Ali Recommends: Christmas Reads

Another new feature here on Ali's Bookshelf is going to be one where I get to recommend books to you! I haven't done anything like this in awhile here on the blog and figured today would be just as good as any to start this back up again. Today we are going to talk Christmas reads! 

The first book I want to talk about is written by one of my favorite authors, one that I would recommend any of her books, but my favorite Christmas book of her's would have to be...

Christmas In Paris by Anita Hughes

Published: St Martin's Press

Pages: 277 pages

Goodreads

Hughes will fill your heart with the sights, sounds, and flavors of new love, glamorous fashion, and decadent holiday cuisine.

Isabel Lawson is standing on the balcony of her suite at the Hotel Crillon as she gazes at the twinkling lights of the Champs Elysee and wonders if she’s made a terrible mistake. She was supposed to be visiting the Christmas tree in the Place de la Concorde, and eating escargots and macaroons with her new husband on their honeymoon. But a week before the wedding, she called it off. Isabel is an ambitious Philadelphia finance woman, and Neil suddenly decided to take over his grandparents’ farm. Isabel wasn’t ready to trade her briefcase for a pair of rubber boots and a saddle.

When Neil suggested she use their honeymoon tickets for herself, she thought it would give her a chance to clear her head. That is until she locks herself out on the balcony in the middle of winter. Thankfully her neighbor Alec, a French children’s illustrator, comes to her rescue. He too is nursing a broken heart at the Crillon for the holidays. With a new friend by her side, Isabel is determined to use her time in the city of lights wisely. After a chance encounter with a fortune teller and a close call with a taxi, she starts to question everything she thought was important.

Christmas in Paris is a moving and heartwarming story about love, trust, and self-discovery. Set during the most magical week of the year, the glorious foods and fashions of the most romantic city in the world are sure to take your breath away.

Like I said above I love all of her books and her writing style is just perfection, but I adore this book written by her and it's a perfect cozy read to pick up on a day around Christmas time. Oh and did I forget to mention I adore her characters in this book!


The next book I want to recommend to you all for a great Christmas read would have to be...

Christmas Curveball by Shari Mikels

Published: Carina Press
Pages: 111 pages

Goodreads

 When newly-single Rachel Tanner finds out that pro pitcher Kevin Ganlin has come home to recover from an injury, her heart skips a beat. She’s loved him from afar since her preteen years, never bold enough to let him know.

Kevin is less than thrilled when Rachel shows up at his doorstep. She’s his best friend’s little sister and officially off limits. Besides, he’s staring early retirement in the face, a one-man pity-party with no interest in anything more serious than quick flings on the road. Until an icy mishap lands Rachel cozied up on his sofa, irresistible in his practice sweats.

A little game of Truth or Truth reveals much more than Rachel had ever dared to hope and leads to a midnight make-out session that leaves them both panting. But can she trust that he’s truly changed his ways? This Christmas, Kevin will do whatever it takes to make Rachel understand she’s the only one for him.

This one is a fun and fast read with a fantastic story that will have you dying to find out what's going to happen next. I read this one last year and couldn't get enough of it. I love the romance and how they come together. I read this one in one sitting and know you will too!


I'm going to recommend one more, even though there are dozens of fantastic Christmas books out there. Honestly, I could make this post go on and on, but let's just recommend one more.

 A Christmas Homecoming by Melissa McClone 
Published: Tule Publishing
Pages:  210 pages

Goodreads

A kiss is just a kiss…

Unless it’s under the mistletoe.

Ellie Smith is determined to make up for Christmases past by spreading holiday cheer throughout the Bar V5 dude ranch, but tech “bah, humbug” billionaire, Josiah Whittaker, refuses to bask in the spirit of the season.

Unwilling to let the geek-to-gorgeous Josiah win, Ellie plans to give him a Christmas he’ll never forget. But after a simple kiss under the mistletoe, Ellie and Josiah both start questioning everything. Can Christmas really bring the gift neither one of them were expecting: true love?

   Now this is one that I read back in 2015 for the first time, but I ended up reading it again last year and I'm thinking I might read it again this year. It's an adorable story about two people that question everything in life and how Christmas brings them together. I adore stories like this, don't you? 

 Like I said above I could go on and on with more Christmas books, but I figured we would stop at three for now. What are some of your favorite Christmas reads? I would love to know, maybe get to add some more to my TBR pile! Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas week so far, I know I am.

 

What Ali's Been Watching Lately

I've been wanting to do a post like this for some time now and I'm excited to finally get the chance. I've seen several posts like this in book blogging community and to just name a few that I've seen one being Christina over at Girl in the Pages. I've also seen a few Booktubers do a feature like this as well. I'm not sure who created the feature first, but I'm going to jump on the bandwagon here and share what I've been watching lately! 

To begin, I will go ahead and say I watch a verity of different genres, but I think that just keeps things fun. 

The Walking Dead

 Anyone that knows me knows I watch The Walking Dead religiously. It's my favorite show and I just can't get enough. Yes spoiler alert, I'm not too happy with what just happened in the Mid Season finale, but I'm not going to say anymore about it. Like I said I adore this show.  I've watched The Walking Dead from the very beginning and have even met most of the cast at conventions and such. Which I must say they are all super nice and so amazing with their fans. Which of course made me love the show so much more. My favorite character on the show is...Daryl Dixon, of course! I'm getting ready to binge watch the whole series over again. I've done this a few times already and love it.

