Hi, everyone!
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I hope you all had a lovely holidays spent with loved ones. Apologies for not being very active myself during the holidays, as I was reading up a storm and caught up in all of the festivities and holiday chaos. I am really grateful that I got to take some time away to really appreciate every moment, especially because I got to read a lot during all this time. As you may know, I had quite a festive TBR under my belt, and I’m so excited to share with you what all I read!
Snow Sisters by Tom Wilinsky/Jen Sternick 
This was the first christmasy book to kick off my holiday TBR. Unfortunately… this was a bad, bad start. You’d think with the title Snow Sisters that this would be a happy, uplifting tale, right? Wrong. This book follows a group of girls who are rooming together at a lodge for a women’s writer’s conference. One of the girls, Orley, is trans, and pretty much the entire plot revolves around the extreme transphobia and hatred that is targeted at her for the whole length of the novel, by a number of girls but especially by one girl in particular who has made it her mission to single Orley out as not a real girl. Yeeeah.
There’s so much heavy-handed transphobia in this book. It’s unapologetic. It makes itself known. It’s in your face. And it’s incessant. I mean, this book was a struggle to get through. The worst part of it, though? Even after all of that, the main antagonist of this book still doesn’t truly redeem herself in the end. She still misgenders Orley, she still uses all the wrong language and, while she tells Orley that she’s trying to do research and educate herself, it’s nowhere near enough to redeem herself for her horrible treatment of Orley through the whole novel—so it ends up feeling more like a half-assed “Eh, I’m trying… but not really” redemption arc.
I went in thinking this was going to be a sweet, fluffy snowy tale, but boy was I misled. I cannot express this enough: I. Do not. Recommend this book. To anyone.
What Light by Jay Asher 
Thankfully, the next book I picked up got me back on the right path, as this book was exactly what I needed during the holiday season.
The best way I can describe this book is that it’s basically a YA version of a Hallmark movie, which is something we honestly all deserve. Sierra’s family runs a christmas tree farm, and every year they drive up to their second location in California and spend a month living on their tree lot, selling christmas trees and making their customers’ holiday season just a little brighter. Until this year, when a boy with a troubled past appears and Sierra finds herself falling for him.
This book had everything you could possibly ask for in a holiday novel. The girl and her family own a christmas tree farm? And one month out of the year they just live in a cute little trailer, selling christmas trees and drinking hot cocoa out of festive mugs? Where can I find this kind of life! And then add in a cute romance on top of it all. It’s all so, so magical and sweet and it’ll definitely make you feel all warm and fuzzy with holiday cheer. I’ve been wanting to read this book for so long and now I’m glad I did, because I thoroughly enjoyed this!
Love and Other Train Wrecks by Leah Konen
The next book I read fell into the same category of fluffy holiday romance, and it’s one I was especially excited to read. Hey, call me a sucker for stories about train rides and being stranded in a snowstorm.
I will say, this book was definitely a lot of fun, a great book to read during the holidays, and was filled with plenty of winter-related antics. Unfortunately, my problem with this book is that I liked the concept a lot more than its actual characters. A lot of the time, I found the characters—namely one of them—to be pretty annoying and immature, which at times got in the way of me enjoying this story. If the characters had been written a bit better, I think I would’ve enjoyed this book a lot more.
I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Multiple Authors) 
The next book I picked up is actually one that was not on my original TBR as you can see, because I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to get to this one. That’s because this is a short story anthology of UK-based writers who have all contributed stories with the theme of “home,” whatever that may entai
I… did not really enjoy this book at all. Surely from the title and the super-snowy cover, you would think this would be a book full of christmasy stories, right? Right??? Alas, this was largely not the case with this book, as none of these stories really put me in the christmasy spirit and none of them really even had a christmas vibe or setting to them at all, which?? I literally don’t even know where to begin describing this book because it was very weird to me…
Wishing on Snowflakes by Joanne Demaio—(DNF)
Well, this is awkward. This is a christmasy book that I’ve had on my Goodreads TBR for so long, and I was so excited to finally read it this season. Sadly, I did not get very far in this novel… at all. I can’t tell you about the plot or what happens or anything, really. The only thing I can comment on is the writing, which is largely why I DNF-ed this book. The writing instantly turned me off and I could only go so far before I knew I simply couldn’t read an entire book in this type of writing style.
