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emilyrainsford's review
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
3.0
The premise here is great - holiday themed meet cute short stories. But a short story is meant to be a snippet of life. It doesn't mean that you have to cram the entire falling in love and planning a future together into the first five minutes they meet! The insta love in these was way too much for me.
The good:
- light easy reads
- all very varied and creative settings
The less good:
- extreme insta love
- what the heck was with that rainbow family thing, and the couple getting married AND having a baby within ONE YEAR?? These people need to calm down.
- choppy, staccato writing style with nary a complete sentence to be found. Why was every sentence chopped into about 5 grammatically incomplete sentences?
It was definitely a low brain power kind of easy read, but the speed at which the relationships moved and the strange writing style mean I wouldn't recommend this one.
The good:
- light easy reads
- all very varied and creative settings
The less good:
- extreme insta love
- what the heck was with that rainbow family thing, and the couple getting married AND having a baby within ONE YEAR?? These people need to calm down.
- choppy, staccato writing style with nary a complete sentence to be found. Why was every sentence chopped into about 5 grammatically incomplete sentences?
It was definitely a low brain power kind of easy read, but the speed at which the relationships moved and the strange writing style mean I wouldn't recommend this one.
vishuslit's review
3.0
Got an advance copy of this one. Wanted to share my review
So NOT a Silent Night is a cute story that gives that warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling. I would’ve liked to have seen this one as a much longer story so that I could have built up and had more time to savor the characters and relationships.
Enticing wrapper number nine really tugs at your heartstrings. I laughed, I cried, it was better than …well it was a nice holiday read. Works as a short.
Give me a Christmas break was a cute story. I wasn’t as invested in this one. I didn’t get the holiday feels. The ending was really one of two options that you imagined while reading.
Half baked holiday was ok.
Billionaire Bash New Years took a very long time for anything to happen. I would say I’m well introduced to the setting! The end was very cute. It certainly redeemed the short.
So NOT a Silent Night is a cute story that gives that warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling. I would’ve liked to have seen this one as a much longer story so that I could have built up and had more time to savor the characters and relationships.
Enticing wrapper number nine really tugs at your heartstrings. I laughed, I cried, it was better than …well it was a nice holiday read. Works as a short.
Give me a Christmas break was a cute story. I wasn’t as invested in this one. I didn’t get the holiday feels. The ending was really one of two options that you imagined while reading.
Half baked holiday was ok.
Billionaire Bash New Years took a very long time for anything to happen. I would say I’m well introduced to the setting! The end was very cute. It certainly redeemed the short.
cathy1969's review
fast-paced
4.0
Half-Baked Holidays was perfectly what I was I was in the mood for: cute & light holidays stories!
There were 5 romantic stories all around Christmas. Not So Silent Night was the first one and it's what hooked me on the rest other than the cute title. In Silent Night, Amanda heads home for the first time in a long time to her mother's house for Christmas. She has several siblings now and some she has never met. She is also lucky enough to run into her high school crush bringing in the romantic aspect.
Each story has an epilogue so you know the direction each story would go if it was a bigger book in and of its own which I really enjoyed.
Thank you to #netgalley and #katbastion for allowing me to read this even though it was released a week ago.
There were 5 romantic stories all around Christmas. Not So Silent Night was the first one and it's what hooked me on the rest other than the cute title. In Silent Night, Amanda heads home for the first time in a long time to her mother's house for Christmas. She has several siblings now and some she has never met. She is also lucky enough to run into her high school crush bringing in the romantic aspect.
Each story has an epilogue so you know the direction each story would go if it was a bigger book in and of its own which I really enjoyed.
Thank you to #netgalley and #katbastion for allowing me to read this even though it was released a week ago.
readlikeamother's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
nkim00's review
4.0
Oh my goodness, so fun!! Five short romantic comedies themed around the holidays; five beautiful whirlwinds that will warm your heart in the chilly seasons. I absolutely loved the style of this book and can't wait to read more by Kat Bastion. Her writing style also so perfectly captures the trains of thought of her protagonists. Lighthearted and exactly what I was looking for.
Many thanks to Kat Bastion and NetGalley for this ARC! This was the first work I've read by Kat and I cannot wait for more.
Many thanks to Kat Bastion and NetGalley for this ARC! This was the first work I've read by Kat and I cannot wait for more.
amswithers's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I breezed through these short stories. While I loved the stories themselves, I found myself feeling as if I were either picking them up at the end or everything was moving way too fast. This would have been a great collection of holiday stories written as epilogues for established characters from other novels.
jaynes_library's review
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
These 5 short stories are a very sweet way to ease into the festive period. It is a cute collection with lots of diversity in characters, life stories, and circumstances. I loved stories 2 and 5 the most, as I felt the other stories moved too fast (even for a short story collection), but overall was a nice read - there was also a great british bake off cameo which was fun!
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