Hello everyone and happy 1st day of Blogmas! I’m so excited to kick off an entire month of daily blogging with my stop for the It’s a Wonderful Night blog tour. Today I’m going to be sharing my review as well as how you can win a fun prize pack (UK only, sorry!)!
Alright, let’s get started:
Title: It’s a Wonderful Night by Jaimie Admans
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Holiday
Published by: HQ Digital (Oct. 5th, 2018)
Summary
Georgia Bailey is closing up her little charity shop in Oakbarrow when she gets a mysterious late night call from a stranger, threatening to jump off the town’s bridge.
Something about the man’s voice is faintly familiar but all she can do is stay on the line and, after talking for hours and losing sense of time passing, coax him back from the edge.
The next morning, Georgia walks to work, buys a festive latte from Leo (who she’s had a crush on for months!) at the local coffee shop, and is shocked when she suddenly recognizes the voice from last night…
A heartwarming festive love story that reminds us that even in the darkest of times, hope is always just around the corner!
*I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. A huge thank you to the author and Neverland Blog Tours!*
It’s a Wonderful Night is such a sweet, romantic, and festive story! This book pulled me in at chapter one and left me glued to it until the end. It was one of those story that just left me feeling all of the emotions. There were some moments where I was literally laughing out loud and other moments where I found myself tearing up. This novel was so completely well done!
The characters in It’s a Wonderful Night were just so lovely. I absolutely adored them all. I loved seeing Georgia and Leo’s relationship grow, and I loved getting to know them individually.
Another thing that I appreciated about this book was that while it could be considered a romcom, it’s so much deeper than that. It deals with mental illness in an incredibly honest way.
This book is also filled with so many references to It’s a Wonderful Life! Being that I’ve only seen the movie once, years ago, I’m sure I still missed many more of the references. I will say, though, it really made me want to watch the movie now!
Overall, this was such a lovely novel. It’s so charming and heartwarming. Jaimie Admans did such an excellent job balancing the lightheartedness and seriousness of this story. I would definitely recommend It’s a Wonderful Night to anyone looking for a sweet, romantic, and Christmas-y read!
Purchase It’s a Wonderful Night at:
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D4679MT
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D4679MT
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/it-s-a-wonderful-night
Also available from all other ebook retailers!
Click here to enter to win an It’s a Wonderful Night goodie bag (UK only)!! Goodie bag includes:
*It’s a Wonderful Night notebook
*It’s a Wonderful Night fridge magnet
*A signed postcard of the cover
*A copy of It’s a Wonderful Life on DVD because this is the inspiration behind the story.
*An invisible spine Paris notebook because it’s where Georgia wants to go more than anywhere in the world.
*A light-up Christmas tree pen, because who doesn’t need a light-up Christmas tree pen at this time of year?!
Jaimie is a 32-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, watching horror movies, and drinking tea, although she’s seriously considering marrying her coffee machine. She loves autumn and winter, and singing songs from musicals despite the fact she’s got the voice of a dying hyena. She hates spiders, hot weather, and cheese & onion crisps. She spends far too much time on Twitter and owns too many pairs of boots.
She will never have time to read all the books she wants to read.
She is the author of chick-lit romantic comedies The Chateau of Happily Ever Afters, The Little Wedding Island, It’s a Wonderful Night, and Kismetology, and she has also written young-adult romantic comedies Afterlife Academy, Not Pretty Enough, and North Pole Reform School.
Connect with Jaimie Admans on:
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Hey everyone! Can you even believe November is over?! I swear this past month was only three days. November was a super busy month for me, which means I spent very little time reading and blogging.
I ended up reading a total of two books last month!
BOOKS READ
– Twelve Slays of Christmas by Jacqueline Frost (ebook) \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
– It’s a Wonderful Night by Jaimie Admans (ebook) \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
STANDOUT BOOK OF THE MONTH
I’ll be honest, I really adored both of the books I read in November. I’ve decided to go with Twelve Slays of Christmas as my book of the month though, just because I did not expect to enjoy this one nearly as much as I did. It was the perfect mix of mystery and Christmas and I just loved this one so much!
