Book Review: "One Night, Two Holidays" by Ali Brady

While Christmas is held on the same day every year, Hanukkah moves around based on the Hebrew calendar. Some years it happens in late November or early December, some years it’s much later. But this year both Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah were celebrated on the same day.

Given the “Chrismukkah” celebrations, discovering Ali Brady’s novella was perfect timing.

It’s Christmas Eve. Jack is a medical resident, ready to release some of his stress by spending a few days with his family in Denver. The last thing he was counting on was an epic snowstorm that cancels all flights out of Chicago. He is sad, frustrated, and lonely.

Nessa is alone for Hanukkah, since her roommates both had other plans and her parents are traveling. When she witnesses Jack’s frustration, she tries to coax a smile out of him. After all, she and her roommates have been intrigued by him for a while.

When the power goes out in their building, Jack is caught completely unaware. He finds Nessa’s apartment and the two plan to wait the storm out together. They talk about each other’s holiday traditions, their hopes and fears, and of course, start to draw closer. (The game of strip dreidel didn’t hurt.)

I love how Ali Brady gave equal weight to both holidays and both characters. They had terrific banter and sizzling chemistry, but I loved how they took their time before anything heated up physically. This was really a sweet story.

Book Review: "Marshmallow Mountain" by A.J. Truman and M.A. Wardell

An M/M romance that’s part of a series called “Big Boys, Small Spaces,” and the characters are both Jewish? I couldn’t have loved this any more than I did.

Marshall and Marshall (aka “Data”) were together for eight years, when Marshall unceremoniously ended their relationship, saying he needed time and space. Marshall is an aspiring comedian and Data is an accountant.

The two haven’t spoken in six months, so Data is shocked to get a phone call from Marshall. He suggests the two of them travel up to Maine to pack up the cabin they co-own, so they can sell it. Data is still angry and hurt, so he’s determined to pack everything up over the weekend, and then he won’t have to see Marshall again. But of course, neither of them are counting on a snowstorm which strands them together at the cabin.

“I’m not good. I’m stuck in a cabin with my ex who broke my heart six months ago and is now attempting to pick his way inside to do more damage by having amazing sex with me multiple times before we pack up and sell the damn place. I should write a country song.”

Between multiple rounds of breakup sex, the two talk about where things went wrong; each of their anxieties about life, work, and family; and keep getting distracted from finishing the packing. But how could you not root for two guys with the same first name?

Both Truman and Wardell are great authors in their own right, but this first collaboration hit the spot. It’s super steamy, emotional, romantic, and funny, and you can bet I’m ready for Book 2 in the series!

Book Review: "Nightwatching" by Tracy Sierra

Excuse me while my breathing gets back to normal! This was an intense, crazy thriller that didn’t really let up until it neared the end.

It’s the middle of a blizzard, and a woman is at home with her two young children. When her son awakens in the middle of the night, she gets him settled back into his bed. And then she hears a noise. Of course, it’s an old house and there’s a storm outside, so noises are inevitable. But as she stays hidden, she sees the face of a man appear at the top of the stairs.

“Reality can be more disorienting than dreams.”

She’s determined that she and her children will not be sitting ducks for this intruder. She wakes the kids and takes them into a secret crawl space, where she tries to calm them down and wait him out. But when she hears his voice, first trying to coax the children out of hiding, then threatening to destroy all of them, she realizes she knows who this man is, and what he wants she will never give him.

She tries to figure out a way to escape and get help, but can she leave her children alone in the house? And how far will she get in the blizzard?

I really wasn’t sure how this story would be resolved. I’ll admit I thought this could all be some sort of hallucination, or that there would be a twist I didn’t enjoy. But Tracy Sierra, in a tremendously self-assured debut, slowly lets things unfold and keeps you thinking.

Book Review: "City Under One Roof" by Iris Yamashita

City Under One Roof is a compelling crime novel that gives a new twist to the locked-room mystery.

During the summer, the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, is full of tourists. But in the winter, the population of this town—only accessible via a tunnel that closes for bad weather—shrinks to about 200 people. And they all live in the same high-rise building, where nearly everything is located.

When local teens find a severed hand and foot washed up on the shore, the police believe it’s the remains of someone who jumped off a cruise ship. The case raises the suspicions of Cara, a police detective from Anchorage, who comes to Point Mettier to investigate. But her reasons for investigating aren’t entirely above-board.

