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A Christmas Duet by Debbie Macomber

288 pages Ballantine Books October 15, 2024 publish date

ABOUT THE BOOK

Hailey Morgan’s life has always revolved around music. She once had big dreams of becoming a professional songwriter, but the reality of life has led her to working as an assistant high school band teacher in Portland. As the holidays approach, Hailey dreads the annual tradition of spending Christmas with her family and dodging her mother’s meddling questions about her love life.

When Hailey’s close friend offers her the use of her family’s empty cabin for a rejuvenating solo holiday retreat, Hailey finally decides to do something to make herself happy. However, her arrival in the small town of Podunk, Oregon, is anything but peaceful when she discovers the cabin has been invaded by several wild animals. Luckily, Jay, the son of the town’s main store proprietor—and an incredibly handsome and charming former musician to boot—is more than willing to help.

Soon Hailey and Jay are nearly inseparable, chopping down and decorating a Christmas tree, sipping hot cocoa in front of a cozy fire, and best of all, playing music together. Jay’s positive feedback and encouragement inspire Hailey to believe she might succeed as a songwriter after all. But even in her snow-dusted oasis, family holiday drama still finds Hailey, interrupting and threatening her newfound peace and confidence. Meanwhile revelations from Jay present complications of their own. Suddenly her Christmas paradise has become a winter storm and Hailey must weather through the challenges to stand up for herself and embrace the holiday spirit.

MY THOUGHTS

Reading Debbie Macomber’s latest Christmas book every year is a long-standing tradition I have. I’ve loved every single one of them. They brighten my day and I always look forward to them.

A woman in love with music doesn’t have her dreams work out the way she had hoped. Settling is what a lot of us do when our dreams don’t come true. She settles on becoming a high school band teacher. Several years ago, a relationship didn’t work out because he wasn’t interested in her dreams and encouraging her, so she walked away from this relationship.

When a close friend suggests she spends Christmas at her family’s cabin she’s delighted. Breaking from tradition she won’t be spending Christmas with her family, but she needs this alone time to regroup.
Upon arriving she’s struck by the beauty of the area and can’t wait to relax. Not so quick though there’s a few wild animals in her remote cabin and Podunk, Oregon, isn’t all she thought it would be.

When Jay, the son of the town’s store owner helps her out she is taken by his good looks, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s a musician. As they spend more time together, she comes to realize just how encouraging he can be about her music and talking with him feels as though they’ve known each other for a long time.

The book explores the mother daughter relationship. A meddling mother needing to know everything about her love life and ready to try to push an old boyfriend on her that the mother really likes. A daughter who knows she needs time away from her family this Christmas so she can grow emotionally and figure out what’s best for herself.

An emotional book showing the strength of family relationships and a few surprising twists in the bumpy road we call life. Guaranteed to make you smile and give you a happy feeling as you read.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.



THE AUTHOR

Debbie Macomber is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of today’s most popular writers with more than 200 million copies of her books in print worldwide. In her novels, Macomber brings to life compelling relationships that embrace family and enduring friendships, uplifting her readers with stories of connection and hope. Macomber’s novels have spent over 1,000 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Fifteen of these novels hit the number one spot.

In 2023, Macomber’s all-new hardcover publication includes Must Love Flowers (July). In addition to fiction, Macomber has also published three bestselling cookbooks, three adult coloring books, numerous inspirational and nonfiction works, and two acclaimed children’s books.

Celebrated as “the official storyteller of Christmas”, Macomber’s annual Christmas books are beloved and six have been crafted into original Hallmark Channel movies. Macomber is also the author of the bestselling Cedar Cove Series which the Hallmark Channel chose as the basis for its first dramatic scripted television series. Debuting in 2013, Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove was a ratings favorite for three seasons.

She serves on the Guideposts National Advisory Cabinet, is a YFC National Ambassador, and is World Vision’s international spokesperson for their Knit for Kids charity initiative. A devoted grandmother, Debbie and Wayne live in Port Orchard, Washington, the town which inspired the Cedar Cove series.

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The Twilight Garden

389 pages William Morrow publisher April 9, 2024 publish date

ABOUT THE BOOK

Two feuding neighbors unite to resurrect a neglected city garden in this uplifting and quietly joyful novel by Sara Nisha Adams, author of the beloved The Reading List.

In a small pocket of London, between the houses of No.77 and No.79 Eastbourne Road, lies a neglected community garden. It was a beautiful thing once, a little oasis in a bustling city for neighbors by day and the local foxes at twilight. Now it’s overgrown and neglected, an empty patch of greenery lost to time.

Once a sanctuary, the garden’s gate is now firmly closed. And that’s exactly how Winston at No.79 likes it – anything to avoid Bernice, who has moved in next door with her young son. Their houses may share the garden, but they’re not exactly neighborly.

But then a mysterious parcel drops on Winston’s doormat. It contains no note, only a bundle of photographs of the garden in bloom many years ago—vibrant with flowers, filled with people from every corner of the community. Is someone trying to tell them something? The seed of an idea is planted…

Somewhere out there, a secret gardener made a decades-old promise to keep the community’s spirit alive. Now it’s time for The Twilight Garden to come out of hibernation.

Photo by Dmitry Demidov on Pexels.com

MY THOUGHTS

A new family moves into the rowhouses on a busy street in London. It’s a mother and young son. They share a backyard garden that used to be a community garden enjoyed by generations past for its vegetables and many beautiful flowers.

Families would spend evenings visiting in the twilight reminiscing as the foxes played nearby. Living next door to the new family is a man with a broken love relationship, it’s run its course and now they have different dreams, and it doesn’t include each other. A young family next door isn’t what he was looking for and he tries to avoid them.

