Tag Archives: 2021 Christmas Reading Challenge

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Book Review: Fighting For Us, by Bella Emy

Bella Emy’s Fighting For Us was featured on Sadie’s Spotlight last Christmas season. The promo material included a free copy of the book. But I didn’t get around to reading it until this year’s Christmas Reading Challenge.
fighting for us cover

LORENZO
I had it all.
A wonderful family with a loving wife who was my world and a beautiful baby girl.
I didn’t need anything more to be rich in my eyes.
Then one day, everything changed and my world was ripped apart.
My wife, my everything, was taken from me, and I was left alone to raise our baby girl.
I was forced from late night sessions at the gym to changing diapers all by myself.
Thank God for the help I received from my parents and siblings or I would have been lost.
I accepted my fate of being alone with my baby girl and living life with just us two…
Until the day I met her, and she became everything worth fighting for.

CARISSA
Life was so perfect.
A loving fiancé, wonderful friends and family, and a job I adored.
Until one day, my world was turned upside down and the man I loved threw the promise of forever down the drain and walked out of my life.
The day he walked out of my door, I knew that everything I had ever grown up to believe in was a lie.
Love is unconditional but love sure as hell doesn’t last forever.
The vow to love me for the rest of our lives ended quickly as he pulled away from me, and buried himself in the arms of his ex.
I was left alone, cursing the male species and everyone who had found their happily ever after.
My sister and my best friend were the only ones there for me…
Until the day I met him, and he became everything worth fighting for.

my review

This was a sweet, easily readable contemporary romance. It was also SUPER predictable. I read a couple chapters and then went to take a shower. While showering I thought about how the book might progress and now know that I anticipated almost all of the major plot points correctly.

[Spoiler warning]
That someone would try and sexually assault her? Check. That he’d step in and save her with all his tough, UFC menace? Check. That they’d fall hard and fast? Check. That there would be some sort of needless friction that tore them temporarily apart? Check. That it would involve his wife? Check. I hit every single one of them. And I don’t say that to be like, “Oh, look how smart I am,” but rather as “Oh, look how predictable it all was.”

The thing is, a lot of people appreciate the predictability. It makes it a safe read. That’s especially appealing in a Christmas read, apparently. So I’m not necessarily saying it’s a bad thing. Just know what you’re signing up for…that and the fact that it’s first person, present tense.

Outside of the likeable characters and predictability, my only comment is that the attempted rapist is treated as a douche, but no one ever even alludes to the fact that he literally tried to rape Carissa. That left a bad taste in my mouth. But, all in all, it wasn’t a bad read.

fighting for us photo


Other Reviews:

https://tgtrnbookreviews.com/2020/10/04/r-e-v-i-e-w-%E2%9E%A0-fighting-for-us-by-bella-emy/

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Book Review: The Problem With Mistletoe, by Kyle Baxter

I picked up a copy of Kyle Baxter‘s The Problem With Mistletoe last year. But I didn’t get around to reading it until this year and my Christmas Reading Challenge.
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David Cooper did not believe in happily ever after—he thought he let his chance pass him by—between work, being a single father and planning a Christmas party for his mother’s charity his life is complicated enough. And then he has to ask Alex Capili, an old friend who just returned from the big city, to help run it. Spending weeks working closely together old feelings come up and David wonders if fairy tales really do come true.

Alex came home to help sell off his family’s restaurant, he was not looking for love. And happy endings only happen in movies. But nothing about this return trip home town is quite what he expected and David is still the best man he’s ever known. A good father, with a heart as big as all outdoors, and disarmingly handsome.

my review

I thought this was very cute, if a little unrealistic at times. I simply find it unlikely that two people who loved each-other as much as the two main characters (be it erotically, romantically or even just platonically) really would have walked away and remained without contact for 15 years. Conversely, I find it equally as unlikely that people who hadn’t so much as spoken in 15 years would so instantly fall back in step with one another. Having said that, once I decided to simply acknowledge it and forcefully suspend my disbelief on these matters I liked the characters and the slow burn. (Yes, it’s a second chance romance that also manages to be a slow-burn, go figure.) I liked Baxter’s use of color to symbolize Alex’s reawakening. I liked the side characters and the happy themes. I could have done without the evil jealous woman as the obligatory foe though. All in all, it’s very Hallmark Movie Channel sweet, but I liked it and will happily read book two (which I have).

the problem with mistletoe photo


Other Reviews:

Book 759: The Problem with Mistletoe (Five Points Stories #1) – Kyle Baxter

The Problem with Mistletoe – Book Review


Come back tomorrow. I’ll be reviewing To Linzer & to Cherish, by Jen Fitzgerald.

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Book Review: Charley’s Christmas Wolf, by C.D. Gorri

I picked up a copy of C.D. Gorri‘s Charley’s Christmas Wolf as an Amazon freebie, in order to add a little paranormal to my otherwise Contemporary Romance heavy Christmas Reading Challenge.

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Rafe Maccon is the Alpha of the Macconwood Pack, for now. His rule is being questioned by a rogue Wolf who wants him ousted for breaking an ancient law that states the Alpha must be mated!

He must find a mate in order to keep his position. Seeing their Alpha in trouble, Rafe’s Wolf Guard take it upon themselves to find one for him.

Charley Palmieri works a dead end job and lives alone with her cat until one night when her world is changed forever.

Instant attraction sparks between them. Can Rafe convince Charley to be his before the meeting of Pack elders on Christmas Eve? Will she be his one true mate, for life?

my review

I’ve mentioned before that years ago, before we had kids and evening responsibilities, my husband and I used to indulge in something we called Good Wine, Bad Movie Night. The idea was that there is a certain brand of cheesily bad movie, that when watched just a little drunk turns marvelously horrid. So, one of us would pick up a Good Wine (or what passed for good for a broke couple) and the other would pick a Bad Movie. Then we’d drink and be merry. We watched a lot of B-grade sci-fi and questionable anime. But it was fun.

I mention this memory because Charley’s Christmas Wolf has many of the same qualities as the bad movies of Good Wine, Bad Movie Night. It is bad. There is no getting around that fact. We’re talking the heyday of Ellora’s Cave bad. But there is also something gloriously indulgent in accepting it for what it is. You have to laugh at it, but stop short of doing so mockingly, because it knows what it is. It’s not trying to be something else and you have to respect that.

The whole thing is super rushed. The love is instant. There is no character or plot development. The sex is questionable. The book tries to be both a dub-con and a hot romance and fails at both. The dialogue is atrocious, etc. But throughout it all, if you take another sip of wine and relax into it, it’s worth the good-natured laugh.

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