The Holiday Switch(13)
A grin makes its way to my lips. I plop into my desk chair and flip my laptop screen up. When it wakes, Ariana Grande’s trilling voice amplifies through the speakers—my sister’s playlist—and I all but pound on my keyboard to quiet it. My heart races. This is why I do most of my blog posts at the Inn; in this house, my privacy is never guaranteed.
I take a deep breath, turn down the screen’s glow, then head to my blog dashboard and type in my credentials.
The glimmering Tinsel and Tropes’s blog header, illustrated by Carm, greets me. I click on the New Post button.
TINSEL AND TROPES
A HOLIDAY BOOK BLOG
Title: The Book of Holiday Surprises by T.A. Jones
CATEGORY/GENRE: YA CONTEMPORARY WITH PARANORMAL ELEMENTS
NOTE: read on after this post for a special announcement from Tinsel and Tropes
When is the right time to say no?
I found The Book of Holiday Surprises in a pile of donated books, and it gripped me from the first page. You all know that I tend to judge and read books from the first paragraph rather than the back cover copy, and at a time when I wanted to get the heck out of reality, this book gave an escape.
Yes, it’s been that kind of a week.
But back to the book and our protagonist.
Magic seems like a gift at a time when our protagonist needs it most. She just moved to a new school before the holidays (now that is a lump of coal!), and her fellow classmates are predictably unwelcoming.
Later on, we find out that her classmates aren’t who they portray themselves to be. That’s right—this won’t be a spoiler if you read the back copy—it is, in fact, a school filled with kids who have supernatural abilities, and in her discovery of her own powers through a book she finds in the locker she’s been assigned, she uncovers their plot to overthrow the human world. And let’s just say, that while the school breaks for the holidays, the characters in this story are far from lazing around eating cookies.
Told you it was good.
On top of that, we’ve got the villain’s brother, who rejects magic out of principle and therefore is hesitant of our protagonist. She’s wary of him because of his lineage and…
Yes, dear readers, my favorite trope: slow burn, and, on that note, opposites attract (read it and you will agree), in addition to The Chosen One.
It works out in the end. That’s not a spoiler! The back cover already spills this. But there’s a lot of drama in this book’s journey, and heartache too. The story is well written, the plotting is tight, but it does make me question if our protagonist should have chosen magic. Would it have been better for her to have lived a simple life? To have averted her attention, to look elsewhere for answers or fulfillment?
Then again, she wouldn’t have met a certain someone, and she wouldn’t have discovered how powerful she truly is.
So, does that make all the pain worth it?
Choices are never easy to make; there usually seems to be an easy, safe route and a riskier choice. One that involves stretching yourself. Probably reaching for areas unknown. The payoff? It could be great. But it’s not without its bumps and bruises.
What would you choose?
Pros: While this is a romance, there is so much friendship in this book too. And self-discovery, which hit the spot for me.
Cons: Could have been a little longer. I really liked the villain in this story. TBH, I hope that the next story is the villain’s!
Recommended for: Anyone looking for an escape. Once you start…just clear your calendar!
Rating: 4.75 stars
***
Note from Tinsel and Tropes: Thank you for reading to the end of this post! A heads-up that our blog’s second anniversary is on January 2. Expect a special surprise!
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18
“Someone’s moving slow this morning.”
I recognize my coworker’s voice without looking, and as I fill my Styrofoam cup with coffee, I quip back, “Someone is almost late.”
KC cuts in line behind me to no one’s objection and fills up a cup for himself. I barely finish stirring in a pound of creamer before he pulls me by the sleeve to the first row of chairs, set up in front of the cash registers. It’s reliably free among the fifty chairs to accommodate the employees of the Bookworm Inn, because no one wants to be up close and personal during a staff meeting.
I plop onto the seat, the chill of the plastic chair doing nothing for my exhaustion. It’s been a long week, starting with waking up late on Monday morning after writing and editing my blog post, which snowballed into the drudgery of reviewing for finals and work.
At the thought of my last blog post, my insides tingle. It garnered the most comments I ever had; readers were stoked to congratulate me in advance for the blog’s anniversary, and wrote that they were excited for the upcoming surprise. Many also weighed in on the post’s final question about choices. A clear majority wrote that they would have chosen magic versus the safe choice.
Me? If pressed, I might have sided with taking risk, but internally, I’m still undecided. Risk is real. It’s scary, uncomfortable, and has consequences.
“Anyway, I’m not late. The range of arrival is between oh-seven hundred to seven-ten, and it is seven-ten.” With a free hand, KC brushes back his hair, the tips glistening with melted snow. “To be honest, I had to go forty through downtown. My car had a hard time cranking up this morning and I thought I was going to be late. I’m just glad I didn’t get pulled over.”