requiring a subsequent dubbing phase).

Using modern (for the time) technology, Shearman mixed foamite, a material used in the composition of some fire extinguisher powders, with water and sugar, creating a solution which would then be pumped at high pressure through the machine used to reproduce the wind ; a quantity of over 22,000 liters was used to cover the entire set.

The result was a snowfall effect that was much more realistic than anything seen in any film in the past.

I hope you enjoyed today's image too and at this point all I have to do is send everyone a hug and wish you a happy Christmas Eve together with all the people and animals you love.

(Note : English is not my native tongue, please forgive any errors in my text )



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Advent Calendar 23rd December

Advent Calendar 23rd December _ 🎄🤶🎅👼💗 23rd day Christmas countdown

Wow ! The weekend befor Christmas ! I can't believe that these 23 day are gone so fast...

Well, as yesterday night I attended (as I do every year, but unfortunately only rarely live and too often only in front of the TV) the Nutcracker ballet ( 1892 by Marius Petipa e Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), inspired by the very famous classic Christmas story : THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING (1816 by E.T. Hoffmann ), I thought to include in my graphic a nice retellis of that well known old tale, a 2018 Disney animation : THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS .

Unlike Hoffman's fairy tale and Tchaikovsky's ballet, this Disney film, contrary to what often happens, was not very successful. Personally I didn't mind: the sets were enchanting and the actors, including big names like Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman, were all very good.

_THE DISNEY ANIMATION STORY: Godfather Drosselmeyer is Mr. Stahlbaum's oldest and most trusted friend.
So, like every Christmas Eve, the rich businessman and his daughter Clara gather with the other guests in the large living room of the Drosselmeyer house, to participate in the magnificent party that the toymaker organizes every year. During the usual celebrations, however, an unusual event occurs: by playfully following a golden thread that runs through the corridors of the immense mansion, young Clara is led into a magical and unknown world, divided into four enchanted realms.

Escorted by the valiant soldier Philip and a band of lively mice, the little girl crosses the white landscapes of the Land of Snowflakes, the colorful lands of the Land of Flowers and finally the "edible" villages of the Land of Sweets. She meets new friends and precious allies, including the sappy Sugar Plum Fairy, and learns of a mission only she can accomplish: infiltrate the hostile fourth realm, home of the evil Mother Ginger, and recover a ancient key capable of unlocking a mysterious box.

I think it's not easy to accept revisitations of what we've known well all our life and I think this is the reason why it hasn't grossed as much as expected.

Usually I don't even like retellings of classics, but lately I feel like I'm craving something new and this year I've read several retellings of classics.

The quote may seem like a simple phrase, which any of us could say to a friend at any time...yet often we are accustomed to saying optimistic things without actually following the advice of what we are saying.

It means that we often focus too much on negative things, failing to fully enjoy the positivity and beauty that is around us at the moment.
Hoping this quote can be a point of reflection both for you and me.

(As always : sorry for any errors in my text, English is only a second tongue not my native one )



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