Happy Wednesday Everyone :)
Thanks so much for joining me for Blogmas Day Thirteen, here on The Preppy Book Princess :)
I honestly cannot believe that Christmas is only twelve days away guys! While I'm definitely doing pretty good with my to do list, it still seems like it's coming up crazy fast. I've found myself with not as much time to read this month as I would have liked and that's been an eensy weensy bit disappointing, especially considering there's so many great Christmasssy reads in my TBR pile right now.
However, on Sunday, I had a few hours of uninterrupted reading time, and I sped right through one of the novels in my pile, and thought that today I'd like to share my thoughts about it with all of you.
Christmas Under The Stars by Karen Swan:
Source: Gift from my hubby
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication Date: November 3rd, 2016
Genre: Women's Fiction
Synopsis:
My Review:
Over the last few years, I've enjoyed several of Karen Swan's novels, and I definitely usually find her holiday ones to be my favorites. I didn't get a chance to read this one last year during the holiday season, and so I'd saved it for this year, so I could read it during December, as I thought I'd end up enjoying it more that way. Once again, I found myself really pulled into the vivid setting Karen Swan brought to life in this new novel, but it wasn't quite the story I was expecting when I initially picked it up.
Meg was a main character that I really really really found myself enjoying. She's been dealt some pretty horrific life circumstances, and everyone's idea of "helping" is anything but. She's had her world ripped apart, and none of her closest friends or family seem to be able to understand that. However, the chance encounter she had with an astronaut aboard a space station the night her beloved fiance was taken from her, becomes the one lifeline able to pull her back from the extreme stages of grief.
What follows is an amazing, well written story that shows the depths we go to keep everyone around us happy, and the the way we'll sacrifice our own happiness if it makes someone else happy in the process. Love, life, friendship, betrayal, secrets, romance, trust...all of these are topics that Karen Swan expertly dives into in this holiday story, and they're woven together so perfectly that despite the size of this book I literally was left feeling like I sped through it in no time. I especially enjoyed the fact that while I'd already figured out one of the big plot twists quite a ways before it was actually revealed, I was still terrifically blown away when everything finally comes to light, as there was so much more to the story than I ever could have figured out. I personally feel that it takes an extremely talented author to pull off a reveal like that, and Karen Swan is exactly that.
I can also say that not only is the book unlike anything I've read from Karen Swan before, but it's honestly really unlike anything I've ever read before period. The idea of an astronaut in "middle space" or however Jonas refers to his location as, developing a friendship with someone he's never met before on Earth, was such an original story idea, and I really found myself liking it. I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship that develops between Meg and Jonas, and it never felt overdone, or unrealistic to me. As well, I really enjoyed Meg's sister Ronnie, and her boyfriend, but I really never warmed up to Lucy, Tuck or Mitch. After reading their parts, I was often left wondering what Meg could have possibly seen in any of the friendships in the first place, as none of them ever seemed to have treated her that great.
However, all in all, I quite enjoyed this story by Karen Swan, and I ended up rating it four out of five stars. And why might you ask did I say it wasn't quite what I was expecting? Well, that's honestly because the title and beautiful cover are extremely misleading. This story really has nothing to do with Christmas, until basically the last few pages, and it's definitely not the holiday read I was anticipating when I picked it up. It is a beautifully written romance with some terrific plot twists intertwined into it, and I'm still really glad I decided to read it, even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
Thanks so much for reading guys! I'll see you all tomorrow for Blogmas Day Fourteen! :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The tree photo was taken by me and belongs to me. The book cover photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
Thanks so much for joining me for Blogmas Day Thirteen, here on The Preppy Book Princess :)
I honestly cannot believe that Christmas is only twelve days away guys! While I'm definitely doing pretty good with my to do list, it still seems like it's coming up crazy fast. I've found myself with not as much time to read this month as I would have liked and that's been an eensy weensy bit disappointing, especially considering there's so many great Christmasssy reads in my TBR pile right now.
However, on Sunday, I had a few hours of uninterrupted reading time, and I sped right through one of the novels in my pile, and thought that today I'd like to share my thoughts about it with all of you.