The dry earth and overgrown weed choked lot is an eyesore and best avoided. When he and the new neighbors start getting mail suggesting a garden and pictures and long-ago garden designs of the former beautiful garden, they both have the same idea to start beautifying it again.

Who is the mysterious person with the thoughts of brightening up the area again. As the work continues it brings the generations together again. The concept of the book is a great idea, and it was a warm feeling I had while reading it.

I was given a complimentary copy of the book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sara Nisha Adams is a writer and editor. She lives in London and was born in Hertfordshire to Indian and English parents. Her debut novel The Reading List was a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Fiction 2021. Her second novel is The Twilight Garden.

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Blog Blitz:The Sunshine Sisters: Skye (Little Duck Pond Café) by Rosie Green

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Sunshine Sisters: Skye (Little Duck Pond Café)

The Sunshine Sisters: Skye. This is BOOK TWO of a TRILOGY in the popular Little Duck Pond Café series:
Skye Sunshine has a theory that workmen, when in your house, should be seen and not heard. But Saul, the annoyingly sexy handyman clearly hasn’t received the memo! He’s far too cheeky and irritating for her liking.
But when Skye’s peace of mind and reputation as an actress is threatened by hacks desperate for a story, can she really afford to turn down Saul’s offer – to whisk her away from the limelight to the privacy of his rustic cabin in the woods?

MY THOUGHTS

I have been reading the Little Duck Pond Cafe series for quite a while. I always look forward to a new novella length book coming out. This is one thing that I love about the series too, that each book is novella length so I can read it in an afternoon and not feel bogged down by not having time to read it. Each book has a full story.

The characters, I love them. Each one of them feels like friends and we still have some from the older books but meet new friends in each book too. This trio of books is the Sunshine sisters, and this is Skye’s story.

Skye Sunshine shows her vulnerable side when she must go into hiding because she is being threatened with blackmail for past secrets that are being threatened to be spilled. There are some serios subjects touched on in the book and the author does it in an understanding way.

The characters are relatable and fun and I’m enjoying meeting them all. Family relationships, drama, misunderstandings and secrets are explored. I did enjoy seeing how the sisters are all there for each other and look forward to reading the last sister’s story, Blossom.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rosie’s series of Little Duck Pond Café novellas is centered around life in a country village cafe. Skye’s story is the second in a trilogy called THE SUNSHINE SISTERS. Watch out for Blossom’s dramatic and emotional story, which completes the trilogy and is out in early June 2024!

Follow Rosie on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green88

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A Bookshop Christmas, a bookish holiday read by Rachel Burton

416 pages Aria publisher Pub Date: 02 Sep 2021 original publish date September 2, 2018

About The Book

A snowstorm. A stranger. A spark. And it’s Christmas! It should be the perfect start to the perfect love story.

But real life is far messier and more complicated than in the pages of the books in Megan Taylor’s family bookshop – the last few years have left this young widow in no doubt of that. Moving back home to York should have been a fresh start, but all it did was allow her to retreat from the world.

When prize-winning author Xander Stone rams his supermarket trolley into her ankles and then trashes her taste in books, Megan is abruptly awoken from her self-imposed hibernation. It’s time to start living again, and she’s going to start by putting this arrogant, superior – admittedly sexy – stranger in his place. Just as she is beginning to enjoy life again, the worst happens, and Megan begins to wonder if she should have stayed hidden away.

Because it turns out that falling in love again is about more than just meeting under the mistletoe…

My Thoughts

This really was a lovely book.
Megan’s family is running a bookshop and after her husband’s death she moves back to York to help them out with it. It’s been in her family since before her birth and because it’s now failing, she is sad to see an old standby will be going away when her parents sell it.
A Regency Christmas party is being planned along with Regency costumes, whatever types of foods they ate in the time period and lots of Jane Austen talks. Sounds like the place to be.
Popular author, Xander Stone is planning a book launch at her bookshop. His assistant is so overbearing. I’ll confess she is the only character I didn’t like. She needs to be the center of attention, talks loudly and knows everyone’s business. Grabbing snacks at the grocers the night before the book launch, she is run into with a trolly by a rude and grumpy guy. Heaven forbids, it turns out this is the famous author that shows up for the book launch. Makes you kind of gulp and laugh at the same time. After their rocky meeting things do settle down a bit and they get to talking. He’s lost his mother; she’s lost a spouse and he’s also divorced.
Neither quite ready to jump out of their sorrow they’re feeling for themselves yet, they do find out they have a lot in common. She was an assistant to author’s but gave it up to care for her ailing husband. She hasn’t realized how much she’s missed it until now when she starts working with Xander. In this enemies to lover’s trope, I enjoyed seeing how they encourage each other to come alive after grief. With a bit of drama added, because after all no relationship is smooth sailing with no misunderstandings. I devoured this book in one day and loved following along with Xander and Megan’s relationship.

Pub Date 02 Sep 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

The Author

Grab a Copy Here

Rachel Burton has been making up stories for as long as she can remember and always dreamed of being a writer until life somehow got in the way. After reading for a degree in Classics and another in English Literature she accidentally fell into a career in law, but eventually managed to write her first book on her lunch breaks. She loves words, Shakespeare, tea, The Beatles, dresses with pockets and very tall romantic heroes (not necessarily in that order) and lives with her husband and two cats in Yorkshire. A Bookshop Christmas was a finalist in the RNA Romantic Novel Awards 2022.

Find her on Instagram as @RachelBWriter

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