Walking In A Witchy Wonderland by Juliette Cross

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I've been saving Walking in a Witchy Wonderland for my Christmas Eve read. This is listed as book 3.5 in the Stay a Spell series by Juliette Cross and is an anthology with 5 short stories! I am going to do five mini summaries for each story and follow with my thoughts as a whole! I was able to use this for the Winter's Kiss full length novel prompt. I also used this for the Banging Through the Snow prompt book that blends holidays.

Bewitch You a Merry Christmas

The first short story takes place shortly after Wolf Gone Wild (if I remember correctly). We see Alpha/Mateo wanting to spend some alone time with Evie but with family parties and holiday plans, she's always busy. Then Evie helps out a man that's been hexed by his witchy neighbor and Mateo accompanies her. Quick thoughts: Quick, sweet, sexy and I always love me some Evie and Mateo/Alpha.

Rockin' Around the Hexmas Tree

The second short story takes place shortly after Don't Hex and Drive. After a white elephant gift exchange with the Savoie sisters, Isadora ends up with a gorgeous ornament. When Devraj and Isadora have higher libidos than normal, they come to find out that the ornament has a love (really lust) spell! Of course it was meant to go to Violet for her to put up on their little tree at her tattoo shop with Nico. Quick thoughts: Even more sexy and Devraj can always get it.

Jingle Bell Jock

The third story is more novella length and really the bulk of the novel with about 100 pages. It takes place during Witches Get Stitches. We've met best friends Charlie and JJ they are part of the Savoie family. JJ is one of the head bartenders at their bar and Charlie is there a few times a week. When they go to a New Year's Eve party, JJ sees Charlie kiss a new boyfriend and suddenly finds it time to confront his feelings. When a few of the sisters talk with both JJ and Charlie separately letting them know that they belong together, JJ and Charlie both have to get past the fear of rejection and possibly losing their best friend. Quick thoughts: So heartwarming and the mutual pining was fantastic. It's Juliette, so there's so great scene and I love morning after shower scenes. Always so intimate and sweet!

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grim

The fourth short story takes place during Witches Get Stitches as well. Later on in that book we see Lavinia having issues with a grim called Gareth. This story is the prelude to their book and part of their first encounters. It's not their first meeting, but I think the 2nd and 3rd. They are competing to win a PR opportunity for a charity. Quick thoughts: I'm even more excited for Always Practice Safe Hex which should be out in June! I loved seeing more of Gareth and can't wait!

Jingle Spells

The final, and sweetest, story is for Nico and Violet from Witches Get Stitches. I can't remember which book, maybe their, but this story is set 2 years later. We get a hint that Evie might be pregnant earlier in one of the other stories and here we see Nico and Violet babysitting for the first time for Evie and Mateo! They had triplets and are about 15-months old. Quick thoughts: Is it too soon to ask for a spin-off for Savoie 2nd generation? But super sweet and with a little bit of steam!

Oh my gosh, I loved getting back to all of our couples from Stay A Spell and seeing some cute stories. I also loved getting to see JJ and Charlie get together and the teaser for Gareth and Livvy. I can't wait to read more from Juliette. She's one of my favorite authors and such a sweet person. I know I've raved about her before, but seriously, check her out. If you mainly read contemporary and aren't really into paranormal or fantasy, this is a great option to try. It's such a great blend with rom-com feels. Plus Juliette knows how to bring the steam. I can't wait to read more!

Have you read Walking in a Witchy Wonderland?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Walking in a Witchy Wonderland, Juliette Cross, 5-stars, 1 day, Paperback, 292 pages, published in 2021

Pleasures of Christmas Past by Lexi Post

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With the craziness of getting things wrapped up for Christmas, I went a few days without reading. When I finally had a chance to read a little before bed, I wanted to pick up something shorter and that would work for one of the two prompts I had left for Banging Through the Snow. One of the ones left was Snow Monster! which is a wintery non-human main character. There was the usual wintery animal and reindeer shifter books you see a lot of this time of year, but then I remembered seeing Pleasures of Christmas Past by Lexi Post. This is the first book of her A Christmas Carol series. I was also able to use this for the got for free prompt for Winter's Kiss.

