Hello my lovelies and welcome to BLOGMAS day 6!
I hope you are all well and are enjoying Christmas time, I already feel like it's flying by. In today's Blogmas post, you can see by the title we're going to be talking about Christmas Reading. I don't read very much anymore just because I don't really have much time, university keeps me very busy. But over the holidays it is the perfect time to get back into reading as I have lots of free time.
For Christmas last year my mum bought me a book called, The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan. I decided to save reading it until next year's festive season, i.e this years Christmas.
Firstly, we have to mention how gorgeous the front and back cover is. The animation on it is completely my style, I love how girly it is, I feel like my pink, white, and silver Christmas tree background adds to the girliness of the cover. The colour scheme is gorgeous, it really goes well together, and of course, it's Christmassy! I adore Christmas so it's the perfect book for me.
When I first opened it, in the introduction it stated that there had already been two books related to the story prior to this current book. My first thought was, "Great, now I'm not going to know anything of what is going on and what has happened previously in their life", however Jenny cleverly included key sections from the previous books that are re-iterated in this story. E.g. Who are Rosie and Stephan?, Who else is in their families?, How much time has passed? etc. So it was really helpful to read that before I delved into the book itself. She even included a timeline of their family tree and a map of the village the main characters live in. I just think it's those little touches that add to knowing what is truly going on and what it's really set like etc.
I am currently only on chapter three, not much at all. But, from what I have read, it's been a really enjoyable and an easy read book. It's written the way I like which is enough description of say the setting of a place to imagine it and enough straight to the point moments that you don't need much description for.
So far in the story, Rosie and Stephan (the main characters) have not long been engaged to be married as the previous book is set during Christmas and this one is set straight after Christmas. Rosie has been on cloud nine since that day; Rosie and Stephan live in Rosie's great aunt Lilian's small cosy house (I'm picturing it as a cottage) and although Stephan would rather stay living there. Rosie has just discovered she's pregnant, *oops spoiler*
And, even though Rosie does love the cottage, she's considering moving up into Stephan's mums huge posh house (Stephan's mum is quite rich) as the cottage only just about fits the pair of them, let alone when their family becomes a trio. Currently, Rosie has just told great aunt Lilian about her pregnancy and they both couldn't be more excited.
I've really enjoyed the story so far and I think I'm going to read some more of it tonight, but it's made me want to read more of Jenny Colgan's books. One of the books I really like the look of is, West End Girls as it's set in London and The West End just makes me think of the stage which is where I want to be one day. Another one that I'm quite intrigued by is, The Good, the Bad and the Dumped. From the description it seems pretty relatable to my love life currently and I just think I'd really enjoy it. I'm going to look into buying those after Christmas.
If you're interested in The Christmas Surprise, here is a link:
My favourite books seem to be the ones that aren't hyped about or aren't popular whatsoever. Two of my favourite books are Picture's of Lily written by Paige Toon which I was actually given as a free gift with one of iPhone's advent calendars where you get given free apps, free iBooks etc. I read this book on my iPad and I don't actually have a physical copy, I really would like to get a physical copy of the book because I absolutely loved it. I'm not going to go into detail about the story as quite a lot happens with time jumps which I absolutely love. But if you are interested, then here is a link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/pictures-of-lily/paige-toon/9781471129599
The second is, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? written by Claudia Carroll which my mum bought me randomly one day a couple years ago now. Again, I'm not going to go into detail about the story as again, a lot happens and changes in the characters lives which is then brought back again after a year apart, again time jumps, bloody love 'em! But if you are interested in checking out this book, here is also a link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/will-you-still-love-me-tomorrow/claudia-carroll/9781847562104
One thing I notice about The Christmas Surprise and my other two faves, Picture's of Lily and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? is, yes they all have a love element to it and are quite heavily couple based (what does that say about me? haha) but their similarity lies within the author's writing style. All the stories have that balance of description on moments that need a description and that straight to the point punch on moments that don't. And I really like that, it makes it easy and enjoyable for me to read. It keeps me engaged with the story and makes me want to carry on and try to find books that are similar as I know I will enjoy them.
This post went on a bit of a tangent at the end, but I hope you guys enjoyed it anyway. And if you're anything like me, I hope I gave you some reading inspiration for the new year.
Love,
Katie
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