beautiful cover – Book Dust Magic

My favourite festive read of 2019… so far: One Christmas Star by Mandy Baggot (Book Review) #Christmas #OneChristmasStar #BookLovers #festive

GIFTED / I am so happy to talk about one book I read in October, that happened to be my favourite read of that month: One Christmas Star.
I really enjoyed spending time between pages of this festive novel and I hope my words will make you consider to give it a try too.
One Christmas Star was published on September 12th by Aria, and it has 464 pages.
I have read an eARC I received via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review, and I want to thank Aria for approving my review request.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS / Emily Parker is set to have the worst Christmas ever!

Her flatmate’s moved out, she’s closed her heart to love and she’s been put in charge of the school original Christmas show – with zero musical ability.

Disgraced superstar, Ray Stone is in desperate need of a quick PR turnaround. Waking up from a drunken stupor to a class of ten-year-olds snapping pics and Emily looking at him was not what he had in mind.

Ray needs Emily’s help to delete the photos, and she needs his with the show. As they learn to work together they may just open their hearts to more than a second chance…

Review:

HoHoHo readathon is coming around and I was really looking forward to read all my festive reads I got for review this year.
However, even though my original plan was to open the readathon with One Christmas Star I just couldn’t wait any longer and I had to read it.
And the best thing about my decision is that this festive novel got me out of my reading slump that lasted almost a whole month.

Ohh, if only I knew this would be the case!
I would have read it even sooner, closer to it’s releasing date.
However, better late then ever, and in my humble opinion, it is not to late to convince you to pick One Christmas Star this year when you’re in the mood for something light hearted and festive…

I love Mandy Baggot’s work for years now. Her Christmas stories are how I discovered her. Her book One Christmas in Paris still brings smile to my face when I think about it, and her novel One New York Christmas is the reason why I decided not to miss Baggot’s books any more.
Now after finishing One Christmas Star, I can say there won’t be Christmas season without at least one Mandy Baggot book in my tbr!

I just enjoyed spending my time with all the characters Mandy Baggot created. I love how realistic they were, and I didn’t click with everyone right away. For example, at first I couldn’t stand Ray, but as the story progressed and we got to know him more, I really started to connect with him.

Our main character is Emily who is a teacher. Being a teacher, she spend lots of her time with children, and I phrase the author for giving the children their own personalities and voices, instead of using them just to fill the space, as some authors tend to do.

The book is written in third person. It has 464 pages and to be honest, I was little afraid it would drag and I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to, but I flew through this book like it had 300 pages.
I guess we can say the writing style plays big part in that, but also the lyrics the author filled the pages with.

In case you didn’t know, Mandy Baggot is also passionate about music, and her love for that art spilled onto pages, in some way.

I also want to stress out that the book talks about serious topic – alcoholism in a very tasteful way, and in my case it wasn’t triggering, but of course, I can only speak from my own experience, can’t talk for everyone.

After finishing One Christmas Star I can confirm that Mandy Baggot is now one of my favourite authors.
Since I don’t have many, when I proclaim someone as my fav, it is a big deal to me!

I want to finish this review with compliments to cover designer. This is one of the prettiest festive covers I’ve seen this year.

I would recommend One Christmas Star to lovers of festive chick lits and Hallmark movies, but also to everyone who’d like to read something heart warming this year to wake up the Christmas Spirit.

The one about family… and love: A Perfect Cornish Christmas by Phillipa Ashley #Christmas #WomensFiction #BookLovers #Cornwall

GIFTED / Today I want to talk about one beautiful Christmas novel that I have read some time ago. It was actually my first Christmas read of the year, but I had to wait with my review so I could post it around it’s release day.
A Perfect Cornish Christmas was published yesterday (October 31st 2019) by Avon, and it has 400 pages.
I I have read an eARC I received via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS / Christmas in Cornwall is just around the corner…

But after last Christmas revealed a shocking family secret, Scarlett’s hardly feeling merry and bright. All she wants this Christmas is to know who her real father is.
So Scarlett heads to the little Cornish town of Porthmellow, where she believes the truth of her birth is hidden. She just didn’t bargain on being drawn into the Christmas festival preparations – or meeting Jude Penberth, whose charm threatens to complicate life further.
Everything will come to a head at Porthmellow’s Christmas Festival … But can Scarlett have the perfect Christmas this year, or are there more surprises on the way?

Review:

Phillipa Ashley was on my to-be-read list of authors for some time, so I am so glad that A Perfect Cornish Christmas was the first novel by her that I have read, because I really enjoyed it.

If you know me, you know Christmas stories are my absolutely favourite, and I can proudly say that I am happy that I have opened the season with this one.

Going into A Perfect Cornish Christmas I had no idea if it was a standalone or part of the series. It definitely read as a standalone, but then again, I know that Ashley has another book called A Perfect Cornish Summer so I believe they are companion novels (someone should update it to Goodreads, so we’d know!).

This story follows two sisters; Scarlett and Ellie. Since the story centres mostly around Scarlett, I would say she is our main character, but because we do get to follow the story from Ellie’s perspective as well, I’d say she is our second main character.
The story is written in third person.

When it comes to genres, I’d say that A Perfect Cornish Christmas is women’s fiction, or even general fiction with romance in it.
In the first place the story talks about family, and complicated relationships between people. It covers some serious topics that are result of people choices, and how they effect other’s lives.
It also talks about belonging and how it impacts us as beings, how it defines who we really are.

Romance is also part of this book and we get to follow two romance developments, one for each sister.

The third important part of the story, in my opinion, is Christmas itself. The setting, food, snow… basically everything that happens around Christmas time, and in this novel, there is a Christmas festival that takes place and is also nice addition to the fable.

