The Rom-Commers

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

By Katherine Center

How foolish are you to hope for the best? How pathetic is it to try to win after you’ve already lost? How naive must you be if you don’t know that humanity is dark and vicious and totally irredeemable? But… If those are the only stories we tell about ourselves, then those are the only stories we have.…If you try to write stories about love and kindness, you really are risking being ridiculed. Which might be the worst form of social death. But… be brave and try….Poor happy endings. They’re so aggressively misunderstood.…Tragedy is a given. There is no version of human life that doesn’t involve reams of it. The question is what we do in the face of it all.

Emma is a failed screenwriter living in Houston Texas. This is because she has to take care of her Dad, who, due to a rock climbing accident, has Ménière’s disease which puts him in constant danger of falling and seriously injuring himself or worse. And she does this happily because

My dad was always the dad everybody wanted. If there were a dad store, he’d be a bestseller. They’d have rows and rows of him for sale, right up front. He was always warm and encouraging and connected and goofy—even before.

When she is offered the career opportunity of a lifetime and a chance to kick-start her life working on a screenplay/script with her writing idol, Charlie Yates, she initially refuses and has to be talked into accepting. As much as I loved this book and ended up liking Emma very much, at first, I didn’t care much for her. She was very martyr-y about her family, and I have read just about enough of heroines who will sacrifice all for a husband, parent, sibling, or whatever no matter how wrong and unjust. Especially when they seem to get some kind of charge out of being the all-important irreplaceable lynchpin without whom everything would collapse. We kiss all of that goodbye after her Dad is left in her sister’s capable hands and Emma’s adventure in Hollywood begins. As does the rom part of the rom-com.

Charlie starts out being very rude and hurtful to Emma and otherwise very ornery. He seems more concerned with showing the world how cool and unorthodox he is- too important to follow the protocols of basic human courtesy and respect. But if you’re going to do grumpy/sunshine best have a grumpy one, and the grumpier the better. He has been forced to write a screenplay for a Romantic Comedy, a genre he has only contempt for, in order to get another project green lighted. It is so bad that Emma, a romantic comedy guru, has been called in by their mutual agent to help him fix it.

“I’ve just read a romantic comedy script,” I said, “that will destroy human civilization as we know it.”

Although on the surface, Charlie at first comes across as off the chart as far as difficult and unpleasant, It becomes obvious pretty quickly that he respects Emma’s talent and work and is falling head over heels in like and love with her. Also, Emma gives him a lot of lip and is not intimidated one bit.

“Let me ask you a question,” I said next when I was all set up. “Do you want me to be honest? Or do you want me to blow smoke up your ass?” “I want you to be honest,” Charlie said—no hesitation. But that didn’t mean much. Writers always want you to be honest—but only if you love it. “Because I didn’t love it,” I said. “I figured that out when you called it ‘apocalyptically shitty.’” “Buckle up, then”

Katherine Center masterfully manages to include as many romantic comedy tropes as possible in this romantic comedy tribute to the romantic comedy: opposites attract, enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, forced propinquity, work adversaries, unequal status, fish out of water, dark secret, emotional scars, sworn off relationships, unrequited love, everyone can see it, ugly duckling (unmanageable red hair), break up to save him/her, and big public love confession/tribute. I’ve probably left some out. She embraces the genre within an inch of its life but does not sacrifice a great story and characters we care about for parody.

Towards the end of the book, A crisis returns Emma to her family and her behavior towards her sister Sylvie is hateful. But since Emma has been telling her story to us from a perspective of gained wisdom and insight, often breaking the fourth wall, we can’t get too disgusted with her. We know that she knows she was wrong (and she knows we know it.)

I insisted on taking the first shift that first night—still unshowered…which allowed me to extend the enjoyable feeling of having been wronged. Not only was Sylvie guilty of attempted patricide and saying the meanest-thing-ever to me, she also wouldn’t let me go home to take a shower. What a monster.

I usually like my love stories to be secondary to the main plot. In this book, it is the main attraction. It still engaged me 100% while still leaving a lot of room for family drama, personal growth and lots of comedy and sharp banter. Thanks to what Emma calls “gaps in information” my curiosity about certain things also kept me turning the pages. (It’s a … gap in information.” “It’s a writing term for how to create curiosity in the audience by leaving out crucial information.”) Yes, it worked.