BOOKS REVIEWED
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn \\ ⭐⭐⭐
BOOK HAUL
I bought one book in November, and I am so excited to read it in December! It is A Nancy Drew Christmas! If you’ve been following me for a while, I’m sure you know I absolutely love Nancy Drew. I’ve been collecting the classic series for years now, and when I found out about this new book, I just had to have it. This book will be such a fun one to read in December! 🙂🎄
MISCELLANEOUS
Aside from my October wrap-up, my only other post was for bringing back my Countdown to Christmas series. Last Sunday, I kicked off Countdown to Christmas 2018 with Skipping Christmas by John Grisham!
And that wraps up my November, lol. This month was definitely a quiet one, but I’m looking forward to reading and blogging a lot more in December! I’ve decided to participate in Blogmas again this year, so hopefully, that means I’ll be posting every day during the month of December. I have a lot of ideas planned and I’m super excited for what next month has in store. So, please, wish me luck!!
Thanks for reading!
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Countdown to Christmas is back! If you’re new(ish) to my blog, Countdown to Christmas is a weekly feature where I recommend a different Christmas-y book each week to read this holiday season. This is the third year I’ve been doing this, and it’s now time to share my first pick for the 2018 holiday season!
To start things off, my first pick for 2018 is Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.
Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded shops, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they’ll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on the street without a rooftop Frosty the snowman; they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash; they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because come December 25 they’re setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But, as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences – and isn’t half as easy as they’d imagined.
A classic tale for modern times, Skipping Christmas offers a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that has become part of our holiday tradition.
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
Christmas with the Kranks, which is the adaptation of Skipping Christmas, is one of my favorite Christmas movies. So, naturally, I had to read the book that inspired the film, and let me just say it was no different! This book is so fun, festive, and goofy. The writing style and short chapters makes this book a breeze to get through, which is perfect when you’re busy with holiday preparations and don’t have much free time. Skipping Christmas makes such a great holiday read!
Have you read Skipping Christmas or seen Christmas with the Kranks?
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Title: The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
Pages: 64
Genre: Thriller
Published by: Crown (Nov. 3rd, 2015)
Summary
A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection. However, when the “psychic” visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan’s terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore. Miles, Susan’s teenage stepson, doesn’t help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination. The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.
The Grownup is the first book I’ve ever read by Gillian Flynn, so going into it, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I knew her books were a wild ride, but I did not know quite how wild this book would be!
Hello everyone! I’m back from an unexpected and unplanned hiatus! The first half of November has been so busy and school has been so overwhelming, when I have free time I haven’t felt like reading or blogging very much. That being said, I’m ready to start blogging and reading more again despite my busy-ness! So, here I am wrapping up October halfway through November, lol.
Okay, so overall, October was a pretty nice reading month for me.
Altogether I read six books during the month of October.
BOOKS READ
– And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
– Sunrise Cabin by Stacey Donovan (ebook) \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
– Small Spaces by Katherine Arden \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
– The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox (ebook) \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
– The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (ebook) \\ ⭐⭐⭐
– Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel by A. W. Jantha \\ ⭐⭐⭐
STANDOUT BOOK OF THE MONTH
Omg y’all I loved this book SO much!! Small Spaces was one of the best books I’ve read all year. I just enjoyed this book so much! I want to read more Katherine Arden books now!
BOOKS REVIEWED
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton \\ ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Sunrise Cabin by Stacey Donovan \\ ⭐⭐⭐1/2
And The Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden \\ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
BOOK HAUL
I received Bathed in Prayer by Jan Karon from Putnam Books. So, a huge thank you to them!
I also received The Rule of One by Ashley & Leslie Saunders from Skyscape/Amazon Publishing. A great big thanks to them as well!
MISCELLANEOUS
I participated in Blogtober and Blogoween last month, so that meant I posted [nearly] every single day in October!
Some of the highlights of my month include:
Sbooktober Readathon TBR | Wrap-Up
I got the opportunity to interview the author of Fallen Leaves, Tessa Emily Hall!
I also shared my autumnal bookshelf decorations!
October was also filled with some fun book tags including:
Some of my other favorite posts from this month include:
My Top 5 Favorite Non-Horror Halloween Movies
Bonded, Bewitched, Drowned, AKA Kiss, Marry Kill: Halloween Edition
And that wraps up my October! October was a really fun month for me! While November has been busy, I’m still hopeful that it’ll be a great month and that the second half of it will have more reading and blogging. 🙂
Be sure to let me know how your October went and how your November is going so far!
Thanks for reading!