Jessica has graduated from training to be a ghost of Christmas Past and is assigned her first case. As a social worker when alive, she is very excited to continue her line of work as spirit. Since it's her first case, she's assigned a mentor to watch over and help right anything that goes wrong. The mentor assigned is Duncan, a sexy Scot from the 1800s. They are both attracted to each other, but try to focus on the job. To make things even higher stakes, their are tasked with helping Holly, their boss's widow.

I really struggled with rating this. I feel like I'm going be sneaky and go with 3.5 stars but rounded up to 4 (since I technically read this in 2021 and hadn't started my new rating system yet). There was a lot that intrigued me and kept me engaged. I found the spirit guide system really interesting and wanted to learn more about it. We focus here on the Christmas Past spirits and there's just a little discussion about the other two existing. I also wasn't quite sure what to think about the way the magic(?) works. Some of it was overexplained and other parts weren't.

I also didn't quite feel the tension between Jessica and Duncan. It was steamy and the words were there, but it just felt more physical I guess. I just don't think I completely believe that they are going to be together forever in the afterlife. To get a little more positive, I liked the discussion of grief and regret and just coming to terms with your life. I think a lot of it was smartly dealt with, but at the same time there was also a little too much. We had to deal with the issues of Duncan and Jessica on top of them trying to help Holly and in a way their boss Cameron as well. I also wasn't quite happy with how Cameron was okay with pretty much ruining Jessica's view on her own life. I feel like he could've handled it better and not at the same time of putting both Jessica and his wife's souls at stake.

There's a lot that kept me interested in the story overall and I might pick up more books in the series. It didn't quite meet everything that I was wanting/expecting, but I'm also intrigued to see how Lexi's writing might evolve as she gets further in. It's not at the top of my list, but I'm glad I tried it. It definitely fit my mood better than the other options I was looking at.

Have you read Pleasures of Christmas Past?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Pleasures of Christmas Past, Lexi Post, 4-stars, 2 days, eBook, 216 pages, published in 2015

Heaving Bosoms Reading Embrace 2022

 It's here, the 2022 Heaving Bosoms Reading Embrace! I am a fan of the Heaving Bosoms podcast and love trying to find books that fit the prompts that are jokes from their show! It's hosted by Erin and Melody and they usually have me cracking up. They have great banter between them and I love listening to them as a pick me up. I posted the embrace I did in 2021, so check out my embrace for more ideas.

They go super simple. It's 20 prompts and you can fill them out however you want. They usually do a podcast episode on January reading through everyone that submitted their embrace and it's lots of fun. I remember a couple years ago somebody just did the Mummy and had crazy fun explanations on how it fit each of the prompts. It's not super strict and you can get as creative as you want to meet each prompt. If you haven't tried doing a readathon or reading challenge before, I think this one is a great option since it's only 20 prompts and you have all year to finish it! If you want to learn more, check out their website for more information. They also have a printable pdf of the prompts. Usually in their facebook group there's also a link to a google sheet that's another option to submit your embrace when done (it's what I usually do).

Okay, let's do this! Below are the 20 prompts. As I read throughout the year I'll fill in prompts where I can. When there's only a couple left that are more oddball I'll pick up a book specifically for that. This isn't quite a tbr post, but I'll put some quick fire ideas I have below.

1) Keep Being a Badass

2) Lady Love

3) HB Author

4) Bonkers Romance

5) Scientists in 2022

6) Chekov's Grandma

7) Catch My Farts

8) A Light Kidnap

9) Jimmi Simpson's Robot Adventure

10) Prelude to a Wet Hump

11) St. Vincent Would Always

12) Englandtimes Highlander Vegas

13) Stay Golden Horny Girl

14) Doing 1920s Laundry

15) Forest Bed

16) Murder Robe

17) Ancient Egyptian Glory Hole

18) Pool Floaty Fart Sounds

19) Jazz Bagpipes

20) Funny Joke Dancing

🤗 For HB author I'll probably be using Victoria Aveline once again. I found her thanks to the Facebook group and her next book in the Clecanian series comes out today (January 12th)!

