At the Movies: Christmas With Holly

After being left at the altar, Maggie Conway decides she needs a plan B for her life and eventually decides to move to Friday Harbor - a town she visited often as a child - to open a toy shop and start over, finally doing what she always wanted to do. 

Following the death of his sister, Mark Nagle found himself responsible for his six-year old niece Holly, who hasn't spoken a word since her mother died.

 Unable to make a go of things in Seattle - where Holly and her mom Victoria lived - Mark moves them back to Friday Harbor and into his brother Scott's house (where their brother Alex is currently living as well). 

None of them really knows how to deal with a 6 year old girl, but they try their best, often stumbling in the process. Maggie and Mark keep running into each other around town both because Holly is very drawn to Maggie's store and because they are attracted to each other. 

Okay, sorry for the choppy summary, I know it's not my best work but that really is the basis of Christmas With Holly, which is based on Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas (A novella that launched her Friday Harbor series). 

While they are several differences between the book and the movie, I found that I liked Christmas with Holly quite a bit. It's a lot more family oriented that the book, and there isn't quite as much romance (and there wasn't THAT much romance in the original book to start with, actually), but it works. The central theme of the book was still there - starting over after life deals you a shitty hand - even if it doesn't go to as dark a place as the book does. 

I liked that the relationship between the Nagle brothers was still complicated, even if it wasn't so dark, they were pretty independent and kind of each did his own thing, up until Holly moved in and made them a family. What I don't get is why they changed their last name from Nolan (from the book) to Nagle (in the movie). 

Bottom line, I think haters are gonna hate and disair of the changes, personally, I didn't mind them, Christmas with Holly was what I expect of a Hallmark movie and it was good. I'll probably even watch it again sometime. So, I give it a C+ and it's not a bad thing, it was a pleasant, sweet movie, perfect to watch at home. 

Speed Date: Bourne by Lisa T. Bergen

Woops!! Sorry my speed date is a date late, but here it is. 

The Deal: Gabriella, the new Lady Forelli is learning that even when you win the big battle, the war is far from over. Soon her new husband Marcello is fighting for his life; her sister Lia is feeling the stress and pressure of always having to be on high alert and of living in a world where men feel its perfectly okay to say "It's a guy thing" and keep the women in the dark. 

Lord Greco betrayed his alliance to Firenze and now is struggling to find his place in Sienna where no one but Marcello really trusts him. And even the the big battle is over, they might be in more danger than ever. 

My Thoughts: Bourne is a short novella (I would guess about 110 pages), that takes place a day or two after the big battle at the end of Torrent and that, I think, it's the big problem with the novella.

It's well written, I liked seeing the characters again, and getting to read Lia's perspective, but the fact that the story takes place a day after the big battle, and that it shows there is only more trouble in the horizon, well, that kind of takes the impact away from the previous book.

In Torrent, things ended in a hopeful note that now is just gone. I would have preferred for the things to happen a few months down the line and shown what had been going on rather than this. Also, didn't feel there was enough things happening to warrant a novella.

It's not bad, and it's not a waste of time, but it could have been better, and it wasn't. 

What's a Book Speed Date, you ask? It's a quickie review--about 150 words or so--of any genre book (variety is the spice of life, after all).

If you want to join in or just read other speed date reviews, check out The Book Swarm

2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge Sign Up

How can you say no to that dog?

Hi guys!! so I spent the last year basically challenge free yet this year I decided to participate in the 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge hosted by 6 different bloggers, you can find more their name, more info and the sign up page RIGHT HERE.

But, basically, this challenge is about finally picking up those books that have been on your To Be Read pile forever! This past year I felt like I was focusing more on the review copies that I got and my TBR pile just kept growing, so now I want to read some of my own books, you know?

So there are different levels to this, but I'm going for Level 3 - A Sweet Kiss (21-30 books) and some of the books I plan to finally takle are: 

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

The Mocking-birds by Daisy Whitney

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Di Camillo

Fat Cat by Robin Brande

My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison

Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby

Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies) by Justina Chen Headley

Some Kind of Wonderful by Barbara Freethy

The Espressologist by Kristina Springer

And Many more!