As icing on the cake, in the Author’s Notes, Katherine Center continues her defense of the Love Story and specifically, the Romantic Comedy genre, that she began in her previous book, Hello Stranger.

Exciting news: I’ve chosen the hill I’m going to die on. And it’s the hill of standing up for love stories….If you’re a writer, and if you’ve spent your life reading and loving and studying and obsessing over stories, and if the stories that you genuinely, authentically love the most—by a mile—just happen to be the stories that are the most disdained, the most dismissed, the most ridiculed, and the most eye-rolled at . . . you’re gonna have some work to do.

It was great. Amen, Katherine Center, Amen. Another book like this and Hello, Stranger and I might have to move Katherine Center to auto-buy status. And it’s probably time to give her backlist another try.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Mystic Ball (Judy Bolton #7)

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

By Margaret Sutton

As Judy stepped upon the stage she lifted her chin proudly and looked straight into Madame Wanda’s cat-like eyes….she walked cautiously over and peered down into the mystic ball….Madame Wanda burst out explosively.”Tell me! Tell the audience! Tell the whole world what you see!”
Was the woman crazy?…But to her great disappointment, there was nothing there. …“What’s the matter with it? I don’t see a thing.”
“Ah clever weren’t you?” she mocked. ”But not clever enough to see your own future! Why? Because you haven’t any future.”
Gasp went up from the audience. “Don’t you know what it means…? “Have you never heard the word–Death?”

This book has some of Judy’s best sleuthing as well as plenty of personal drama regarding one of Margaret’s most interesting character creations, Judy’s friend, Irene. I would call Irene a divisive character, but I doubt that there is any serious Judy Bolton fan who would not admit the girl is flipping crazy (as much as they might defend her and try to explain her.) Thankfully, she does get better as the books go on. And her fiance Dale is another piece of work. Irene and Dale met and got engaged in the previous book, The Yellow Phantom. In this one, they are almost torn apart thanks to Irene’s stubborn belief in a fortune teller.

The adventure begins with Judy and all of her Farringdon friends going to the theatre to watch a movie and a show featuring Wanda the Wonderful. While passing by the theatre, Judy notices a lot of electronic equipment being carted into the theatre. Now these days, anyone would know that electronic equipment + a psychic predicting the future = Fraud and Skulduggery. But remember this book was written in the 1930s when the X-ray machine was considered the latest in medical innovations and a source of amazement. Wanda singles out Irene and tells her a disastrous fortune with enough details from her past life to win her trust. The most alarming part is that she tells her that her father will die and Dale doesn’t really love her and is after her money. Like several other victims, she is given a card and sent to a special room in the back for “the remedy” to the horrific fortunes.

Judy is suspicious but as convinced as she is that Wanda is a crackpot and a con woman, she cannot convince superstitious Irene to believe in Dale’s love rather than a creepy stranger and her crystal ball. And how was Wanda so accurate about Irene’s music, her engagement to Dale and the Tower House? Irene seems to be almost under a spell by the menacing fortuneteller and insists on going back to the theatre to give her a sealed envelope. Knowing that doing so would be the last straw as far as Irene’s nerves are concerned, the girls decide they will change places with each other with Judy delivering the envelope to the theatre and Irene going back to Dry Brook Hollow to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Smeed. Irene insists that when she gets Dale’s next love letter, Judy read it and answer back in her place. I’ll let that sit a minute. I told you she was crazy. When Judy does exactly that, it results in Dale almost breaking the engagement and Irene angrily repudiating Judy as a friend. It’s quite a letter, but poor Judy meant well.

By the end of the book, Judy meets a new friend, Sylvia, gets on stage and challenges Madame Wanda, is trampled during a fake fire alarm, is hospitalized, exposes the crystal-gazer and sees her convicted of grand larceny, wins back Irene’s friendship and re-unites the two lovers. Also, the differences between Judy’s two potential swains, Peter and Arthur, are highlighted. As always with Margaret Sutton’s series, we will meet young Sylvia again in future books and will even see the Crystal Ball again which was given to Judy as a reward for her outstanding sleuthing which resulted in getting a cruel and dangerous fraudster off the streets.