🤗 I feel like reading some sci-fi alien and cyborg romance will cover quite a few prompts. I know that Stay Horny Golden Girl came from an alien romance review, so that would work nicely. It would also easily cover Bonkers Romance and probably Scientists in 2022. If I go with a cyborg sci-fi, that would work nicely for Jimmi Simpson's Robot Adventure.

🤗 For the Ancient Egyptian Glory Hole, I remember there was a trope Tuesday post on instagram that was romances to read if you loved The Mummy. I know there's been a couple other historical romances that have been said to have adventure themes and Indiana Jones vibes. I will definitely need to try to find those posts. I know I added a lot of the books to my tbr on goodreads, but I think it'll be quicker to find the instagram post and see what books were rec'd.

🤗 For Scientists in 2022, my first though was Ali Hazelwood. She wrote The Love Hypothesis last year and has her next book out tentatively this year. She also has three shorter books that are also set in STEM fields.

🤗 For St. Vincent Would Always, I think I'll just pick up a Lisa Kleypas. St. Vincent is the hero from Devil in Winter. I do have the prequel book in the Wallflowers series to read still, but I think I'm going to use any Lisa Kleypas to cover this.

🤗 My last quick idea is to pick up some highlander books for the prompts Englandtimes Highlander Vegas or Jazz Bagpipes. I could also go for a contemporary set in Scotland or with a Scottish main character. I know that Karen Marie Moning has some time traveling highlanders in her Highlander series, so I might finally pick that up.

I hope those quickfire ideas helped jogged your brain in coming up with some ideas, but I'm excited to see how I'm going to fill all these prompts. I hope you are participating as well, even if you don't listen to the podcast! Everyone can get embraced for their reading this way!

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

All I Want For Christmas Is A Cowboy by Jessica Clare

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After getting through a couple rereads, I wanted to pick up something holiday and new. I decided to stay with reading books I already owned in paperback and decided to pick up All I Want For Christmas Is A Cowboy by Jessica Clare. This is the first book in her Wyoming Cowboy series. I do also want to mention that about every other book in the series seems to be holiday/winter based. I was able to use this for the set in winter prompt for Winter's Kiss and I Smell Snow! (snow on the cover) prompt for Banging Through the Snow.

Cass is getting away from the city and headed up to her family's cabin in Wyoming. When she gets into a car accident at one of her last turns, Eli, a local cowboy finds her. A blizzard is happening and he takes her back to his ranch. When Cass awakens, she finds that she has lost her memory after hitting her head pretty badly on the windshield. Since they are trapped together, Eli takes care of her as best as he can while also running the ranch single handedly. They both are attracted to each other, but Eli doesn't want to take advantage and neither of them know for sure that Cass is single. As Cass heals and starts to get antsy, Eli lets her start helping him with his chores.

This was a great snowed in together full length novel. I really enjoyed Eli, the gruff cowboy. He was so caring for Cass, even when frustrated that he kept being pulled from his chores to take care of her. I also loved how he was very aware that he didn't want to take advantage of her or her situation and when things start to get steamy between them he left it up to Cass to really push for more. Usually I prefer for the man to be a little more dominant and make the move, but it really worked here.

I haven't read too many amnesia books, but I loved how it was handled here. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but the way that little things would come to Cass was really cool. Not just memories would come back, but things she was able to do. I also loved how she would test how something would feel and if it felt like her or not. She crochets and when she finds yarn, she just knows how to do it, almost like muscle memory. Another part I really loved, is Eli's reaction to the hat that Cass made for him. That scene just hits me and why I choose to make my gifts every year, no matter how stressful it gets. It just makes it all the better when the person you've made it for appreciates the gift and time and thought that went into it. There were a couple things that really bothered me though. First off was the beginning and subsequent conflict with Ken, Cass's employer's boyfriend. I just felt like there was enough drama with her boss and the car accident that Ken was unnecessary. I also was a little frustrated with how Cass got into an accident. Driving in a blizzard is enough to cause issues without her being distracted by her phone. I just didn't like the way it happened. Also, I didn't like that she didn't talk with Eli before heading back to New York. He even kind of gave her crap a little about just talking with him and they can work it out. She knew she was still missing pieces of information and I didn't like that. Everything else though, I enjoyed!

