Friday 23 December 2011

Last Christmas by Julia Williams

I really enjoyed this book because it felt warm, festive and delivered a nice Christmassy message. There were ups and downs for all of the characters throughout the book - as in real life - and because these characters were so loveable, I found myself hoping things would work out for the best. The village that the book is set in (Hope Christmas) sounds idyllic, and the various characters found within it were well written and charming. Ralph Nicholas was a particular favourite because of the mysteriousness behind him. The only negative I have to say about this book is some of the names chosen for the characters, such as Cat Tinsall, Noel Tinsall and Gabrial North. It seems a bit of a cheesy way to make the story more Christmassy, but I don't think it needed this touch. However, other than that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I give it 9/10.

Thursday 8 December 2011

The Magic of Christmas by Trisha Ashley

I really wanted to love this book, because I have loved all of the other Trisha Ashley books I have read before. But there was something about this one that didn't quite click. I couldn't connect with the written style - the first person didn't work for me as it was very bitter and sarcastic in tone and, although I know Trisha hates this piece of criticism, she did use too many exclamation marks. This made it hard for me to connect with the main character, Lizzy. Other more appealing characters to me, such as Annie, did not feature enough and characters I did not like, mostly Nick, featured a lot. Nick was supposed to be the main love interest in the story but I found him totally unappealing. I know I sound like I'm really criticising this book, but I did enjoy some parts of it. It just wasn't for me on the whole, when the synopsis suggested it would be perfect, which was a little disappointing. I give this book 5/10.

Audiobook: The Wedding Planner by Melanie La'Brooy

This audiobook took me a while to get into for a couple of reasons. Firstly, being set in Australia meant that the narrator put on an Australian accent for the characters, which was a little irritating, particularly the voice for Mimi. And secondly, it was partly about celebrity, which is something that I am not that interested in. However, as the story progressed and I began to get to know the characters, I started to enjoy the story. There were some interesting revelations about various characters, and whilst the main character, Mimi, annoyed me quite a lot, I could see why her character was this way. I give this audiobook 5/10.