Christmas Romance Book Review: A Celtic Yuletide Carol by Jennifer Ivy Walker

 

Adventure and romance await you in A Celtic Yuletide Carol by Jennifer Ivy Walker. 

After the loss of his wife, Sir Cardin, now known as Basati, the Basque Wolf, drowns his guilt with golden mead in raucous taverns, amassing incredible debt and acquiring dangerous enemies. 

Ulla, the widowed daughter of a Viking chieftain, was rendered mute by trauma. She now avoids humans--especially babies and children--preferring the company of her wolf and falcon as she hunts in the Brocéliande Forest.

Summoned home by his dying mother's wish, Cardin finally meets the son he abandoned and Ulla, who is teaching his son to hunt. With the holidays approaching, Basati finds himself smitten with the beautiful Ulla as he bonds with his forsaken child. But with past enemies plotting against him, Basati is soon ensnared in a dangerous trap. 

Can music lure his savage heart into the light of love? 

The reader first meets a drunken Cardin after his brother Gaultier comes to collect him after another barfight has left him incapacitated. None too happy, Gaultier vows to bring his brother home. But it will be their mother's letter stating she wants to see her sons before she dies that brings them back, giving Cardin a chance to meet the son he abandoned on the the night he was born. 

In the following chapter, the reader meets Ulla, who has experienced her own tragedy, which traumatized her so much that she lost her beautiful voice and is now mute. They also meet Cardin's parents and his son. 

The romance unfolds between Cardin and Ulla nicely, but their happiness is threatened by powerful enemies determined to seek revenge on the Basque Wolf from Biarritz and motivated to interfere in world affairs. 

While I found the opening a bit slow, once Cardin and Gaultier returned, the pace picked up and the fate of well-developed characters in A Celtic Yuletide Carol encouraged me to turn page after page to see how Cardin and Ulla's intense, yet new, romance would survive and if Cardin could become the father his son desperately wanted. With a hint of healing magic, fans of historical holiday romances will be intrigued with A Celtic Yuletide Carol. 

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CXMB26VL
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Wild Rose Press, Inc. (November 6, 2024)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 6, 2024
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 816 KB
• Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 187 pages

I received a digital copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Christmas/Winter Fiction in My TBR Pile

 

Check out my books on Goodreads for more information on these and other titles.

Christmas... in the News: Dwayne Johnson's "Red One" Opens, NBC Selects Best Artificial Trees & Boardman Christmas Cafe Opening on Christmas Day

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Christmas... in the news. This is a weekly review of some of the Christmas articles and news over the last week. 

Hard to believe it is Sunday again. Are you feeling that Christmas joy? It is only 38 days away! Today, I took down the fall decorations in the house, cleaned off the mantle, and moved the furniture to bring up the main Christmas tree, hoping we can decorate it while our youngest is home for Thanksgiving break. 

Via the AP National News, our local news station WWLP  reported that Dwayne Johnson's latest action comedy, Red One, in which Johnson plays Santa's bodyguard, opened to $34.1 million against a $200 million+ production budget. Read more about it here.

In case you're in the market for a new artificial tree, NBC Select has put together a list of their "11 Best Artificial Christmas Trees." You can find the article here.

People in Boardman, Ohio have something to look forward to on Christmas Day. That's the day that Boardman Christmas Cafe is opening! WKBN First News 27 interviewed founder and owner April Mason about all the excitement. Read more here.

One last note before I leave you. In last week's edition, I shared the origins of this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. On November 14, we learned that the man who donated the tree had a stroke. His family is asking for people to send along Christmas cards to lift his spirits. You can find his address in this article. 

See you next week!

Christmas... in the News: Rockefeller Christmas Tree Arrives in NYC & The Touching Story Behind It & Idianola Man Decorates Entire Street as Early Christmas Gift for Wife

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Christmas... in the news. This is a weekly review of some of the Christmas articles and news over the last week. 

Here we are again. Another week has passed. Can you believe there are only 6 weeks (45 days, actually) until Christmas? Like, how did that happen? 

Are your decorations up yet? I haven't started, but Good Morning America has done a segment on the science behind how people who decorate early for Christmas are happier. You can watch it on YouTube. Let's haul out the holly!

This week, I truly wanted to focus on the human side of Christmas and the spirit of joy and peace that it can bring to this crazy world. I recently learned that this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is from the Berkshires (about 1.5 hours away from us). U.S. News reported yesterday about its arrival and who donated it. You can read that article here. Today featured a human interest story on the tree's origins. Earl Albert and his wife Leslie planted the tree in 1967 in West Stockbridge, MA. Before it grew to its current height of 74 feet, the Albert family used to decorate it. The tree caught the attention of the Rockefeller Center's head gardener, Erik Pauze, back in 2020, and he reached out the Alberts about it. There is so much more to the story. You can read it here.