Christmas Under The Stars by Karen Swan:
Source: Gift from my hubby
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication Date: November 3rd, 2016
Genre: Women's Fiction
Synopsis:
A gripping, festive novel, Christmas Under the Stars by Karen Swan reveals the devastating power of secrets.
Worlds apart. A love without limit.
In the snow-topped mountains of the Canadian Rockies, Meg and Mitch are living their dream. Just weeks away from their wedding, they work and play with Tuck and Lucy, their closest and oldest friends. Meg and Lucy are as close as sisters - much to Meg's sister's dismay - and Tuck and Mitch have successfully turned their passion for snowboarding into a booming business.
But when a polar storm hits, tragedy strikes. Alone in the tiny mountain log cabin she shares with Mitch, Meg desperately tries to radio for help - and it comes from the most unexpected quarter, a lone voice across the airwaves that sees what she cannot.
As the snow melts and they try to live with their loss, the friendship Meg thought was forever is buckled by tensions, rivalries and devastating secrets. Nothing is as she thought and only her radio contact understands what it is to be truly alone. As they share confidences in the dark, witnessed only by the stars, Meg feels her future begin to pull away from her past and is forced to consider a strange truth - is it her friends who are the strangers? And a stranger who really knows her best?
My Review:
Over the last few years, I've enjoyed several of Karen Swan's novels, and I definitely usually find her holiday ones to be my favorites. I didn't get a chance to read this one last year during the holiday season, and so I'd saved it for this year, so I could read it during December, as I thought I'd end up enjoying it more that way. Once again, I found myself really pulled into the vivid setting Karen Swan brought to life in this new novel, but it wasn't quite the story I was expecting when I initially picked it up.
Meg was a main character that I really really really found myself enjoying. She's been dealt some pretty horrific life circumstances, and everyone's idea of "helping" is anything but. She's had her world ripped apart, and none of her closest friends or family seem to be able to understand that. However, the chance encounter she had with an astronaut aboard a space station the night her beloved fiance was taken from her, becomes the one lifeline able to pull her back from the extreme stages of grief.
What follows is an amazing, well written story that shows the depths we go to keep everyone around us happy, and the the way we'll sacrifice our own happiness if it makes someone else happy in the process. Love, life, friendship, betrayal, secrets, romance, trust...all of these are topics that Karen Swan expertly dives into in this holiday story, and they're woven together so perfectly that despite the size of this book I literally was left feeling like I sped through it in no time. I especially enjoyed the fact that while I'd already figured out one of the big plot twists quite a ways before it was actually revealed, I was still terrifically blown away when everything finally comes to light, as there was so much more to the story than I ever could have figured out. I personally feel that it takes an extremely talented author to pull off a reveal like that, and Karen Swan is exactly that.
I can also say that not only is the book unlike anything I've read from Karen Swan before, but it's honestly really unlike anything I've ever read before period. The idea of an astronaut in "middle space" or however Jonas refers to his location as, developing a friendship with someone he's never met before on Earth, was such an original story idea, and I really found myself liking it. I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship that develops between Meg and Jonas, and it never felt overdone, or unrealistic to me. As well, I really enjoyed Meg's sister Ronnie, and her boyfriend, but I really never warmed up to Lucy, Tuck or Mitch. After reading their parts, I was often left wondering what Meg could have possibly seen in any of the friendships in the first place, as none of them ever seemed to have treated her that great.
However, all in all, I quite enjoyed this story by Karen Swan, and I ended up rating it four out of five stars. And why might you ask did I say it wasn't quite what I was expecting? Well, that's honestly because the title and beautiful cover are extremely misleading. This story really has nothing to do with Christmas, until basically the last few pages, and it's definitely not the holiday read I was anticipating when I picked it up. It is a beautifully written romance with some terrific plot twists intertwined into it, and I'm still really glad I decided to read it, even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
Thanks so much for reading guys! I'll see you all tomorrow for Blogmas Day Fourteen! :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The tree photo was taken by me and belongs to me. The book cover photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
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