The Santa Suit (Mini Book Review)

For her book club this December, my mom read Mary Kay Andrews’ newest Christmas romance Bright Lights, Big Christmas. At the meeting, the person who had picked it said that she enjoyed it, but that Andrews’ previous Christmassy book The Santa Suit was far preferable. In an attempt to be festive, we decided to listen to the audiobook. 

(For what it’s worth, my mom said that the two books are very much cut from the same cloth.)

What’s it about?

Needing a change after her divorce, Ivy buys and moves into an old farmhouse sight unseen. Even though it’s full of the previous owners’ old things, the place is going to need significantly more work than she’d first thought, but thankfully her real estate agent Ezra is more than willing to help with any physical labor she needs. Before long, Ivy learns that her new home is more than just an old building: it’s the Christmas center of town. The previous owners had dolled the house up with lights every year and dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus. Shortly after arriving, Ivy finds a resplendent Santa Suit and, within in, an old letter from a little girl with an impossible Christmas wish.

How’s the audio?

The audiobook is five hours long and read by Kathleen McInerney. I grew up watching Barbie movies and playing Nancy Drew computer games, and McInerney’s voice reminded me of those enough that I googled her to see if she’d ever done voice work for either. She hasn’t, but apparently she’s the English voice for Pokémon‘s Ash Ketchum, so I did actually grow up wither her voice. She gives exactly the performance warranted by The Santa Suit. A little over the top, a little cheesy. It works for what’s required. 

What’d I think?

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

The Santa Suit is a Hallmark movie in book form. The plucky heroine moves to a new place where everyone is obsessed with Christmas. There’s a handsome guy just hanging around with nothing better to do than tend to her every need, a quirky girl who has lived in town her whole life but apparently has no other friends, and a spunky old man with a sad past who needs help getting reintroduced to society. If you can’t guess the resolution of every plot point near the beginning of the book, you’ve either not watched any Christmas movies before or you did what this book requires and you turned your brain off.

Better than the Movies (Mini Book Review)

Several months ago, there was a romance writers’ convention in my state, and a few of those writers ended up at my local Barnes and Noble for a signing. Even though I rarely like romance—more on that in a minute—I figured that one only gets to meet popular authors so often. I purchased a book from each to get signed and personalized. Because a lot of my coworkers are more enthusiastic about and better versed in romance than I am, I turned to their expertise about which book I should purchase from Lynn Painter. A coworker who has very good taste and a long history of recommending good books to me suggested Mr. Wrong Number, but as luck would have it that was the one title that didn’t make it to the store in time for the event. Instead I took the glowing recommendation from a different coworker (whose taste doesn’t line up with mine quite as well) and ended up going home with Better than the Movies.

What’s it about?

Thanks to her late beloved mother, Liz grew up on rom-coms and has been living her life as though she is in the early parts of one: dressing in expectation of an amazing meet-cute and keeping her eyes peeled for her one true love to come in and sweep her off her feet. She’s convinced that she’s found him when Michael—a boy from her childhood she had a crush on—moves back to town. She’s certain he’s the One, but in order to convince Michael that she’s no longer the weird girl he knew when they were kids she needs the help of Wes, the bad boy on the block.

What’d I think?

⭐⭐

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

This is where I would normally put my ‘I don’t like romances’ disclaimer. In fact, the first few times I talked about Better than the Movies, I added that caveat. The more I thought about it, though, the less I think that applies to this one. It’s not because it’s not a romance. It absolutely is a romance. It’s because all the while serving up stale plot points and infuriating characters, Better than the Movies kept namedropping romantic comedies. I hate romances, I’d tell myself. That’s why I hate Liz and Wes. I hate romances. But… I did like Bridget Jones’ Diary. Actually, I love Love, Actually. 10 Things I Hate About You? One of my favorites, in childhood and now. (500) Days of Summer… excellent movie. Scott Pilgrim? A blast. They’re not my favorites, but I actually liked Pretty Woman and When Harry Met Sally as well. 

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (Book Review)

I first read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin years ago, when I was still in high school. I enjoyed it but it didn’t necessarily stick with me. Fast forward to last year. I read Zevin’s most recent novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and got obsessed. More recently, I watched the movie adaptation of A.J. Fikry and found it delightful. On the heels of that, I decided it was high time to reread the novel.

What’s it about?