She is stranded in the town during a blizzard, and has to stay in the same condo building as everyone else in town. When a severed head is found, Cara, who teams up with local policeman JB, realizes the killer may be someone they’re all staying with. More and more, she discovers that everyone in Point Mettier is hiding something. And the arrival of a dangerous gang from a nearby Native village only complicates matters further.

First of all, the book had me at Alaska. It’s one of my favorite settings for books. And I loved the concept of the town and the condo—I totally felt claustrophobic.

This reads like a movie, which makes sense because Yamashita is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, and it’s definitely full of unusual characters, some of whose stories definitely felt incomplete. I’m guessing a second book is in the works, especially given the twist Yamashita threw in at the end?

Book Review: "Shiver" by Allie Reynolds

When old friends are brought together for a reunion, they don’t realize the organizer is seeking vengeance!

One of my reading resolutions of sorts this year was to read more backlist books I own. I’ve been doing a really good job so far, and nearly every book I’ve read has left me saying, “Why didn’t I read this sooner?” And boy, Shiver is sure one of those books! This was as great as everyone said it was!

When Milla gets an invitation to join some old friends at the ski resort in the French Alps where they all spent a season training for an exclusive snowboarding competition, she’s hesitantly excited. She hasn’t seen these people in 10 years, since one of their group went missing. It was an intense time in their lives and they shared lots of memories—some good, some bad.

The excitement of seeing each quickly wanes when the group realizes they’ve been trapped at the ski resort on top of a glacier. Their phones and laptops have been taken, there appears to be no one working at the resort, the cable car to get them back down from the glacier isn't operational, all the emergency radios are gone, water and electricity get shut off, and there’s no way down except to snowboard, which none have really done in some time.

Who was responsible for bringing them together? Is it one of the five of them, trying to flush out what happened to their missing friend? Or is it someone else seeking vengeance? As the situation grows more sinister, it’s clear everyone has secrets and guilt, including Milla.

Even though I’ve grown weary of the locked-room concept, I thought Shiver was so good and twisty. I had no clue who to trust or what to believe, and the narrative, which shifted between the present and that intense season 10 years ago, was taut with suspense. And Allie Reynolds’ imagery had me searching for my winter coat!!

Book Review: "Ski Weekend" by Rektok Ross

It was supposed to be a fun weekend. No one expected all that occurs in Rektok Ross' Ski Weekend!

Everyone is looking forward to senior ski weekend. Except Sam. She has to look after her younger brother Stu (like always) to make sure he doesn’t get hurt following the lead of his best friend, Gavin. So now Sam, Stu, Gavin, Sam’s best friend (and Stu's girlfriend) Lily, and two others are in Gavin’s fancy new SUV, along with Gavin’s dog, Champion.

Sam once had a thing for Gavin, but when he left for boarding school a year ago, he never returned her emails or texts. So she’s got a bit of a chip on her shoulder where he’s concerned.

Not far into their journey, the cops start turning people around because of an impending snowstorm. One of their friends convinces them to try a shortcut through the mountains (those always work) and before they know it, they’ve crashed into a snowbank and their car is stuck. Of course, temperatures are dropping and cell coverage is non-existent.

When a foray to try and find help winds up with Stu getting hurt and then becoming feverish from his injuries, Sam has to keep him alive. But as their food supplies shrink and people start fighting, it’s becoming more a question of who will survive, not how. And it only gets worse from there.⁣

I never went on a lot of trips with friends when I was growing up, but if I was that age now, I’d never go anywhere!! Fun trips always seem to turn to disaster in books, lol, and I’m not the survivalist type. (To put it mildly.)

This was a very readable YA thriller. It was a little melodramatic, but Ross did a great job with the setting because I felt so cold while reading it! And boy, did I love Champion!!

Book Review: "Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances" by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

Let It Snow is a trio of somewhat-interconnected short stories about the highs and lows of love against the backdrop of a massive snowstorm.

In Maureen Johnson’s "The Jubilee Express," a girl’s holiday plans are derailed again and again. First, her parents are thrown in jail unexpectedly, then her train to Florida gets stuck in the copious snow, and she escapes the chaos of the train by heading to a Waffle House for refuge, where she meets a young man with his own troubles. But as if all Jubilee experienced wasn't enough, she must deal with the apparent disinterest of her seemingly perfect boyfriend, which she doesn't quite understand. It makes for quite a holiday!

John Green’s "A Cheertastic Christmas," told with Green’s trademark these-characters-are-more-erudite-than-me style, follows a group of friends trying to get to a Waffle House in the midst of the storm because of the unexpected appearance of a troop of cheerleaders seeking escape from their train. (This appeals to two of the three friends.) However, their mission to make it to the Waffle House before other invited males is foiled by the elements, their rivals, and the changing dynamics in their group of three.

