The Nightingale Before Christmas
by Donna Andrews
3 stars. Audiobook. This time of year I am a sucker for a holiday story and the premise behind this one intrigued me. It was a murder mystery set during the holidays. The characters and suspects were primarily home decorators/interior designers. These home decorators were assigned rooms in a house in which they were supposed to decorate in whatever holiday theme they wanted all vying for the big prize money to the room that was picked the holiday winner. As can be suspected the designers were all full of different personalities. The main character of the story was not a designer, but instead was the manager of the Christmas house project. She is entangled in the murder from the start.
I just couldn't get into this story. I didn't overly enjoy the voice of the narrator on this audiobook and the characters were not likable.
Knife by Jo Nesbo
4 stars. I love this series. It is #12. I highly recommend starting from the beginning as there is back story from previous books that seem to build on each book in the series. The detective Harry Hole is back at it again although he really isn't "legally" back at it. This book just really caught me by surprise. There is a murder that I just didn't seem coming and sometimes those type of murders make the best books. Harry, of course, is going to solve the mystery and find the murderer. Jo Nesbo is a great writer and I find his style of unfolding a story so unlike other mystery writers. I can't give you much more information otherwise I will spoil this book. I have not read all the books in this series- for some reason I started toward the middle (my favorite is The Snowman # 7), but I will continue to be excited when I hear another Harry Hole book is out on the shelves.
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
4 stars. I love me a good romance/love story. This is our book club pick for January and I finished it quite quickly as the story moved at a nice pace as it wasn't all hearts and flowers. Meg is a professional, she gets paid to write. She designs wedding invitations and one of her old clients (Reid) has an issue with a wedding invitation she worked on for him and his then fiance. The invitation had a secret code within the lettering. Reid wants to know why she wrote this code in his wedding invitation. Due to needing the answer Meg and Reid become intertwined first as acquaintances, then friends, and possibly more. I liked the realistic story line. I liked that everything didn't seem to come easy to Meg and Reid and their relationship was tested.
Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum
4 stars. Abbi Hope Goldenstein is just trying to be a normal 15 year old girl. She is working at a summer camp and really enjoying the status of being unknown. For you see she is famous. She was Baby Hope, the baby in the photo being carried out of the South Tower of the World Trade Center on that infamous day in September 2001. At the camp Noah Stern discloses to Abbi that he knows who she is and if she helps him with a "project" he won't share her secret with the rest of the camp counselors. His "project" is to interview all the other people caught in that iconic "Baby Hope" photo. He tells Abbi he is doing this for his school newspaper, but he has ulterior motives for wanting to interview all who are in the picture.
I thought this book did a great job of portraying not only the events on 9/11, but the aftermath of this horrible day in history. Julie Buxbaum knows how to write in a respectful yet honest voice on tough subjects. I had previously read her book "Tell Me Three Things" and loved it (5 stars), so this one had been on my TBR for awhile. I'm glad I was able to read it before 2019 ended. I plan to pick up many more of her books as she knows how to keep a story moving and the content of the story is always multi-layered and deep.
Bear Town by Fredrik Backman
4 stars Audiobook. This was my second try with listening to this book. The first time I just couldn't get into it. My second time was spurred on by a friend who highly suggested I give it another try. So I did and I really enjoyed it, if you can say that about a book that has some tough subject matter (can't share much and give the story away). The book is based on a hockey team and a town who loves and fully supports this hockey team. The book revolves around the "big game" and there are multiple characters giving their side of the story. Flash backs I enjoyed in this book. The hockey parts of this story I enjoyed too, but were also tough sometimes to hear as the sport can be brutal to the body and the mind. I was interested to hear there is a sequel to this book- "Us Against You" and I plan to put that on my audio listening list soon as I'd like to see how Backman develops the sequel and moves this story onward.
Note to self- sometimes giving a book a second try, especially when a friend highly recommends it, is a very good idea.
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