I liked most of the characters, and disliked some that were negative ones.
The only character I simply couldn’t understand was Scarlett and Ellie’s mother. I don’t understand how could she kept quiet about everything even after the truth came to light.
I also had hard time understanding their father and his choice to stay with her in the same house while she was acting that way.

The only downside of the novel is that there are lots of repetitions and I felt like I was reading a 500 pages long book, when in reality it has 400 pages.

Overall, I think A Perfect Cornish Christmas is the one to curl up with during winter, so I recommend it to women’s fiction lovers.

The fantasy I was swept away with: Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim (Book Review) @PRHGlobal #partner #Fantasy

GIFTED / Not many fantasies get me invested so much as Spin the Dawn has, and I proudly bring you my review for this book today.
Spin the Dawn was published on July 9th 2019 by Knopf Books for Young Readers and it has 392 pages.
I want to thank the team from Penguin Random House Global for sending me an e-galley of this novel (in an exchange for an honest review).

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS / Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

Review:

First of all, let’s take a moment to admire this gorgeous book cover, because (in my humble opinion) it is one of the most (if not the most) beautiful covers of 2019.
And the best part: it pictures perfect the story that’s in the pages.

Spin the Dawn was one of the best fantasy books I read in general (but keep in mind, I haven’t read many of them).
I love how it was pitched as Mulan meets Project Runaway, because that is a perfect description, and overall I think a lot of effort was put into this book as a product, and I feel like it deserves even more recognition then it got.

I love how the world building was presented to us readers very slowly, step by step, and I can say I understand most of if, which is not often the case when it comes to fantasy.
This world was inspired by Chinese mythology and folklore. I am not familiar with it to be perfectly honest (but I would like to learn about it) and I can’t say how accurate it actually was or was it authentic, but from the standpoint of view of a reader who read this book as an entertainment tool, I can say that I really enjoyed every aspect of Chinese mythology and folklore, and I even learned something I didn’t know before (even though I think that wasn’t the goal of the novel).

I liked Maia as a narrator. She was not only likeable but also really easy to connect with.
The story is written in first person.

In this book women have almost no rights and are treated as property (like it was the case in the past), and I feel like Maia represents one of first females who opposed that.
I hope in next books more women will follow her steps.
Even though this is a fantasy, and we live in time when women have so much more rights then those in this story, it was still easy to understand and even identify with these women to some point.

We can say that the book has two main parts: an introduction to the world and characters, and the second, the journey.

I liked the second part so much more then the first one, because I already was so invested into the story, but also because we get to see some love development in it.

My favorite part of this whole master piece was love connection between Maia and her love interest. I understand why it could be controversial to some because he is much older then her (even though he doesn’t look that way) but I ship them together to the moon and back.

The last thing I’ll mention will be action scenes that were pretty intense, but as it usually happens to me when it comes to fast paced action and fight scenes, my brain turned off at some parts and left me confused.
I don’t know why is that, but it feels like my brain can’t process it when so many things happen all at once.
Thank God there are always slow parts after them where you can see the aftermath once again.

Overall, I really enjoyed Spin the Dawn. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate it.

I would highly recommend this one to ya fantasy lovers.

Middle Grade with beautiful setting: A Swirl of Ocean by Melissa Sarno (Book Review) @PRHGlobal #partner #BookReview #MiddleGrade

GIFTED / Today I bring you my review for the middle grade novel I have read lately: A Swirl of Ocean. I liked the atmosphere in this book so much!
I want to thank the team from Penguin Random House Global for sending me an e-galley of this novel (in an exchange for an honest review).
The book was released on August 6th 2019 and it has 224 pages.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS / A girl discovers that the ocean is holding secrets she never could have imagined.

Twelve-year-old Summer loves the ocean. The smell, the immensity, the feeling she gets when she dives beneath the surface. She has lived in Barnes Bluff Bay since she was two years old, when Lindy found her on the beach. It’s been the two of them ever since. But now, ten years later, Summer feels uncertainty about her place with Lindy and starts to wonder about where she came from. One night, Summer goes for a swim and gets caught in a riptide, swallowing mouthfuls of seawater. And that night, she dreams of a girl. A girl her age living in the same town, but not in the same time. Summer’s not persuaded that this girl is real, but something about her feels familiar.

Summer dreams again and again about this girl, Tink, and becomes convinced that she is connected to her past. As she sees Tink struggle with her sister growing away from her and her friends starting to pair off, Summer must come to terms with her own evolving home life and discover how the bonds that make us family can help heal the wounds of the past.

Review:

When I first saw the cover for this middle grade novel, few months ago, I was swept away. I mean, just look at this gorgeousness! Who wouldn’t want to have something so beautiful in his hands?
When it comes to cover design, this book (or should I say author) really hit the jackpot!

The story itself was good, although if I’m being honest, not much happened in it.
I liked the atmosphere and setting the most, and the way the writer put an ocean as part of the story was so brilliantly done, that it felt like the ocean was the character itself.
It does play big part in this sort of coming of age story with magical realism elements.

I loved to read about Summer and Lindy‘s relationship and how their dynamic was shaken after Lindy’s boyfriend came around.

Also, Summer’s friendship with her best friend was so much fun to follow.

The story is written in first person following Summer’s POV, but there are also parts written in third person that talk about Summer’s dreams, featuring a girl named Tink who is somehow connected to Summer.

I have to admit that while I enjoyed following Summer, I simply didn’t care about Tink.
I knew Tink’s story was important but somehow I just couldn’t make myself care enough.

In the end, when it all connected and magical realism played it’s part, I realized that I wasn’t connected to the story enough to be thrilled, which is a shame.

Still, I think many readers will enjoy this book and I feel like it’s a perfect pick for late summer nights.