A.J. Fikry, a middle-aged widower who owns a small bookshop on a hard-to-reach island, has been a miserable wreck since his wife died. He’s largely resolved to drink and mope the rest of his life away when three events conspire to transform him: first, he meets a new publisher’s rep; second, his massively valuable first edition copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane is stolen; and third, a baby is abandoned in his shop with a note from her mother begging A.J. to take her in.

What’d I think?

This is a very sweet, very gentle book. It’s about relationships changing with time and about growing up and experiencing/understanding the world through the stories we consume. The building blocks of it, arguably, are quite similar to those of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow but there are significant differences as well. The stories in A.J. Fikry are books and short stories; in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow they’re games. A.J.’s story begins when he’s in his forties with a significant chunk of his life already lived; Sam and Sadie are fresh-faced newcomers who we meet as children. The most significant bonds A.J. forms are with his adopted daughter and the woman who becomes his second wife, while the overarching relationship in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a platonic friendship that is no less passionate or intense than a romantic or familial relationship. 

November 2023 Wrap-Up

Well, I did it! It was a bit of struggle at the end of the month, as it always is, but I successfully wrote more than 50k words for National Novel Writing Month. Specifically, I wrote 57,597 words and actually hit my daily word goal every day. That’s the one that’s the hardest for me; I’m naturally very wordy—easy half of my editing is ruthlessly slashing out redundancies and unnecessary birdwalks—but I do struggle to maintain constant motivation every day, so I’m proud of myself for that if not of the quality of what I produced. It’s not a full draft or anywhere close to it, but it’s a good start and I’m relatively pleased with my progress.

I largely let this blog go while I was novelling—I’m looking with great trepidation at my non-novel writing to-do list—but I actually ended up reading more than anticipated thanks to audiobooks. I still did quite a bit of rereading (I bought the All of Us Villains duology in January, and then saved it until now for my much-anticipated reread) but I read a couple of fresh books as well.

Here’s what I read…

Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter

⭐⭐

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

I have lots of friends and coworkers who read lots of romance, and resultantly I get a lot of romance recommendations. Sometimes this blinds me to the fact that I only very rarely enjoy romance as a genre. Better than the Movies came to me heavily endorsed from a coworker—who, in retrospect, I realized has very different taste than I do—and I was able to get a signed copy through work. I love signed copies, so I was excited to give it a shot. I’m more excited about the autograph than the book itself. It’s a joyride for people who like traditional romance tropes played very straight. I don’t, so I was frustrated throughout most of it and felt that the references to the famous titular movies only hurt the novel in comparison.

Full review here

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The Prospectors by Ariel Djanikian 

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

I read this for book club, and I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be in my wheelhouse; I find that historical fiction novels with intergenerational POVs including one present day and one from the past rarely hold my attention. I’ve found that these books often only care about the historical figures, using the modern ones as a contrast either to show that modern generations are weak compared to the struggles of their ancestors or, less commonly, to reflect on the shifting morality from generation to generation. There are a few exceptions as to every rule, but unfortunately The Prospectors wasn’t one of them, though at least it isn’t the ‘kids today don’t want to work’ type. I liked this novel better in concept than in execution. It’s about the gold rush and specifically it looks at that historical event with attention on the cruelty towards the indigenous people of the region. One of the reasons I typically dislike historical fiction is because there’s a certain homogeneity to it (or, at least, to what I’ve read): there are lots of stories of white nurses in WWII, in other words. I was intrigued to see if The Prospectors could balance a narrative about a white woman struggling to make the best of her limited opportunities with the reality that “her best” meant participating, both passively and actively, in stealing land and other atrocities against the indigenous population. Unfortunately, I found the execution let it down. My biggest complaint is that Alice, the primary POV character, is despicable. I think, based on the way the novel is written, that we are supposed to have sympathy for her and to respect her tenacity even at her worst moments, but I hated her, finding her by far the worst of the prospectors. There’s something to be said for featuring a historical antihero and making her cruelty and racism apparent even through her own flawed perspective, but the narrative balance of the book elevates Alice’s voice far above those of the others, including her descendants who are trying to set things right and the indigenous characters who lack POV entirely. On a purely personal note… I just didn’t like being in this woman’s mind for so long. There’s only so much you can enjoy a book if you neither like nor are interested in the main character, and unfortunately that’s where I was at with this one.

Full review here

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All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and C.L. Herman