Christmas Book Review: My True Love Gave To Me

Hello lovely readers! Here is another instalment of our special Christmas-themed 'What About Wednesday's! So without further ado, here is a review of a new holiday favourite of ours!

My True Love Gave To Me edited by Stephanie Perkins

Authors:Stephanie Perkins, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, Kiersten White
Release Date: October 14th, 2014
Read: December 2016
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Series: Stand-Alone Short Stories

Summary from Goodreads:

If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favourite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins. Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year's there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.

Review:

So this book was a cute one. Like a real cute one. I thought that most of the stories were amazing, and showcased the best of the authors's talents. I was over the moon at how cute and quaint every story was. While there were some that I wasnt the biggest fan of, but those that I did enjoy far outweighed the "bad" ones. If you are looking for the perfect Christmas stories, look no furthur. This is it. Like every anthology movie, this book really makes you believe in it's underlying theme: Christmas is a magical time of year. Although I will not go into specifics about each story, I have to give props to my favourite one of all. Midnights by Rainbow Rowell is probably the best and sweetest short story I have ever read. I was heartbroken when it ended, as I wanted more. More of the story, more plot, more, more, more. I honestly could've read an entire book of just this one short story. I loved how it was snippets of midnight every year for about five years. It let you grow with the characters, and in a really short time you cared deeply for the people in it. It's definitely a recommend!


Favourite Quote:
“I'm not going anywhere, Noel." "You are, and it's okay. Just... I need you to take me with you.” 

― Rainbow Rowell, My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories


Rating:
7.5/10

Recommended for People Who Enjoy:
Short stories, true love, anthologies, "Love Actually", Christmas

Happy Reading!
Mari

Christmas Wednesdays: 12 Days of Dash and Lily

12 Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Released: October 18th, 2016

Read: November 2016

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Format: ARC, 215 pages

Series: Dash & Lily #2

Description from Goodreads: Dash and Lily have had a tough year since readers first watched the couple fall in love. Lily’s beloved grandfather suffered a heart attack, and his difficult road to recovery has taken a major toll on her typically sunny disposition.
  With only twelve days left until Christmas—Lily’s favorite time of the year—Dash, Lily’s brother Langston, and their closest friends take Manhattan by storm to help Lily recapture the holiday magic of New York City in December.

Review: This book was more depressing than I thought it would be, especially considering how sweet and simple the first book was. Although it did have some funny parts, it was mostly sadness and coming to terms with change.
   I am glad that Dash finally ditched his fedora, but it worried me a little that there was a noticeable change in times between the last book and this one. For instance Trump was mentioned more than once, which is way too many times for a YA novel of any kind.
   Also, out of the two, Lily definitely changed the most between books and during this one. She went from cute teenage shut-in to over serious young-adult, but still makes mistakes and risks that don't particularly fit this new stage of her life. The end brings back most of her cheerfulness but she's still different, which is good. Because she can't remain the same forever, but it also seems like too drastic of a change in one short year. I mean, she's barely seventeen.
   Altogether, a weird and slightly disappointing sequel, but a realistic disappointment... if that makes sense.

Quotable Quotes:
- "What an idiot Santa is for flying around alone. Because who would want to travel the world without another person's heartbeat beside him?"
- "The minute she left the apartment, I missed having her there. But as with all loves, I supposed, the consolation was in the fact that she'd be back."

Rating: 6/10

Read if You Liked: Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, adventures, romance, i'm not sure

Optimistically yours, Ola <3