I enjoyed returning to Christmas Notch. I have a weird spot for Hallmark Xmas movies, and I want the realistic and spicer version of Hope Channel After Dark (remember when Oxygen had After Dark shows? I have aged myself in this review - oh well). While Sierra Simone took the reigns and brought in a lot of elder millennial quirks (thank you) and the effects of purity/evangelical church culture into the storyline, I wasn’t aware that I would get romance and therapy in a book. I understood why recovering from that culture is hard, even when you have been out of it for a while.

You got a boyband heartthrob (insert any real-life boyband boy), Kallum Lieberman from INK, and your Candance Cameron alike in Winnie Baker, whose now tarnished pure, girl-next-door vibe by a few decisions. Both people are at a turning point and decided to create a Santa movie that would be softcore porn for Hope Channel after Dark. Both have a history, both are trying to change, and both cannot help but fall in love with each other.

I read the ARC, and there are a few plot points that I wished were fleshed out more in the story, and perhaps they will when published. But those plot points were not crucial to the storyline, but just enough for me to want more.

Melody Gallard is the shy daughter of one of the two members of one of the greatest female rock bands that ended in the 90s, while Beat Dawkins, always in the spotlight, is the son of the other. They only met once in their teenage years, but that meeting impacted both of them in ways they were not expecting years later when a producer wanted them to do an online real-time reality show to try to get their mothers together for one more concert. Both would get paid handsomely.

Instant sparks fly when they meet as adults. While both embark on a reuniting, their moms, their show becomes “Will they, Won’t they” as they have weeks and a 24/7 film crew, and the public wants more about the could-be couple and if the band reunites would be a bonus.

It is a delightful Holiday Rom-Com that could be a movie in a heartbeat. I couldn’t help but make internal references to the vibe similar to the Music & Lyrics film (Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore). I read it in one sitting.

In Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, Cat Bohannon writes about human history from the viewpoint of the female body and the impacts of evolution and social change. The women evolved, and no one paid attention. Today, the female’s body is studied as secondary, if considered, when researching. Bohannon shows study after study that the female body is excluded and assumes the outcomes from the male studies would be the same for females.

It was a fascinating look into how the female gender is ignored until it can’t be and how the trials of being female have existed since the beginning of time.

We can get the AC turned in in office buildings, and the high-pitched noises out of refrigerators that the male species do not hear are gone, and females can function better. The story of womanhood is told using facts, studies, and wit.

Gothic Mystery in Modern Day. The story is told from three perspectives: Ruby McTavish, the ruling matriarch, until her death story through news clippings and letters that she is writing to someone, but as the reader, we don’t know who. Ruby has lived many lives and many husbands. Second is her adopted son, Camden. He is called back to his inheritance and to deal with his past, along with his Wife, Jules, who is the third perspective. All three have generational secrets, and once everyone is back at the house, letters and secrets are revealed, and decisions are made.

I found it a fast read, but nothing surprising jumped out. Well written.

I have never really gotten into Godzilla movies, so I was reading this blind to the pop culture surrounding it. But reading an English translation of the origins stories that created Godzilla, I was surprised that this is the first time it has been done.

The formatting of the digital ARC made this book hard to read for me, but the translation was good. Recommend.

Sewanee Chester meets a man named Nick with an Irish accent in Las Vegas; they both fall for each other for the evening that turns longer because of a snowstorm and only one hotel room (hers, already booked), and after the one night, both move on with their lives.

Sewanee Chester is an audiobook narrator and one of the best. She used to narrate romance novels until her favorite author just quit writing them, and Sewanee/Swan moved on to nonfiction and other audiobooks. But an offer that is too good to pass up comes along to do the last unpublished work of her favorite author with Brock McNight, the famous male narrator. Both have never met, but start a texting friendship that blurs the lines without ever meeting. They record, it does well, and they both start wondering if they should meet other than with words.

It was enjoyable, but the pacing was a bit off because of the different modes of communication and some flashbacks that popped up randomly, I messed with the flow. But I read it in one sitting. I would recommend it.

I enjoyed reading a European/French take on the History of Women and Witches. It was refreshing. It also takes the same viewpoint that independent women (widows, celibates, and childless women) were targets for their land because they didn’t follow the conventions of society. Therefore, women here were harassed, oppressed, and eventually called out as witches because the community didn’t know what to do with independent women. It was well-researched and easy to read.

Mostly a pop culture take on Butts. Entertaining. Easy Read. I would recommend it.

I received an ARC from Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster & NetGalley in return for a review.