This is one of Margaret’s most entertaining books, in my opinion. Irene and Dale never disappoint.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

A Very Vermont Christmas

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

Hoppy Christmas!

As is often the case when a Hallmark has no one in the cast I am a big fan of, and the plot seems the usual standard fare, I did not hold out much hope for this one. But I sucked it up and devoted 2 hours to it last night. Although it did not not exceed my expectations, it had a few aspects that rescued it from utter mediocrity. First, I liked the craft beer angle. Wine has been overdone (in the movies) as has confections. They leaned into the process pretty well, and it added some interest.  Second, the main antagonist provided some tension and suspense. He was a curious and layered character. Ultimately he was a bad guy who behaved atrociously, but who was, at times, rather sad and pitiable. It also managed to avoid some bad behaviors that plague Hallmark couples. Specifically, conducting the romance under a cloud of lies and obfuscation. Of course, one of them is accused of lying, but it he wasn’t. Lies and romance are hard to separate in any fiction, not just Hallmark.

Katie Leclerc plays Joy, a former champion skier, who is trying to keep her family’s small craft brewery and bar from being absorbed by the corporate meanies trying to buy them out. Her main competitor, Frosty’s, I think, is owned by her former ex-boyfriend. He is all about the bottom line and only sells mass market national brands. So a clear definition between Good and Evil according to Hallmark. The ex seems to be working against Joy constantly while trying to get back together with her. It’s confusing. Our Hero, Zac, is a lover and connoisseur of craft beers but is a representative of one of these national brands and is there in Vermont on some kind of business related to Frosty’s. He is also meeting his formerly estranged father there later to cement their new found bond by going skiing. Zac is a terrible skier and he gets Joy to give him lessons. So between the Craft Beer and the skiing, the romance happens. Also a contest happens for the best craft beer, the winner of which will receive a national distribution deal from Zac’s beer company.  When Joy’s recipe for the beer she is entering in the contest is stolen, she blows up her romance with Zac by accusing him of the espionage, completely forgetting that she left her weasel of an ex and long-time adversary who has a history of bad behavior alone with the recipe. Needless, and I do mean needless, to say, Joy prevails with Zac’s help, and skip skip skip, her brewery/pub is saved and Zac decides to stay in Vermont.

I like Katie LeClerc all right. She gets the job done and looks younger than her years. And, bonus, her forehead wrinkles when called for.  John Forrest,  who played her ex-boyfriend really brought the creep factor, which was compounded by the fact that he was supposed to be her same age, but looked a lot older than even the 6 years that separate the two actors. Funnily enough, Ryan McPartlin, who looked very age appropriate for Katie, is actually 5 years older than John Forrest. Somehow, it all worked. This is one of those Hallmarks which telegraphs everything that happens well in advance but that chugs along to the end without anything to really love or hate.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Welcome to Temptation

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

by Jennifer Crusie

“That’s a movie quote, right? You know, if you do that with books, people think you’re intelligent.”
Sophie lowered her chin. “If this is your pathetic attempt to seduce me again, you’re falling miserably.”
“I don’t seduce women.” Phin shoved back his chair and stood up. “They fall into my open arms.”
“Clumsy of them.”

I first read this about 25 years ago (it seems longer). Back then, some of its aspects made me slightly uncomfortable although I loved it. I don’t take my romances as seriously as I used to. Good ones are few and far between now, but they were really really scarce back then, and much harder to find. I had a good time with this one on Audible this time around.

We meet Sophie and Amy, two sisters on their way to Temptation, a town in southern Ohio. They have a photography business and are meeting a “C” list actress there to film a movie, which is Amy’s dream. Sophie is only mildly interested but is there as Amy’s sensible overprotective older sister. Also to keep Amy on the straight and narrow. Both Amy and their brother Davy take after their father, a notorious con man and grifter. Sophie knows her way around a good con as well, but she has chosen to stay on the right side of the law and ethical behavior. Well, she tries, anyway. As they start filming their movie, Sophie to her exasperation and disapproval, sees that the movie is borderline porn. This does not make the good citizens of Temptation or their mayor, Phin Tucker, happy. Actually, Phin couldn’t care less, but duty calls and he is up for election.

