Book Review - The Christmas Tree Farm

Homecomings can be hard. This is what Maddison learns when she returns to her grandparents’ Christmas tree farm after several years away. Her younger sister, Addie, is not exactly excited to see her. The acreage burned in the wildfire has not been replanted to prepare for future seasons. And the people who have settled over on the Thompson place kick up a lot of noise and dust with their dirt bikes. Coming home is particularly complicated when the noisy, dusty people next door are Maddison’s first love and his daughter. Factoring in Addie’s insistence that Maddison may not interfere with her efforts to catch Gavin’s heart and the way he keeps looking at her, nothing is going to come easily this Christmas. What at first looks like a love triangle turns into a heaping pile of love spaghetti when Addie and Maddison’s mom arrives, then Gavin’s oldest daughter arrives with opinions about her father’s love life, and his younger daughter has an opinion of her own. Saving the tree farm and making up her own mind about the one who got away are all Maddison wants to do. In true Melody Carlson style, this complicated dish turns into a delightful Christmas dinner just in time for our favorite holiday season. Don’t miss your chance to cozy up with The Christmas Tree Farm and its complicated, but mostly lovable characters.

The Christmas Tree Farm by Melody Carlson is available now from your favorite local bookseller and online:

Baker Book House        Christian Book        Amazon        Barnes & Noble        Walmart

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Just for the Summer

There are some authors I trust to deliver exactly what I expect when I pick up their books. For example, let’s say I am seeking a novel with a character who is at a crossroads in life, experiences an unexpected event that offers self exploration and understanding, meets a man who challenges and encourages her, and we have a happy ending. That’s when I pick up Melody Carlson. It is the kind of predicability I can rely on when the real world begs an escape, but don’t think that makes her predictable. The craftsmanship that delivers this comfort while creating completely different novels every time is worthy of great respect. On that note, I offer you my take on her latest, Just for the Summer.

Ginny Masters has worked her way up from the bottom to become manager of a posh boutique hotel in Seattle, but her life is not the glitz and glam it seems on the surface. Jaqueline Potter longs for glitz and glam, but instead manages her grandfather’s Idaho fishing lodge. Seeking a change of pace, both sign up to participate in a job swap. Just for the summer. But with the job swap comes a bit of a life swap. Jaqueline finds that the posh hotel daytime only scratches the surface of reality, and Ginny finds that the simple life just might be the life for her. At a crossroads, each has to make a serious decision about what happens in their lives at the end of the swap. With her trademark skill, Carlson delivers relatable characters and a satisfying storyline that will keep you reading.

Just for the Summer by Melody Carlson is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House      Christian Book      Amazon       Barnes & Noble        Walmart

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine. 

Book Review - A Royal Christmas

There is a certain antihistamine brand that advertises with the song which proclaims it is the most wonderful time of the year. My husband can attest that this advertisement, regardless of my feelings about the product, chafes my soul like a swimsuit 2 sizes too small. They tease! I’m a fall fan through and through, but that phrase is reserved specifically for Christmas and to use it elsewhere is to deliver false hope. However, there is a silver tinsel light at the end of the tunnel, because fall means the release of the new Melody Carlson Christmas novella. It is the harbinger of Christmas carols to come, the first hopeful glimmer of the season in which I truly come alive! This year’s gift, A Royal Christmas, is a splendid addition to the Carlson Christmas chronicles I so crave. It is like jingling sleigh bells stop in front of my house on the sweltering fall day each year when my Carlson Christmas novella arrives. This one involves law student Adelaide Smith, still mourning the loss of her mother, and whose life is about to be shaken by the news that her father has found her by using a DNA match. And her father is the ailing king of a small Eastern European principality. And also, he hopes to stay alive long enough to meet the daughter he only recently learned he has, hopefully to find in her the heir to rule Montovia.

