Tis the Season for Christmas Romance Novels

Guys. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet and I've already started with the Christmas romance novels. Because they are freaking adorable! It's like Hallmark but in book form and much more dirty. I love it.

My latest read was the Reindeer Falls series by Jana Aston. They're short and sweet and can probably all be finished in a day if you're determined. The female characters, the Winter sisters, are funny and have Christmas themed names (Holly, Ginger, and Noel). I love me some good Christmas feelings and reading these made me want to put up a tree and I haven't even gotten a new one yet (my pre-lit tree died last year and I mourn it's poor fake tree death).

The Boss Who Stole Christmas is about Holly, who thinks her young, hot boss is a Grinch. Oh boy will she find out otherwise.

If You Give a Jerk a Gingerbread is about Ginger and a baking competition she entered and she starts out thinking one of her competitors is a jackal. However, he is very cute and persuasive.

The One Night Stand Before Christmas is about Noel who wakes up to Santa's suit on her floor. Noel and Santa got a little naughty and took holiday spirit to a whole other level.

Christmas fun all around!

As usual with most books I read these days, the series is free on KU, otherwise if you would be buying the books right now it's $6.97 for all 3.

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

 

Description

Named one of the Funniest Sites on the Web by PC World and winner of the 2011 Bloggies Awards for Most Humorous Weblog and Best Writing, the creator of the immensely popular “Hyperbole and a Half” blog presents an illustrated collection of her hilarious stories with fifty percent new content.

In a four-color, illustrated collection of stories and essays, Allie Brosh’s debut Hyperbole and a Half chronicles the many “learning experiences” Brosh has endured as a result of her own character flaws, and the horrible experiences that other people have had to endure because she was such a terrible child. Possibly the worst child. For example, one time she ate an entire cake just to spite her mother.

Brosh’s website receives millions of unique visitors a month and hundreds of thousands of visitors a day. This amalgamation of new material and reader favorites from Brosh's blog includes stories about her rambunctious childhood; the highs and mostly lows of owning a smart, neurotic dog and a mentally challenged one; and moving, honest, and darkly comic essays tackling her struggles with depression and anxiety, among other anecdotes from Brosh's life. Artful, poignant, and uproarious, Brosh’s self-reflections have already captured the hearts of countless readers and her book is one that fans and newcomers alike will treasure.

This was a highly entertaining book that didn't take me very long to get through. I love Brosh's blog Hyperbole and a Half and it was like reading her blog in printed form... The pictures from both her book and blog are probably the best part, by the way. I found her writing about her experience with depression to be touching and explained in a way that it makes it easier for people who have never dealt with it to understand.

OK, I'll be honest. You could skip buying the book and read the blog for some of the chapters in the book, but the book is highly entertaining and when you want to read it you don't need internet access. Also, it's very colorful and doesn't require batteries to read it... unless you're reading it at in the dark by flashlight. And if you really prefer a digital version it's available on Kindle and other electronical versions. But if you like her blog you'll like this book.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson

Description

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris—Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.

Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives—the ones we’d like to pretend never happened—are in fact the ones that define us. In the #1 New York Times bestseller, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor. Chapters include: “Stanley the Magical, Talking Squirrel”; “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband”; “My Vagina Is Fine. Thanks for Asking”; “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane.” Pictures with captions (no one would believe these things without proof) accompany the text.

Jenny Lawson is hilariously damaged. I don't know how else to describe it. She shares a lot of stories from her childhood and how growing up with a father that brought home animals (alive or dead) has given her an appreciation for taxidermy (hence the stuffed mouse on the cover).

A good portion of the chapters come straight from her blog so I was a little disappointed that it wasn't all new to me. I didn't exactly mind re-reading old blog posts because they are still funny the second time around, but for $12 (kindle) I was expecting new material that I couldn't find for free on the interwebs. Even with that, I still enjoyed her (mostly true) memoir. I had moments where I laughed out loud and made my husband look at me like I'd lost my mind. That's how you know a book is funny... people look at you strange when you're reading it.