Cover Reveal Second-Rate Chances by Holly Stephens

Hello Guys! I bring you another cover reveal organized by The Readiacs. I think it's just adorable and the summary for the book sounds very cool. :) Oh, and there is also an International Giveaway going on, the details are bellow!

Sam wakes up in the hospital expecting to find his girlfriend by his bedside. Instead, he finds a bleached-blond diva, claiming to be his fiancée, hovering over him. When he learns that he's just woken up from a coma and has lost the last three years of his life, any semblance of stability he thought he had falls down around him. All he wants – all he needs – is Lil.

After countless visits with her shrink and too many sleepless nights waiting for the one man she loves to walk back through the door, Lil wants nothing more than to separate herself from the life she used to have. But the moment Sam smiles at her, Lil knows it's going to take more than self-restraint to stay away.

Second-Rate Chances is about a young man fighting to regain his memory, and the one thing in his life that felt real. A modern-day Samson and Delilah, it's a look at what it means to love and be loved, and to fight though it seems hopeless.

Release Date: January 10, 2013

About Holly

People have often told me that I live in a fantasy world. Little did they know, I was building an empire of stories in my head to one day share.

I'm a mother first, a wife second, and a writer third. I'm so thankful to have been given this chance to get my stories out of my head and onto paper.

When I'm not writing, I sell plumbing (no I'm not kidding) and read romances that leave my heart a flutter. I know a ridiculous amount of pop culture information and can quote certain movies word for word. Music drives me to write and to also sing off key.

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Book Review: Will Work for Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris

At First Sight: Even though it isn't exactly her dream, budding artist Quigley has agreed to her best friend Anne's plan to get themselves some smoking-hot dresses for their Senior Formal, even if that means some crappy after school jobs (like working at a pizza factory or a dinner-theater thing).

That's how she gets dragged to Anne's mom design class to work as a model for Mrs. Parisi's class of budding designers. Quigley things it's all going to be a drag - and a bit humiliating to boot since she doesn't have the thin, waif body Anne does and no-one will chose her as a model - until she meets Zander.

He might not be able to draw, but his designs are beautiful, and he always picks Quigley as his model. He is nice and funny and charming, and sometimes it even seems like he's really interested in her.

But things aren't all smooth sailing for Quigley, between the signals Zander sends and she misreads  Anne escalating rebellious behavior and David, Quigley's nemesis who suddenly seems interested in way more than their not-so-friendly artistic competition. 

Second Glance: Will Work for From Dress had been on my TBR pile for a good long while, yet I always kept putting it off. I always figured it would be a fluffy, fun, little book to read, and I think that was it's intention but I don't think the execution was all the way there.

To start with, I thought the characters were nice but really underdeveloped, I never felt like I really got to know them in any sustancial way, it was all on the surface. And Anne was really annoying during 80% of the book (she always got Quigley stuck with the worst part of the jobs she lined for them, and gets them in really awkward situations).

There are times where your only information about certain characters comes in the form of third-party exposition that borderlines info dump. And the problems the girls face are more or less rather superficial. Anne acts out and does stupid stuff to lash out at her mom, Quigley assumes things and miss interprets stuff, oh and she doesn't know what her artistic style is yet and this is A Big Deal that only gets trotted out at convenient times.  And so on and so forth.

And, in the end, everything gets resolved in a very perfect, sweet and instantaneous fashion. All the troubles, big and small, get magically solved in the last twenty pages or so (maybe even less), and it's just weird.

Bottom Line: Sadly, Will Work for Prom Dress was something of a disappointment. It wasn't particularly bad, just inconsequential, almost like a place holder for every other story about girls trying to go to prom. It doesn't suck bad enough to be singled out, and it's not special enough to stand out. It's just, by it's very definition: Meh. 

1/2