It seems as though there is a shortage of Christmassy books due to Christmas only lasting around one month (or less, or more, depending how you look at it). I have only read three books that are Christmas-related and, coincidentally, they are all Young Adult. Today is Day 2 of my 6 Days of Blogmas posts and I thought it would be odd if there was not at least one post about Christmassy books!
Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her high school teachers who think the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.
Late one night a man walks into the luxurious home of disgraced banker Harry McNamara and his wife Julie. The man launches an unspeakably brutal attack on Harry as a horror-struck Julie watches, frozen by fear.
Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Andrews follows Eliza, a seventeen-year-old girl. She is heavily involved in her school's activities and loves going to museums in New York. When she meets Annie, their love for each other grows and the two realise they cannot let anyone know about their romance.
Carry On is about a wizard named Simon who is the chosen one and must defeat an evil monster called the Humdrum. He also has a brooding and condescending roommate named Baz who is missing from their final year at the Watford School of Magicks.
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this anthology. I decided to read one a day and this made the experience really fun, so I would definitely recommend reading it that way. This book is a collection of short stories by various young adult authors. There is commentary at the end of each story by a BookTuber that gave the author a prompt. The prompts all have something to do with villains.
Rebecca is a strange yet fascinating and surprising read. I expected less from it, but was pleased with the quality of writing and plot that the novel gave me. It is a story about a young, unnamed girl who unexpectedly marries a wealthy older man. She arrives at his house and is confronted by the impact that his dead wife has had on the employees of the Manderley mansion.
When Zoe Walker sees her photo in the classifieds section of a London newspaper, she is determined to find out why it's there. There's no explanation: just a website, a grainy image and a phone number. She takes it home to her family, who are convinced it's just someone who looks like Zoe. But the next day the advert shows a photo of a different woman, and another the day after that.
Charlotte Annelise 