Luckylyn

Started it but haven’t finished it. The pacing is horrible. It’s so boring and too many unnecessary filler scenes.

Starting The Husband Hunters: The American Heiresses who Married into the British Aristocracy today. editing to add: enjoying the first 50 pages. It makes me want to read The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton . Adding that to my queue

If Hallmark Movies were a Musical I loved Christmas by Starlight . I enjoyed Christmas Waltz mostly but felt like it was a bit lacking. I think it was the cliche misunderstanding at the end that frustrated me.

Julie and the Phantoms - Ghost Alex joins Dirty Candy on stage

I’m starting The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory. I have been really enjoying her Wedding Date series of books. This one is a hate to love story.

I’m having flashbacks to TWOP’s Rae Dawn Chong Challenge. Every year the recappers would slip a particular reference into all the recaps and readers had to figure out what it was. The first was Rae Dawn Chong.

I think I remember a movie where two sisters get sucked into one sister’s favorite Christmas movie. I can’t remember the name. It might have been on Up? I liked the premise but the execution wasn’t as fun as I hoped.

Every Hallmark Movie Again: A Single Dad Christmas So As usual I am behind but trying to keep up with Hallmark, Lifetime, and Up. So far I have enjoyed One Royal Holiday , On the 12th Date of Christmas , Deliver by Christmas , Never Kiss A Man in a Christmas Sweater (until the mandatory misunderstanding towards the end) and Christmas with the Darlings. I got bored during Timeless Christmas . Lifetime’s Spirit of Christmas did so much better with a similar premise. I can’t remember the Alicia Witt/Andrew Walker movie name but I found that one just okay. The Cranberry marriage in trouble movie had bits I liked but didn’t pull me in as much as the ones I liked better. So far I have been enjoying Hallmark the most and finding most of Lifetime and Up disappointing. This year seems better than last year for Hallmark. I genuinely love hot cocoa. I drink it all year round. So I don’t mind the Christmas movie hot cocoa references.

I just wanted to say that The Trouble with Hating You by Sajni Patel ended up being more than I thought based on the description. I really appreciate a romance novel that have more depth than you anticipated. There was a nice mix of humor and romance but also some serious obstacles. The characters are flawed but still rootable. I hope there’s a sequel. I think there’d be interesting stories to tell about the lead characters circle of friends. I am reading Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts next. It’s the second in her Chronicles of the One series. I appreciate the variety of Nora Roberts. She can do fantasy, crime thrillers, and romance.

Every Hallmark Movie Ever

I just finished Shadows in Death by JD Robb. It was okay. I think maybe my expectations were too high. I just wanted something more. Parts of it I enjoyed but some was less interesting than I'd hoped. One scene really bothered me when I am going to start The Trouble with Hating You by Sajni Patel about a woman who ends up having to work closely with the guy her family has been trying to set her up with.

I think Georgiou has been replaced by an AI. The real Georgiou is still in custody. The first priority should be to use Discovery to help reestablish communication. Then they need to create a way to use the spore drive so it’s not dependent on Stamets and adapt the tech to other Starfleet ships. As others have said there should be some new crew members to upgrade Discovery with the most current tech and train the crew to use it. Discovery has a quirk of being in some ways more advanced because of the spore drive and also 900 years behind.

I’m really appreciated the Kevin/Madison conversation. I like that Madison is wanting to take her time regarding marriage and the acknowledgment that they don’t know each other that well yet. I really like their new openness about their issues and concerns about the impact on their children. Tess’s only mistake was not talking to Beth and Randall because they would have supported her if she had told them what the teacher was doing. My impression is she’s trying to assert her independence by seeking her own way to handle the situation without seeking support from her parents. She was right to speak out but the method wasn’t the most effective one available. She deliberately cut her parents out of the loop and that needed to be addressed. This wasn’t just about calling out a teacher who was doing the wrong thing but a way to announce her independence. Also the kids should be making their own breakfast by now especially if they are picky about stuff like the type of eggs being used. If Tess wants to act independently than she needs to start making her own food. I feel like Beth and Randall do too much for the girls sometimes. Was it last season where we saw Beth and Randall were washing the dinner dishes and making lunches for the kids? I do think Tess’s punishment is too long. Two weeks seems reasonable to me. They also need to have the “if you are grown now take care of your own household stuff” conversation with her. If she wants to stand on her own then that should include chores like grocery shopping, cooking, etc... Do the kids even do their own laundry? I grew up in a house where everything was done for us and it makes adulthood harder when you are on own and suddenly you have to learn how to take care of household stuff yourself. I appreciate my parents’ willingness to work full time while also doing all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc... but I wished when we were growing up they let us have more responsibilities beyond just cleaning our room. It would have made the transition to adulthood easier. I have a sister who really struggled with taking care of that kind of stuff when she moved out the first time. Her roommate and her had a lot of conflict over it and she ended up coming back to live at home until she got married. I am someone who looks racially ambiguous. People can tell I am not white but can’t easily identify my ethnicity. I have long relaxed hair. My entire life people have just tried to touch my hair, and it has always bothered me. When I was a child, adults who should have known better would just put their fingers on my hair and sometimes yank on my ponytail explaining they wanted to know if I had a weave as if that justified it. As an adult, I still have to fend people off who try to touch my hair. I was at the salon last year and a stranger walked up to my chair while my beautician was putting rollers for me and just grabbed my hair. I jumped away and the woman had the nerve to look at me like I was being rude. People feel this entitlement to touch the hair of women of color. I can understand Tess wanting to speak out.

