Christmas on the Island - Fiction Review

About Christmas on the Island

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (October 16, 2018)

On the remote Scottish island of Mure, the Christmas season is stark, windy, and icy—yet incredibly festive and beautiful… It’s a time for getting cozy in front of whisky barrel wood fires, and enjoying a dram and a treacle pudding with the people you love—unless, of course, you’ve accidentally gotten pregnant by your ex-boss, and don’t know how to tell him. In the season for peace and good cheer, will Flora find the nerve to reveal the truth to her nearest and dearest? Will her erstwhile co-parent Joel think she’s the bearer of glad tidings—or is this Christmas going to be as bleak as the Highlands in midwinter? Meanwhile Saif, a doctor and refugee from war-torn Syria is trying to enjoy his first western Christmas with his sons on this remote island where he’s been granted asylum. His wife, however, is still missing, and her absence hangs over what should be a joyful celebration. Can the family possibly find comfort and joy without her? Travel to the beautiful northern edge of the world and join the welcoming community of Mure for a Highland Christmas you’ll never forget!

My Thoughts:  I've been a fan of Jenny Colgan for quite some time but this series especially has really captured me.  I love Flora and all her brothers and Lorna and Saif and even Joel though I want to shake him occasionally and pretty much all the residents of Mure (with the exception of Agot who drives me CRAZY and Jan who is just awful).  I love the whole feel of Mure and I feel connected to the characters.  I love that this book - and really all the Colgan books - leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling but at the same time aren't all unicorns and rainbows and wrap up in a tidy bow.  This is a book that is best read in order as you really need to know the characters and understand their backstories and their dynamics.  All 3 are wonderful and will be perfect for a little post-holiday madness reading.  Rating:  Loved it!

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous novels, including The Bookshop on the Corner, Little Beach Street Bakery, and Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery, all international bestsellers. Jenny is married with three children and lives in London and Scotland. Find out more about Jenny at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Classic Holiday Movies On My To Watch List

I've been in a Christmas movie kind of mood lately and while I do love a Hallmark movie I've been craving something a little different so I'm turning to my classics.  Now I've watched It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street my share of times and while I love them I love making new to me discoveries.  Here's a few I'm planning on watching or have watched this year.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947) - This is a fun Christmas-y movie about a group of  WWII vets, their families, and a few other assorted characters who take up residence in the home of the 2nd richest man in the world.  It's sweet and funny with a not too heavy handed morale.  It also features a very young Alan Hale which I enjoyed greatly.

Holiday Inn (1942) - This isn't one of my favorites but I will always watch anything with Fred Astaire.  This has some gorgeous Christmas song and dance numbers.  The story itself is sweet and fairly simple so it's perfect to watch while wrapping presents.  If you look away for a few minutes or get distracted you'll be able to easily catch up.

The Bishop's Wife (1947) - I adore Cary Grant but somehow I've yet to watch this one.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) - James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan star in this movie about pen pals who work together in real life.  Apparently the movie You've Got Mail was based off this movie.

What movies do you have on your To Watch list?

Top Ten Tuesday - My Winter TBR

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is the Winter TBR.  These kinds of TBR posts are my absolute favorite.  I very rarely get even half the books on my list read but I love making the lists anyway!  

1.  The Cliff House by RaeAnne Thayne - I love RaeAnne Thayne and this looks especially good.  It's a bit more women's fictions and revolves around 3 women - 2 sisters and an aunt - and I love a family/friendship story.

2.  Murder Once Removed by S.C. Perkins - I love cozy mysteries and this one involves genealogy which is another one of my favorite things.  I'm really looking forward to this one.

3.  Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz - I love romantic suspense and Krentz is one of my favorites.  I'm super excited to dive into this one.

4.  The Sisters Hemingway by Annie England Noblin - I love a good sister book and this one really looks good.

5.  Governess Gone Rogue by Laura Lee Guhrke - I had taken a break from historical romance but I've read a couple recently and really enjoyed them.  This is one of my favorite authors so I'm looking forward to it.

6.  The Lost Carousel of Provence by Juliet Blackwell - I got this one on NetGalley right after it was published and never actually got around to reading it.  This has a crumbling house and mysteries from the past and everything else I love all wrapped up in one book.  Needless to say my hopes for this one are high.

7.  Corned Beef and Casualties by Lynn Cahoon - I've enjoyed Cahoon's novellas and her Tourist Trap series is one of my favorites.  This one is St. Patrick's day themed which I'm especially excited about.

8.  Echoes of Evil by Heather Graham - I've enjoyed the 2 previous books in this trilogy so I'm looking forward to this one about the last of the 3 McFadden brothers.  I've heard it isn't as good as the other two but a bad Heather Graham is usually still pretty entertaining.

9.  A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn - This year has been the year of historical mysteries and the first in the Veronica Speedwell series was one of my favorites so I really want to make time to continue the series this winter.

10. The Girl from the Savoy by Hazel Gaynor -  I finally got around to reading a few books by Hazel Gaynor this year and I absolutely loved them.  This one looks gorgeous and I love the setting and time period.

What's on your winter TBR?

Covers to Get me in the Christmas-y Mood

I'm a big fan of pretty covers and I love all the Christmas-y covers around!  Here are a few of my favorites.

This is a series that I really meant to continue but somehow got distracted and never did.  This one was a lot of fun and involved yarn bombing which I had never heard of until this book.

Emily March has the best Christmas covers and this one is no exception.  I love the view of the town with the dog running through the snow.

I love the dog with the Santa hat and the decorated porch.

This is just gorgeous.  I don't think this story was my favorite but this cover is one of my favorites!

I love the snow against the brick red house and the snow covered berries.

I love the vintage look of this one with all that's going on.

Did I mention that Emily March has the best covers?  

I love the cat and the kittens in front of the tree.  Even better is that it reflects something that happens in the book itself.

I like that this one is a bit different with a more coastal look but still manages to be Christmas-y.

I love this cover even though the spilled glass looks a bit ominous and there's certain to be a murder or two lurking in the wings.  I love the fire and the Yule log on the table.

What kind of covers do you like on your Christmasy or winter reads?  

This Week in Reading - December 16

It's Sunday Post time!  This is hosted by the awesome Caffeinated Book Reviewer and gives us all a chance to recap our week.

What I Got:

The View from Alameda Island by Robyn Carr - I've really enjoyed Robyn Carr's books and I've loved her more women's fiction so I'm excited to read this one.  (Little Bird Publicity)

The Au Pair by Emma Rous - This looks gloriously creepy in a Kate Morton/Daphne du Maurier kind of way and I'm really looking forward to diving into this one in January to cut the sweetness after all my Christmas reads.  (Publisher)

Masked Ball at Broxley Hall by Rhys Bowen - Audible was having a sale and so this happened.  I loved the last two so I'm looking forward to listening to this novella.  (Purchased from Audible)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time by Frank Cottrell Boyce - I will listen to David Tennant read just about anything and I've especially loved the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang series though none are as good as the original.  (Purchased from Audible)

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton - I've loved everything by Kate Morton that I've read and I'm excited to try this on audio.  (Purchased from Audible)

A Man of Some Repute by Elizabeth Edmondson - This looks like a mystery full of British-y goodness.  (Purchased from Audible)

Currently:

Reading:  The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts and Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan

Listening:  I just finished The Witness by Nora Roberts which was a reread for me and I absolutely loved listening to it.  Haven't started my new book yet but will soon.

Watching:  I've been hitting the Hallmark Christmas movies hared especially since I discovered there is an app that has a checklist!  There's nothing I love more than a checklist!

Off the Blog:

Things have been pretty quiet here.  All the problems from the last few weeks seem to have been resolved.  I'm still not at 100% but I'm getting there which I really appreciate.  I still get tired easily and lose my breath more often than I'd like but it's getting better.

We're getting ready for Christmas and I have the bulk of my shopping done though there are a few bits and pieces left to get. Next week I've got some things to do at the school and then the Tornado will be out for the break about half way through.  I'm looking forward to having some down time without having to worry about the school schedule.

