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Merissa (11950 KP) rated A Gift-Wrapped Holiday in Books

Nov 25, 2022

A Gift-Wrapped Holiday

Amy Aislin | 2022 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

"A Christmassy hug-in-a-book!"

A GIFT-WRAPPED HOLIDAY is a brilliant book for the Christmas season. It will give you the warm fuzzies, even though serious topics are covered.

Luca and Mal are the perfect pair even if they don't act on it immediately. I loved that about the book though. They don't play games and mess around but they also don't rush into a relationship where a child is involved without thought.

There is little-to-no angst in here but it didn't need it. The characters move the story along brilliantly by themselves. The pacing is wonderful and it shows the connection between Luca and Mal, giving it time to deepen before there is any steam. I loved the world of Lighthouse Bay and now I want to read the other books. I don't feel that it impacted me negatively at all that I hadn't read them before this one.

One thing I have to add is I LOVED all the research that went into Luca's shop. It was a brilliant idea that worked perfectly. I just wish there was a store like that near me!

This is the second book by this author I have read (the other being On The Ice) and both books have been 5-star reads. Absolutely brilliant and highly recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2165 KP) rated Easter Basket Murder in Books

Jan 25, 2024 (Updated Jan 25, 2024)

Here’s to a Deadly Easter

Kensington has called on their go to trio for three new holiday themed mysteries, this time featuring Easter. Up first, Leslie Meier’s Lucy Stone gets involved with a promotion for the local businesses leads to the theft of a golden Easter egg. Then Lee Hollis’s Hayley Powell finds the Easter Bunny dead at a community Easter egg hunt. Finally, Barbara Ross’s Julia Snowden’s Easter on the family island off the coast of Maine is interrupted when she finds a man in coat tails dead in the garden. Then, a few minutes later, he’s gone.

All three stories have fun with the theme, and present it in some clever ways. As is often the case, I found the first story the weakest, but the mysteries in the other two stories are strong. Still, I was engaged no matter which story I was reading. All three have some great Easter elements that made me feel like it was spring. And I love the community aspects we get. I’m only a regular reader of Barbara Ross’s series, and I was interested in the updates we got on the characters there. If you are looking for some new dishes to serve this year, you’ll be interested in the recipes we get with the second and third story. Each story is roughly 100 pages, so you can read them in a sitting or two. Overall, this is a fun anthology you’ll be happy hopped on to your to be read pile.