The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas Christmas at the Women's Hotel Daniel M. Lavery, 2025 New Release! I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.  This is a holiday-themed spin-off from a longer novel (titled simply Women's Hotel) imagining the lives, loves, tragedies, and triumphs of a group of women living in a fictional women's hotel.  The real-life women-only residential hotels were a phenomenon created by a specific time in history, from about the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. Young, single women wanted to move to a city to get work, but they didn't have family to stay with. Enter the women's hotel, seen as a safe, respectable place for unchaperoned middle-class secretaries and assistants to live (until they marry and move to the suburbs). I read half of a nonfiction book about one of the most famous women's hotels years ago and found the concept fascinating. I hadn't heard of the original Women's Hotel novel, but...

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year Ally Carter, 2024 Premise: Maggie writes mysteries, and she's really good at it. But it's been a year since her husband destroyed their marriage and her life fell apart, so she's not looking forward to Christmas. When her publisher sends her to spend the holidays with her literary idol, she thinks perhaps things are looking up... until she sees who else is invited. This is a holiday-mystery-themed romance novel with a good amount of humor, action, and heart. It does a good job establishing our lead and her current world, while slowly revealing her past situation.  I liked that Maggie's flaws and struggles seemed realistic. She's not perfect, but neither is she dumb or dealing with problems that have easy solutions.  The male lead is a bit more complicated. By the end, he's a lovable, strong romantic hero, but you don't start getting his perspective until around halfway through. Until ...

Crossposted from Mainlining Christmas The Holiday Honeymoon Switch Julia McKay, 2024 I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review. I got this title too late in the season to cover it last year, but better late than never? Premise: Besties Holly and Ivy decide to swap their planned holiday getaways after Holly's fiancé breaks off their relationship just before their Christmas wedding. They both find new friends and possible love by taking the road they didn't plan on. This book is two romances in one, and that fact leads to both the story's flaws and its joys. The good: two stories means that they switch off, meaning neither one is likely to get boring or overstay its premise. Holly's fiancé (who Ivy has doubted but tried to be cool with for a long time) jilts her for another woman, causing her to be numb and sad for a lot of the beginning of the story. It's good to break this up with Ivy's concern for her friend. Meanwhile, Ivy is...