And if the story of this year's Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree doesn't have you reaching for a tissue, then this next story will. KCCI8 out of Des Moines shared the story of John Reichart of Indinola, who, with the help of his neighbors, has decorated his entire street as an early Christmas gift for his wife, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. Click here to read more.

Would love to hear more feel good holiday stories from you if you would like to share. 

Christmas... in the News: Magic Kingdom Christmas Tree, Freeform '25 Days of Christmas' & Hallmark Christmas Movies on Netflix

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Christmas... in the news. This is a weekly review of some of the Christmas articles and news over the last week. 

Can you believe it's already November? How many of you are already listening to Christmas tunes? Did you know that Christmas music returned to SiriusXM Radio on November 1? I discovered that today while I was driving around showing houses.

We have so much fun news this week. WDW News Today shared that this year's Christmas tree has gone up in Magic Kingdom's Town Square. I've never been to Disney at Christmastime. Have you? I bet it's fun. You can read more about the tree's arrival here.

Deadline reported that Freeform has announced its '25 Days of Christmas' schedule. You'll find classics like Home Alone, The Grinch, and Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas in the line up. For the full schedule, you can visit their website.

In other exciting entertainment news, Good Housekeeping announced recently that Netflix will be streaming some of your favorite Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. Looking to learn more about which movies Netflix will be airing? Check out the article here.

That's it for now. Hope you have a great week!

Christmas... in the News: Neiman Marcus Flack, $5 Dollar Tree Christmas Sensation & The Last Homely House Christmas Shop

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Christmas... in the news. This is a weekly review of some of the Christmas articles and news over the last week. 

Welcome back! Hope you had a great week. We drove up to the Berkshires this weekend to check out the fall foliage. Here are a couple of photos. 

While driving around, I discovered there is a FESTIVE Holiday Market planned for November 23rd at the Greylock WORKS, which is a former mill in North Adams. If you want to pay the Holiday Market a visit, you can check out more here.

Now, on to other news. Seems like Neiman Marcus ticked off some of its workers by quietly replacing the word "Christmas" with "Holiday" on its annual gift catalog. Not being able to afford anything from them anyway, I never would have known if outlets like the New York Post hadn't reported it. How do you feel about it? You can check out the article here.

AS reported that there is a $5 ceramic Christmas tree from Dollar Tree that has gone viral on social media. Looks like a ceramic tree I used to own. Are we seeking vintage this year? Check out the viral tree here.

In my search for this week's Christmas news, I came across a video from Kate of The Last Homely House that talks about this year's Christmas Shop. She has a YouTube channel with 180,000 subscribers where she talks about crafts, baking, and other things going on at her house in the North of England. You can watch today's video here.

Hope you enjoyed this week's news as much as I did wandering around the internet finding these little tidbits. See you next week!

Christmas on TV: Scouting for Christmas (Hallmark Channel, 2024 Premiere)

 

If you are looking for sweet, funny, and romantic, then you need to watch Scouting for Christmas, starring Tamera Mowry-Housley and Carlo Marks. 

Scouting for Christmas is another new premiere for this year's COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS. It features Mowry-Housley as a real estate agent and single mom of Brooklyn (Audrey Wise Alvarez). Always on the run, she is often late in getting her daughter to and from scouts, which irks the perfectionist troop leader. Divorced from Dakota, a paleontologist out on his latest adventure, Angela has finally settled into her post-divorce life, even if it is hectic. 

When it is time to decide on who to cater the troop's annual holiday event, Brooklyn suggests her mother work with local bakery owner William (Marks) to pitch his ideas to the other moms. Angela and William grow closer as they work together, but Angela isn't ready to jump into romance again. Then, Dakota returns unexpectedly, hoping for a happy reunion with his family. Angela is forced with the unenviable choice of making a decision that will impact Brooklyn no matter which man she chooses.

Scouting for Christmas is such a sweet movie. Here is poor Angela trying to do it all and making a good life for Brooklyn on their own, when her world is suddenly turned upside down. She isn't ready to welcome William into her life as more than a friend, and then Dakota arrives to set her once orderly life even more off-kilter. 

As for William, played wonderfully by Carlo Marks, he loves his bakery, and he is hoping for a fresh start with Angela. There is pressure from his ex to take the bakery in a different direction, so William will have other decisions to make other than hoping for a future with Angela.

With a great supplementary cast that includes William's mother, Angela's supportive and wise sister, and the overly perfect troop leader Elizabeth, Scouting for Christmas is an equal dose of romance and humor.

Release date: October 20, 2024

Runtime: 1 hour 24 minutes