Reading Reality, LLC

12/07/2025

Stacking the Shelves for December 6, 2025

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.



This meme is hosted every Saturday by yours truly, - The covers shown here are merely a TEASER! Link to full post in bio to see the pretty covers of ALL the books in this week's stack!

12/06/2025

Stacking the Shelves (682)

Welcome to this week's contribution to the STABLE environment at Chez Reading Reality. By STABLE, I'm referencing that acronym I talked about last week, where STABLE stands for STash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy, because my book collection, including ebooks, passed that point YEARS ago. Now that....

12/06/2025

Snow Place Like Home by Laura Pavlov

Some families throw celebrations together at the last minute. Some plan out EVERY DETAIL to the nth degree. Goldie Jacobs is part of one of "those families" as she calls them, who plan and enjoy planning it all down to the costumes. Which is why she's wearing a "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" costume to the rehearsal dinner for her brother Jack's wedding. On Christmas Eve. She's the maid of honor, Jack's best friend is his best man, and the best man is costumed as The Grinch.

It's almost too sweet to believe. But Goldie does, even though it's definitely NOT her jam. Nor is it the best man's, as Ace Bonetti would only go through this level of crazy for his BFF Jack - and for Jack's now grown up little sister Goldie.

If the collection is supposed to be as sweet as a holiday cookie, this first book is the fruitcake. Complete with a whole lot of ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon and more than a bit of brandy to get Ace and Goldie to FINALLY admit they've had crushes on each other since high school, and that they're now more than far enough past high school to give whatever they've been tiptoeing around a chance to sparkle like the topper on her Christmas tree.

This was just so much fun. The issues between them were real, but the timing is right, and even Goldie's awesome dogs approve. The story is pure holiday fun, and the audio performances made the whole thing, especially the internal snark about just how over-the-top the planning really is, just that much funnier.

A terrific holiday pick-me-up romance!

12/05/2025

A- : Snow Place Like Home by Laura Pavlov

My Review: The blurb for this year’s series of Amazon’s holiday originals collection, Home Sweet Holidays, proclaims that what they have in store for readers - and listeners, is a “cookie-sweet collection of holiday romances.” This series opener, Snow Place Like Home, is plenty sweet - but i...

12/05/2025

A Christmas Witness by Charles Todd

Mysteries are my comfort reads, so I was really looking forward to this one in my readings. But it turned out to be both more captivating and more of a comfort than I - or for that matter Rutledge - were expecting.

Rutledge has a much better holiday than he thinks he's going to have, in spite of being dragged away from friends and family on assignment for Scotland Yard. Initially, he wonders if this assignment is merely to placate an retired army officer with friends in high places, because the evidence that ANY crime was committed doesn't add up.

But in doing his duty, in spite of more than a bit of bluster coming at him from both the victim AND his own boss, Rutledge finds the spirit of the holiday in the small town community and the regard of his fellow police officers and his holiday turns out to be much warmed than he expected - at least in spirit - in spite of the blizzard that rages Christmas Eve.

That the blustering Colonel is standing in for Ebenezer Scrooge, literally (in multiple senses of the word) and in his own mind, is turned delightfully on its head when the spirits again have "done it all in one night" and the old warhorse awakens a better man with the spirit of Christmas in his soul.

A delightful holiday mystery, made all the cozier by the frightful weather outside and the visitations of the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.

12/04/2025

Grade A : A Christmas Witness by Charles Todd .bsky.social

My Review: I picked this up because of the author and series. The Inspector Ian Rutledge series has been on my ‘comfort murder’ read list for a while now, but it’s 20-something books in and I know I want to read them all. And I will, as soon as the 'round tuit' circles its way. [...]

12/03/2025

A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith

This mystery begins with a prank that frankly couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. A beautifully wrapped parcel, left on Sir William Waring's office doorstep, with a grisly surprise inside. A mummified, severed hand and a wry but apropos note. He's incensed. Then again, incensed is his default state.