I don’t even know how to describe the writing. It was just very, very boring. There was no life in it at all. The characters had virtually no presence and they all came across very flat. It was like if you were to make a batch of cookies but forgot to add any sugar or flavoring to them: stale, boring. Again, this was so hard for me because I was really looking forward to loving this book and being immersed in christmas magic and cozy New England towns. But it just goes to show that you can have a perfect setting and atmosphere, but it doesn’t do a damn if you don’t also have good writing…
The Snow Sister by Emma Carroll
The next book I read was another unplanned read, but as soon as I found out that Emma Carroll had written a christmas novella, I knew I had to read it. I was a big fan of Carroll’s novel Frost Hollow Hall, so I was interested to see how much I would enjoy this other work of hers.
I ended up slightly misled by this book. For some reason I went in thinking this was going to be some sort of tale where the main character Poppy’s sister—who had passed away—would come back to life from a snowman Poppy had built or she would come back as a ghost and visit Poppy in the manor that she stays in during a snowstorm. Alas, none of that happened. It’s mostly just Poppy’s little misadventures over the course of a day during the holiday season, and even these are pretty uneventful. It’s a very simple wintery tale for young readers. And while I did like it, I didn’t altogether fall head over heels for it.
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Yep, you read that right—I decided to read the original Mary Poppins book for the first time this holiday season! With the new remake coming out and how much I adored and grew up with the 1964 film adaptation, I was really intrigued to compare the original book to the movie.
Well, there are two children in need of a nanny. There’s a nanny named Mary Poppins. And, uh… that’s about where the similarities end. I wish I was kidding. Turns out, the prim and enchanting Mary Poppins we’ve all come to know and love thanks to Julie Andrews is nowhere near like the Mary Poppins in the original book, who is much more strict, short-tempered, and just downright not nice?? To the point where she doesn’t seem remotely affectionate at all toward Jane and Michael. It was definitely interesting to see how differently the book compares to the film and how children’s literature in general has progressed over time, since this book was published in the 1930s. Was this an enlightening read? Sure. Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Nah… Did it sort of crush my vision of Mary Poppins forever? A little bit!
Whispering to Witches by Anna Dale
Now for the second-to-last festive book I read this season. I’ve also had this book on my TBR for quite a while and it seemed to be a nice enough, magical wintery-themed tale.
What I noticed right off is that this book is very, very British in terms of the writing, which was really fun to enjoy. You definitely get a sense of a truly British children’s novel full of whimsey and offbeat characters, not to mention this also has a lot of cozy wintry vibes. The only thing about this book was that overall the writing was very, very simple and elementary, even for a children’s book. I have a feeling this book is for especially young readers and not the kind of children’s book that you can easily still read as an adult. So for me, the book was just a bit too elementary for me and the plot was “eh.”
The Unicorn in the Barn by Jacqueline J. Ogburn
And now, we’ve come to the final book on my holiday TBR that I managed to read. I’ve been wanting to read this just because the synopsis seemed interesting and I loved the cover. What I didn’t realize, though, once I finally picked this book up is that it’s actually a children’s book! I was anticipating maaaybe a young adult or upper middle grade novel. Nevertheless, I was thoroughly surprised, as this book completely stole my heart from beginning to end.
There’s so much magic and wonder in this book, which I absolutely loved—it reminded me of when you were a little kid and you still believed that there was magic that existed in the world, that anything was possible, even unicorns and elves and magic wands. It was so much fun being transported to that time of my life again, and this story was truly so sweet and touching. That, combined with the illustrations throughout, made this such an enjoyable read from beginning to end.
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And that about wraps it up (eh, get it? Holiday pun? Hehe) for my holiday TBR! I’m so glad I got to read a ton of books off of my TBR this season…and then some! As you can see above, I still have two more New Years-themed books I want to squeeze into my holiday reading—even if I know I won’t be able to read them in time for New Year’s because I’m not a maniac.
All in all, this holiday reading season was… okay. I definitely had some highs as well as quite a few books that just didn’t hit the mark with me. Still, I loved getting into the season through the books I read. I don’t know about you though, but I’m about ready to get back into reading normal books again…
How was your holiday season? Any good books you read or received as gifts? Any memorable moments you’d like to share? Let me know–I’d love to hear!
Again, I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and that the happiness and positivity stretch into the new year for you.
Until next time, bookworms!
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