This is Christmas, Song by Song is a select history of the most popular Christmas songs, how they came about, and the lingering impact they have each holiday season. I love learning little behind-the-scenes facts, so this was a great first read for the season. I also added several songs to my Christmas playlist as I listened to each track before I read the chapter on it. If you’re a big fan of Christmas music, I think this is the perfect book to pick up for the holidays.
Christmas and other Horrors is a holiday horror anthology. As the song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year states, telling scary ghost stories is in fact a Christmas tradition, and these tales certainly deliver some great spooks. Including numerous types of December celebrations across the globe, this anthology directs your eyes away from the shining lights, presents under the tree, and roaring fireplace to the darkest corners of the night where the snow-filled wind howls and bites. From a kidnapping Santa to ghoulish Austrian home inspectors to Finnish wood demons who show you your darkest truths to a trouble-making Wales tradition gone terribly wrong to ghosts of the past around the world coming home for the holidays, there is a chilling tale for everyone within these pages.
The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson was a short, engaging read with the most beautiful Christmas vibes -alongside a murder mystery.
The story revolves around an American exchange student, Ashley Smith, in London who gets invited to a fellow student’s country house for Christmas. At first, it all seems like a beautiful dream. The massive house, the rolling landscape, the quaint pubs, and a potential romance with her friend’s sexy brother. But, things begin to take a turn from holiday romance to holiday horror. She hears about the missing girl from town who happens to look exactly like her. She sees a strange man stalking around the woods between the town and her friend’s house. Could this holiday trip be too good to be true?
Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict is a new take on the classic locked room murder and stranded group trope. Very much in the same vein as Murder on the Orient Express, which is mentioned in the book as well as mirrored in the title. Stranded after their train derails, Roz – who just retired from her job as a Met detective – finds one of the passengers dead. The marks on her neck indicate something more than the crash caused her demise.
As they wait for the engineers and police to reach them, Roz takes it on herself to figure out exactly what happened. The deeper she digs, the more connected and convoluted the relationships between the passengers – first thought to all be complete strangers – turn out to be making everything a lot more complicated. Just when I thought I had guessed the ending correctly, Benedict threw a sudden curveball at me! This is a great mystery book, but I do want to put out a BIG trigger warning for sexual assault before recommending this one. Going into this one completely blind could be rough for some people so definitely keep that in mind.
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger is another fun Christmas mystery. Following Madeline Martin, who survived a brutal night where she watched her best friend get murdered by her boyfriend who then attacked her and left her for dead. Two of her other close friends also disappeared that night. Her boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her best friend, but ten years later, a true crime writer comes to town to dig up the past. Three other women have gone missing since that night, leading people to wonder whether there was more than one monster in this story. One still roaming free. Madeline doesn’t want to believe it, but her memories of that night are fractured and hazy. Could there be more to her story than she ever realized?
I feel like the outcome of this one was fairly predictable, but it was executed very well. It was still an enjoyable read, especially for the holidays!
For All Story Lovers! 