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Hello and Happy Halloween!! 👻🎃🍂
To celebrate Halloween and the last day of Blogtober/Blogoween, for today’s post I’m going to be playing Bonded, Bewitched, Drowned, which is the Halloween equivalent of Kiss, Marry, Kill! This prompt was originally created by Fictionally Sam, and I was tagged by Mandy @ Devouring Books to do this fun challenge!
There aren’t really any rules for how you decide which characters to use, but all the books I’ve chosen for this challenge are completely randomized, and I’ve just decided to choose the main, male character from each book to make things easier.
Okay, here we go!
Round One
Okay, so the books I randomly picked for round one are:
Jack from Clara Snow
Joseph from The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott
Todd from Christy Miller Vol. 4
Oh boy, this is a hard one! When I read The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Joseph was one of my favorite love interests of the entire year! Meanwhile, Todd is such a sweetheart, though. And then there’s Jack Frost! He experienced so much character growth in this book.
Bonded: Joseph
Bewitched: Todd
Drowned: Jack (Sorry Jack!)
Round Two
Ezra from Illuminae
Tarver from These Broken Stars
Adam from If I Stay
This round is slightly easier! I’ll be honest, I didn’t love These Broken Stars (I found it boring 🙊), so I don’t remember much about Tarver. Because of that, it makes it a lot easier for me to do this:
Bonded: Ezra
Bewitched: Adam
Drowned: Tarver
Round Three
Gilbert from Anne of the Island
Jake from Angel Eyes
Sam from Emergency Contact
This one is actually pretty easy because while I love all three characters, there’s really no contest about who’s my favorite. 🤷🏼♀️
Bonded: Jake
Bewitched: Gilbert (we all saw that coming! 😂)
Drowned: Sam (Sorry Sam! I just like Gil and Jake more than you!)
Round Four
Christian from The Summer of Chasing Mermaids
Galen from Of Poseidon
Four from Divergent
I admit, it’s been so long since I’ve read Of Poseidon that I don’t remember the book, or Galen that well. I almost thought I should pick another book, but then I realized that maybe it’s a good thing I don’t remember him. 😏😭
Bonded: Christian
Bewitched: Four
Drowned: Galen
This was such a fun post to create! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. 🙂
I tag anyone who wants to do this, and if you decide to do it, please let me know so I can see your answers!!
Thanks so much for reading!
🍁👻HAPPY HALLOWEEN!🎃🍂
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It’s Top Ten Tuesday again! It’s a weekly bookish list hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week’s topic is:
TOP TEN BOOKS TO READ FOR HALLOWEEN
Tomorrow is Halloween! In honor of that, I’m going to be sharing ten of my favorite books that I think are perfect to read for Halloween. I like the books that I read in October to be atmospheric, festive, and mysterious, and all ten of the books on this list perfectly embodies those feelings! 🍂
Here we go:
And there you have it! Those are ten of my favorite books that I would recommend reading at Halloween.
Let me know which books would be on your list. 👻🎃
Thanks for reading!
Hey everyone! Well, the Sbooktober Readathon is officially over, and Halloween day is almost here. Last Sunday, I shared my TBR and now it’s time for me to wrap up how this readathon went for me!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get everything on my TBR read. But, this week was pretty busy for me, so I’m not surprised at all. But that’s okay, because readathons are just supposed to be fun! 🙂
Alrighty, here’s the challenges I did get to:
JOIN SBOOKTOBER
READ A HALLOWEEN THEMED BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE (THRILLER, SUPERNATURAL, GOTHIC, ETC)
Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel was such a fun and festive read! It was absolutely perfect for Halloween.
ENTER THE HAUNTED HOUSE
READ A BOOK THAT INCLUDES A HAUNTED HOUSE.
PERFORM AN INCANTATION
READ A SHORT STORY OR POETRY COLLECTION.
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn was my first experience with her writing, so I had no idea what to expect going into this story. Even though it was a short story, it was still so mind twisty and intricate. While there parts I, personally, didn’t care for, The Grownup was such a wild ride, and I definitely have an interest in reading more of Gillian Flynn’s books!
HOWL AT THE MOON
READ A BOOK AT NIGHTTIME.
So, I started Undead Girl Gang, but I didn’t finish it. I may finish it, but I may wait until next Halloween to get to this one. From what I read, I liked it, but didn’t love it, and being that I still have some other books I want to get to this month, this one is kind of being pushed to the side for now!
And that wraps up the Sbooktober Readathon for me!
Let me know if you participated and how you did. 🙂🎃👻
Thanks for reading!
Title: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
Pages: 218
Genres: Middle Grade, Horror
Summary
Bestselling adult author of The Bear and the Nightingale makes her middle grade debut with a creepy, spellbinding ghost story destined to become a classic.
After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn’t think–she just acts, stealing the book and running away. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with “the smiling man,” a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price.
Ollie is captivated by the tale until her school trip the next day to Smoke Hollow, a local farm with a haunting history all its own. There she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she’s been reading about. Could it be the story about the smiling man is true? Ollie doesn’t have too long to think about the answer to that. On the way home, the school bus breaks down, sending their teacher back to the farm for help. But the strange bus driver has some advice for the kids left behind in his care: “Best get moving. At nightfall they’ll come for the rest of you.” Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie’s previously broken digital wristwatch, a keepsake reminder of better times, begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN.
Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed the bus driver’s warning. As the trio head out into the woods–bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them–the bus driver has just one final piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: “Avoid large places. Keep to small.”
And with that, a deliciously creepy and hair-raising adventure begins.
Oh my goodness, I loved this book so much! Going into Small Spaces, I expected to enjoy it, but I didn’t expect to love it. After seeing a couple people talking about Small Spaces on Bookstagram, I thought it looked like a fun and quick read for Halloween, so I decided to check it out from the library, not anticipating much other than something festive to get me into the Halloween mood. Once I started reading, however, I knew this book was going to be so much more!
Hello everybody! With Halloween coming up this Wednesday, I thought it would be the perfect time to do the Halloween Book Tag! I stumbled upon this tag while actually googling festive, Halloween book tags to do, and I came across this one from the Sassy Book Geek a couple of years ago!
1.) Favorite Scary (Must Read) For Halloween?
I’m going to go with Small Spaces for this one! I recently read (and absolutely loved) this book, and it was just the right amount of spooky and festive for Halloween!
2.) Scariest Book Cover, Like Ever?
I can’t think of one for this one, and I’m writing this at night so I don’t really want to go digging around for creepy book covers before I go to bed, so…I’m leaving this one blank. 😂🙈
3.) If You Could Go Trick-or-Treating With Any Author, Who Would You Pick?
Maybe Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi? The Miss Peregrine series is quite spooky. Plus, they have the cutest little baby girl, and I bet she will be so adorable in her Halloween costume! Who doesn’t want to go trick or treating with cute little babies in cute little Halloween costumes?!
4.) If You Could Dress Up As Any Bookish Character For Halloween, Who Would You Be?
Back when the Nancy Drew movie came out, I dressed up as her for Halloween. I looked for a picture to include, because I know I have one somewhere, but I couldn’t find it! This was probably one of my favorite Halloween costumes ever, though! I was so pleased with it, haha. 🙂
5.) If You Could Find Anything (From Any Book) In Your Trick-or-Treat Stash, What Would You Hope To Find?
Okay, this is a tricky one! Maybe a big treasure like Edmond finds in The Count of Monte Cristo? To be fair, though, I’m still working through that one, so I don’t know how it ends yet. Come the end of the novel, I may want to change my mind, lol!
6.) In What Fictional World Would You Like To Go Trick-or-Treating?
I don’t actually ever recall them celebrating Halloween, but if they did, I’d love to go trick or treating in Avonlea! I bet Anne and her friends would come up with the most elaborate and fun costumes, and I would imagine everyone would give out delicious, homemade treats to eat!
7.) What Book Villain Would You Not Like To Meet Alone In A Dark Alley On Halloween?
All of them, lol! But, I’m going to go with The Trunchbull! She’s actually super scary and I have not doubt she would steal all my candy.
8.) Would You Rather Dress Up As A Vampire, Zombie, Werewolf, or Shadowhunter?
I think a vampire or a werewolf would be super fun!
9.) Pick A Candy (Just One) From Harry Potter That You Would Love To Find In Your Stash?
I’ve got to skip this one, because I’ve only read the first Harry Potter book, and I don’t remember any of the candy except for those jelly beans!
10.) What Is Your Favorite Halloween Candy?
Reese’s Peanut Butter cups! 😋🙌🏼
I hope you enjoyed reading my answers to this fun and festive tag! I encourage you to do it, too! Also, what’s your favorite candy?
Thanks for reading!
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the calico books 