This book was not the first award winner that Crusie wrote, but it was the first one that made it to the New York Times Best Seller List. It was her third non-category novel (not a Silhouette, Loveswept, or such). It’s the first “big” book by Jennifer Crusie that I remember reading and while it is the one that made me a fan of hers, I had kind of shied away from re-reading it until, a year and a half ago, I read the sequel to it, Faking It. That one picks up the story of Davy Dempsey who has business with Clea, the movie actress, in this one. Temptation, Sophie, and Phin make a brief appearance in the sequel and it put this one back on my radar.

Crusie’s books are all about humor and romance in equal measure. They are very fun and fast-paced. This one has more crazy characters than usual who are either good guys or bad guys (or gals). There are really only 3 normal sensible people in it: The two main characters, Sophie and Phin, and Phin’s best friend, the sheriff of Temptation, Wes. Oh, and Phin’s 9-year-old daughter, Dilly. Everyone else has issues galore which play out all kinds of ways that kept me turning the pages (figuratively). And then, as there often is in Crusie’s books, there’s a murder. And since this victim was poisoned, drowned, shot, and run over by a car (twice) and the body moved across town by an innocent party, it is quite the mystery.

This one was another wild ride. I think I have at least one more of her books left to re-read, but first I have to take a little break.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Rescuing Christmas

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

Cute as the Dickens

This was just as delightful as I remember it being when I saw it last December on the Hallmark Now channel (free trial subscription). I remember thinking that it was one of the best Christmas movies of the season and wondered why it wasn’t on their network Countdown to Christmas 2023. I didn’t review it then because of that and because there are just so many reviews one can do in a week at the busiest time of the year. So it was no hardship to look at it again last night.

Erin (Rachel Leigh Cook) is somewhat of a Christmas scrooge. She only appreciates Christmas for the joy it gives others, particularly her own niece and nephew. She is picked at random for “Operation: Wish” conceived by two of Santa’s elves, Chuck and Debbie, to help humankind rediscover its Christmas spirit which has been lost in the wake of such crimes against humanity like social media and macaroni and cheese ice cream. She is driven to distraction by the two elves incessant emails to claim her last wish (the first two were for her Mom’s Christmas cookies and her old boyfriend to to come back and give her the credit she deserves for his new found success (long and entertaining story: She ends up throwing the asshole out of the house). Finally in frustration and a little scared because her two previous wishes came true by coincidence, she wishes for Christmas to disappear. When it does, she soon realizes her mistake and spends the rest of the movie trying to bring Christmas back with the help of the love interest, Sam, played by Sam Page. He did not endear himself to Erin at first when he showed up for their blind date in Reindeer Antlers. Of course now that Erin has wished that there is no such thing as Christmas and never was, his love for the holiday is not an issue. But yet, despite his initial incredulity over what she is blathering on about, he helps and supports her because he really really likes her. We know it’s true love when she calls him to bail her out of jail.  It was sweet and romantic.

Erin’s attempts to explain Christmas and how to celebrate it to everyone are very funny and thought provoking. A tree in the house? Pantyhose full of rocks? And who was this Mary Krismas again? She sets about trying to recreate it for her loved ones, Sam, and then the whole town. It is gold mine of visual humor. Red and Green aren’t a thing now that Christmas never was, so Erin has to make due with pink and chartreuse. When she sends her parents out to purchase the usual Christmas paraphernalia, they come back with leftover Halloween decorations,  pink feather boas, Hawaiian Leis, tennis balls, and beach balls (“You said to get ornaments like brightly colored balls!”). Is christmas even possible without twinkle lights? Will a fox do for a yard ornament? Because reindeer? Really?

