Hello!

So I went a little bit crazy on pay day and bought more books than I should have… I’d planned to do No Buy November (which I only broke twice – a full price book which didn’t add to my tbr and five charity shop books for £6.50…) and then do a fun book shopping trip to scratch the itch till the end of the year. I planned to do most of my shopping in ‘The Works’ – a British store that does really reasonably priced books – I had a list of a few titles I wanted to get and then I was going to pick up some festive books in the 3 for £6 section.

I lost my mind.

I bought way more books than I should have or needed to, but I’ve already made a YouTube video and a TikTok about it so rather than rehashing it all again, I’m going to talk about the festive books I bought and why I’m excited to read them!

(have I said that I’m making YouTube videos again here? If not, it’s 10 years since I first did vlogmas so I’m doing it again!)

In no particular order!

The Christmas Jigsaw Murders – Alexandra Benedict

I bought and read ‘The Christmas Murder Game’ by this author and absolutely devoured it. It was every ounce the intelligent murder mystery with high stakes and plot twists, but all set at Christmas and I really enjoyed it. So it’s the only hardback book in this haul and potentially the newest release – I don’t really know what it’s about but I might save this for reading in the run up to Christmas when things slow down a bit.

Because everyone wants a bit of a murder mystery before Christmas, obviously 😂

A Merry Little Meet Cute – Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

I’ve heard such mixed things about this book so I was avoiding it, but then I saw a good review and I read the summary and I actually liked the sound of it so I’m going to give it a go! All I really want from my festive reads is easy, cheesy romances (the murder mystery is an anomaly) and this looks like exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for! I don’t want or need ground-breaking literature, I want the written equivalent of a hallmark movie and I’m so excited to snuggle down and get stuck in to this one.

Lovelight Farms – B. K. Borison

I saw Chandler Ainsley talk about this book on her YouTube channel at least a year ago but I’ve never seen it in a UK store, so I was so excited and taken aback to see it when I went to Waterstones. It really took me by surprise and I’d already lost my mind in book shopping so I bought it. It’s absolutely another gimmicky romance, I don’t even know if it’s set at Christmas but I know it’s set on a Christmas tree farm and Chandler is relatively critical with her reviews so when she likes a book, it’s a sure fire sign that it’s really good!

The Christmas Book Club – Sarah Morgan

I saw this book in Tesco at the beginning of November and it’s been on my list ever since – a festive cheesy romance book about books? Tick, tick, tick! The only place I’ve actually seen this book was in my local Tesco so it was a really reasonable price too. I just need to find all the time in the world to actually read all these books!

One December Day – Rachel Marks

I only picked up this book because Tesco had a two for £9 deal, so even though I could have only spent £5.50 on the Sarah Morgan book, if I didn’t make the most of the deal, I would have been wasting money, obviously! Yes, I spent £3.50 more than I would have if I just bought one but I saved £2 on if I’d bought them both full price so #bookmath.

I picked this one because I didn’t like the look of any of the others, the plot of this one sounded vaguely interesting and the cover is really pretty.

Wreck The Halls – Tessa Bailey

This is another one that I planned to buy in advance and it was only £5 in the Works! I’ve never read a Tessa Bailey before but I follow her on TikTok and I think she’s really funny and I’ve seen people saying really good things about this new release so I figure this is a good place to start! I bloody love Christmas.

All I Want For Christmas – Maggie Knox

This one was in the 3 for £6 sale at The Works and originally, I was going to avoid it because I read a Maggie Knox Christmas book last year and I thought it was awful, but then the premise sounded okay, I needed a third book for the deal and I feel like one bad book doesn’t make a pattern – if I don’t think this one is any good either then I definitely won’t read any more Maggie Knox. If I get round to it this year, I’ll post a review on my book instagram.

The Gingerbread Café – Anita Faulkner

Book 2 in the 3 for £6! Honestly, I like gingerbread and I’ve read a few books based around people that work in or own cafes and it’s Christmas themed and by this point, I have nothing else insightful to say. I’ve not heard of or read this author before so something new to try!

Window Shopping – Tessa Bailey

From no Tessa Bailey to two Tessa Bailey in one haul?? And this one I’ve already started reading! I’m about halfway through this book and I can confirm, Tessa’s writing is very stereotypical romance and incredibly steamy (for the kind of books I read anyway!) but I’m really enjoying it. It’s so easy to read, it’s the most ridiculous hallmark style Christmas romcom and it’s exactly what I want from reading in this season. It’s super short and I’m having a fantastic time.

📚🎄

There’s only so much I can say about a bunch of cheesy festive romance books, but I am excited to read all of these. The likelihood I’ll read them all this year is slim to none, but Christmas does have a habit of coming round every year so I’ll have something ready and waiting for next year!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx