In My Mailbox (2)

In My Mailbox (IMM) is hosted by The Story Siren
In My Mailbox is a place to showcase your new books,
whether you obtained them through the post or otherwise.


I only received one swap this week and that was The Old Curiosity Shop. After reading A Christmas Carol last week, I was eager to get my hands on some more books by Dickens.







I spent some time in Morpeth, a small, close town by where I live, unexpectedly and so naturally, I headed to the independent bookshop where I picked up I Know What You Did Last Summer. I've seen it around before and I'm glad that I finally bought it - it's one I'm certainly excited about. At the bookshop, I also picked up To The Boy in Berlin which I hadn't heard of before, but as it was reduced and looks like it has an interesting format, I decided I'd give it a go. Black Rabbit Summer and Breakfast at Tiffany's were both charity shop finds and I'm especially excited to read the latter, a modern classic.





Three more charity shop finds, this time from Newcastle. I'm not sure what I'm expecting from any of these three, but The Morning Gift looks very interesting and Every Last One seems to have had a lot of positive publicity. Welcome to my World looks fun enough!





I was very pleased to find these in a secondhand bookshop! The cover of Some Girls Bite seems to be rather reminiscent of The Morganville Vampire Series which I love and although I'm yet to read Glimmerglass which precedes Shadowspell, I've seen that both books have incredible ratings!



One Night That Changes Everything and A Little Wanting Song are two books that I purchased from The Book Depository. They both seem to be quite popular and they're both authors that I really need to be introduced to. These are the books I'm most excited about this week!

Angels in the Snow

Angels in the Snow by Sarah Morgan

Paperback, 384 pages

Published October 1st 2010 by Mills & Boon

My shelves: adult-fiction, books-i-own, chick-lit, christmas-books, mum-has, read-in-2011, realistic-fiction
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Description via Goodreads

Have yourself a very magical Christmas, full of romance and sparkles! Stella Martin has come back home to the Lake District for Christmas. But is she brave enough to face the man who proposed, then immediately dumped her two Christmas Eve's before? Daniel Buchannan is not looking forward to Christmas - and even less when Stella reappears in the village. But this year will be different! Patrick Buchannan has to make Christmas special for his kids. Luckily, his son Alfie has a plan to make it happen. Alfie knows a lot about the magic of Christmas. And when snowflakes are falling, Christmas carols are ringing out, and the hills of the Lake District are shimmering in the snow, it's possible to believe in Christmas miracles.

My Review

Angels in the Snow is a feel-good, easy to read Christmas book which centers around two main characters. This story is seperated into two parts, the first telling the story of Daniel and Stella and the second telling the story of his twin brother Patrick, and Hayley. Both stories come together at the end, leaving us with a satisfying ending.
Whilst I found Patrick to be the more attractive and the stronger character out of the twins, I actually found Daniel's story to be more effective and enjoyable. I felt that there was slightly more depth and emotion within the story of Daniel and Stella, as well as it feeling slightly more realistic. Although it was Patrick and Hayley who were meant to have more of an instant spark, I thought that the chemistry between Daniel and Stella to be a lot stronger. Daniel was a little brash for me at times, but I loved Stella. She seemed very down to earth and had a great personality. Her firm friendship with Patrick was lovely.
Alfie, Patrick's child and Daniel's nephew, features in both stories and keeps them connected together in a skillful way. He is only meant to be ten years old, but seems to have more insight than his age. He is a likeable character and his humour is certainly that of a charming child. He really manages to bring all of the family together.
This is an engaging read, as long as you don't look too far into it. It is very predictable and rather quite unrealistic - especially the second story - but overlooking this, it is an enjoyable Christmas book that should leave you with a glow.

Giveaway Winners!

My International Christmas Bookmark Giveaway ended yesterday and so I'm very pleased to announce the three winners (drumroll please!):

Alex (AnimeGirl)
Carly (FictionFascination)
Mary (AgentDarkholme)

Congratulations to all of you, your bookmarks will be making their way to you as soon as possible! Please check your e-mails for further details.


Thank you to everyone who entered!

The Gift

The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

Hardcover, 305 pages

Published January 1st 2009 by Harper Collins

My shelves: books-i-own, adult-fiction, chick-lit, christmas-books, cover-appeal, magical-realism, read-in-2011, realistic-fiction
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Description via Goodreads

Lou Suffern is practised in the art of concealment. He is, also, always overstretched, trying to do too many things at once. His overburdened schedule gives him few moments of peace, even in his sleep. And when he spends time at home with his wife and family, he is always distracted, and, mentally, somewhere else.
On a cold winter morning, Lou is on his way to work when he encounters Gabe, a homeless street dweller, sitting outside an office building. Lou is intrigued by him, and contrives to get him a job in the post room. But this act of charity rebounds on him, and Gabe’s presence begins to grate on Lou -- particularly when he discovers that the latter seems capable of being in two places at the same time. Christmas is drawing near, and before the season is over, Lou’s life will be irrevocably change by the casual act of kindness he has performed.

My Review


I'll admit that I found Cecelia Ahern to be a better writer than I assumed that she would be. I've not read any of her other books before and from the genre she's known for, chick-lit, I was simply expecting something simple and fun. This book dealt with some every day problems and issues and it was trying to teach us something. The story is set in modern day Dublin, nearing Christmas, and the story is well set with clear, visible descriptions.
In this book, Ahern is trying to tell a story about giving the gift of time. However, near the end, she does come across as though she is giving a lecture and the fact that she is clearly telling the reader what to do and appreciate just doesn't come across well - unfortunately, I found the last, ending paragraph to sound a bit pretentious - not a good way to end a story. I do appreciate the lesson that is given which is to spend time with your loved ones and to let them know that you care about them. Though I don't think it's something that really needs to be pointed out, it gives a nice seasonal message to the story. I found the strong points of the novel to be in the working out of relationships between Lou and his family as they felt very realistic. The dynamics between Lou and his wife and children were especially well explored.
I didn't feel as though Ahern had a very clear direction for this story and her characters weren't very solid. The story is told in the form of a policeman (Raphie) telling a teenage boy (known as Turkey Boy) the story of a case that he worked on. For me, the story of 'Turkey Boy' and conversation between him and Raphie in a few short chapters were more intriguing and felt better developed than the main story of Lou. I couldn't bring myself to like Lou at all - there was simply no part of his persona that appealed to me. Gabe, the character brought into the novel in order to give a message, had a huge amount of potential to be interesting, but he seemed to flit in and out of chapters without any development. Both Lou and Gabe had an uncertainty to them, as though Ahern herself didn't really have a firm idea of them herself.
As for the magical realism in this book, I totally was not expecting it and it completely threw me off. For some people, this may be a nice surprise, but it wasn't for me. I enjoy magical books, but the 'magical cloning pills' that were thrown into this just felt completely random and made the whole thing feel a little disjointed. I know that they were an important component to the storyline, but it almost completely ruined this book for me.
The climax of the book comes around near the end and I can see it being a twist that will either work for you or that you'll really, really resent. Thankfully, for me it worked. Despite reminding me of the ending of One Day by Nicholls (which I didn't enjoy), I found this to be effective in bringing closure to the tale and the message.
This book was not something that I'd particularly recommend, as I didn't enjoy it all that much. However, it was nice to sample what Cecelia Ahern has to offer and I found that her writing was quite creative. I'll certainly be reading more from her in the future, but this one was nothing amazing.