Black Coffee discussion

Here is where we'll discuss You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Toni Shiloh.

Synopsis: Starr Lewis reluctantly returns home for the holidays jobless, single, and not at all prepared to be dragged into her sister's wedding activities--or to witness her sister's marriage to Starr's ex-boyfriend on Christmas Eve. But when her brother's charming best friend, Waylon Emmerson, attends their family Thanksgiving, Starr begins to believe that maybe coming home isn't so bad.

As Starr endures wedding preparations, she takes comfort in Waylon's presence and finds the perfect distraction in helping him keep his late mother's Christmas shop afloat. As the spark between them grows, Starr must decide what she wants out of life--to go back to New York City or to stay and pursue a new dream.

A joyous, heartwarming, and magical holiday romance from Christy Award-winning author Toni Shiloh that will keep you cozy under the twinkling Christmas lights.

Will you be joining us?

I finished this last night, so am looking forward to discussing it :)

Do we need all month to read this?

I just got my mines. Starting tonight.

I think I might be finished by Saturday. It is starting out good. I have the audio.

This was one of my November reads, for another book club discussion, that will take
' place this month.

I'm going to start the audio tonight, so I'll be done fairly soon as well.

I finished this one yesterday as well. I'm closing up my time on Goodreads and wish Everyone ... Happy Holidays and Blessed New Year. @Karin, I will pray for you, Sweetness. For God to Keep His Love and Comfort wrapped All around you Always ❣️.

@Octavia, are you coming back next year? I hope so, I look forward to your thoughts on our group reads.

Octavia wrote: "I finished this one yesterday as well. I'm closing up my time on Goodreads and wish Everyone ... Happy Holidays and Blessed New Year. @Karin, I will pray for you, Sweetness. For God to Keep His Lov..."

Happy Holidays!

I finished this morning! Super cute! looking forward to the discussion.

Octavia wrote: "I finished this one yesterday as well. I'm closing up my time on Goodreads and wish Everyone ... Happy Holidays and Blessed New Year. @Karin, I will pray for you, Sweetness. For God to Keep His Lov..."

Thanks!

OMG y’all this book is in popular demand at my library. It’s on hold for at least 12 weeks 🤦🏾‍♀️ hopefully people are reading it quickly

Shayla, I requested at the end of November. I always notice the same thing with our libraries here. Especially, with african-american authors unfortunately. So, when I notice a new release soon coming, I usually go to the library site and place the book on hold before it comes to the library. It will then show your spot in queue. I was shocked when I did it with James McBrides' last book, and was still #38 in queue, before it reached the library.

Karin wrote: "Octavia wrote: "I finished this one yesterday as well. I'm closing up my time on Goodreads and wish Everyone ... Happy Holidays and Blessed New Year. @Karin, I will pray for you, Sweetness. For God..."

Always!

I finished it last night. So cute. That Angel, SMH!

@Shayla you can get epub on VK. If you’re in to that.

https://m.vk.com/wall-196255529_19803

Dosha (Bluestocking7) wrote: "I finished it last night. So cute. That Angel, SMH!"

I liked the ending a great deal--just what I want in a holiday romance.

Octavia wrote: "Shayla, I requested at the end of November. I always notice the same thing with our libraries here. Especially, with african-american authors unfortunately. So, when I notice a new release soon com..."

I've had to wait in line for books I put a hold on before they are released, which is one of the reasons there aren't many books I read right away. I didn't have to wait all that long for this book, which surprised me because it's the only one not still being acquired by the library (it's Christian and not many libraries carry much Christian fiction.)

Now had it been James McBride I'd have never gotten it so quickly if it were a new release. I just did a test hold and would be number 84 in line if I had kept it on hold! I'm just going to wait to read it because I don't know what will be going on in my life by the time it would be my turn. So far I've read 5 of his books.

@bookzamillion and @karin the audio book actually became available a few hours after I stated it was on hold. It’s weird because it said my wait was several months lol, the ebook is still on hold for “12 weeks” maybe but it doesn’t matter because I’m canceling it.

I have 25 mins left and I think Star and Waylon have the cutest story line, I absolutely love them.

Before I forget, Star and Angel’s family did them both a great disservice by acting like Ashton was an acceptable man. In my opinion, no person is a good person if they will get with your sibling. Also, they should not have acted liked Angel did no wrong and they should’ve shamed her to hell and back LOL.

@karin your comment just made realize this is a Christian book so I can’t believe they wrote this without having any one of these characters mention that it’s a sin to do what Angel and Ashton did. 🙄

Angel has some serious issues, no doubt. I don’t think that anyone needed to tell Angel what type of man Ashton was. She knew he was with her baby sister, WTH? She was not blind to that fact, so shifting blame off her on to anyone else is letting Angel off too easy.

It's so funny, because I'm a stickler for Christian Fiction...I avoid it at all cost, but I didn't even realize this was a Christian fiction book until I was done reading it. lol.

I liked the way it was approached, their faith, wasn't shoved down your throat. It didn't come across as preachy at all.

Angel was definitely a piece of work. It was hard to believe that she WASN'T the baby. It's as if everything had to be centered around her. It's clear Starr had a better relationship with her brothers, but I wish we could have explored her relationship with her sisters Eve and Angel (pre-Ashton).

