Happy New Year

 Wishing you and yours a New Year that brings you everything you want and need. Happy New Year!

Favorite Fictional Character --- Happy

Tonight, sometime around 10:00 p.m., I’ll put on Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (1976), and for fifty minutes I’ll watch Rudolph attempt to find and rescue Happy, the Baby New Year, in time to help the New Year take over from the old. If he fails, time will be stuck on December 31st forever.

Happy is a delightful little tyke. He’s full of life and loves being surrounded by others. Unfortunately, like Rudolph, he has a physical difference that causes people to laugh when they see it. Poor little Happy has ears that are just a bit too big for his head. When he pulls off his hat, his ears pop up, and people immediately start laughing.

Hurt and overwhelmed, Happy runs away to the Archipelago of Last Years, where each island represents a different year in time. He meets plenty of people who could be his friend, but they laugh at him too, so he keeps moving, just wanting to find someone who will accept him.

Of course, Happy eventually learns that they aren’t laughing at him, but laughing from the joy he brings. Like Rudolph, Hermey, and Nestor before him, Happy is a lovable Misfit who simply needed to find his people—and his purpose. It’s a gentle reminder that sometimes belonging doesn’t come from changing who you are, but from finding the place where you’re already enough.

The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Ashley Smith, and American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alon, but a last-minute invitation-only fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor, festooned with pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is not only mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma's aloof and handsome brother. 

But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she'd ever imagined? 

Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.

I had resigned myself to not completing my commitment to read five or six Christmas-themed books for the Yuletide Spirit reading challenge. I was okay with it. I read four solid Christmas romances and enjoyed them, even if I never got to the stack of mysteries I bought specifically for the season.

Then, while reorganizing one of the bookcases in my bedroom, I was struck by an epiphany sent by the Icelandic Christmas spirits.

Okay, not really—but I did find my copy of The Christmas Guest, a short novella by Peter Swanson, that I bought the year before, shelved, and promptly forgot about until I stumbled across it during my spontaneous bookcase cleaning on Sunday. This was exactly what I needed to complete the challenge. I may have even done the Snoopy dance, if only in my head. As soon as I finished my chores, I hopped onto my bed and promptly read all ninety-six pages.

I absolutely loved Eight Perfect Murders (another book I’ll now get to write a review of at some point), to the point that it was one of my favorite books of 2020. Normally, when I love a book that much, I tear through the author’s backlist and keep up with their new releases as they’re published. For whatever reason, I never really did that with Peter Swanson. I don’t know if it was because none of the synopses grabbed me, or if his books were competing with others I was more excited about at the time. Either way, I didn’t pick up another one of his books until I bought The Christmas Guest last Christmas season. After reading this, his other books may stay on the back burner a bit longer.

I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t fully connect with the story as it unfolded. It could be as simple as the length not allowing me to become fully invested in Ashley. Most of the story is told through her diary entries from her time in the house, and like most diaries (my own journals included) from the college years, those entries can be annoying, shrill, delusional, angsty, repetitive, and about a dozen other adjectives that would be just as accurate.

It could also be that the twists were a little obvious. After reading two of his stories, I can tell Swanson shares my enjoyment of unreliable narratives, though this novella puts its own spin on that trope. For me, the length worked against it here—there just wasn’t enough room to lay the groundwork in a way that allowed the twists to be more subtle and genuinely surprising. Regardless of the reason, while this was an okay read for me, it isn’t one I see myself returning to.

As I was typing this up on my tablet, I remembered that I’ve heard great things about Nine Lives, so maybe I’ll give that one a try in the coming year. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy it as much as I did Eight Perfect Murders.

Challenges: Yuletide Spirit 

Hold My Hand, It's Christmas by K.C. Wells

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Best. Pickup line. Ever.

Eli Winters wasn’t expecting romance to strike between aisles of lumber and LED reindeer. He’s just home for the Thanksgiving weekend, helping his sister with her bakery and trying not to drown in the town’s over-the-top Christmas cheer. Then, in Home Depot’s lighting section, a handsome stranger grabs his hand and says, “My ex just walked in—please, play along.”

Before Eli can protest, they’re strolling past garlands and wreaths like the world’s most domestic couple. It’s not until the stranger disappears that Eli realizes: there was no ex. Just the most ridiculous—and effective—pickup line ever.

Noah Carter didn’t plan to lie. He’s the town’s perpetually cheerful event coordinator, always smiling, always “fine.” But the truth is, the holidays have felt hollow for a long time. One impulsive moment in a hardware store changes everything.

When Eli’s sister ‘volunteers’ him to help Noah organize the Christmas Festival, sparks turn into something deeper. Amid tangled lights, late-night cocoa, and small-town gossip, Eli and Noah discover that sometimes the best love stories start with a little pretending.

Because when it’s Christmas—and your heart’s finally ready—you don’t just hold someone’s hand.

You hold on.

If Look Up, Handsome was a low-angst romance, Hold My Hand, It’s Christmas has about as much angst as a perfectly prepared picnic—one you didn’t have to plan—in the most idyllic location your imagination can come up with. You’re there with the man/woman of your dreams, and they are everything you ever hoped they’d be. There is absolutely no tension, miscommunication, or misunderstandings between Eli and Noah. They both experience a little self-doubt, but I don’t think there’s a single human being alive who doesn’t have a twinge or two of self-doubt when first meeting someone. I refuse to call that angst, especially since neither of them lets it keep the completely besotted looks off their faces when they glance at each other. This is the most angst-free romance book I’ve ever read, and because it’s a Christmas book, I’m absolutely here for it.

This was instalove on steroids, a trope that—when done wrong—can leave you with incredulous thoughts floating through your mind as you read the most ridiculous nonsense ever put on paper. But when done right, when written by an author who knows exactly what they’re doing, it feels like a perfect spring day, lying on the fluffiest blanket ever woven, stretched out beneath an old apple tree. The branches form a canopy that blocks just the right amount of sunshine as you stare up at puffy white clouds, picking out the ones that look like bunny rabbits and puppies. In other words, when instalove is written right, it leaves you with the happiest feeling in the world, and you buy into every single word and glance the two MCs exchange. Hold My Hand, It’s Christmas is a perfect example of this, a story that leaves you believing in love at first sight, soul mates, and the magic of Christmas.

Challenges: Yuletide Spirit 

Look Up, Handsome by Jack Strange

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Quinn wants to save his bookshop, the last thing he needs is to fall in love…

Hay-on-Wye’s only queer bookshop is always a hive of activity. So when it’s threatened with closure, its owner Quinn Oxford is determined to do whatever it takes to save his beloved shop.

That is until romantic novelist Noah Sage arrives in town. Gorgeous, brooding and clearly unhappy to be there, Noah is the distraction Quinn doesn’t need. Noah has a history with Hay and it’s one he’d rather not face. But when the snow leaves him stranded, he’s left with no choice.

Hay is a small town, meaning Quinn can’t help but bump into Noah wherever he goes. And as the two grow closer together, is it possible that Noah’s feelings towards Hay will thaw? Can Quinn have a real-life romance and save his beloved bookshop? Or will he need a Christmas miracle…

When I signed up for the Yuletide Spirit reading challenge, I bought a whole stack of Christmas mysteries and a ghost story anthology, and I haven’t read a single one of them. Instead, I’ve been reading Christmas romances and binging a truly impressive number of Hallmark-ish holiday movies. Apparently my brain had one plan, but my heart (or soul) needed something else entirely this holiday season.

There’s a blurb on the cover of Look Up, Handsome that calls the book a love letter to bookstores, and it’s the most accurate blurb I’ve ever read. Kings & Queens is the type of bookstore I’ve always wanted to own myself — except mine would be full of mysteries and ghost stories, with a huge queer section. It’s the kind of place where you could spend hours wandering the shelves before settling into a chair and getting lost in an author’s world. More importantly, it’s the kind of bookstore that builds community.

It’s the place a parent struggling to understand their child’s sexuality or changing gender identity can go to find answers — and people willing to listen. It’s where someone questioning their own sexuality might find guidance and insight into what they’re feeling, hopefully leading to self-acceptance. It’s a gathering place for anyone who needs to find their people, their tribe, somewhere they can feel welcomed and protected. It’s the kind of place every LGBTQ+ person needs in their life, even in this age of social media.

After writing that last paragraph, I'm not sure where to go next with this review. I can't find a smooth transition, especially after typing and retyping a few sentences that never felt worthy — or even necessary — to what I was trying to say. I’m not ashamed to admit I feel a little lost.

So let’s do this instead: I’ll simply say that I adored this book for exactly what it is.

It’s a low-angst romance between two people who, despite living in a world of words, don’t communicate particularly well at first. Quinn, who opened his bookstore in memory of his father, has been a little lost since his dad died. He loves the world he’s built for himself, but he’s also been living his life somewhat passively. Noah, on the other hand, despite his success as a gay romance author, has allowed the past to dictate the terms of his life. So consumed by what happened to his family when he was a child, he’s chosen extreme avoidance as a coping mechanism.

I’m not saying they aren’t fully realized characters — because they absolutely are — and I loved them both, even if I liked Quinn just a tiny bit more. I enjoyed them as individuals, but I absolutely adored them as a couple.

I have one more Christmas romance review left to write for the challenge, which still leaves me one book short of my five-book goal unless I manage to squeeze one more in. Either way, I still have a respectable stack of seasonal mysteries waiting for next year. Assuming, of course, I don’t get to them before then.

Challenges: Yuletide Spirit 

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

 Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, filled with all the love and laughter your hearts can handle!

Favorite Fictional Character --- Felix Bassenak

 

There are certain movies I have to watch every Christmas season, and near the top of that list is Christmas in Connecticut (1945). It stars one of the greatest actresses of all time, Barbara Stanwyck, a screen goddess with a filmography so solid I honestly can’t think of a single movie of hers I don’t love. Still, Christmas in Connecticut will always be special to me, and a big part of that is thanks to "Uncle" Felix Bassenak.

If you’ve never seen the movie, Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a lifestyle columnist who has built her entire career around writing about her family and their idyllic life on a farm in Connecticut. She even waxes poetic about the incredible, home-cooked meals they sit down to every day. There’s just one tiny problem: she lives alone in a New York apartment, has no family, and can’t cook. Enter Uncle Felix, who owns a restaurant and quietly supplies her with a menu for every article she writes. As you can imagine, this little arrangement eventually spirals into chaos, and there’s no way Elizabeth survives it without her honorary uncle.

Over the course of a few days, Felix pulls Elizabeth out of one disaster after another. He pretends to swallow a gold watch. He repeatedly—and ingeniously—gets a judge out of the house. He plays matchmaker when it matters most and clears the way for true love. And he does it all with a larger-than-life presence that’s almost impossible to describe if you’ve never had the pleasure of watching S. Z. Sakall on screen. He even manages to hold his own against Sydney Greenstreet, which is no small feat considering Greenstreet’s ability to dominate every scene he’s in.

I know this post probably doesn’t give Uncle Felix quite the credit he deserves, but that’s because he’s one of those characters you really have to see in action to fully appreciate. So I suppose I’m left with only one option: gently (or not so gently) begging you to watch Christmas in Connecticut for yourself—preferably during the holidays, with something cozy to drink.