The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Remember how roundabout this time last year, Aaron gave me the best early Christmas present ever? Well, the book closet is all decked out for the holidays this year and it's making my stressed out/overworked/longing-for-Christmas-magic heart lift each time I walk down the hallway.

And now that it's a mere week until Christmas, I've been spending the most enjoyable and large part of the time that I wasn't stressing out/overworking/longing handing out book recommendations right and left to loved ones far and near. I absolutely adore it when the emails/texts/calls begin pouring in and I get to happily sift through everything I've read over the last year to find the perfect ones for the people on their lists. No joke, I have said the words, "Six of Crows" no less than 12 times in the last 24 hour period alone. A Desperate Fortune has been not far behind it. In other words, these are the ~~droids~~ books you're looking for.

I'm certainly passing on the two I mentioned above. And as I always seem to, I've wrapped up some lovely Juliet Marilliers, Deanna Raybourns, and Sherry Thomases this year. With some excellent Jandy Nelson, Rebecca Stead, and Lisa Kleypas thrown in for good measure. As for my oldest, he's deeply and ecstatically enmeshed in the Septimus Heap and Hero's Guide series just now, so there's a better than fair chance his stocking just might be sporting the next ones in both of those.

I love knowing which books are headed to good homes. Will you share with me the ones you're gifting (or have reced other people to gift) this year?

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The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

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If I'm being perfectly honest with myself, I've done a shamefully poor job of addressing my love for Cat Sebastian 's books around these parts. I've certainly noted each time her beautiful stories have appeared on my end-of-the-year best of lists, see: The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes , basically every book in The Cabots series , and of course We Could Be So Good . And the pull is, quite simply, this: nobody is as kind and gentle with their characters and with their hearts than Cat Sebastian. Nobody. I haven't always been one for the gentler stories, but I cannot overstate the absolute gift it is sinking into one of Sebastian's exquisitely crafted historicals knowing that I get to spend the next however many pages watching two idiots pine and deny that feelings exist and just take care of each other as they fall in love. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. Not this one or any other. Only two things in the world people count b...

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