Christmas Book Nook: Courting Cozy

Now that December's well underway, it's time for -- yes -- season's readings!  And the first novel I crossed off my list was The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss.  Full of light-hearted warmth, Dates is the story of singleton Kate Turner.  Kate lives in a storybook village outside of London where everyone knows everyone else.  Also, she's thirty-four and looking for love.  Or rather, her friend Laura is looking for love for her -- in the form of signing her up for a dating service that pairs her with a dozen suitors leading up to Christmas.  Kate is clear that she doesn't need a man.  As an artist for Liberty of London and baker for her friend Matt's charmingly named Pear Tree Café (insert partridge joke), she's got more than enough going on.  But resistance, as they say, is futile, and before she knows it, she's off to cooking lessons, gingerbread house building contests, and escape rooms with a mixed bag of bachelors, divorced dudes, and a few Lotharios looking for a good time.  Matt, however, thinks it's all a bad idea.  He's over-protective, especially given that he and Kate had a mysterious falling out years ago, as the Brits say, at uni.  Anyway, it's none of his business, as he's got a girlfriend of his own.      

I think you see where this is going.

Still, like the dried fruit itself (bring on the produce puns), The Twelve Dates of Christmas is that rare treat that stokes your holiday spirit without making you want to throw up.  It's got the heart of a Hallmark movie, only funny and not fussy (i.e. there's some sex), two qualities, if you ask me, that those card store-branded features are lacking.  I'm especially glad that I stumbled upon Bayliss's book because last Christmas I read one too many romances that took place on ranches.  Mucking out the stalls does not a happy holiday make.  Dates, on the other hand, is full of comfort and joy, with Kate, Matt, and company downing an inordinate amount of baked goods and hot chocolate and decorating the wilds of their village with, as they put it, baubles.  What's more, Bayliss's writing is rich yet breezy, making the most of Kate's story and the yuletide theme.

Here on the holiday home front, I'm slower to deck the halls.  But the husband did haul up the decorations from the basement yesterday, and as soon as I saw the boxes, I wanted to find and photograph what he refers to as my "tree farm": 

This isn't where they'll stay, neon backdrop pics being figments of fantasyland.  I'll plant them firmly in front of the fireplace, once I get around to the rest of those boxes.

Which won't, of course, be until after I've disappeared into yet another Christmas caper.