Happy Pub Day to all of these new books!
What books are you most excited for this week?
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and it is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is Books On My Winter 2021 To-Read List. Here’s my list:
(All book covers from Goodreads)
What’s your list of books on your Top Ten Tuesday?
Title: A Holly Jolly Diwali
Author: Sonya Lalli
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★
One type-A data analyst discovers her free-spirited side on an impulsive journey from bustling Mumbai to the gorgeous beaches of Goa and finds love waiting for her on Christmas morning.
Twenty-nine-year-old Niki Randhawa has always made practical decisions. Despite her love for music and art, she became an analyst for the stability. She’s always stuck close to home, in case her family needed her. And she’s always dated guys that seem good on paper, rather than the ones who give her butterflies. When she’s laid off, Niki realizes that practical hasn’t exactly paid off for her. So for the first time ever, she throws caution to the wind and books a last-minute flight for her friend Diya’s wedding.
Niki arrives in India just in time to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, where she meets London musician Sameer Mukherji. Maybe it’s the splendor of Mumbai or the magic of the holiday season, but Niki is immediately drawn to Sam. At the wedding, the champagne flows and their flirtatious banter makes it clear that the attraction is mutual.
When Niki and Sam join Diya, her husband and their friends on a group honeymoon, their connection grows deeper. Free-spirited Sam helps Niki get in touch with her passionate and creative side, and with her Indian roots. When she gets a new job offer back home, Niki must decide what she wants out of the next chapter of her life–to cling to the straight and narrow like always, or to take a leap of faith and live the kind of bold life the old Niki never would have dreamed of.
When twenty-nine year old Niki is suddenly laid off from her job, she decides to do something uncharacteristic and fly to India for her best friend’s wedding on a spur of the moment vacation. She arrives in India in time to celebrate Diwali before the wedding. Niki meets Sam, a London musician, and is instantly attracted to him. The attraction is mutual so they decide to go on a group trip with the newlyweds. However, on that trip, their whirlwind romance is threatened when they have to come to terms with their different lifestyles.
This was a book about celebration. It wasn’t necessarily a Christmas novel, because only the final chapters took place during Christmas. Niki celebrated Diwali, and most of the novel was about her friend’s wedding. There were different kinds of celebrations, and they all gave the story a very festive feel.
I flew through this book. It was fast paced and exciting. It wasn’t steamy but I loved the romance. I fell in love with the characters and I really want to know where their story is heading next!
A Holly Jolly Diwali is a fun, festive romance!
Thank you Berkley Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Have you read A Holly Jolly Diwali? What did you think of it?
This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!
This weekend I finished A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli.
I’m currently reading The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox.
Next I will be reading Christmas with Hamish by Sophie Penhaligon.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
Here are my reviews for the week with my ratings:
I did 6 weekly blogging memes:
How was your week? What did you guys read?
The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.
This Sunday I’m reading A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli.
One devoted modern girl + a meddlesome, traditional grandmother = a heartwarming multicultural romantic comedy about finding love where you least expect it
Raina Anand may have finally given in to family pressure and agreed to let her grandmother play matchmaker, but that doesn’t mean she has to like it–or that she has to play by the rules. Nani always took Raina’s side when she tried to push past the traditional expectations of their tight-knit Indian-immigrant community, but now she’s ambushing Raina with a list of suitable bachelors. Is it too much to ask for a little space? Besides, what Nani doesn’t know won’t hurt her…
As Raina’s life spirals into a parade of Nani-approved bachelors and disastrous blind dates, she must find a way out of this modern-day arranged-marriage trap without shattering her beloved grandmother’s dreams.
What book are you in bed with today?
This meme is hosted by Steph at A little but a lot. The weekly prompts for 2019 can be found here.
This week’s prompt is Dream Collaborations. Here’s my list:
Did you make a Six for Sunday list?
Title: Blame It on the Mistletoe
Author: Beth Garrod
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: November 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★
Tweet Cute meets the movie The Holiday in this funny holiday rom-com where two very different girls swap lives for a Christmas adventure.
Elle is a social medial star with the #DreamLife…or so it seems. Determined to shake up her content and gain new followers, she’s on a mission: can she find a British fan to swap with for Christmas?
Holly loves everything about Christmas. But after a mortifying mistletoe disaster with her ex, her perfect plans unravel like a bad Christmas sweater. Can Holly save the holidays when she switches places with favorite social media influencer?
Elle gets more than she bargained for when she meets the cute boy from across the street. And Holly wasn’t expecting Elle to have a handsome twin brother. This holiday is full of surprises.
