If you are looking for a Christmas cozy, this one is perfect. Each page oozes Christmas cheer, and the games sound like a ton of fun. I’d love to visit and play myself. Unfortunately, I did feel this got in the way of the mystery at times, and Holly spent quite a bit to time reacting to events rather than actually investigating at other points. Still, it held together well overall, and we got a great climax. The characters are already sharp, and their relationships help add to the Christmas cheer.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2017/10/book-review-twelve-slays-of-christmas.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
25 Days of Christmas: Holiday Advent Calendar 2016
Entertainment, Lifestyle and Stickers
App
Open a door every day to countdown to Christmas with 25 Days of Christmas - a modern take on...
Birds in a Cage: Germany, 1941. Four POW Birdwatchers. The Unlikely Beginning of British Wildlife Conservation
Book
"In the summer of 1940, lying in the sun, I saw a family of redstarts, unconcerned in the affairs of...
Woodpeckers of the World: The Complete Guide
Book
Woodpeckers remain one of the most popular families of birds, and they are certainly one of the more...
Beauty is a Wound
Eka Kurniawan and Annie Tucker
Book
A colour-drenched epic set in Indonesia, filled with vivid sex and violence, from the Man Booker...
Tender: A Cook's Guide to the Fruit Garden: v. 2
Book
With over 300 recipe ideas and many wonderful stories from the fruit garden, Tender: Volume II -- A...
In the Same Boat
4.0
Rate It
Book
It's the eve of the Texas River Odyssey, and Sadie Scofield is finally ready for the 265-mile canoe...
Ultimate Jungle Simulator
Games and Education
App
Dash into your newest adventure as a powerful Gorilla, crafty Lemur, or a deadly Tiger! Choose from...
Lil World - illustrated world on your photo
Photo & Video, Utilities and Stickers
App
Art-Photo-Editor Lil World has a huge library of unique author illustrations from Different authors....
ClareR (6037 KP) rated The Island of Missing Trees in Books
Sep 28, 2021
There’s a feel of Romeo and Juliet about this: a Greek-Cypriot boy (Kostas), and a Turkish-Cypriot girl (Defne) fall in love - something forbidden in the climate they’re living in. They meet in secret in a tavern that has a fig tree growing through the centre of it. This is a significant tree - it’s one of the main narrators of this story. And what a story it has to tell. It talks about the natural world in which it lives, the humans that it comes into contact with, the conflict it lives through, the sorrow, the loss.
This book describes the fracturing of a country, people forced to leave the country they love. Kostas is one of these people. He moves to London to live with his uncle, but he never seems to feel as though he fits in in there. He does follow his passion though, and becomes an expert in Natural History: the trees and plants around him, around the world, and in his native Cyprus. Which is what brings him and Defne back together, and reunites them with the fig tree.
The three of them return to London together, all cast adrift from their homeland.
Later, Kostas and Defne’s daughter carries this feeling of not quite belonging as well, but her father doesn’t seem to be able to give her what she needs. She knows nothing of her roots: she has no contact with her Cypriot family - until the day her aunt arrives.
The way that Shafak writes about loss and the pain of loss is visceral, but there’s a great deal of hope and the promise of healing. This book just has it all. I was completely enveloped in this story, and I’ve been left with a pressing need to read everything else that Elif Shafak has written!
Many thanks to Jellybooks and Penguin for providing me with a copy of this book to read.