A welcome Winter’s Respite of reading indeed

 February was quite the busy month in more ways than one and this year’s Winter’s Respite readathon (hosted by Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading) came around at the perfect time.

My first completed book for this challenge was How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days by K.M. Jackson. Our leading lady is Bethany Lu, a forty-something artist caught at a professional and personal crossroads in life and love.

Upon finding out that her longtime movie star crush Keanu Reeves is getting married, Bethany decides to set out on a quest to track him down and stop his intended wedding. With the help of her best buddy Truman “Tru” Erickson, she does manage to get close to her goal but is this the journey that she really needs to be on? Perhaps her real road to happiness is not as far away as she thinks.

While the story is a slow starter, the plot does take off as Bethany and Tru head off on their Keanu adventure (with several fun celebrity cameos along the way). Jackson gives the character development a strong emotional balance with the shared trauma between her main leads that adds a solid note of realism to the romcom proceedings.

If this novel was a dish, it would on the sweet and savory side of the menu and that’s a delicious bookish bonus if you ask me. Plus, Keanu Reeves is quite the dish himself well worth looking for:

I was planning to reread a Sophie Kinsella book yet I found myself instead entranced by Claudia Gray’s Jane Austen themed mystery, The Murder of Mr. Wickham.

 Emma and her husband Knightley decide to hold their first house party at Donwell Abbey, with such guests as new acquaintances Col. Brandon and his new bride Marianne, tenants Anne and Fredrick Wentworth and good friends the Darcys.

During that first night, an unwelcome addition arrives in the form of Mr. Wickham, who has masterminded a financial scheme that threatens many of the folks in one way or another present. With a storm raging on outside, courtesy demands that Wickham be allowed to stay but his time there is lethally brief.

When the body of Wickham is discovered, two of the younger guests form an alliance to find the killer before an innocent person is falsely accused.

 Jonathan Darcy, who is even more withdrawn than his father is famously known to be, and Juliet Tilney, whose creative instincts rival those of her novelist mother, are eager to solve the case but will they regret the number of secrets and lies they must expose in the process?

This story is well set in what I would call the Jane Austen Literary Universe and it’s delightful to see these beloved characters engage in an Agatha Christie style caper together. Granted, since this party is assembled on Emma’s territory, we do get quite a few surprise visitors from Highbury here(and yes, Miss Bates does make an appearance!).

While this may appeal most to Jane Austen fans, I do think that even those only familiar with the film adaptations would enjoy it greatly. Also, Wickham does make for a great villain that you love to hate:

To round this readathon up, my final pick was A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli.

Niki Randhawa always tried to be the proper daughter to her parents unlike her freewheeling sister Jasmine. Despite those safe life choices, she finds herself suddenly downsized from her steady data analyst job and lonely in the romance department for several years now.

To shake things up, she takes up the invite to her gal pal Diya’s wedding in India and while there meets Sam, a musician with big dreams and a heart that could be hers for the asking.

While Niki is determined that her time with “Sam from the Band” is only going to be a fling and nothing more, she’s only fooling herself as love is definitely in the air for them both. However, is she falling too soon and  moving too fast here?

Lalli offers more than a fun holiday love story here as her leading lady examines what she wants in life and love, not to mention family. The story is nicely crafted and easily engaging, making this book a possible annual reread as many a good movie always is:

Much thanks to Michelle Miller for another great readathon and I’m already got my TBR set up for the next one, Spring Into Horror, later on down the line.

That stack of scary reads includes vampires, slasher movie monsters and some wickedly fun witchcraft that should prove to be spellbindingly sweet for spring time indeed: