The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘rachel hawthorne’

When it comes to the holidays, I am like a kid looking through a Christmas toy catalog. And I’m like that from the day after Thanksgiving until the day after Christmas. I put my tree up as soon as my husband lets me, I program the stations that play Christmas music the day they start, I’m already about 1/3 the way done with my Christmas shopping, I DVR every Christmas movie I can find, and I watch Elf as many times as humanly possible in a month’s time.

Until last year, that was the extent. That was until I found that there were such things as Christmas Reading Challenges. I found one at True Book Addict last year, and another one is being held this year. Last year, I read 5 holiday themed books. Click here to see my list. Since I knew I wanted to take part again, I love to reading with the seasons, I have been stockpiling holiday books all year long.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’ll be diving into this year, between at-home screenings of Elf:

 Icing on the Lake by Catherine Clark
Snowbound by Lindsay McKenna, Cara Summers and Laura Marie Altom
High Heels and Holidays by Casey Michaels
The Best Girl by Emma Harrison
Christmas Spirit by Amy Garvey
Last Christmas by Kate Brian

And lets not forget the ones I have on NetGalley:
Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber
The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde
Twas the Night by Sandra Hill 

There are three levels in this year’s challenge:
1 Book: Candy Cane
2-4 Books: Mistletoe
5+ Books: Christmas Tree

Considering I have 9 books already on the shelf screaming to be read, I went with Christmas Tree.

There are still a couple more that I would like to add to this list including:
Snow in Love by Claire Ray
Snow Queen by Emma Harrison
Suite Dreams by Rachel Hawthorne

Obviously, I have some pretty big expectations for just over a month, but I am really excited for this challenge and getting into the holiday spirit.

Are you stocking up on holiday books too? Have any suggestions for me?

The best thing about summer vacation for Dani is collegiate baseball and the Ragland Rattlers. She’s gone to every practice and every game since the team first came to town and this year, she has a plan to date one of the baseball players. She and her best friend Bird both talk their parents into being host families and letting players stay with them. The only rule is you can’t date your host player. That may be harder than it sounds though when Dani’s player is the starting pitcher and the boy of her dreams.

The Boyfriend League is a very quick, cute summer read. The characters are like able, the plot is cute and although the girls are young and a tid bit immature, I didn’t hate them.

One part of this book that stood out in my mind, and made me not like the girls for a bit was when they decide to walk out of the stands during one of the games and go to the dugout to talk to the players. Maybe this is something that is ok during a collegiate baseball game. but I just can’t imagine two high schoolers going and talking to players while they were to be focused on a sport. Maybe I am being petty, but being an athlete myself growing up, I felt like this showed a lot of immaturity.

On the other side, you have to hand it to these girls for coming up with such a brilliant idea to getting a boyfriend on the baseball team. If ou host a player, you will be friends with them and get a chance to spend time with the other players. They may be smarter than what I wanted to give them credit for. I, for one, never devised this smart of a plan to get a boyfriend.

This isn’t the first Hawthorne book I have read. I read Snowed In as part of my Christmas challenge last year. It was really cute. I also have Island Boys and Girls on my bookshelf to be read. I think the thing I like most about these, other than the cute plots, is that the covers are always super cute and girly. It’s something I will definitely keep in mind if I ever finish writing a book.

I give The Boyfriend League 4 bookmarks.

ISBN:  978-0061138379
Published: June 26, 2007
Author Website
Kari got this book from BookMooch

Release: November 27, 2007

As much as I loved Ex-Mas, it set the bar REALLY high for the other holiday books I have on my shelf.

Ashleigh Snow is embarking on a new journey with her mom. They’re running away from the life they used to know. Ashleigh’s dad is getting remarried so they decide to start fresh. They move to the Great Lakes and buy a B&B. Ashleigh doesn’t realize until they get there how different it is. There are only 5 or 6 kids in each grade at her new school, in Texas there were over a thousand. It snows so much, for a couple of months, they have to close down the road to the mainland. One thing this town is not missing out on is the hotties. Within the first day, Ashleigh meets two. One she up a date with, the other makes her her pitter-patter. But, he’s not exactly available. Ashleigh tries to deal with this crush while making friends, fitting in and staying warm. In the end though, will she choose a new girlfriend instead of the hottie or risk her reputation for a couple dates? Because really, she never goes on more than 3.

When I started this book, I was in love! I could picture the town and I immediately wanted to move there. It sounded so quaint and beautiful and SNOWY! I mean when you don’t have to drive anywhere, who doesn’t love snow? By the way, there are no vehicles allowed on the island. How cool is that?

Well, after a great, promising start, the book didn’t really deliver. It was cute and VERY tweeny, but I have a hard time liking a book that says it’s ok to cheat. Yes, in Ex-Mas, cheating was also a topic, but that cheater was giving a bad name and a black eye. In this book, they said “Oh no, we’re bad” , but it still seemed like it wasn’t a big deal. I just don’t think that’s a great thing to ok when you’re gearing this book at teens who most likely will go through crushes on friend’s boyfriends.

I thought this book had great potential, and there’s really nothing I could think of to spice it up, it just didn’t do it for me. I will be dreaming of this town for the rest of my life though. But, I can only give it two bookmarks.

This is part of my Christmas Reading Challenge.
1. Ex-Mas

So, after my post about the holiday books I wanted, I couldn’t make myself wait. I went to the mall twice this week and both times left with holiday books. I am so excited to start reading these, but I am making myself wait until after Thanksgiving. The countdown is on until I can start Christmasing

Bought with giftcards: