first in the series – Book Dust Magic

Another Christmas novel I read in January: Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh #Ireland #Christmas #Romance

Yesterday I talked about a wonderful book called Snowed In, and today I decided to tell you about it’s prequel. As I happened to read this first installment in the series after it’s sequel, and my review reflects on that, I decided it would be the best to post my reviews in that order as well.
So here it is…

Holiday Romance is the first book in the Fitzpatrick Christmas series and it was published on September 29th 2022. The book was published by Bookouture and it has 354 pages.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS /

She’s meant to be catching flights, not catching feelings…

Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight.

Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up.

Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.

The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it can’t possibly go wrong.

What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own…

Review:

I recently read Snowed In, which is the sequel to this novel that I haven’t read prior, and right after I finished it, I knew I didn’t want to say goodbye to the characters I happen’ to like so much. Snowed In was my “book to close the season with”, but it felt like torture waiting until November to read Holiday Romance, so season was longer than planned, because Holiday Romance had to be read ASAP.

The writing style was amazing. Fun and pure escapism in a tiny little book. It’s not a remedy, but I would call it a cure for bad days.
I mean, if you had a bad day, I am sure this book would make it a little better.

What is different with this book when I compare it to Snowed In, this one was written only following one POV, Molly’s, and it was written in first person (my personal preference).

We follow Molly and Andrew, their story being told in two different time frames, one following present and the other following a decade of Molly and Andrew’s travelling to Ireland for Christmases.

It was such a good experience to witness how these two people that knew each other developed their relationship into friendship, and than into romance.

The only thing I had hard time to understand was how Molly, even though she traveled all the way to Ireland to her family, had no problem to ditch them to be with Andrew. Like, wasn’t she out of her mind to be with them??
But than again, when it comes to true love, I guess the need to be with your guy is even bigger than to see your mum or sister who you didn’t see for sooooooo long.

I also want to mention that my favorite person in this book was Andrew’s causin who’s name I already forgot, but his personality will stay with me for (I hope) long.
Chapters with him were the funniest.

In the end, I want to say that Holiday Romance was the perfect book to ’tis the season with, and is example how a good holiday romance should be written.

The best romance I read in years: Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez #SmallTown #Romance @readforeverpub

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez book cover US edition

Today I am happy to review a book that stole my attention from the very first page, made me head over hills with the small town called Wakan and will now forever have special place in my tiny heart.
I read it together with my girls (in our book club we read 1-2 books together and discuss everything together few chapters per day) and this is the book everyone liked. It is actually rare where all the members like the book we pick, there are usually DNFs and different opinions, so it is safe to say that this was one of the winners of the year so far.

Part of Your World was published on April 19th 2022 by Forever. It has 400 pages and it is the first book in the series.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS /

After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.

While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere” ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

Review:

I found my new favourite book in this novel. ❤
It was everything I wanted, more than I expected and the one I will come back to again and again.

Small town romances are my favourite type of books right now.
And let me tell you, Part of Your World has one of the most amazing small towns I have read about.
I warmed to Wakan and it’s people, and I would love to visit that place once again in Abby Jimenez future work.

I have noticed this book was so many people’s favourite, but I was still swept away with how good it was.
It is definitely the best book I have read this year and I am so glad we read it together in our book club, because it was a great choice before the break we took.

I loved both of the characters, Ali and Daniel, although it was hard for me to understand why Ali acted the way she was. At times it felt like she was ashamed of Daniel, and I felt so sorry for him in those moments.

Daniel is the best book boyfriend ever. He sounds almost perfect and therefore unbelievable. I was definitely head over hills for him. Even more than Ali.

This is oposite attracts story, but what is the most stressed out here is how people from other classes have hard time to be together, how other people from their lives play big part in them finding their way to each other (or taking other paths) but also how different lifestyles are hard to intertwine.
That was the biggest part of the story, and it made me think of things I wouldn’t otherwise.

Other trope is age gap (Ali being 9 years older than Daniel).

The book doesn’t have smut scenes.

My absolutely favorite thing about this novel is the writing style.
It was so well written with disney references here and there, and dash of magic that in my case would go unnoticed if there wasn’t an author’s note at the end of the book.
That note made me appreciate Part of Your World even more and respect Abby Jimenez as an author.

I will definitely read more of her work in the future.
Her newest novel Yours Truly unfortunately doesn’t take place in Wakan. Still, I will give it a try.
However, my fingers are crossed in hope we’d get a chance to visit small town of Wakan some day again in the future.

The one I expected more from: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (Book Review) #MyBrilliantFriend #BookReview #Blogtober

Today I am bringing you a book that is very popular and it feels like everyone around me and their mothers loved it. I read this together with my friend Amanda.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante was first published on October 19th 2011. It was originally written in Italian and has been translated to many languages over the years. I have read an English translation.

About the book:

FROM GOODREADS / A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

Review:

This was a buddy read with my dear friend Amanda.
After we finished our buddy read for a brilliant book Where The Crawdads Sing we decided to read another book from Literary Fiction genre.

As My Brilliant Friend is so many people’s favourite, and it is about friendship, we decided to go with it.

I will be first to admit I went into the story with high, huge expectations.
So many people around me loved it and recommended it, so it was obvious I expected to like it too. In fact, I expected to fall in love with the story and it’s characters, and to be completely engrossed with the series.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happened.
I found the story boring, didn’t get attached to any of the characters and therefore didn’t care about them at all.
The only character that kept some of my attention was Lenu, the main character.
The friendship between Lenu and Lila wasn’t the healthiest and I would call them frenemies instead of friends.

Lila was okay at first, but as they got older it bothered me that every single guy except her own brother was in love with her and wanted to marry her.
I never liked the stories about one perfect girl every guy can’t stop looking at, so I didn’t like this one either.

The writing style was also not my cup of tea. It was passive and colorless, never wowed me with beautiful sentences like it usually happens when I read literary fiction.

Most of the time I was bored and at 80% mark I wanted to dnf it, which the old me would certainly do.

I won’t continue with the series because it obviously isn’t for me. I simply don’t care what will happen with the characters.
I don’t think I’ll even ask my friends who read the whole series to tell me important bits in few sentences. That is how uninterested in the continuation I am.