In "The Patron Saint of Pigs," Lauren Myracle tells the story of Addie, a girl despondent about the end of her relationship (her fault). But the thing is, Addie could use a serious lesson in putting the needs of others first. It takes a strange customer and a teacup pig to help her find her way.

I don’t tend to read a ton of holiday books but this book (and these authors) really tempted me. Johnson’s story is the most straightforward and is therefore my favorite. Green’s is truly madcap and funny, and I really do love the way he writes even if his characters are funnier than nearly every adult I know, but there is only so much zaniness I can take in a story. It's literally a caper.

Myracle’s story had too many disparate parts that didn’t quite come together for me, and I felt as if everyone was trying too hard. It was an interesting concept but at one point there were so many characters in the story that I was quite confused.

Let It Snow was a very quick, fun read and it definitely put me in the spirit of the holidays, even if I’m hoping the "wintry mix" forecast for early next week here passes us by. They've also adapted the book into a Netflix movie which premieres November 8.

Book Review: "No Exit" by Taylor Adams

Warning: don't read Taylor Adams' No Exit before bed.

While there are some creepy parts (and some gruesome ones), those aren't the reasons I'm warning you. It's quite simple, actually: if you start reading this book, there's no way you're going to want to put it down. You're going to want to stay up until you finish the book, and then once you're done, you'll probably have a little excess adrenaline that will keep you awake longer.

Trust me, I was severely overtired this morning, so I speak from experience!

College student Darby Thorne has just gotten word that her mother is dying and is about to undergo potentially dangerous surgery. Although their relationship has never been good (her mother said that when she was pregnant with Darby she thought she had the flu, so she almost killed her with Theraflu), Darby cannot miss the chance to apologize and make amends in case time is short.

To get home, she has to drive from Boulder, across the state of Colorado, and into Utah. But Mother Nature has other plans, as a massive snowstorm and her old car don't feel like facilitating her trip. Before she knows it, she's stuck in the middle of a blizzard in the Colorado mountains, with only a highway rest stop for shelter. She can't get a cell phone signal to see how her mother is or let anyone know she's delayed, and she left her phone charger in her dorm room.

"Here Darby was, the underachieving secondborn, trapped at a lonely rest stop just below the summit of Backbone Pass, because she'd tried to race Snowmageddon over the Rockies and failed. Miles above sea leavel, snowed in inside a '94 Honda Civic with busted windshield wipers, a dying phone, and a cryptic text message simmering in her mind."

There's not much to the rest stop—some coffee and hot cocoa, a few vending machines, and four strangers. Sandi and Eddie are cousins heading to Denver for Christmas; Ashley is gregarious, handsome, and perhaps trying a little too hard to be sociable and funny; and then there's Lars, a rodent-faced mouth-breather who gives Darby the creeps. It's quite a motley crew to pass the time with, especially when there's no real entertainment save endless card games.

When Darby goes outside to the parking lot to try and find a cell signal, she makes a frightening discovery: she finds a little girl being held captive in a cage inside the van parked next to her. The van door is locked, and she certainly can't make too much of a fuss, because she has nowhere to escape to. Whose van is it? Whom can she trust?

"What were the odds of stumbling across a kidnapping in progress? While trapped overnight in a snowy rest stop? It was all too fantastical to be a part of Darby's life."

Darby must not only think of herself, but of the little girl. With two lives on the line and no way to contact anyone to help her, the ball is in her court. But there's more to her fellow travelers than meets the eye, and navigating her way through this may take more strength and courage than she has.

No Exit takes off with the first few paces and never lets up until the very end. Adams ratchets up the suspense and the tension page by nerve-wracking page, and the atmosphere was so evocative that I actually felt colder than normal while reading this book. Darby is a terrific character—complex, flawed, impulsive, and yet determined to fight the odds and save the little girl's life.

I really enjoyed this book. It was full of twists I saw coming and I few I didn't quite expect. Some of the twists, though, made me roll my eyes a little, but that's when the book felt a bit like a summer blockbuster, where you don't question how long the battle will continue until resolution is achieved, because nothing ever goes smoothly.

I had heard a lot of buzz about No Exit so I was really eager to read it, and Adams definitely didn't disappoint. The book probably should come with a trial-sized supply of tranquilizers, though, to calm you down once you've finished!