☃️☃️☃️1/2
THE SEASON OF SECOND CHANCES
Kristina McMorris, Tammy Greenwood
Kensington
Publication Date: October 22nd, 2023
240 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon
This book contains two Christmas novellas by prolific female writers of historical fiction. I loved McMorris’s Sold On a Monday and I have read everything that T. (Tammy) Greenwood has ever written so it’s no surprise to me that I enjoyed her story a lot more. I can’t round up because the stories aren’t about Christmas, they just happen to take place around the holidays and the first story was such a non-starter.
The Christmas Collector: 3 Stars
This story didn’t stick with me much, in fact, I had to go back and read the synopsis to remind myself what it was about, that’s never a good sign. Jenna cleans out homes for a living, as in she prepares them for estate sales. While working for Estella and her family Jenna uncovers some secrets and then proceeds to fall for Estella’s grandson and vice versa. Yeah, this didn’t do much for me with the exception that it is based on the author’s grandparents.
Gifted: 4 Stars
This one is about a mother-daughter relationship between ballet dancer Alex as she tries to live up to her mother’s expectations. We also have Sophia, an aging woman, who was once an accomplished violinist, who put her career ahead of her daughter. Alex and Sophia’s lives collide beautifully at the end of this story. Alex learns she has to do what’s best for herself while Sophia learns she wasn’t such a terrible mother after all. I got more out of this story because I was a working mom and I quit dance as a kid (after winning a gold medal for tap) so I could go on to play ice hockey. Greenwood too used her own family as inspiration as her daughter is a professional ballerina. She has a novel coming in February of next year called The Still Point. It’s about ballet dancers and I am looking forward to it.
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