Chapter Adventure Reading Challenges discussion

"Read a book with a wintery setting or a book with a mostly white cover.”

Comment below with the name of the book you read this month and what you thought of it.

I did it!
I read a book with a wintery setting/scene
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger
This is a 5 star read for me. Wonderful story with great writing.

I read Alaskan Holiday, A Mrs. Miracle Christmas and The Christmas Spirit by Debbie Macomber. I enjoyed them. They were light quick reads with that feel good Christmas Spirit in them.

A Dog’s Perfect Christmas - W. Bruce Cameron
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

This easily makes it onto my short list of favourite holiday reads. Bruce Cameron is a new author for me, and I’m pleased to report that his writing style is right up my aisle. I’m so glad I have another of his Christmas novels waiting on my shelf.

Challenge Complete: A Dog's Perfect Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron

Boy, two people couldn't have felt so differently about the same book if they'd tried.

I get the impression that Cameron doesn’t know kids (even though he apparently has some,) because all three in the book are so clichéd it isn’t even funny. Ello (Ello? Ello?! It took awhile to find out that it’s short for Eloise,) the teenager, goes around yelling at her parents, being morose, and just an all around unpleasant person. For half the book she has no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. And what’s with her and her friends’ names? Their names, but none of the other characters’ names, are oddly spelled. Brittne instead of Britney, Soffea, instead of Sophia, Mourgen instead of Morgan.

The twins are even worse. They’re constantly breaking things, they talk in “twin,” and don’t seem to know any English even though they’re three. Or is this really what passes as parenting now?

Oh, and don’t forget the grandfather, who, though grieving (his wife had died two years before,) thinks he should be waited on. He does everything he can to be an unpleasant person. A lot of the time it made the book hard to read.

What makes the book not totally terrible are the dogs. Cameron does have a knack for bringing dogs to life, so that I totally buy into that what I’m reading are really the dog’s thoughts. Unfortunately, the dogs are in the background through most of the book. Its title is totally misleading.

A completely disappointing book; I hope Cameron never goes down this path again.

I read Specials by Scott Westerfeld. It’s the 3rd in a series, and I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the other books. I was a bit confused by the ending…

CHALLENGE COMPLETE: Enjoying Johnstone’s Christmas series - “A Texas Hill Country Christmas” for this month - which always include snow except this one. It was all about the rain that should be snow LOL I am working on “A Frontier Christmas” now & it has plenty of snowstorms.

Challenge Complete!

Read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for mine. I was not a huge fan and found the characters and plot to be kind of boring. The empathy concept is interesting though.

Challenge Complete!
Read Polar Bear Dawn by Lyle NIcholson
A good story, but get out your notebook to keep track of the characters! Sorts them out later, but a bit confusing at first. Interesting crime novel regarding a subject I know little about, but that didn’t deter the story for me.
Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Twelve Dates of Christmas - Jenny Bayliss
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Better late than never, I guess! I enjoyed this author’s style of writing. Her descriptive phrasing is actually quite lovely. The storyline was good, even if the main character and her love interest behaved like absolute twats to one another at times. I did call it that they’d end up together the second his character was introduced to the storyline (which happened on the first page), and I while generally dislike such transparent plot lines, I didn’t mind this time.

Challenge Complete!
Read Christmas Wishes: An Irish Tradition by J.L. Lawrence. It met both challenges this month plus a Christmas books challenge I was reading.
The cover was mostly white.

I read The Snow Child this month and in addition to having a mostly white cover the story takes place mostly in the winter in Alaska. I loved this story - it was a very sweet story of loss and love. And the magical realism of the story was a wonderful backdrop.

I read Silent Night by R.L. Stine because it had a wintery Christmas setting. This book was a favorite when I was a teen and so I decided to re-read it again as an adult. It was an ok story but I have definitely read better horror stories since my youth.

El último logo by Sébastien Peres. The cover has this gorgeous white wolf the size of the book withan amazing winter landscape.

These are books I read in December with a wintery setting or a book with a mostly white cover.
-The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson 4 stars
-A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss 3 stars
-A Winter in New York by Josie Silver 4 stars
-Winter Wishes by Elle Adams by 3 stars
-The Twelve Topsy-Turvy, Very Messy Days of Christmas by James Patterson 4 stars
-The Forgotten Room by Karen White 4 stars
-Just for December by Laura Jane Williams 3 stars
-We Met in December by Rosie Curtis 4 stars
-A December Bride by Denise Hunter 3 stars
-Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan 3 stars
-A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans 3 stars
-All Is Calm / All Is Bright by Colleen Coble 4 stars
-Through the Snow Globe by Annie Rains 5 stars
-The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans 4 stars
-The Gift by Richard Paul Evans 4 stars
-A Christmas Memory by Richard Paul Evans 4 stars
-The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans 3 stars
-Noel Street by Richard Paul Evans 4 stars
-The Noel Stranger by Richard Paul Evans 3 stars
-The Noel Diary by Richard Paul Evans 3 stars
-Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans 4 stars
-The Noel Letters by Richard Paul Evans 3 stars
-Christmas with Tucker by Greg Kincaid 3 stars
-A Dog Named Christmas, Christmas with Tucker, and A Christmas Home: Special 3-in-1 Holiday Ebook Edition by Greg Kincaid 4 stars
- Noelle by Greg Kincaid 3 stars
-A Christmas Home by Greg Kincaid 3 stars
-Christmas in Blue Dog Valley by Annie England Noblin 3 stars
-Christmas from the Heart by Sheila Roberts 3 stars
-Home Sweet Christmas by Susan Mallery 3 stars
-The Christmas Promise by Richard Paul Evans 4 stars
-The Dogs of Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron 3 stars
-The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank 3 stars
-Once Upon a December by Amy E. Reichert 3 stars