Great books for children at Christmas

So its that wonderful time of the year again and I can honestly say I'm a true Christmas fan, I love absolutely everything about Christmas although I have been known to get confused and start signing Christmas cards Merry Christine lots of love Christmas! Honestly I have done this so many times.
This year I decided to take control and get organised for the big day but when I went to start getting organised... I had no idea what I really needed to do to be organised!! So I booked myself into a Christmas workshop, and it was the best thing I have done. Last night I went to my first workshop, it was run by a local Swedish stationary company I might be slightly obsessed with called Kikki K. It was brilliant and if you live in Australia or Singapore you really should look into their workshops.
So on that note today I started to write my Christmas cards and have bought a few presents so right now I'm feeling all awesome and organised compared to the last few years when I talked about being organised right up until the week before Christmas when I was still buying presents.
Its no secret that I love books and I love that when my little boy finds a book that interests him he  will happily sit down and read it again and again so I thought I would put together a list of some really great books that might come in handy if you are looking for gift ideas.
As there a quite a few books I wont go into detail about them, I will just post the books and if you would like to know anymore about them just give me a bell. I will say that of all the small kids books I post, my son is mad about each one, he really does love and enjoy them.

These books are brilliant for the littlest kids.

These books are great for the older kids and young Teens.

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

People.... you NEED to go out to your local book store or second hand book market and buy this book. Every person who enjoys reading needs to read this.
I am desperately holding myself back from gushing endlessly about this amazing book.
The story of how this came to me is lovely, my mother and my sister both told me they had just read the loveliest book and both were planning on reading it again, both felt the same, this book just makes you feel happy and lovely. Less than a week later my mother in law and Nana both started talking about this lovely book that they have just read... Winter Solstice... by now I was starting to think that this book really must be something special and made my way down to my Mums bookshelf and borrowed it (I have had serious thoughts of never returning it ha-ha). From the first page you are hooked, simple as that. This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, each character is so well written that after the first chapter you forget they are fictional characters and you think you know them... its not lunacy its just how brilliant this book is.
The majority of this book is set in a small town in the of north Scotland, there are five main characters who all come together and spend Christmas together. OK now that is all I can say, sorry folks but anymore and I would be giving too much away. If you aren't into Christmas stories never fear this is not actually a Christmas story, its just set around that time of year. It doesn't matter what age you are, please pick up this book and read it, sooner rather than later. I honestly felt like I had just been to visit my favourite relations or a beloved old Aunt after reading this book, there is no possible way that you could read this book and not walk away with a light heart and a spring in your step!
I would give this book a clear 10/10.

Well Well Well

Folks I am back. After a busy two months I am back on the book wagon, I have been stuck in a bad book coma and couldn't seem to find the right book to pull me out of it. If you do have any good book recommendations I would really love to hear them, please do let me know.

Ok now, Housewives all over the world have woken up this morning to the news.... the news so many women world wide have been waiting and waiting and waiting for..... they have cast Christian Grey.
Charlie Hunnam from Sons Of Anarchy has been cast as The Christian Grey.
Regardless of us liking the books or not, I'm fairly certain most of us will venture out to see this movie, if anything just for the curiosity, I mean, if you have read the books you understand what I mean by curiosity... how can a book like this be brought to life and then aired on the big screen? Its a book about strange sex. 
I know I will venture out to see it, and I also know I will be mortified for the majority of the movie and I wouldn't dare take my Mum to see this movie.

Oh and just in case you were wondering, I am thrilled with the casting, Charlie can absolutely glare in my direction any day and as for Dakota, she has a quirkiness to her that I like. Good choices I think!
Right well I had better get back to Mum duties and sorting books into some sort of organised reading pile.

Take care & talk soon xx

Giants Of The Frost by Kim Wilkins

I found this book a few years ago in a box of old books my sister was giving away, for some reason I picked it up and brought it home with me. It wasn't until a few months ago that I picked it up and read it and I have tried to review it many times since starting my blog and I have to say, it is extremely hard to review. To give an honest review about this book would force me to give away a crucial plot. This book really needs to be reviewed so I will try and do my best not to spoil it for you. If you feel that you can not read a book when you know the ending then maybe you shouldn't read on, just go and get the book and read it yourself.
Twenty seven year old Victoria Scott suddenly finds herself on a way to a remote weather station off the coast of Norway, starting a new job in a strange country is an adventure itself. Strange occurrences start happening upon her arrival and suddenly her world has slipped away into a world well known from ancient folk lore... introducing.... Vikings. Yep, they are all there, Odin, Thor and Loki. I really don't know how to word this review, so I will do my best to sum it up in Chris words.
This book starts out being about a normal girl who is searching for her place in life, she ends up in a beautiful but strange and haunting land, suddenly a man named Vidar appears and the story really starts from his arrival. I really cant tell you much more about the story line without completely spoiling it for you but let me say this. I really enjoyed this book, at times it was frustrating and at times it was sad, I was happily putting two and two together and my head was skipping ahead to the happy ending but come last page and the book flew across the room bouncing off the wall and narrowly missing poor husbands head. I cried with rage and sadness for half an hour after reading this. I was devastated with the ending, I understood it but did I like it or agree with it, NO.
So if you can handle reading a book with a great storyline but not so great ending then you should give this one a read, if you are into Vikings and the old Norse Lore then this is a must read, I was excitedly explaining characters in the book to my Swedish friend only to have her fill me in on the histories behind each character, it was amazing. One thing that the author has done brilliantly was combine the two worlds together, it is done in such a brilliant way that on stormy days you might just wonder...
6/10

The Inn at Boonsboro Trilogy by Nora Roberts

Three great women....who happen to be best friends.... Three hunky men who happen to be brothers.... another beautiful small town in America.... Three books that made me happy and wasn't I just the happiest little camper when my friend bought me the first book, I knew from the very first page that I would love it, my friend had written a really lovely message on page one that stumped me, you could say that in our brilliant friendship I have enough ridiculous emotions for the two of us and then some ha-ha so it was extremely heart warming to open this book and see her lovely message! So with that happiness in my head I started reading and boy did I love this story, you don't really need to know more than the first two lines above, three women who are friends, three men who are brothers and this is a romantic book lovers dream. It has all the romance without being over the top and wow do they have a story line, I have to admit the first book has a pretty serious storyline that at times left me gobsmacked which surprised me and made me like the book even more. Nora Roberts is renowned for her brilliant writing so I don't need to mention anything about her style. She is a great writer who knows her stuff. Out of the three books I liked the first one a lot, I liked the second one and I loved the third one, so in all I really liked this trilogy and I would highly recommend it.
8/10

 

 

 

Sally by Freya North

I had previously read Secrets by Freya North and really liked it, so I got a little book happy and bought a load of her books a few weeks ago. Well I finished Sally and what can I say, I didn't like it, I had a headache from the first page to the last. It has the makings of a great book, and I still really like Freya North, she has this funny streak that I really do like, her characters are great but and there is a pretty big but... I couldn't stand her style of writing in this book. It changes from first, second and third person all within one page. At times it is impossible to follow the story because you cant keep track of who is talking, one minute she is having a conversation with him, the next the conversation switches into her head and then suddenly it has flipped to his character having a conversation with her only to jump right back into his head and then, and yes there is a then, suddenly its the author talking and telling the story from an outside point of view, now this might be OK chapter to chapter but when these switches happen all on the one page it is a huge mind bender and impossible to keep track. I actually couldn't wait to finish this book. I'm sad to say that I wouldn't recommend this book and recently had a conversation with a friend who also said she found the constant switching of narrators too hard to enjoy. Sadly this book is a bottom shelf for me.
2/10

Thankful

By now you may have noticed that I don't like to give away too much of the story, If I start jotting down the story line I will most likely reveal too much and people wont need or want to read the book so I do try and write these reviews more from my opinion and feeling about the book. I'm sure if you have read my reviews you have gathered that I'm more of a romance happy book girl, this is true and I don't feel the need to deny it, I don't like reading books with heavy sad scary or devastating story lines, that's what the news is for, so when I open the pages of a book I will happily admit that I want to go somewhere that I know will have a happy ending. So if you are looking for fancy literary quotes and big intelligent words this blog probably isn't for you, I don't feel the need or want to waste my time saying something I don't want to be saying.

On another note, I love reading, we now know this, its one of my favourite things to do, sometimes I admit to preferring the company of the characters in the books to some characters in my real life but that's what I love so much about reading, the feeling of being somewhere else for a time, so if you have any suggestions for books I should look out for I would love to hear them so please do let me know, my list of books to read can never be high enough and just because there are two piles that are now taller than me there is always room to start another pile.

It takes a lot of courage for an extremely self conscious person to come out and do something like this, to put their thoughts and opinions out there for the world to read. So I would like to say thank you for reading my blog and an even bigger thank you for all the kind words and support I have been receiving, people are very kind and I truly appreciate it.

Christine