A Shoe Addict’s Christmas by Beth Harbison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! I’m a big Beth Harbison fan but not normally a Christmas book fan but I’m glad I read this one. It was so cute!

Noelle works for an upscale apartment story and finds herself unexpectedly locked in during a snow storm on Christmas eve. She’d been so busy working that she didn’t realize that snow had started falling heavily and that the store had closed and everyone had gone home. After checking in with her boss and assuring him she’d stay safely there all night, she settles in. She shops and as she’s trying on a nightgown to wear for the night, she hears a loud crash.

When she goes into the shoe storage room, she finds an old woman, Charlie, who claims to be her guardian angel. Noelle is suspicious but over the course of the night, Charlie takes her through her past to see where she could have made choices that would have been happier.

This story is cute and like A Christmas Carol. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a sweet, holiday read. 🙂

View all my reviews

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book! Funny, crazy, loveable.

The Wangs are a rather disfunctional, rich Chinese family living in LA. Charles, the dad, has made his fortune in cosmetics but made bad business decisions and ends up losing everything but his family. His wife Barbra, oldest daughter, Saina, youngest daughter, Grace, and son, Andrew.

Saina, is an adult, a respected artist that has had some business troubles of her own and has moved to an out of the way town in New York. When he realizes everything is gone, Charles loads up Barbra, Andrew and Grace and they head on a cross country trip to get to Saina’s house.

Ultimately, Charles has plans to regain family land in China that was taken over by the Communists. Charles grew up in Taiwain and has never set eyes on the land but feels it’s his destiny.

What follows is a madcap adventure of the four, and sometimes three, of them driving across the USA. In the end, after all of their troubles, the family draws close.

This is a fun book and I’d have finished it way earlier but I had trouble getting a copy in a format that I could easily read. Excellent book! Highly recommend. 🙂

View all my reviews

Pancakes in Paris: Living the American Dream in France by Craig Carlson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a cool book. It was fun to watch Craig find himself. It was also awesome to see his persistence to follow through on an idea he knew would be a really great one, all in another country.

View all my reviews