Everyone who had a part in this movie was wonderful, but I particularly loved the quirky performances of Patrick O’Brien and  Bailey Stender who played Chuck and Debbie, the two elves responsible for the whole fustercluck who were eager to help Erin but had to do so with only the most discreet use of Christmas Magic.  The writers made the decision to keep religion and spirituality out of this movie entirely. And I see why they did that. But to me, it brought this one down just a bit. I would have appreciated even a cursory nod to the original reason for Christmas, since this was what the movie was kind of about. It was kind of an elephant in the room. Despite that, with Santa’s help, all ends happily with Erin finally realizing she loved Christmas for the joy it gave her, not just her loved ones, and satisfactorily paired up with Sam. (“Is romance always part of Christmas?”, he asked. “Of course, whole channels were devoted to it.”) In the end, even Chuck and Debbie got their wish and no longer had to deal with humans again.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Pineapple Street

/ Rebekahrox / 5 Comments

by Jenny Jackson

“Oh, no! I left my Cartier bracelet in Lena’s BMW and she’s leaving soon for her grandmother’s house in Southampton!”

Sasha felt wrong-footed 90 percent of the time but also simultaneously felt she was Molly Ringwald in an eighties movie and everyone else was the preppy villain.

This book seems to be in the “love it or hate it” category with many readers. I loved it. It was funny and insightful, and I was invested in our three main character’s admittedly first-world problems and daily lives. This book is about rich people. Specifically, A family that lives in the Fruit Street area in Brooklyn Heights, an exclusive old-money enclave where many celebrities now live. When we are first introduced to the family, we are given the impression that this family is of the worst kind of rich people: Arrogant, snobby, shallow, insular, you name it. They do not make a good impression. They are all of that indeed, but, they also have some good and endearing qualities. That seems to rub some readers the wrong way. Some readers are suspicious that the author is a major force in the publishing world. Some even seem to think that they were drawn in against their will by the gorgeous cover and the evocative title. The other main criticism of this book is that “nothing happens.” Well, I’m used to reading books where nothing much happens. Some of my favorite authors write books in which nothing much happens other than living their daily lives. Well, I guess things do happen because they grow and change, have realizations and insights, go down unexpected paths, and achieve happiness and success. But it’s not because they do things like triumphing over evil, escaping death by inches, solving a mystery, weathering a tragedy, or doing anything that most would consider particularly exciting or adventurous.

The three main characters are Darby, Georgiana, and Sasha. Darby and Georgiana are trust fund babies and the daughters of Chip and Tilda. Despite their pampered existence, both are actually quite likable aside from the way they treat Sasha. Sasha is a middle-class, borderline blue-collar, girl from a raucous loving family who marries Cord, the scion of the Stockton family. Sasha and her attempts to navigate the social and family mores of his insular family are the heart of the book. Although treated politely on the surface, she is kept firmly on the outside of the family circle. But rudeness on their part is unconscious and unintentional, for the most part. And her husband Cord, who also has very likable qualities and is a good guy, doesn’t see it or want to see it.

“I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I just feel like your sisters don’t like me.” “What are you talking about? That’s not true.” Cord patted her back and tried to leave the room. He was a WASP through and through, deeply uncomfortable with conflict.

Oooh not good. But then we have this private moment between Cord and Sasha:

“Did you ever feel that way as a kid?” she asked. “So intense and confused?” “Yeah, totally. I was in love with Little Debbie,” he confessed. “Who’s that?” Sasha asked, running a finger along his bare chest. “A neighbor?” “No, the little girl with a hat on the box of snack cakes.”

How can you not like that guy?

Cord and Sasha love each other, but Cord does not have Sasha’s back while she wrestles with death by a thousand cuts and Sasha prefers a partner that loves her but does not need or depend on her for his happiness. She had that kind of love before and it almost derailed her life.

 She had seen what all-consuming passion looked like, how it felt to ride the currents of intense adoration and fury, and she didn’t want it. She wanted someone stable, someone easy, someone who loved her but not enough to lose himself entirely.

When Darby and Georgiana experience some havoc in their lives, it turns each of their worlds on its axis. Darby’s beloved husband is fired from his important and high-paying job. He is made the scapegoat for a screw-up that was not his fault because he is Korean and without influential family connections. Georgiana falls in love and betrays her personal code by continuing the affair even after she finds out that he is married. Then something tragic happens and she spirals.

Thanks to a nasty confrontation at a family party, Sasha finally reaches the end of her rope and opens a can of you know what on their you know whats. Finally, it comes to a head. All of the secrets and secret feelings come out. But things don’t change until Sasha’s Dad gets sick and she leaves to be with her family. One thing leads to another which leads to a family who finally finds harmony and understanding of themselves and each other. At least the kids do, anyway. Tilda and Chip don’t really change, but they change toward Sasha. And Sasha gets to leave the creepy shrine to the Stocktons and their ancestors on Pineapple Street.

I got a real kick out of this book. The writing was witty with a keen sense of the ridiculous. I liked reading about these strange rich people who live in a whole other universe and seen through the eyes of a normal girl. I also appreciated that even though few would approve of their attitudes or the way they led their lives they were not painted with a wide brush as human beings. The author wanted us to understand them and I found that they were worth understanding. I do wish we had seen more inner workings of why things progressed the way they did. For example, how did Sasha and Cord get over the Pre-Nup crisis? One minute Cord tells her he chooses his family over her, they are on the verge of a break-up, Cord is wrecked, and the next they are happily married. Why do the Stocktons accept Malcolm, Darby’s husband, so easily but not Sasha who is also successful and well-educated? And what made Cord finally see the light and show up in Sasha’s family’s kitchen? After the party disaster at the end, one minute Cord thinks Sasha overreacted and the next he finally has her back.

Interestingly, the author, Jenny Jackson’s, “Acknowledgments” set my teeth on edge a bit. “I wrote half this novel in my apartment on Pineapple Street….” they begin and continue for a paragraph which I found rather smug. Maybe it’s just me. It was strange and ironic given the theme of the book. Or is it possible she was having a laugh? I almost took my rating down but I didn’t because who does that?

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Here One Moment

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

by Liane Moriarty

It has just occurred to me that I haven’t yet introduced myself. I apologize. One should always introduce oneself quickly!

Investing in life insurance does not increase your risk of dying. Correction: Investing in life insurance may increase your risk of dying if you are married to a murderer. I’m not trying to be funny. Just accurate.

It’s interesting when you suddenly behave out of character. An example: I went tandem skydiving for my sixtieth birthday. It was exhilarating! Obviously, I will never go skydiving again. Not if you paid me. I still have nightmares about it.

I’ve read all of Liane Moriarty’s books. They have all kept me engaged although, of course, I have liked some more than others. But I know when I pick one up, though bad and sad things might happen it will all come together in the end to a satisfying conclusion full of hope. This one kept me on the edge of my seat. Things looked pretty dark for some of the characters this book centers on, but my faith in the author was rewarded in spades.

On a shortish flight from Hobart, Tasmania to Sydney, Australia, an older woman gets up from her seat almost in a trance-like state and goes from passenger to passenger implacably predicting their time and cause of death. This book centers on 6 of them and their families, as well as Cherry, who comes to be known as“The Death Lady”. In Liane Moriarty’s signature fashion, the tension mounts as we jump from one main character to another, learn their stories, and how the prediction clouds and complicates their lives. But we spend the most time getting to know Cherry. At first, I was impatient with that because I was so worried about the other characters, whose deaths, except for one, were predicted to be imminent and shocking. That exception was the prediction for the baby son of a young mother. Her boy will drown at age 7. We see the forces of their doom gathering even as we come to care about them and their loved ones. But it was not long before I was caught up in the life of the brilliant and funny Cherry, who, it turns out, was well worth knowing. Even more than learning the fates of our principal characters, we wonder throughout what in the world possessed her to stand up in that plane and do something so devastating and so out of character.

Are Cherry’s predictions to be taken seriously? As three people on the flight die exactly as predicted, it seems maybe so. But are the apparent fates of those that remain preventable? Will believing the predictions to be true become a self-fulfilling prophecy? What about free will? Or are our futures ruled by determinism? There is lots to think and wonder about in this novel besides the gripping plot and masterful character development. How does Chaos Theory come into it? It’s the cover of the book! Or The Many Worlds Interpretation? We learn about the Monte Carlo Fallacy(or the Gambler’s Fallacy), The Call of the Void (or The Vertigo of Possibility), and The Just World Fallacy. (There’s no such thing as Karma? Shoot!) Why does Cherry look so familiar to one of the passengers? What is the significance of her strange brooch? How odd that we don’t remember the 4th person who dies. And what about Cherry’s famous fortune-teller mother? Will her beautiful predictions for Cherry come true or was she a well-meaning charlatan? What are the notebooks she speaks of?