This makes me think of Stephen Colbert’s fake Christmas Movie advertisement and his hilarious movie titles. I want “Jurassic Wreath” to be a real thing. Running for your life from dinosaurs will definitely inspire you to feel the spirit of Christmas.

Thanks for the correction. So many movies, so many similar titles.

A hilarious analysis of Candy Cane Christmas is up on youtube

I’m behind on my Christmas Movie watching. I see multiple Hallmark but of Lifetime have only seen Candy Cane Lane. That movie was so frustrating. It’s basically the same misunderstanding not once, not twice, but three times keeping the characters apart. After the third misunderstanding I didn’t care anymore about them getting together since the characters aren’t capable of simple conversations to settle easily addressed issues. When she was crying in the car over misunderstanding #3 I was rolling my eyes so hard. Seriously just talk to the man instead of jumping to conclusions again.

I’m behind in my Christmas watching. Trying to keep up with Hallmark, Lifetime, Up etc... is a challenge. Every year, I end up missing some movies because it’s overwhelming. I just finished The 12 Dates of Christmas and really loved it. There was something grownup about it. I think it’s my favorite so far.

Today I’m starting Shadows in Death by JD Robb. I’m excited to delve more into Roarke’s past. I really enjoy the books in the series when things are more personal.

The only reason the birdwatcher didn’t get in trouble in my opinion is that he video taped the incident and could prove the version of events she was telling 911 was a lie. It’s a fascinating case because she was so secure in her privilege that she lied to 911 about being threatened while aware she was on camera.

I loved Sara/Christopher as well. I wouldn’t mind a sequel focusing on them. I haven’t been a fan of the idea of Hallmark sequels because I think it’s a mistake to revisit the same couples over and over again which is why I don’t mind the Evergreen sequels. With that one you get a new couple every time with an appearance of past characters letting you know how they are. Although the third one in that series bored me. I prefer that method of sequel which is how a lot of romance novel series are handled. I really love a good series like Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals or Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series. There have been movies where I wouldn’t have minded a sequel where a supporting character becomes the lead. I still wish we got a sequel to Let It Snow where we finally saw the spoken about but never seen brother who lived in Australia. A Christmas in Australia movie would be a lovely change of pace but I knew it would never happen even before Covid made international travel risky. I also wanted to see more of the assistant in Royal Match Maker. I hope we see the Sara/Christopher actors again. The actress playing Sara in particular was good.

That’s interesting.The dog mentioned is a golden retriever but isn’t part of the story.

I can’t tell if you are kidding or not. I have a friend who always asks before we see a movie with action or suspense if any pets are harmed because she won’t watch in that situation. A dog is mentioned in The Silent Corner a couple of times but isn’t part of the story. The lead in The Wallflower Wager takes in animals of all kinds which is why she’s in conflict with her neighbor.

The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz took time to get going for me but I was drawn in . I will definitely keep going with this series. Interestingly Eric Larson’s In The Garden of Beasts was referenced. I haven’t read it yet but it’s been in my queue for a few weeks. I might move it ahead on my list but first I am in the mood for some romance. I’m starting The Wallflower Wager today a historical romance where neighbors in conflict fall for each other.

So far I have enjoyed One Royal Holiday and Delivered by Christmas. I liked the leads in both and enjoyed the chemistry. I really appreciated the humor in One Royal Holiday. When Anna compared to Captain VonTrapp, I thought that was a wonderful reference because the Prince’s dry humor worked so well for me. I liked that he tended to be serious with surprising moments of humor here and there. Arraon Tevit is good at making his eyes smile even if his mouth isn’t and that VonTrapp “serious but with hidden charm” is a vibe I like.