In keeping with the festive spirit, I’ve decided to post monthly check-ins on the 25th. It’s only fitting, wouldn’t you agree? You can catch up on the details, and see my (ambitious?) TBR on the original post, so today’s post is for reporting on my Christmas reading journey thus far. Another festive nod: I’m using Christmas trees in lieu of stars for my ratings of these books.

Bright Lights, Big Christmas | Mary Kay Andrews | St Martin’s Press | 2023 | 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄
Mary Kay’s Christmas books may be my favorite of hers. This story of a North Carolina girl heading to New York City to help sell her family’s Christmas trees was fun. I loved the characters, and how the neighborhood really was a found-family village. Also fun: the gentle nod to last year’s The Santa Suit. It was a cute, predictable, and thoroughly enjoyable start to the festive reading season.

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop | Jenny Colgan | Avon | 2023 | 🎄🎄🎄
I absolutely loved the first book, The Christmas Bookshop, and was excited to discover a sequel this year. After reading however, I’m not sure we needed a sequel. Reading this one, while enjoyable in some moments {and frustrating in others: I cannot stand the miscommunication/failure to communicate trope}, detracted from the magic of the first. I give it a whole tree solely for the antics of Carmen’s nieces and nephews, and my renewed yearning to visit Edinburgh.

I may not have made a large dent in my festive TBR yet, but I’ve also been reading some very good other books {more info on them in the Reading Recap next week}. I feel like it’s a fairly solid start to the season, and look forward to reading more as the days get cooler and the nights longer.

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