On the Blog:

What Happened:

Monday:  Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets - Historical Mystery Review

Tuesday:  Ten Signs You're in a Hallmark Christmas Movie

Wednesday: I'll Be You Blue Sky - Fiction Review

Thursday:  Not the Duke's Darling - Historical Romance Review

Friday:  Friday Linkups - Christmas on the Island

Saturday:  Little Women - Classics Review

What's Coming Up:

Monday:  Christmas-y Covers
Tuesday: Winter TBR
Wednesday:  Classic Christmas Movies
Thursday:  Christmas on the Island - Fiction Review
Friday:  Friday Linkups with Current Book
Saturday:  TBD

Have a great week and happy reading!

Little Women - Classics Review

Goodreads:  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Rating: Not for Me

Source: Purchased

Description:  Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

Genre: Middle Grade - Classic

Why I Picked This Book:  Eight Cousins and Jo's Boys were two of my favorite books as a kid but somehow I never read what I consider to be her most well known book.  

My Thoughts:  Before starting this book I couldn't remember if I had read this one before or not.  I knew I had read Little Men and Jo's Boys was one of my favorites but pretty much everything I remember from Little Women itself could just have easily have come from the movie as the book.  After reading this I'm pretty sure I read about a third of it before I gave up.  To be honest that's kind of what I wanted to do this time around as well.

The story itself is fine.  The 4 sisters are different which provides some interesting lessons and story lines.  I also enjoyed seeing two very distinct levels of income with the wealthy Laurences and Moffetts against the very poor Marches and the even poorer Hummels.  I don't feel like many children's books really have that complexity and I liked that the good and bad of both are shown. I also liked the length over which the story took place and that we really get to see the girls grow up over the course of the book.

But there were a number of things that didn't work for me.  The main thing being that there is a lot of moralizing.  Pages and pages of it.  I can see why 9 year old me finally gave up on this one.  I expect most children's fiction from this time period to teach a lesson and I have reread other Alcott books as an adult and was not surprised to find that but it's almost overpowering in this book.  I think that's the primary reason why the book feels so long is because at least a third of it is lectures about being good and humble and other very good virtues that are talked about at length.  This may work if it was a one chapter a night bedtime story read but trying to read it in extended sittings got a bit tiresome.  Also, Amy is just the worst.

Part of my problem may have been that I have no childhood attachment to this book so I don't feel like I'm revisiting old friends like I do when I open an L.M. Montgomery novel.  Part of my problem may have been the sheer length of the novel which in my Kindle version was about 500 pages.  But whatever the issue this is one classic that didn't work for me as a child or an adult.  I am glad I read it but it definitely won't be a book I'll revisit.

Friday Linkups - Christmas on the Island

It's Friday linkup time!  I'm linking up with the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Coffee Addicted Writer, Book Beginnings of Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, and the Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice

This Week's Book Blogger Hop Question:

Do you listen to music while you are writing your blog posts?  If so, what genre of music do you listen to?

My Answer:

Only if I really need to concentrate and then I listen to classical.  Amazon Prime Music has a Focus playlist that helps.  Normally I have a TV show going - either a Investigation Discovery show or NCIS or something like that though this time of year I tend to watch a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies.  If I'm not near the TV I will stream a YouTube playlist - I've been into makeup videos lately.

I'm so excited about this week's book.  I read the first book in this series last year and really enjoyed it and then I listened to the second book last week and absolutely loved it.  So now I'm the third book - Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan.  I love the tiny island of Mure and all the quirks that come with living at the top of the world.  I also adore the characters and am so excited to see what happens next.

The Beginning: 
In winter, the mornings are very dark on Mure, the tiny island high up off the coast of the north of Scotland, half-way to Iceland (or, it occasionally feels like, to the North Pole when the west winds blow in).

My Thoughts:
That sounds impossibly cold and dark but I love how out in the middle of nowhere Mure is.

The 56:
"Anyway, that doesn't matter.  What matters to us is that we have a contract to provide three hundred mince pies."

My Thoughts:
I don't quite know what mince pies are.  I watched a show where they were talking about 19th century food and it doesn't sound like they involve actual meat anymore though they did at one time.  Whatever they are, 300 is quite a lot.

So what do you think?  Keep reading?  And what exactly is mince pie?