This month's What We Are Reading features a wonderful array of delights, including a lovely selection of traditional holiday stories, a Viking timeslip and thrilling real-life historical adventures. Remember that books make marvelous presents—and be sure to treat yourself . . . because Santa thinks we all deserve some comforts to end a very difficult year. So curl with a good book this holiday season and stay safe and well! Now on to the treats!
Pia: Last year I travelled to Sweden with my friend Sue Moorcroft because she wanted to do some background research for a Christmas story and I was very happy to show her around. We had great fun and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the resulting book – I wasn’t disappointed! Christmas Wishes is a wonderful festive tale, partly set in my native country and partly in a little English village. The heroine, Hannah, has been living and working in Sweden, where she has her own shop in Gamla Stan (the old town) in Stockholm. It’s not doing as well as she would like and things are not going great with her Swedish boyfriend either, but when she runs into her teenage crush, Swedish Nico Pettersson, her life begins to change. Nico has big problems of his own as a single father, with an ex-wife who is battling depression and drug dependency, and a tiny step-daughter who needs him as much as his biological daughter does. As his world unravels, he is forced to take some drastic measures in order to cope, and in addition he has a secret he doesn’t like to share with anyone either. I loved this story, and I was rooting for these two characters all the way. The snow, the Christmas cheer and the many festive customs and touches from both countries add loads of charm, as do the two little girls. Nico is the kind of hero you can’t help but fall in love with and I definitely did! The best Christmas story I’ve read in a long time!
To Catch a King by Charles Spencer is historical non-fiction at its best! Earl Spencer is a master at telling a story at the same time as imparting all the pertinent facts and that makes for a thrilling read. The tale of how the future King Charles II escaped his enemies after losing the battle of Worcester is so fantastic it could actually have made a great fictional story. On the run through ten of England’s counties for six weeks, Charles had to improvise and trust those who were firm royalists. His life was in constant danger and with a price of £1,000 on his head (an enormous sum at the time!), there were many people who wouldn’t have hesitated to turn him over to the authorities. Lord Wilmot, his constant companion, was a flamboyant man who ran many risks during those weeks, but seemed to be born under a lucky star. Charles himself was more circumspect and donned several different disguises, as well as suffering hardships such as walking for miles in shoes that chafed his feet raw. He proved to be resourceful, quick-thinking and incredibly courageous. This, as well as his innate charm to everyone he met, proved part of his salvation. Reading this tale, one can’t but cheer him on and rejoice as he finally set sail for France and safety. And there is huge satisfaction in hearing about the rewards he gave those who helped him, as well as his revenge on those who had sought to end his life. This is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys history and especially from the Stuart era.
Pat: For fans of satirical sf/f, Douglas Adams, and Neil Gaiman, Carpet Diem: Or How to Save The World by Accident by Justin Lee Anderson is a mad trip into an earthly world caught between heaven and hell. Simon Debovar hates people. He’s the ultimate introverted hermit. He doesn’t even have to put up with family because all of them, except his great-aunt and one cousin, were blown up at a family reunion. He inherited everything, including a rug that apparently heaven and hell have made a wager on. In Simon’s world, the devil is a female, represented by a female demon, and our heavenly father is a domineering, uptight male god, represented by a male angel. The carpet could very well be the end of the world, unless Simon and the mostly clueless and wildly irreverent crew he grudgingly collects can find a way to keep heaven and hell from winning it. I am on a violence avoidance kick and even though Simon and his crew are threatened with every conceivable kind of death and nearly killed over and over—no one ever dies, even the villain with his head off. Read it as a rollicking adventure. If there’s a moral to the story, I don’t want to know what it is.
My second report is on a novella meant for savoring, our own Anne Gracie's The Christmas Bride. I know you've heard about it from us before but I just wanted to pitch my praises. I love this novella. It has all the wonderful Gracie trademarks--a heroine in trouble, a hero who can help her but not himself, and lovely, lovely romance with the added fun of children, brides, and a duck. For extra reading pleasure, we also have a glimpse of the Chance sisters from a previous series and a great manor house Christmas holiday! It's just a perfect confection for a cozy evening by the fire (or for those down under, a day at the beach).
Andrea: I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of our own Christina Courtenay’s new Viking timeslip, The Runes of Destiny, which releases on December 10! (One of the many wonderful things about being a Wench is we often share our books with each other before the official release.) I just loved it—it’s a marvelous combination of a captivating love story and enthralling history. . . and had me staying up way too late as it that swept me along in a magical journey.
Linnea Berger, a specialist in ancient Norse languages, is taking refuge from the emotional trauma of a recent car accident by working at a summer archeological dig. Because she’s spooked by the idea of digging up bones, she’s sent to a deserted field with a metal detector, and discovers a magnificent silver brooch . . only prick her finger and pass out. When she awakes, she surrounded by a band of men in Viking dress—led by the hunky Hrafn, who promptly informs her that she is now his captive. Thinking they are Viking reenactors, she plays along for a bit . . . until it becomes shockingly clear that she’s somehow been transported to the ninth century.
Initial panics gives way to logic. The brooch must have brought her here, so perhaps it can take her back. The only problem is it belongs to Hrafn’s horrible half brother, and the only way to have a chance of getting her hands on it is to go along with their plan to take her with them on a long and perilous trading journey to the city we know as Constantinople—where Hrafn intends to sell her as a thrall.
The journey is absolutely riveting. Christina’s meticulous descriptions—the river journey through Russia, the trading towns, the details of everyday life and the dangers the party faces—really makes history. But even more compelling is how she develops a friendship between Linnea and Hrafn based on mutual respect for each other’s courage and moral principles, sentiments that soon develop into something way more complicated. And as they reach Constantinople, there are some very difficult decisions to face . . . Fix a cup of hot chocolate, snuggle into a comfy chair and escape into a thrilling and heartwarming adventure!
I also got the chance to read Anne's new Christmas novella, The Christmas Bride, and echo Pat's praises. It's absolutely delightful, with wonderfully engaging characters . . .and a little brother of the heroine who will steal your heart!
Nicola: This month I picked up The Rebel Heiress and the Knight by Melissa Oliver, which recently won the Romantic Novelists' Association Joan Hessayon Award for best debut novel. I'm partial to a bit of medieval romance and this story, set in the reign of King John, was a great combination of adventure and romance. Eleanor, the heroine, has been widowed after an abusive marriage and when the King decrees she should marry Hugh de Villiers she's pretty horrified. Hugh isn't thrilled either as he hadn't planned on getting married at all, least of all to Eleanor, whom he finds standoffish and arrogant.
The journey these two characters make through respect and admiration to love is at the emotional heart of the story, with Hugh recognising the scars from Eleanor's first marriage and wooing her gently. There's also a fun adventure story mixed in as Hugh tries to track down the outlaws who have been causing mayhem in the local area and who keep giving him the run around... All in all it was a very enjoyable and romantic read!
I also read Jane Austen's Best Friend by Zoe Wheddon, which is a biography of Martha Lloyd and examines the long and close friendship between Martha and Jane over many decades. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it to start with because it kept talking about BFFs and seemed to be trying too hard to use modern concepts and parlance to describe the friendship, but when the book got down to details it was fascinating. I particularly liked the way that it examined the relationship between the two friends through different aspects of their lives - everything from fashion, to socialising, to Jane's writing. It was an interesting approach and let us get to know Martha as well as to see Jane in a different way. The book is up for pre-order and out next year.
Mary Jo: Some months back, there were recommendations here to read Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare. (I think Anne Gracie first called the book to our attention--I'm one of several people who read and loved it.) It was a clever story of a man and woman sharing a flat but never seeing each other because he works nights and she works days. But they write each other notes…. It's called a romantic comedy, but with more than the usual number of layers.
O'Leary's much anticipated second book, The Switch, had big boots to fill, and she succeeds beautifully. Leena lives a fast paced, high stress in life in London while her much loved 79 year old grandmother, Eileen, lives in a village in Yorkshire, lonely and yearning for more out of life. When Leena is ordered to take two months off work to rest up, she goes to visit Eileen--and comes up with the idea of the two of them swapping their homes for two months. Eileen can live with Leena's hip young flatmates, and Leena can relax in her grandmother's charming cottage and garden.
Naturally things are not that simple. The book is funny and romantic, but the beating heart of the story is the earlier loss of Leena's sister to cancer, a tragedy that devastated Leena, her mother, and her grandmother, so the subtext is growth and reconciliation as well as new chances for love. A great read with a thoroughly satisfying resolution!
Anne: For some reason, this month I've been doing a lot of rereading. I have plenty of new books waiting in the TBR pile, but instead, I've gravitated to old books I know I will enjoy, even for the second (or third or fifth) time around.
While I was waiting for the US election results (and also waiting for my novella to come out) I started reading old favorite Christmas stories, some of whom were by the Wenches. MJP's lovely collection in Christmas Revels (5 excellent stories—4 historical and 1 contemporary—in one anthology), Pat Rice's Tin Angel, some of Mary Balogh's Christmas stories and others, not forgetting the Wenchly Christmas anthology (The Last Chance Christmas Ball) I usually reread Trisha Ashley's Twelve Days of Christmas but I haven't yet. I have however reread her Invitation to Christmas, which is a favorite too, and that sparked a reread of several other of her books.
I also read (new) Jenny Colgan's Christmas at the Island Hotel, and enjoyed it very much. It has rather a large case of characters and though I think you could read it as a stand-alone, it would probably be better if you'd read the others in the series. In other rereads, I enjoyed Nancy Warren's Toni Diamond series, where Toni, a larger than-life character is a makeup consultant who gets involved in murder mysteries. Lots of fun, and I'm sad there are only four books in the series. Another series I wish were longer is Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper series, and I reread that whole series, too. Next I think I'll reread either one of Sharon Shinn's series, or maybe one by Patricia Briggs
Now, let keep adding to the TBR pile! What have YOU all been reading lately? Please share!