A Christmas Duet by Debbie Macomber

 

Do you enjoy Christmas music?  Do you have any favorite songs?  I love Christmas music and especially older songs.  My daughter gets annoyed about not updating the Christmas music list, so I’ve been adding in newer albums as time goes on.

Hailey Morgan decides to accept her friends offer to stay at a family cabin over Christmas break to have time to focus on her music.  She also doesn’t want to return home as her mother has invited her ex-boyfriend for Christmas in an attempt to get them back together.  While in the small town of Podunk, Washington, she asks for help removing the wild animals in resident.  The mayor/general store owner sends her son Jethro (Jay). As Hailey and Jay get to know each other, will Haily be able to have her Christmas dreams of love and music come true?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I always enjoy reading Debbie Macomber’s Christmas novels and novellas every year at Christmas time. They really put me in the Christmas mood.

·       This novel was the December pick for the 2024 Brenda Novak Reading Challenge.

·       This was a nice, short cozy read for the holiday season.

·       I enjoyed that Hailey was able to take control of her life and do what she wanted to do.

·       I loved the romance between Hailey and Jay as they both seemed to really understand one another.

·       I also enjoyed the secondary characters such as Hailey’s sister Daisy and Jay’s Mom.  Hailey’s mom drove me crazy.

·       This was a clean read.

Overall, A Christmas Duet by Debbie Macomber was a sweet, cozy Christmas novella that will get you into the Christmas spirit.

Book Source:  E-book review copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A Happier Life by Kristy Woodson Harvey

 

Title: A Happier Life

Author:  Kristy Woodson Harvey

Narrated by:  Cassandra Campbell, Devon Sorvari, Fred Sanders

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 16 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you!

What could you do to have a happier life?  I loved a previous job, but the work hours prevented me from spending time with my family.  To have a happier life, I made a job change.

Keaton Smith loses her job due to personnel complications at work.  Work tip – don’t date your co-workers!  Her mother asks her to travel to Beaufort, North Carolina to clean out her grandmother’s house.  Her grandparents (Rebecca and Townsend) died in a car crash in 1976 and her mom and uncle shut up their house and never came back.  Did they really die in a car crash (their bodies were never found)? Will Keaton discover her place in life?

·       This was the July pick for the Brenda Novak Book Club.  I read it in August.  I enjoyed listening to Brenda Novak’s conversation with author Kristy Woodson Harvey about the book.

·       This novel was a good look into life and how decisions can impact your life and generations that follow you.

 

·       I had a hard time at first with the timeline and the ages of everyone.  The grandparents are my great-grandparents’ age and the main character is thirteen years younger than me.  It was explained later that they were older mothers.

·       It is mostly told from Keaton and Rebecca’s points of view, but some chapters are narrated by Townsend, especially from his journal.

·       The narrators were great, and this was a fun audiobook to listen to.

·       I love the story of a granddaughter discovering the story of her grandmother.

·       I enjoyed Rebecca “Becks” St. James’s chapters about being the perfect hostess, falling in love with Townsend, her troubled relationship with her mother, and becoming a mother.  I thought it was fun for their grandkids to find their journals and discover who they were.

·       The characters and community in Beaufort were excellent.

·       I loved when Keaton’s Mom told her that life is not like a Hallmark movie, and she shouldn’t leave the big city for a man.  I laughed out loud.

·       There was a great mystery in the story of what happened to the grandparents, although I did figure it out early on.

·       What makes a happier life?  Becks thinks she couldn’t have had a happier life and loves everything about her life.  Keaton is trying to figure out how to have a happier life.

·       I LOVED the 1970s-time capsule vintage house.

·       I want to host a Beck St. James perfect party.

·       It was interesting that the story was inspired by the mysterious disappearance of the author’s great aunt and uncle and her experience opening a house that had been closed for fifty years.

 

Overall, A Happier Life was a feel-good story with a great ending.  It was a perfect beach read.

The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz

 

Title:  The Night Island:  The Lost Night Files, Book 2

Author:  Jayne Ann Krentz

Narrated by:  Eva Kaminsky

Publisher: Recorded Books

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 23 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

What is your favorite island to visit?  While I dream of visiting a tropical island, I’d say my favorite island to visit is Mackinac Island in Michigan.  I love the Victorian charm, the history, and that there are no motorized vehicles on the island.  It’s like stepping back in time.

The Night Island is a paranormal romantic mystery.   Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn, and Amelia Rivers host a podcast that investigates cold cases.  They all have psychic abilities and believe that a shared experience from months ago that they cannot remember gave them these abilities.  When a fan, Phoebe, calls with a lead, Talia goes to meet her.  She does not find Phoebe, but does find Luke Rand, a man with psychic abilities also looking for answers.  The two of them follow clues to find Phoebe and end up on Night Island.  Night Island is the location of a remote retreat in the Pacific Northwest that advertises an unplugged experience.  It turns out that Phoebe is not the first guest to disappear on the island, and she will not be the last.  Will Talia and Luke be able to solve the mystery and leave the island alive?

Night Island is very creepy and has glowing, carnivorous plants.  I liked the suspense, and quick moving story.  I also liked the romantic tension between Talia and Luke.  This paranormal novel reminded me of the X-Men with Wolverine searching for his past and trying to determine what had happened to him. 

This is the second book in the Lost Night Files.  I did not realize that until I started reading the book.  The book did well as a standalone novel, but I would like to go back and read the first book in the series. 

I read this audiobook in January for the 2024 Brenda Novak Book Group Reading Challenge.  I enjoyed Eva Kaminsky’s narration of the audiobook.