I figured that Angel and Noel were the first set of twins and then after the second set of twins, Angel just didn’t get enough attention. I would have liked to know more about Gabe and Eve. They really stole the shining light from Angel. The damage was already done by the time the brightly shining Star was born, lol. As far as I am concerned Ashton and Angel deserved each other, too bad the wedding was called off. They most likely would have been perfect for each other: two phony egomaniacs with the same agenda. The Christian angle was better than most Christian romances. It was brought up during some hard decision making issues which was just enough. No need to overdue it unless Angel was the one going all religious and turning over a new leaf.

Me too Lulu, i don't do Christian fiction at all so finding out this is considered Christian fiction was surprising. Plenty of people believe in God so them speaking about praying didn't strike me as odd. But now that i think about it they mention it frequently enough to be put in the genre. I don't have any issues with people(real or fictitious) talking about praying or asking for prayers, i just don't like when things start to get preachy.

The only good thing about this book is Star and Waylon. I just can't get over how no one in their family said anything to Angel about betraying her sister the way she did. It's absolutely unrealistic that not one of the three other siblings didn't call her out. Even the mom blew it off like it was no big deal.

It seems like they were all thinking Star was jealous instead of hurt and betrayed. This book really pissed me off because this is a huge betrayal in the family but no one is speaking on it. The saving grace of the book is Waylon, Star got on my nerves sometimes but i liked her overall.

The flaws in the family ran deep. Family counseling was in high need for this family. I didn’t like the way Star was not honest enough to tell Wayland about her job search in NYC. That was a big disappointment in her character for me.

Yea that family for sure needs counseling.

Also, Eve said she was going to help Star speak up for herself but that became a loose end because it didn’t happen and was not spoken of again 🤦🏾‍♀️ I think that would have really helped her and made it seem like they cared about her

Yup, all Eve did was hurt Star’s feelings. The family was pretty toxic to Star. Good thing it was a short story because it was packed with abuse.

Dosha! I was just thinking the same, although I would hope with a longer book they all would have redefined themselves….but probably not. Lol

Did you feel like it would have been nice to know more about Eve, Gabe and even Noel? Somehow I wanted to know what the heck happened to Angel!

Yes. It’s been previously stated, but I need to know what shaped that family dynamic! Starr was the baby, but Angel got away with murder! And no one spoke out that the marriage was wrong?!

The dad was a workaholic and I’m not sure what he and his wife’s relationship was really like. I originally thought he was having an affair, until he made the son leave dinner with him to go back to the office. Lol

He sounded like a military dad to me. He made his middle son miserable. Not hard to understand why Star ran to NYC

Lololol Lulu I thought the dad was having an affair too!!!

I didn’t pick up on the affair, lol

Yea I do believe if the book was longer the character development would have been a lot better. We’re all somewhat confused why Angel acts like the youngest sibling when she’s the middle child. Her character is a spoiled brat and that’s just not typical of a middle child, and if I’m not mistaken there’s no back story telling us how she became that way.

I thought Angel was in the first set of twins. Angel and Noel, then Eve and Gave - correct? Eve would be the middle.

Dosha (Bluestocking7) wrote: "I didn’t pick up on the affair, lol"

Yea they said he’s always gone and would come in late. I think he came home for dinner and then left back out after eating. I thought he had a whole other family but then he asked Noel to go to the office with him so that let us know he’s really working.

Oh I thought it was Eve and Noel then Angel and Gabe because Star said something to Gabe about him and Angel having their set of friends so she had to make her own. That made me think they were the second set of twins because she would’ve just said Eve’s name instead of Angel.

You are probably right. I know there are six years between Noel and Star. I thought his twin was Angel, but I probably got it twisted.

Yes, the family had many issues and I was appalled that her family seemed okay with Ashton as well. What I didn't realize until it was over is that this is a bit of a rewritten and expanded book, and it looks like the original title was book one in a family series--I think each child was going to get a book.

Here is the Lewis Family series page, and you can see it's not finished https://www.goodreads.com/series/3049...
but I notice that this book is not part of that series.

Wow! Karin, thanks for this information

Oh wow! That is interesting! Thanks Karin!

Dosha (Bluestocking7) wrote: "I figured that Angel and Noel were the first set of twins and then after the second set of twins, Angel just didn’t get enough attention. I would have liked to know more about Gabe and Eve. They re..."

I wasn’t crazy about Angel, but I don’t think she deserved Ashton. She was older that Starr, she was probably desperate to be married and like so many, she definitely turned into a bridezilla. She definitely reaped what she sowed. I believe Angel is redeemable, while Ashton will be a jerk for life.

Shaylah wrote: "@bookzamillion and @karin the audio book actually became available a few hours after I stated it was on hold. It’s weird because it said my wait was several months lol, the ebook is still on hold f..."

Which one of the sins are you referring to.

BernieMck wrote: "Which one of the sins are you referring to.."

“Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her life time.”
‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭18‬:‭18‬ ‭KJVAAE‬‬

BernieMck wrote: "Dosha (Bluestocking7) wrote: "I figured that Angel and Noel were the first set of twins and then after the second set of twins, Angel just didn’t get enough attention. I would have liked to know mo..."

I agree about Angel being redeemable but Ashton is set to be a jerk for life.