One Charmed Christmas by Sheila Roberts... A Review

What did I think? My Review...

2 gals of a certain age, both widowed, and one going thru a health crisis. Two younger ladies, Sisters, traveling together because # one’s husband “has other plans”. A widower and his adult daughter spending some fun travel time together. A German teacher bringing his German 201 class on a cruise, who brings his hunky single Brother along too. What do these characters all have in common? They all end up on a cruise ship in Amsterdam at Christmas time… and the results are funny, touching and typical Sheila.

I have to tell you, I always enjoy Sheila Roberts’ books. She writes wonderful characters that seem to walk off the page and could be your bff ( or at least the lady you see at the coffee shop every week), puts those characters in situations that we’ve been in ourselves or can relate to, sprinkles it all with a bit of romance & humor and then gives us that happy ending. I can always escape into one of her stories and come out smiling. One Charmed Christmas, her latest Christmas novel, definitely does all of that. This story is set on a cruise ship leaving Amsterdam and heading for cobblestone streets, German castles and those famous German Christmas markets. The way Sheila describes the cruise makes you feel you are right in the thick of things, from eating all that amazing food at the full spread buffet to getting off at the port o calls for some great holiday shopping! You get to know the characters as they get to know each other. And the setting is perfect.

Fully realized characters and a good enjoyable story. What more can you ask for? 

Want to take a Christmas cruise and meet someone tall dark and perfect?! Hop aboard One Charmed Christmas by Sheila Roberts! My Book Club read this for our Holiday read and everyone loved it! 

One Charmed Christmas was published by MIRA Books this past September. I would like to thank the publisher and author for a review copy of this book! Thank you, I loved it!

Good Dogs Don'e Make it to The South Pole by Hans-Olan Thyvold... A Review

 Good Dogs don't Make it to The South Pole by Hans-Olan Thyvold... and I wish I hadn't, or at least I wish I hadn't read about it in this book. I forced myself to finish this book. In fact, I forced myself to continue reading this book after a 100 pages or so because I wanted so much for it to be a good read. It was totally NOT what I was expecting, which was a bit of humor derived from the protagonist dog telling the story of his life with his Master.

What I did get... Tassen (the dog), takes us from his humble beginnings of his human, Mr. Thorkildsen, bringing him home from the breeder, to Mr. Thorkildsen's death, to his bonding with Mrs. Thorkildsen, who is an ex-librarian, who misses her husband so much that she frequently drowns her sorrow in what Tassen, the dog, calls Dragon water. Part of the bonding between Tassen and Mrs. Thorkildsen revolves around her telling Tassen the story of Roald Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole because the story really is about the dogs that made the trip with him (but didn't make it back) and she feels this is a story they both can enjoy together. Tassen because he's a dog, and Mrs. Thorkildsen because for some unknown reason she has a crush on one of the explorers that made the trip with Amundsen. 

I have to say I did learn alot about that trip to the South Pole. I'm not sure I really needed to read about ALL the various ways Amundsen and his crew killed the dogs along the way... repeatedly. The Amundsen story was written inbetween the story of Mrs. Thorkildsen's life spiraling down after the death of her husband and... well, I won't say any more here in case you really want to torture yourself and read the book yourself. 

And if all that wasn't enough, if you are a dog lover... You will not be happy with the ending.  The ending sucks. Yes I wrote "sucks".

There were bits of humor inbetween everything. Tassen does have some funny observations about humans, but not enough for me to have said I enjoyed reading this book. I also have to say the story itself seemed to be a bit disjointed. 

The book had everything going for it before I read it... Norwegian writer ( I was thinking the writing would be similar to Swedish writer Fredrik Backman), Dog as protagonist (Think "The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein") and a award winning inside flap description (and they say don't judge a book by its' cover). But I am sad to say that it disappointed me on all counts. And having to read about the mistreatment of the animals made it worse... no wait, the ending was worse...