2021 Fall Flurry of Holidays Challenge -- December Reviews and Discussion

[Hannah]

All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard – 3 Stars

The book is set at Christmas, with a final Christmas in the family home.

I read the first four books in this series probably about 20 years ago when the books were adapted for a TV series, so I was happy to pick up the fifth book recently. It is now the 1950s, and the Cazalets’ fortunes have changed for the worse since WW2, with the family being ill-equipped for the modern world. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others in the series, and it felt very rushed with the first part of the book largely being a recap of previous books, and the author trying to tie up lots of loose ends in the rest of the book.

[Jgrace]

The Toast of Time - Taylor
Audio performance by Zara Ramm
4 stars

Another of the traditional Christmas stories from the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. This one was longer than previous stories. More of a novella than a short story. The Pros and Cons, Max and Markham are on their own, celebrating a lonely Christmas away from family, friends and St. Mary’s. They might as well do a job for the ‘recovery agents’. Max is in top form. The ‘naked gardeners day’ event was priceless. The Christmas Day finale had all the feels.

[Nicole R]

Book Concierge wrote: "Okay, Nicole R ... This one's for you!




All I Want For Christmas Is a Cowboy
– Jessica Clare – 3***
Young woman with a stressful job ..."

Gotta love the cowboy Christmas romances!

[Nicole R]

Scoring updated! Please post any lingering reviews by Sunday night. I will complete scoring and close out the challenge on Monday.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iGURI...

[Theresa]

Thanks Nicole! Correction: I only read 8 October flurries.

Sadly that 2 for December is it. I am just going to have to make it up at Christmas in July.

[Booknblues]

Wow, I am surprised. I actually read a few more in December that I didn't bother to post here, but that is just fine. I thought I had enough already. I guess I got more into this than I realized.

[Theresa]

Booknblues wrote: "Wow, I am surprised. I actually read a few more in December that I didn't bother to post here, but that is just fine. I thought I had enough already. I guess I got more into this than I realized."

BnB - you were just making up for all the ones I did not get to read.

[LibraryCin]

And the shelving for Fall Flurries this year is done! We collectively read 137 titles over all three months:

https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

And here are the stats from other years for Fall Flurries since we've been here on GR:
fall-flurry-of-holidays-2016 (72)
fall-flurry-of-holidays-2017 (83)
fall-flurry-of-holidays-2018 (142)
fall-flurry-of-holidays-2019 (133)
fall-flurry-of-holidays-2020 (152)
fall-flurry-of-holidays-2021 (137)

[Theresa]

If I had managed my usual complement of Christmas reads in December, we probably would have at least tied with 2020!

Well done all!

[LibraryCin]

I think Nicole said she didn't read as many this year, either.

[Nicole R]

I definitely did not! I only read a couple and I actually never got around to posting them here.

[LibraryCin]

Nicole R wrote: "I definitely did not! I only read a couple and I actually never got around to posting them here."

Oh, jeez! I didn't even notice that you hadn't posted!

(Focused... I'm focused when shelving... LOL! Don't notice the people posting, just what books are posted!)

[Theresa]

I for one NOTICED! I feel so deprived at no Nicole trashy Christmas Romance review!

I expect to see a serious effort to make up for it at Christmas in July.