The Crown Season 2

I adored season one of this show and knew right away that I had to watch season two. I'm only on episode four I think but I love it just as much as the first.  I love the history aspect even though I'm pretty sure it's not spot on. This show is one that I love to binge watch, when I have time, but it's one you really have to watch to enjoy. It goes through the life of Queen Elizabeth and how she became who she is. Which I'm a huge history buff anyway, so this just ended up being a perfect show for me to watch. 

Up Next 

Right now I have two movies that I'm just dying to see. One of course is the new Thor movie, must I say more, it's Thor! The other is the Murder on the Orient Express. I'm not sure what has captured my interest on this one, I think it just looked very interesting to me and I haven't been able to get it off my mind. I of course have a few more, but for now this seems like the perfect two to start with.  

So what are some of your favorite shows to watch, please tell me so maybe I can add them to my list! 

 

2018 Netgalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge

The 2018 NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge is hosted by Katrina @ Bookish Things. 
So like I said the other day when I posted a 2018 challenge post, I don't usually do a lot of these types of challenges because I usually fail misarably! But this one coinsides with another one that I plan to do, so I figured why not take part in this one as well.  If you would like to know more about this challenge and the rules, CLICK HERE.

So my goal for another challenge is to get my Netgalley percentage up to 80% and I'm hoping this challenge will help with that other goal as well.

Challenge Guidelines

• The challenge will run from Jan 1, 201 – Dec 31, 2018.
• Anyone is welcome to join. You do not need to be a blogger, just post your reviews and come back every month to link them up.
• Any genre, release date, request date, length, etc. counts so long as it came from Edelweiss or Netgalley.
• At the beginning of each month there will be a roundup post for you to add your reviews.
• If you forget to link up one month it’s not a problem just add your reviews next month.
• If you would like to move up or down levels that is completely fine and at your discretion.
• If you have any questions tweet me @BookishThings or e-mail bookishthingsandmore@yahoo.com!
• Hashtag: #NGEW2018

Levels

Bronze – 10 Books

Silver – 25 Books

Gold – 50 Books

Platinum – 75 Books

Diamond – 100 Books

I'm going to start off with 25 books as my goal but will more than likely move my goal up to 50 books. We shall see how I do before I actually say I'm moving it up to 50!  I am super excited about this challenge and hope I can actually achieve my reading goals this year. Cross your fingers for me please!

12 Days of My True Love Gave To Me: Day 2

So it's day two of the 12 days of My True Love Gave to Me here on Ali's Bookshelf and it's been a crazy day for me. First off my Dad is in the hospital and had a life threating surgery yesterday, he's doing okay today, but I was there most of the day. As well as my daughter had a concert today at our mall so I was there for that as well. Anyway, like I said it's been a crazy day for me. After all that I came home and read the second story in this fantastic book and wanted to share my thoughts with you on this one. 

This post isn't going to be as long as the one yesterday. Mainly because I really didn't like this story. It took me awhile to even catch on to what was going on. The story is The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link. If I'm being truely honest, I still don't understand the story it jumped around way too much and it was pretty boring to me. I found myself wanted to jump ahead myself and get to the next story. Which kind of makes me a bit sad, because I wanted to love all the stories in this book. Guess that never really happens with this type of book though. 

Let's hope the next one is better! For now I give The Lady and the Fox...

and that's being generous about it to be truthful! 

On to the next one, I will be back tomorrow to share my thoughts on the next story in this book. It's called Angels in the snow by Matt De La Pena. I'm crossing my fingers that this one is way better! 

12 Days of My True Love Gave To Me: Day 1

I've seen a few different vloggers talk about this fantastic looking book for awhile now and I figured I would give it a shot. Today I got my copy and a idea for the blog popped into my head. Now I'm sure there has been another blogger out there that has done something like this, but I wanted to challenge myself to do 12 posts where I will be sharring my thoughts on each of these stories. Since we are 12 days away from Christmas I thought it fit perfectly that there are 12 stories to share. So for the next 12 days I will make a post every day talking about this book and it's stories. 

Today I want to talk about author Rainbow Rowell's story It's called Midnights and like all of her other books and stories, I loved this one.  It starts out a little confusing but I caught on really fast. It's broken down into several years but each part is only based around the time of the year that the countdown for New Years happens. 

I'm not really going to write any spoilers, but it's about two main characters named Mags and Noel. (I also must say I love the names that author Rainbow Rowell picked because my name is in this story and it's actually spelled correctly. Yeah that doesn't happen often.) Anyway, it showcases Mags and Noel's relationship from just meeting at Alicia's New Years Eve party and him asking if there are tree nuts in what she's eating to the next several years of them as friends. At the end, which is my favorite part, they've all moved away to college but come back for the party. 

I enjoy this authors writing so much and how she can just throw you into a story, like this one and she has you just by the first few lines. So much so that you have to know what's going to happen next. I'm not going to tell you what happens next, because I hate spoilers, but I love this short story.  As of today this book has a 5 out of 5 puppy rating for me. The story Midnights does as well.

I have a couple lines that I loved and wanted to share with you...

Mags laughed. "You're a kaleidospope. You change every time I look away."  "Don't you hate that?" He asked

"I know things have to change, but...I can't lose you. I don't think I get another one like you." 

If you haven't read this book, this is the perfect day to start it. Would love you to read alone with me. One day one story! Also if you have read the book would love to hear your thoughts on this story as well. Hope you all have a great Thursday and as always...