There is good interplay between the text and images to aid early readers’ understanding of the story. The mystery is well paced. The use of King as the narrator is an unusual device (but I liked it). King sometimes has difficulty getting Kayla to understand him, a experience most children have had and will related to.
Task the Sixth: The Hanukkah:
- Let the dreidel choose a book for you: create a list of four books, and assign a dreidel symbol to each one (Nun=miracle; Gimel=great; He=happened; Shin=there, i.e. Israel). Google "spin the dreidel," and a dreidel comes up for you to spin. Give it a spin and read the book that the dreidel chooses!
Not to sound all "get off my lawn!" but reading older published stories (they have their problems too) is sometimes very refreshing; it's amazing how much story can be created in favor of just hurriedly working to get the leads into bed. I like my sexy times but purpose and dialogue, y'all. These were all short, sweet, and nothing beyond kissing regency holiday stories.
“The Merry Wanderer” by Nancy Butler
3 stars
But as often as he'd willingly played the fool for his master or his mistress, he had never yet played the fool for love.
This one had a magical feel to it with Robin Goodfellow, Merlin, faeries, and an Arthur sighting. The heroine's family guards a very important faerie book and Robin visits to make sure the heroine is up to the task of guarding it. It was a bit slow moving but fairy tale fun.
“The Wexford Carol” by Emma Jensen
3.5 stars
"Is that what you will wish for, then? My speedy demise?"
"Goodness. A jest. Very good, Captain."
As he watched, surprised, charmed, and increasingly warm, she removed another sprig of holly from her pocket, tucked it into a buttonhole on his coat, and briskly patted his chest.
"As you could easily guess, I will make a wish for Hollymore."
With that, she stepped back, draped an arm around the cherub, and surveyed her handiwork on Rhys's coat. She gave a satisfied nod. In that brief moment, Rhys was enchanted to his toes.
This was a super sweet and funny story but was little bit lacking in the showing the relationship build between leads (these were all pretty short stories). The hero and heroine spend a week together with the hero's cheeky nephew, mistaken identities, semi-villain relatives and a house with more character than stable walls. It was lovely and being set in Ireland, gave it a beautiful Irish Christmas spirit.
“High Spirits” by Edith Layton
4 stars
He'd never be thought of as handsome, except in a certain light and at certain moments, when anyone could see he was much more than that.
My favorite from the series because the author was able to build and create a relationship between the leads in the short amount of time allotted. The heroine is having her season but super nervous so her brother advises her to imbibe a bit for Dutch courage. Hero is sent by his sister and aunt to call on heroine to warn her away from his cousin who they want to marry someone else. Hero is charmed by her and calls on her during the day, falling love. At night he is shocked by her flirty different attitude at balls, figures out she is drinking, takes her to a pub to show her alcoholics, and gives her a come to Jesus talk. It sounds preachy but the heroine's shyness and the hero's melting stoicism makes this a very sweet story.
“The Christmas Curse” by Barbara Metzger
2 stars
" 'Til Death do you part, lad?" he said with a smile and a wink for his own beloved. "That's not the half of it."
This one has ghosts for "spirits" with a medieval couple haunting a castle, able to actually affect things during the week of Christmas, because the husband in a jealous act jousted someone but died and the wife had made curse that if he didn't return her ring to the castle they would never rest. Their heir and hero is a battle scarred war hero and our heroine is a widow with a horrible aunt. There's guilt, shame, anger, fear, and love but the characters and story all felt a bit disjointed. We get great flushed out backstories for the heroine and hero but current scenes with them together were missing, I wanted to see them fall in love.
“A Gathering of Gifts” by Andrea Pickens
3.5 stars
Indeed, the more they spoke, the more intriguing she became.
This involved a Duke's daughter who started off a total spoiled brat and an ex-soldier who wouldn't give into her whims. Heroine injured her ankle so has to stay at the hero's manor, where they bicker and snark themselves into falling in love. The hero's sister, nephew, heroine's cousin, and others gave this a great fun cast of characters. I really liked how it was shown how the hero and heroine caused each other to grow and become better, very charming story.
Well, this was fun!! I didn't finish full length books on the event as my time was somewhat limited and I didn't want to wake up very early today and end up like a coffee zombie for the rest of the day..
So here is my wrap up post for the whole event: (now all I have to do is write the reviews - oh boy.....)
Hour 0:
Opening Meme
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Netherlands, it's a sunny sunny day too
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
The girl on the train!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
snack? you mean coffeeeee
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm just an ordinary girl who loves to read..
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
This is my first one and I'm not sure what to expect to be honest!
Hour 6:
Mini Challenge - Operation Quotation!
My entry:
Time has a way of burying things, shifting like the desert and swallowing entire civilizations, erasing them from map and memory. Always, in the end, everything returns to dust.
“The Forbidden Wish” by Jessica Khoury
and I am pleased to say that I was one of the random winners!!
Hour 7:
Mini Challenge - Readblock
What keeps you from reading?
My entry:
(nothing in particular - just sitting in front of my computer screen can keep me from doing anything really...)
Hour 9:
Mini Challenge - Share a Quote!
(yes I found the quote-sharing challenges easier to participate in for obvious reasons!)
Pick a quote from the book that you are reading or books that you've read during this read-a-thon.
My entry:
― Jane Austen, Pride And Prejudice (the graphic novel)
Hour 12:
And for the whole day mini challendge over @playster
My entry:
I pair "Every Heart is a Doorway" with ♪ Your Bones, Of Monsters and Men.
and now......
End of the event survey + Book list wrap-up!
How did you do on the readathon this year?
I do hate giving this, which is one of my favorite stories, only a three, but I was not really a fan of the adaptation.
The story itself was well-done, both in terms of the original and in terms of adaptation, and I thought the little magazine covers between each part (I'm assuming I was reading a combination volume and that they were originally released as individual comics) were adorable. The design there was quirky and charming.
My problem was the actual art.
I am one of those people (I apologize now!) that actually rarely notices the art in anything that has words. I read the words, I get a general impression, I notice color most decidedly, but I don't generally have a very strong opinion one way or the other on it. This really really bothered me, though, and it got progressively worse the longer I read. I was iffy from the beginning on the fact that they had clearly looked at the Keira Knightly adaptation of the film for inspiration, but I was willing to overlook that (and hey, redheads! I'm a fan of that!). Then small things started bothering me. The shading of their lips, which I winced every time I saw. The male faces, which were all oddly unsettling, even the friendly ones. By the time I finished this, I was attempting not to look at the art, which is kind of a terrible thing in a visual adaptation like this.
I can't say it isn't just me (it probably is), but it really came close to ruining this for me--I almost gave it up (and it's 120 pages of a story I love--seriously, it is not a long read). I finished and actually debated between two stars and three, but let the charm of the story, the well-handled dialogue and well-chosen bits that were adapted, and the cute little magazine covers sway me up to "I liked it."
I'll be going back to the book for my next re-read, though, for certain.
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