Only 10 Days Until Christmas!
I don’t know about you, but I love Christmas! Both the reason behind the season and all of the traditions and fun things that come along with it. That’s why today I have three Christmas books for you, rather than our usual fantasy fare.
Candy Cane Crime | Amanda Flower
Genre: Amish Cozy Mystery Novella
I live in Ohio, so I am always excited when I read a book that takes place in Ohio—and even more excited when the author is from Ohio, too!
Amanda Flower predominately writes murder mysteries (quite a few are Amish, but not all of them), but sprinkled within a few of her series she has mystery novellas, which are lower-stakes mysteries (i.e., not murders) that I really enjoy.
Charlotte is put in charge of the Candy Cane Exchange, a town fundraiser. When she finds a note from her secret-admirer, she sets out to solve the mystery of who sent her the notes. While this novella barely contains a crime, I still found it had all the charm I look for in a cozy mystery—and in a Christmas read.
I highly recommend this book for a short but sweet romance, and an introduction to Amanda Flower’s mysteries.
Content: PG all around. Very clean.
Amish Christmas at North Star: For Stories of Love and Family | Cindy Woodsmall (and others)
Genre: Amish romance / drama / murder mystery (depending on which novella we’re talking about)
This is a compilation of four novellas that all take place in a quiet Amish town in Pennsylvania on the same Christmas. All four stories are incredibly sweet. Though they were a little sad at times (I definitely teared up during one of them), they were on the whole happy and wholesome.
Anyone looking for sweet stories of family and romance at Christmas time would love this book!
Content: PG all around. Very clean.
All’s Fair in Love and Christmas | Sarah Monzon
Genre: Christian romance
You know those Hallmark movies where two people are set in competition with each other for some reason and have to out-do the other in Christmasy activities to win? This is the book version of those movies.
Now, I’m not usually a rom-com type of person…except when Christmas is involved. I found this romance to be well done and cute, but I’ll admit there is one almost entire chapter near the end of the book (kind of a ‘final reveal’) that I am pretending did not happen. It just makes it weird and it’s better without it. I don’t want to say more for fear of spoiling it, but if you read the book, I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts. (I suspect you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.) But it doesn’t really influence the plot, so I can just pretend something else happened, and I’m fine with it. (I’m really selling this one, aren’t I? Hey, I enjoyed the book, but I’ve got to be honest.)
On the positive side, the spiritual aspects of this book were tactfully done. The female lead, Mackenzie, had social anxiety (and maybe generalized anxiety; it was undiagnosed and I don’t feel qualified to make a judgement here), and I thought the portrayal of her anxiety and character arc was well done.
Go forth and get all the Christmas feels!