Holidays On Ice

 I did not like this book at all. I thought it was suppose to be a collection of funny Christmas stories, but really, there was nothing funny in it. The first story was pretty interesting, his tale of being an Elf at Macy's. But that was about it. The other stories were blah and not very Christmasie. So yeah, I was disappointed. I do however want to find a shotglass with snowflakes on it like shown on the cover.

Roommates Wanted

 So I probably think that I picked up this book because I'm hunting for a roommate myself, and it just sounded interesting. Back in 1990 Toby's dad gives him a big house for a wedding gift. The marriage doesn't last and he's stuck with this giant house. So he posts an ad and gets some roommates. 15 years later, one of the people living in the house dies and leaves everything to Toby along with a note telling him to take the money he left him, fix up the house and start living life. So Toby decides to fix up the place and sell it. But how can he just kick out the people who live there. The cover blurb makes it sound like he's met a new girl and they can't live together until he gets rid of the roommates. Not true. Throughout the book Toby and Leah are friends who like each other, but don't even say so until the end. Mostly it's a book about different people growing up and realizing who they are and what they want to do with life. It was a good book. A bit long, but good enough that it doesn't feel that way.

Kissing Christmas Goodbye

 As I'm sure we all know by now, I love Christmas books, and was excited when I found this one at the library. But it's not about Christmas at all. The book mostly takes place in October. How very disappointing. It's part of a mystery series that I had never heard of, and I probably won't read again. The main character, Agatha, is just a cranky old bat, who is snippy to everyone then wonders why she's sitting at home alone on Christmas and New Years. Doesn't take a detective to figure that one out. It's a quick read, but had to many characters and I got confused who everyone was. There's weren't very many clues for the reader to go on with trying to figure out who the killer was. It was kind of like the author forgot that she needed to have one and just pulled a character's name out of a hat. In other words, I'm not going to keep reading this series.

Murder On Monday

This book was kind of hard to follow. The author is Scottish or something so the writing was kind of hard to follow. But I kept at it because the plot sounded good enough. Lois cleans houses and one day someone ends up dead, so the police ask Lois to have a look around the houses that she cleans to see if she can find any clues. But the person didn't get murdered until about halfway through the book, so there was just a lot of randomness that didn't really have anything to do with anything. And I felt like there were to many characters, I was often confused by who was who and such. And yet I still want to read the rest of the books in the series, so it couldn't have been that bad. Maybe it was because it was a bit different from all the other mystery books. There wasn't really a lot of sleuthing going on, no sneaking around trying to find out who did it. Mostly things were just figured out by everyday conversations. It was different which is kind of refreshing, and also a little bit boring.

Sugar Cookie Murder

 I'm a sucker for anything that has to do with the holidays. And I saw someone leave the library with one of this authors books so I looked her up and found some Christmas mysteries. I had never read anything by her before and her books (this one at least) wasn't too bad. It was a quick read and really kept me guessing who had done 'it' until the end. I'm really bad about trying to figure out who the murderer is. It was a good book, made me wish it was Christmas. Made me wish she had written a Halloween one, because that's coming up.

Something Good

 This was a book about the relationship between a mother, her teenage daughter, and how they grow. What interest me into reading this book was that the daughter was going through that teenage awkward stage and was turning into a rebel. I was not a rebel as a teen, so I kind of enjoy reading about what all the 'bad' kids where doing. It was a pretty simple story, but good enough that I wanted to keep reading. I didn't like the ended. I wanted the parents to get back together and have them be a family again. But the author wanted the adults to be able to move on with their lives without having to depend on each other. In the end, of course everyone was happy. How often do you read a book where it ends in sadness? It's a little bit long, but a quick read.

Here If You Need Me

 I love the cover of this book, its what caught my eye. And the fact that it takes place in Maine, was another reason. Its a bit religious, and I think when I bought it I was looking for something along those lines. Its a true story about Kate who's husband dies and she becomes a minister, something her husband was going to do. She becomes a Maine Warden Service chaplain, which means that she goes with the police to find missing people, and if they show up dead, she prays to the dead body so that it leaves the world in peace. It was a good book. Short, kind of a fast read. There wasn't a whole lot of dialog, mostly it is just telling the story of how her husband died, why she became a minister, and some of the searches that she went on. Some of the stories about how the people were murdered where a little disturbing, but it was also a little bit comforting to know that someone is there to give them a good goodbye.