It's up to Sir Gabriel Ward, KC, to explain - repeatedly until it sinks in - that leaving severed limbs lying around isn't a crime in and of itself - no matter how much Waring wants it to be.

But the hand is only the beginning - because of course there's another one where that one came from. Along with a foot - or two. It's all fun and games until the frail but well-loved fixture of the Inner Temple community has a heart attack at the sight - and dies of it.

It's up to Gabriel to discover the source of those severed limbs - as well as the identity of whoever would kill to keep their secret. AND prosecute a complicated, intriguing legal case at the same time. But it's all in a day's work for Ward - even if it is not the sort of work he ever expected to undertake. That his earlier adventure, , has added a whole new dimension to his life and his work - and is frankly the making of him even in middle age, makes this a fascinating and intriguing historical mystery delight.

This reader, at least, can't wait for Sir Gabriel's next combination of investigation and litigation to appear.


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12/03/2025

Grade A : A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith ‪.bsky.social‬ ‪.bsky.social‬

My Review: This second book in The Trials of Gabriel Ward series (after the surprisingly terrific A Case of Mice and Murder earlier this year) isn’t exactly a holiday book. But it begins with Sir William Waring, the Treasurer of the Inner Temple, receiving what has to be one of the worst Christmas...

12/03/2025

The Last Death of the Year by Sophie Hannah and Agatha Christie

It's not, actually, the last death of the year. I want to say it is from a certain perspective, but that's not actually true, either. Which is somewhat fitting, because not a single member of the community at the House of Perpetual Welcome is telling anything even adjacent to the truth - although some are a bit closer than the others.

Even Poirot has brought his friend Catchpool to this place (and story) under somewhat false pretenses.

After all, the would-be murderer does start the story by telling something like the truth - even though they tell that questionable truth in a manner that is designed to not only conceal their identity and intent, but also to put others into the frame. (I'm not saying the others are innocent, because it's debatable whether anyone in the community is exactly innocent, but they are, at least, neither planning nor guilty of murder.

When the murder is discovered, it's up to Poirot and Catchpool to wind their way through a seemingly endless series of lies, misdirections, and histrionic outbursts to figure out whodunnit and why - before the end of the New Year's holidays AND, more importantly, before this turns out to be a repeat of - but not nearly as compelling.

I keep reading this series, even though they keep driving me bonkers. I think they're like a bag of chips, in that my hand is stuck in the bag and I can't get it out without another chip in it. I didn't exactly enjoy this one but I was just invested enough (I like Catchpool fairly well) that I had to see Poirot's 'gathering of the suspects' for myself.

Your reading mileage may vary.

12/02/2025

: The Last Death of the Year by Sophie Hannah and Agatha Christie

My Review: From a certain point of view, The Last Death of the Year is a fairly typical Poirot story - at least in his later years and certainly in this series continuation of the late and much lamented Agatha Christie’s most popular detective’s investigations. Poirot has dragged his current bes...

12/01/2025

Holly Giveaway Hop

It's that time again. Time to start REALLY angsting about holiday presents and holiday gatherings, time for this particular , and time for holiday songs to start playing everywhere all the time for a whole, entire month.

And for one particular holiday song to start playing in my head. That song would be "Holly Jolly Christmas" and it gets stuck in my head the DAY I start prepping this post and doesn't leave until the holidays are over.

I mean, it's a cute song, but a whole month of ONE SONG is too much. But maybe, now that I've shared my earworm, I won't suffer quite as long. 🤷

BUT, I'm also sharing a giveaway. Which holiday song sticks in your head this time of year? Visit Reading Reality in the link up in the full bio - or at https://wp.me/p3gHJx-esp - for a chance at an Amazon GC that will get you some holiday songs of your own!

12/01/2025

Holly Jolly Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Holly Jolly Giveaway Hop, hosted by Mama the Fox and Mom Does Reviews! I happens every year at this exact time. By that, I mean the day BEFORE this Holly Jolly Giveaway Hop begins, when I do the post prep. I start hearing Burl Ives in my head - and it's a terrible thing. There's a [.....