Elle is a teenage influencer who wants to grow her social media followers to 30,000 by the end of the year. She decides to do a holiday swap with a fan in Britain to change up her content for the holidays. Holly is obsessed with Christmas in her small British town of Little Marsh. She’s getting over a tough breakup, and finds comfort watching her favourite influencer on social media. When Elle announces that she wants to trade places with a British fan for Christmas, Holly decides she has to live out her dream Christmas in New York City. Luckily, Elle and Holly have a family connection, so trading places is easy. However, they didn’t expect to find romance during their holidays: Elle with Holly’s cute friend and Holly with Elle’s twin brother.
This story was a fun look at social media and the lengths that influencers will go to to get followers. This was an extreme tactic, switching places with a fan, but it was an interesting technique. Elle also had to deal with trolls and fake people on social media, so it also showed the dangers that teens and any influencers can face online.
Holly’s narrative began this story, and her voice reminded me of the Georgia Nicolson books that I loved when I was a kid. She was quirky and funny. However, she lost this humourous outlook throughout the story as things became more serious. I would have loved to have more of that funny narrative voice.
One thing that I didn’t understand is the cover. I didn’t count this against my rating for the author, because I know it wasn’t completely her decision, but I’m not sure why there was only one male and one female character on the cover when the story was mainly about two girls and two different couples. It always bothers me when the cover doesn’t match the book. It would have made more sense to have both the main characters on the cover.
Blame It on the Mistletoe is a cute YA rom com.
Have you read Blame It on the Mistletoe? What did you think of it?
Title: The Holiday Switch
Author: Tif Marcelo
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Underlined
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★
A paperback original romance about a bookish Filipino-American girl who crosses paths with the innkeeper’s aggravating nephew–but when they accidentally switch phones, their newly discovered secrets draw them together.
Lila Castro is ready to take on her last winter break of high school. The snow is plentiful, the mood is full of holiday cheer, and she’s earning extra cash working at the cozy local inn. But her perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss’s frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Veracruz, becomes her coworker. When they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they both realize they’ve been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets–and a dash of holiday spirit–bring them closer to love?
Underlined is a line of totally addictive romance, thriller, and horror paperback original titles coming to you fast and furious each month. Enjoy everything you want to read the way you want to read it.
Lila Castro lives in the small town of Holly, New York, which is always festive. She’s looking forward to working extra hours during the winter break at the gift shop where she works so that she can save money for college next year. However, the extra hours she planned to work are taken over by her boss’s nephew, Teddy Veracruz, who is visiting for the holidays. Teddy doesn’t want to follow the rules they’ve always had at the shop, so Lila becomes frustrated while training him. Then one day, they end up switching phones by accident. Lila and Teddy each discover a secret the other is keeping while they have each other’s phone. Now they have to work together so that they don’t expose their secrets, while possibly finding a holiday romance along the way.
There was great Filipino representation in this holiday story. Lila and her boss, Ms. Velasco, were both Filipino. The star of her favourite holiday movie was also of Filipino descent. I had many Filipino friends while I was growing up, but I didn’t see them represented in North American books or movies, so it was really nice to see this kind of representation in a fun holiday rom com!
I could relate to Lila’s love of books. She organized a free library at the gift shop where she worked and had a secret romance novel blog. There were blog posts throughout the story of her holiday romance novel reviews. They were so cute and relatable as a book reviewer myself!
The Holiday Switch is a fun YA holiday rom com!
Have you read The Holiday Switch? What did you think of it?
Title: Oddball (Sarah’s Scribbles #4)
Author: Sarah Andersen
Genre: Comics, Humour
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: December 7, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★
The newest Sarah’s Scribbles collection from New York Times bestselling author Sarah Andersen
The fourth book in the enormously popular graphic novel series, the latest collection of Sarah’s Scribbles comics explores the evils of procrastination, the trials of the creative process, the cuteness of kittens, and the beauty of not caring about your appearance as much as you did when you were younger. When it comes to humorous illustrations of the awkwardness and hilarity of millennial life, Sarah’s Scribbles is without peer.
This is a new comic collection in the Sarah’s Scribbles series. These comics comment on millennial life, and they are so hilarious. While I was reading, I constantly had to take screenshots of my favourite comics because they were so funny.
Some of the themes in these comics are introverted people, millennial lifestyle, artists, and cats. There were many comics that comment on how millennials use the internet. The first comic had an aging millennial as a senior in a nursing home who reacts to a dog with comments like the We Rate Dogs social media accounts. Anyone who has a cat or has spent time with a cat will relate to the cat comics. Some comics showed the differences between a cat’s and a dog’s reactions to human love, while another answered the question of why witches only have black cats. These were hilarious and relatable comics.
Oddball is a hilarious comic collection!
Thank you Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Have you read Oddball? What did you think of it?
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