After coming to it’s moving and satisfying (even triumphant) conclusion, I thought back on all that occurred in the book. I was amazed at how Liane brought it all together like an intricate puzzle successfully solved. She really outdid herself. Many seemingly insignificant details are important clues but I didn’t grasp their meaning and how they all came together until the end. Liane Moriarty leaves none of her signature devices and tactics by the wayside and they certainly worked to keep me enthralled. Here One Moment was brilliantly crafted and hugely enjoyable.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for a free Uncorrected Digital Galley of this book in return for an unbiased review. This book will be published September 10, 2024.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Christmas by Design

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

I wouldn’t Wear those Pajamas to Walmart, Let Alone to Bed.

So far, Rebecca Dalton seems to have been cast as characters that have really rubbed me the wrong way. This one was no exception. She plays a snotty little pill in this movie who is not rehabilitated until the last 15 minutes or so. She is mean and rude to her newish stepfather, dismissive of her nice family, and looks down on the townspeople in her small town because she is all so important and cool as a NEW YORK CITY semi-successful fashion designer. She also hurts the guy who has been so nice and helpful to her by disparaging him to her friend when she doesn’t know he is listening.

And I haven’t been too fond of her leading man either. He was actually pretty good in this one except for some reason, they have injected the info that he is the hometown hunk who is the object of desire of all of the cute single women in town. But at least he doesn’t play a prince this time. In looks and stature he’s kind on the wispy side compared to the usual Hallmark leading man. As kind of a humble sad widower seeking peace and healing in his new town, he was fine. He also comes across as quick witted and intelligent.

I will admit that because she was such an unlikable character in the beginning it made her repentance and rehabilitation that much more satisfying. That’s all I came to say except that I wish they would use Joanna Douglas more often. I really like her. And the pajamas designed for the contest were spectacularly ugly.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

October 29, 2023

Falling Like Snowflakes

/ Rebekahrox / 6 Comments

Flakey

It’s Christmas in July time at Hallmark only in June. It was nice to get back to a Christmas story in the summertime. All that cold weather and snow when it’ so hot outside! And in this one, the snow, or at least the flakes, were (was?) the starring attraction, not just white background.

Teagan is a photographer who specializes in taking pictures of snowflakes. She also  works closely with the community center as a photography teacher. Her best friend runs an Art Gallery and Teagan’s snowflakes are center stage. There are 35 main types of snowflakes and she has  photos of 34 of them. She has been on the hunt for the last one to complete her collection for 3 years, since her Mom died. If she finds it by Christmas Eve, a collector will not only buy all 35 of the pictures, but donate enough to the community center to fix everything that ails it. Finding the rare and elusive 12 sided stellar dendrite will be like finding a needle in a haystack but if the needle kept melting!

Anyway, and you won’t believe this, One of Teagan’s star students, Julie, is the daughter of Teagan’s former high school honey, Noah,  and he is a not-too-sad widower. Now that his wife is dead, he has returned to his old hometown after giving up his former career as a climate scientist (weatherman) to become the world’s worst professional snow plow driver. Not sure why he did that since since the usual loving grandparents or other hometown family who could mother his little girl were noticeably absent. The two prospective love interests meet, sparks fly, etc. Being a snow plow driver,  Noah volunteers to take Teagan to a gathering severe snow storm on a mountain to hunt for the snowflake that will complete her collection and save the community center. Driving around, looking at the scenery, and staying at an Inn, they get to know each other. Excitement occurs when Noah runs into some black ice and crashes his snow plow into a snowbank. Now you would think that wouldn’t be a problem for a snow plow, but, like I said, he is the world’s worst. He failed to stock the humongous cargo box with the usual snow fighting tools such as salt, sand, and shovels to get him out of trouble.

Empty

Also no chains on the tires. But adorned with bows and wreaths aplenty! Meanwhile, back in Willow Creek a rival photographer is also on the hunt for the rare crystal. She looks like Sarah Silverman. Sarah starts cosying up to Julie trying to learn Teagan’s secrets for photographing snowflakes which are easily found on Google. She is so hopeless and incompetent that she ends up being comic relief rather than a source of tension and suspense. Nevertheless, she is taken dead seriously as a legitimate threat throughout the movie.

Back on the mountain, Teagan and Noah are somehow rescued. They continue chasing the elusive snow storm, but when they find it Teagan has barely gotten her camera out of the bag before she almost gets lost and is almost flattened by a falling tree branch. Thoroughly cowed, they give up on the snowflake and return to safety but without Teagan’s camera which she forgot and left on the mountain in the snow (IKR?). Just to set your mind at rest, the next day, Noah goes back to get it and somehow the camera snuck back into it’s insulated camera case which saved all of the pictures. It turns out she captured a shot of the rare flake (perfectly centered!) without even knowing it,  the community center is saved, and Julie looks like she is going to get a new mom.

I just touched on some of the stuff in this movie that didn’t make sense. Good ole reliable Marcus Rosner is OK, but for some reason I am not a fan of Rebecca Dalton who played Teagan. I’ve disliked most of the movies she has starred in and my dislike has mostly been  due to the obnoxious characters she has played. This one did not win me over.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

The Friendly Air

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

By Elizabeth Cadell

When I think of an Elizabeth Cadell book, this is the type of book I think of. It’s set in sunny Portugal as many of her books are and involves a nice heroine (sometimes it is the hero) who is engaged to the wrong person who is usually extremely unpleasant. This one also features an eccentric old lady, as many of her books do.

Upon the death of her grandparents, Emma Challis took the self-serving advice of her Godfather and moved to London. Alone and friendless, she fell into an engagement with her Godfather’s son, Gerald Delmont, a prominent fashionable attorney. Unfortunately, Gerald is a boor and almost deliciously nasty. In 2024 he would be labeled a metrosexual type, and not in a good way. Of course, that word hadn’t been invented yet when this book was written in 1970. So why does the beautiful, good-humored, and likable Emma put up with him? It’s hard to explain, except that she is too kind-hearted for her own good. But I couldn’t get too frustrated with her. Despite putting up with his petulance and bossiness, Emma pretty much goes her own way and does have a mind of her own when push comes to shove. Plus, We know from the beginning that their marriage will not take place. It’s Elizabeth Cadell, and we know that Emma will meet and fall in love with someone much more suitable.

When Emma goes up to Yorkshire on business of her own, Gerald asks her to pry a “Lady Grantly” away from her father’s neighborhood where she has bought a house. The possible soon-to-be neighbors despise each other and Gerald wants her resettled in London for his father’s convenience and peace of mind. But when Emma and the delightfully dotty Lady Grantly meet, it is almost love at first sight. They are kindred spirits, even though Lady Grantly is vocally horrified when she finds out that Emma is engaged to the disagreeable Gerald. Not adverse to moving, but yearning to recapture her happy youth in sunny climes, the very wealthy Lady Grantly (with the help of astrology and cards) decides to move to Portugal, not London. Much to Gerald’s distress, Emma decides to accompany her to make sure she gets there safely and is set up comfortably. Portugal is a revelation to the sheltered Emma. In addition to enjoying Lady Grantly, she loves the people, the climate, the countryside, and Mrs. Grantly’s lovely house and garden by the seaside. As the days go by, She realizes she is not only relishing not being in London, but also away from Gerald.

When a family of squatters, a woman and her 5 children, set up residence in a moving crate in Lady Grantly’s garden, it all comes to a head. It turns out they might have a legitimate claim to the house! Emma’s deadline to return to her old life has arrived but she can’t leave Portugal and Lady Grantly now! She is dispatched to enlist the help of Lady Grantly’s half-English local lawyer. Their encounter is maddening and then hilarious. Emma has met her match and thank goodness, he has Lady Grantly’s seal of approval. When Gerald shows up to drag Emma back to London and her duties as his fiance, the inevitable happy ending is not far behind.

This is a sunny tale both literally and figuratively. Breezy, charming, and old-fashioned, it was a delight. But if you’re looking for a high-stakes nail-biter or a complex thought-provoking emotional drama, this isn’t for you. Save it for when you need a peaceful comforting trip to another time and place.

Rating: 4 out of 5.