With the CR readathon being much longer this year, that gives me the gift of time to get in many more books than usual here. I first treated myself to a reread of Christmas Shopaholic, the most recent installment in Sophie Kinsella's entertaining series featuring Becky Bloomwood.
Becky is used to having her parents hold the major holiday celebrations but this year, her folks have announced that they're moving to the trendy neighborhood of Shoreditch, tapping their daughter for the dubious honor of hosting Christmas.
Since she does love to shop and arrange things, Becky is willing to give it a try. However, she is quickly overwhelmed by the need to make everyone around happy for the holidays. To make things even more complicated, Becky is determined to get her husband Luke the perfect present and is willing to join an all-male billiards club in order to do so.
Also on her plate is a growing feud between her mother and her mother's best friend, the reappearance of a former boyfriend turned musician with his overly ambitious girlfriend in tow and worrying about Jess, her environmentally inclined half sister who may or not be having martial troubles. Oh, and dealing with the fall out of a made up Swedish holiday along with hunting down a popular tree ornament and trying to store a bigger than expected order of smoked salmon on her front lawn.
I've read all the books in this series and Becky is pretty much an old friend, fun to drop in as she does her best to make things work for all concerned. I do love British humor and these books have a sweet blend of Absolutely Fabulous(a much nicer version) and Mr. Bean style antics that make Becky and company a delight to visit more than once:
For a fresh read, I chose one of Livia J. Washburn's Freshly Baked Mysteries, The Christmas Cookie Killer and this cozy culinary mystery did sate some of my seasonal appetite indeed.
Our leading lady is Phyllis, a retired schoolteacher and widow, who shares her home with a set of roommates including a widower named Sam. During the annual Christmas Cookie Exchange, Phyllis looks on her next door neighbor Agnes with a plate of her special lime sugar snowflake cookies, which are greatly appreciated so much so that Agnes asks to borrow her cookie cutters.
By the time that she returns, Agnes is dead on the floor, the victim of an attack that also has Phyllis receive a bump on her head for her troubles by the fleeing killer. While the police wind up arresting Randall, Agnes' grandson who has been hiding out in her attic due to legal issues, Phyllis is not completely convinced that he actually did commit the crime.
With the backup of Sam,plus a little information from her police officer son Mike, Phyllis sets out to see if someone closer to home have a reason to do Agnes in. While she does uncover some surprising secrets and lies among her nearest neighbors, that still doesn't help her narrow down her list of possible suspects. Can she find the true killer before the notion of Randall's guilt is fully baked in the eyes of the law?
This is my first time with this series and I do like the Golden Girls vibe of Phyllis and her live-in friends(even though the setting of the story is in the small town of Weatherford,Texas rather than Miami). More importantly, it's the feeling of warmth and family that binds many of the characters together within the plot,especially while sharing cooking time in the kitchen that has me wanting to taste more of this homemade story sweetness:
Also, I have a last minute addition,thanks to an ebook library loan, of The Diva Cooks a Goose by Krista Davis. I had so much fun with the first book in Davis' Domestic Diva series(set during Thanksgiving) that I skipped ahead to Christmas here.
Sophie Winston is the title diva and in this holiday caper, she has plenty of mysteries on her serving platter to handle. Who robbed an entire neighborhood of presents on Christmas Eve? Who left a basket containing two adorable kittens on Sophie's back step? Most important of all, who set a deadly trap in a music box for another potential domestic diva to unwittingly open?
That last victim was Bonnie, a local home organizer who was trying to break up a possible engagement between her son Beau and Shawna, one of Sophie's in laws, while also breaking up the marriage of Shawna's parents to boot! While the case becomes more tangled than a box of tree lights, Sophie balances her holiday fears and holiday cheers well enough to save the season.
I really appreciate how easy it is to get into the story lines and character history, not to much the not so friendly rivalry between Sophie and Nastasha, a Martha Stewart type of celebrity diva who is also dating Sophie's ex-husband Mars. Gives me Rory Gilmore/Paris Geller flashbacks of the fun kind.
I do plan to dive into this diva-licious series in the new year and hope that more books are coming our way, regardless of what time of year it is:
The Christmas Spirit readathon runs until January 6th, giving me room to add yet another ebook library loan(Mistletoe Murder by Leslie Meier) as well as pick up a physical copy of A Catered Christmas Cookie Exchange by Isis Crawford. I hope to finish the latter by next week, in for A Catered New Year's Eve there.
In the meanwhile, happy holidays to all and special thanks to Michelle Miller for keeping us going strong during this most trying year with good reading. I hope everyone taking part in the CS readathon is having a great time and that we all stay safe and stay home for the holidays.
Yes, it's not ideal but totally necessary to make sure that we can all be together for many more celebrations around this time in 2021 and be able to attend next year's end of year parties to toast the better days to come. Being as safe and healthy as we can until our ongoing health crisis is halted is the best gift to give to each other.
Normally, I put up a Christmas music video post during this week but instead, here's a postmodern twist on a modern day classic that should set the mood just right. I'll see you folks before the year is out and hope that you do get what you want for Christmas, one way or the other:
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