Windows – Emily Minton

Thank you to narrator Sophie James for providing me with a free audiobook in return for this honest review.

I was really excited to read this book after reading the synopsis and finding it has a similar storyline to one of my favourite books ‘The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window’. Two friends of different popularity status who share a special bond when the boy creeps into the girls bedroom at night to sleep in the same room together.

This story follows Lukas and Melinda, who are separated by ‘Lindy’s choice to leave town and not come back after a drunken encounter with Lucas that left her scarred. She then returns four years later to face her biggest challenge. Him.

The Good Stuff

I’m really sorry to say that I wasn’t so impressed by the story that I have many good points. The narrator, Sophie James is fantastic. Her voices for both characters were brilliant and really easy to differentiate.

I liked the idea of the mirror killer. It was a good story, I guessed who it was straight away but there was a little red herring.

It was also quite cute when Lucas and Lindy would have their moments together. I never actually got bored listening to the story.

I quite liked Lindy’s friend Tara, and wouldn’t mind reading the next book to find out about their story. I’d just be a little cautious due to my bad points…

Not My Cup Of Tea

This story is a feminist’s nightmare…I’m not a complete feminist…I do like a little damsel in distress story or an alpha male but this story really took the biscuit. At the beginning of the story, Lindy was overweight and unpopular. She left town, came back stick thin (because she skipped meals and didn’t eat…) and was suddenly socially acceptable.
People liked her, her all-time crush was obsessed with her, and all was fine and dandy. Bottom line moral of the story…if your crush doesn’t like you, lose all of your weight and you’re a winner.

The characters didn’t exactly win me over. Lindy was a whiny, needy character who really needed to stand up for herself and figure out how to make her own decisions.
Lucas was probably the worst character I’ve ever read. When he was around Lindy he was quite sweet, around other people however…the guy really needed to be punched. Personally, if I was Lindy, I’d have made a second thought about whether I wanted to be with Lucas the first time he spoke to his girlfriend. He talked with such disrespect that it was disgusting, whether she was annoying or not, there was no need to talk to people the way that Lucas did.

The characters in the story liked to make their adulthood known. However, this book has the most overbearing parents that I have ever read. The second that a choice needed to be made the parents were in and making choices for the characters, Our characters were also more than willing to bend over backward for them too. I’m respectful to everyone, especially my parents, but all I will say is that if my father tried to make decisions about who I would be living with he’d be told to take a long walk off a short pier.

Another thing about this book is that the dialogue didn’t flow. Some of it felt quite stiff and unnatural and at some points, even the narrator seemed to struggle to understand what characters were actually saying.

Overall Rating

I really wanted to like this story. It seemed so like many books that I love, but it just wasn’t. The characters made me angry and the story didn’t really seem to have much purpose. The narrator of the book is fantastic, I think if I weren’t listening to it, I’d have likely gotten bored with the story and given up reading. Sophie really did save it for me.

2 stars **

Sorry…

Tinsel in a Tangle – Laurie Germaine

Thank you to Angie Hickman for providing me with a free audiobook of this story in return for an honest and unbias review.

Tinsel in a Tangle is a really refreshing Christmas romance set in Flitterndorf, where Santa, or Meister K, in this book, reside. Tinsel is known amongst her clan for bringing chaos in her wake. Having human blood in her genes, she stands much taller than the other elves and lacks that special Christmas talent. Not only that, she is developing feelings for the Kringle next in line for Father Christmas, Niklas, despite the Flitterndorf law ‘romance between elves and Kringles is forbotten’. Plus Niklas seems so intent on watching her fall, there’s no way it could ever happen.

The Good Stuff

The whole idea of this story was fantastic. I’m a huge Christmas fan but have never actually read a Christmas story before and didn’t get around to listening to this until a few days after Christmas when I was starting to get the post-festive/pre-back to work blues. This story got me back into that fuzzy Christmas spirit for a little while longer.

Tinsel was a really loveable elf. She was friendly, clumsy and desperate to find her place in Flitterndorf. Throughout the book we also see her grow, she begins as a very naive elf with a bit of a crush on Niklas Kringle. As the book goes on, she gets stronger and braver and learns to confront him.
Niklas was also a really good character, he was far from being a perfect book boyfriend, but his flaws were made very obvious, the main one, wanting to be perfect. When he was being sweet to Tinsel he was very sweet and was very close to making it into my book boyfriend list…who wouldn’t want a sexy Santa boyfriend??

This story has its own take on Christmas and it’s traditions and they are all fantastic. Flitterndorf has a very German feel to it. Elves wear dirndls, which I think is adorable. The idea of the Kringles passing the role of Santa down the line is also very well thought out, the same as how Children see young, handsome Niklas as old, fat Santa.

Little details that were mentioned throughout the story had a good meaning at the end of the book, like Niklas’ favourite drink and the name of their town.

Angie Hickman was fantastic as the narrator of this book. Her use of Scottish accents was absolutely brilliant and she had this wonderful distinct voice for young children that made them very easy to picture. She really helped to make this story what it was.

I don’t actually have any ‘not my cup of tea’ points because I thought it was a brilliant story. It really helped me keep the Chritsmassy feeling a little bit longer.

Overall Rating

I would love to see this as a movie! I’m pretty sure it would quickly become a favourite next to Elf and Nativity!

5 stars! *****

Casting Corner

Tinsel – Alexandra Daddario

When I was reading Tinsel I had a really clear image of her in my head but couldn’t put an actress to the face that I was imagining. It was literally the night before writing this review that my friend decided to put on ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif’, all I could think was ‘That’s my Tinsel!’ give her some red hair and I think she’d be perfect. She has a stunning pure face and can really throw the banter to Niklas that’s portrayed in this book.

Niklas – Burkely Duffield

A babyfaced blonde with a cheeky, boyish smile. Just how I imagined Niklas.

 

Hard to Find – Morgan Young

Thank you to author Morgan Young for providing me with a free audiobook of this story in return for an honest review.

Hard to find is book 3 in her Small Town Sexy Series. the series focuses on a family and how they find their romances. Hard to Find focuses on hardworking Pheobe, a bar owner who runs into mature student Isaac when he stands up for her in a bar struggle. Gradually, a one night stand turns into a spark of a romance.

The Good Stuff

I really liked Pheobe. The banter she had with her brothers was funny and I would like to read more into the brothers’ stories, especially Porter, who I really liked. Isaac is really sweet too, as a rich boy who left his family to get by himself in a small town, I’d have liked to maybe find out a little more about their values and maybe meet them.

The story was simple but sweet. It was an easy read where you knew what was going to happen, which wasn’t really much, but I still enjoyed listening to it.

The first few steamy encounters were very steamy! They seemed to mild down a little after that but they were well written.

The narrator had a good voice, she had a clear voice which worked for all characters that she spoke for.

Not My Cup of Tea

It maybe could have been a little longer, we could have met Isaac’s family and what they thought of Pheobe, but it was fine where it was.

Overall Rating

A very predictable story but very cute and a nice, easy listen.

4 stars ****

 

Casting Corner

Pheobe – Jennette McCurdy

Pheobe is portrayed as kind of tom-boyish in the book, I think that Jennette would be great for this role as she has the ability to act as ‘one of the boys’ but also be a very pretty girl at the same time.

Isaac – Ansel Elgort

Ansel has that baby face that I imagined when thinking about Isaac. He gives out that great ‘little rich boy’ vibe but also has something sultry about him.