The relationships woven together through this story are intricate. It’s not your super cozy Christmas novella where someone misinterprets a hug between siblings as competition for romance. Adelaide quickly, but realistically, builds bonds with various members of the royal family and staff members. Some are worth keeping and others are a bit more in the spirit of Krampus than Father Christmas, when nefarious motives come into play. Carlson moves the book forward with a full novel’s character development and storyline in a novella length word count; a skill that left me feeling utterly satisfied and a wee bit bonded with certain characters. And if you know someone who delights in a Christmas novella, allow me to suggest this as a fantastic gift. I will surely reread A Royal Christmas at the height of my Thanksgiving through the new year Christmas novella marathon!

A Royal Christmas by Melody Carlson is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House        Christian Book            Barnes & Noble            Amazon

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Second Time Around

Melody Carlson opens her latest release with this declaration and backs it up by taking Mallory and the reader through a moving on process akin to shaking a snow globe and watching the delicate snowflakes settle into their perfect place. Sitting alone in her quiet house at the end of her daughter’s wedding day, Mallory realizes her children have moved on, her ex has long ago moved on, and she has been too busy to do the same. When an unexpected opportunity gives her the nudge she needs, Mallory embraces the chance to fulfill a dream and lands smack in the path of her very grown up childhood crush. Grayson Matthews never left Portside, Oregon and is determined to reignite the popularity of the sleepy tourist town. Working together for the sake of their town brings Mallory and Grayson together. Someone else is trying to keep them apart. But regardless of that outcome, it seems Mallory is finally moving on.

Melody Carlson writes the kind of fiction that is easy to read. While I enjoy rollicking action and adventure or the kind of historical piece that sends me off on my own research, there are also times I long for the comfort of a Melody novel. Second Time Around exquisitely balances the realism of everyday life with a feeling of remoteness from the same. It is, quite simply, the embodiment of romance.

Second Tome Around is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House            Christian Book        Barnes & Noble           Amazon

 

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - A Quilt for Christmas

It’s that time of year again and this one always gets me giddy. I’m not talking about football season, or marching band competition season, or even pumpkin-spice-everything season; I’m already securely into all of those, which I celebrate with great joy. I am talking about Melody-Carlson’s-New-Christmas-Novella season! *Insert angel chorus here.* I literally feel warm and cozy just thinking about it. So grab a cup of tea and a cozy blanket, and I will introduce you to Melody’s 2022 Christmas novella, A Quilt for Christmas.

Vera Swanson doesn’t feel much like celebrating Christmas this year. In years past, nobody could rival the glory of a Christmas season done up in Vera’s style, all wrapped up in love. But now there is nobody to celebrate with her. The big, beautiful home in which she and her husband raised their family has been sold, and this small condo doesn’t feel the same. When a small child knocks on Vera’s door and begs help for her mommy, things become even more different as she finds herself suddenly helping neighbors she didn’t even know through a difficult situation.

Little Fiona Albright is a spunky little girl whose family has had their own series of unfortunate events. When her mother’s sudden and intense illness send Fiona searching for help, she begins to form a bond with the grandmotherly woman next door. Slowly, Fiona and Vera forge a friendship that eventually extends to an eclectic group of women who come together to fulfill Fiona’s wish of a quilt for Christmas. Everyone has their own burdens that try to bog them down this season, especially cranky old Eleanor Rasmussen, but somehow Fiona melts even the coldest heart. Together they forge a family for Christmas that none of them expected, brought together by one little angel with an old soul.

A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Book House        Christian Book            Barnes & Noble            Amazon

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Looking for Leroy

Spring is upon us and I don’t know about you, but I am already dreaming of lazy days at the campground. I’ve got campfires and hammock reading on the mind. Melody Carlson spoke right to me with her latest novel, Looking for Leroy, where elementary teacher Brynna Phillips finds herself on a camping road trip with the not so warm and cuddly vice principal Sergeant Bart. Add that to the list of things in Brynna’s life that did not go as planned, along with a jerk of an ex-husband and a condo that doesn’t allow much space for the garden of her dreams. She’s not quite sure why she agreed to this road trip or the stranger they seemed to have picked up, Motorcycle Mike, but as the motley crew makes their way into California memories begin to pick at the edges of Brynna’s mind. Pulling into a campground that had been converted from the summer camp Brynna attended in high school, she begins to wonder what ever happened to the boy with the camera who made her smile so brightly.

Sparks are flying all around the campfire, but an idea begins to burn when Jan Barton and Motorcycle Mike hear about the boy from Brynna’s past. Before she knows what is really happening, they have picked up the game of Looking for Leroy, with little information except that his family owned a vineyard in California. As their own flame begins to burn, they are inspired to help Brynna reconnect with the one who got away. Upon finding their mark, a series of mishaps and mistruths lead to misunderstandings that pave the way to restoration for both the damaged vineyard and the relationship that just needed to be pruned and cared for in order to bear beautiful fruit.

Looking for Leroy by Melody Carlson is currently available from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Baker Bookhouse        Christian Book        Barnes & Noble        Amazon

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - A Christmas in the Alps

Christmas novella lovers, rejoice! Melody Carlson, queen of the Christmas novella, has gifted us this year’s edition and it solidifies her status as literary royalty. Pack your bags and log in to your translation app, because she is sweeping us off to find family, friendship, and hidden treasure in the snowy French Alpine village of Avre.

At a time in her life when Simone Sophia Winthrop has lost her last known living relative and her circle of friends is nearly as small as her dating prospects, she finds an unopened letter from her great-grandmama that shakes things up in her already-shaken comfort zone. With more than a little prompting from her best friend, Simone finds herself struggling to conquer her fear of flying to find the treasure her recently departed great-grandmamma left behind in her haste to leave war-torn France. Is it love or is she caught up in the romance of France at Christmas when she starts to have zingy feelings about her airplane seat mate? Is the exceptionally friendly hotelier flirting or just French? And why is she so warmly accepted by some of her newly found family members, but so icily received by her great-grandmamma’s own sister?

Set up your tea tray and snuggle into your favorite blanket to enjoy this season’s treasure from Melody Carlson.

A Christmas in the Alps is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

Christian Book        Barnes & Noble        Amazon

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - The Happy Camper

I.am.so.guilty.

For real, y'all.

Guilty as all heck.

What have I done, you ask? Well, I judged a book by its cover. But I really think you'll give me a pass when you see it. I mean, has there ever been a cover more unbelievably adorable as this one? Take a moment to look at it and literally feel the stress melt away. It is fairly magical.

In all fairness, I did also judge this one by the author. Sometimes I'm having a Melody Carlson kind of day, or week, or quarantine (I'm totally nailing this social distancing thing!) See, I know I can trust Melody to give me the kind of Hallmark-y experience that allows me to simply enjoy a book without super stressful plot twists and deep theological introspection. Don't get me wrong, you know I love all those things, too. But let's recap my own personal reality at the moment:
*Quarantine/Social Distancing Day 12 (TWELVE, Y'ALL!)
*Little Brother has been in a big ol' cone of shame for eleven days. That means, for eleven days he has been trying to cuddle with me and really mostly succeeding only at whacking me in the face over and over. And over. And, also, over.
*Princess Pea Pod is a little frustrated that her spring break is spent at home, being socially distant, and continues to ask if I'll please just take her to (Walmart\the mall\the park\friend's house\anywhere but here) in spite of every explanation.
*Yesterday, the power went out. Then the internet was out. And the garage door broke.

Melody Carlson, take me away! I so need Hallmark-y right now!

Dillon has had enough! She doesn't even realize it until she has chucked the dead-end boyfriend and the dead-end job, but her heart knows exactly where to go, and Grandpa welcomes her home with open arms. When she finds her childhood bedroom occupied by her own mother, Grandpa solves the space issue by offering her a vintage camper. Restoring Rose gives Dillon purpose, as well as the opportunity to get to know Jordan Atwood through trips to his hardware store and a shared enthusiasm for vintage campers. It's a bit of a bumpy ride, but Dillon and Rose find their identity together. I enjoyed the support Grandpa gives, the understanding Dillon and her mother find for each other, the banter with Jordan, and the joy Dillon finds through her new fascination. Thank you, Melody Carlson, for delivering another truly enjoyable story!

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. The opinions stated in this review are my own and are my completely honest assessment.