I had a lot of fun getting back to Jessica Clare. I haven't read her in a while and binged a lot of her works when I found her Billionaire Boys Club series. This is probably my favorite billionaire romances of the ones that came out around that time. She also writes under Jill Myles and Jessica Sims. I have read quite a lot of her backlist under all three names and she is one of the few authors I have a backlist checklist for. I'm not sure if I'll pick up more of the series this month since they aren't all holiday based, but we'll see where my mood takes me!

Have you read All I Want For Christmas Is A Cowboy?

Bookishly Yours

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: All I Want For Christmas Is A Cowboy, Jessica Clare, 4-stars, 1 day, Paperback, 283 pages, published in 2018

Head Coach by Lia Riley

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After rereading Mister Hockey for the cozy feels, I knew I had to reread Head Coach as well. This is the second book in Lia Riley's Hellions Angels series. While I haven't reread this one as much, this is the 3rd time I've read it. I was able to use this for the Winter's Kiss prompt forced proximity.

Neve is a reporter currently covering the Denver Hellions hockey team. She has an antagonistic relationship with Coach Tor. When they are around each other in more casual ways now that Breezy, Neve's sister, is dating Jed, their relationship starts to change. Tor is all hockey all the time and is still hurt from the divorce with his first wife. When his sister gets injured in a climbing accident and unable to attend his ex's wedding, at the request of his daughter Olive, Tor wins a bet and the favor he takes from Neve is to be his plus one. When there's a mix up at the hotel and they have to share a room, with one bed, the tension between them finally snaps.

This is probably one of my favorite enemies to lovers books. I'm not usually a fan of the trope, but I think it's done so well here with the tension between them. The enemies portion really comes from the disparities between their jobs. Tor is known to call the reporters "jackals" and Neve is a go-getter herself. Now, in Mister Hockey there's representations of a plus sized woman and the insecurities she might have. Neve is shorter and slimmer and has what I picture as a figure skater's body, just not quite as show ready. She has insecurities of her own and I love that this book, especially when paired with the first, really hammers home the point that no matter what you look like, you are you're own worst critic and can have a myriad of insecurities. It doesn't help that Tor says some hurtful things before the dynamic changes between them.

One of my favorite scenes is when they go running up in Telluride and end up in the path of a moose. That scene has stuck with me and I think about that scene more than you would expect. The fright that Neve feels but also exhilaration and way that they connect afterwards is a good example of how adrenaline can push a body. I also love that it doesn't take too long for the dynamic to shift between them, but they both don't want to admit it right away. As the reader though you can feel the change. One reason I really struggle with enemies to lovers is the lame excuse that the hero or heroine has hatred for the other. A lot of the times it seems like the hate is more one-sided and the other is acting out of hurt. Here they both give and take and it makes sense why they are antagonistic towards each other. Tor is the tight-lipped hockey coach and Neve is the reporter that wants all his secrets and enjoys needling him. I also love that she's behind some of the memes about him. There's a lot of pop-culture references in the series, and while it might not age well, as of now I still enjoy them. Maybe because I grew up during the same time as Lia Riley. Also, there's a lot of Denver and Colorado things that I feel like Lia had to live in Colorado at some point. Her bio says she's in California, but she had to have been here. It's the little things about Colorado that she gets just right, down to complaining about all the California drivers and Californication of certain areas. There's also a discussion about how a lot of born and raised Coloradoans aren't going into ski towns frequently to ski and snowboard. I have been to ski towns a couple of times, but for school functions that were during the summer/early fall. I am a proud Coloradoan, born and raised, and have never been on a slope.

Anyways, these books just really hit me well as you can tell. There's a lot of things that just work for me. I do have to say, the first time I read the third book I rated it 3-stars. It just didn't work for me as well. I haven't tried rereading though. I don't know if I will next, but I do want to try it again and see if my thoughts have changed. I just loved Mister Hockey and Head Coach so much that it's hard to meet their bar. If you enjoy hockey romance, certainly check out this series. I love that we get the older characters and the coach. I feel like a lot of the popular hockey romances out there are set in college or new adult so I love that these are established men that know what they want in life outside of hockey.

Have you read Head Coach?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Head Coach, Lia Riley, 5-stars, 1 day, Paperback, 224 pages, published in 2018