Georgie Hart loves Christmas. It’s especially lovely at Carrington’s department store. She adores helping customers find the perfect present and there’s just something so magical about being surrounded by beautiful decorations that really make the department store sparkle.

This year is even more exceptional as Georgie has a man in her life, the hunky and adorable Tom Carrington. She’s over the moon to be with Tom at Christmas and hopes to finally be able to tell him she loves him…or is it too soon?

However, things do not go according to plan. She turns on the television one evening to see her bottom shaking to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”. Mortified beyond belief, she is shocked to learn that Carrington’s will be home to a new reality show, Kelly Cooper Come In Store.

Shock turns to mortification when she learns that Tom knew all about it and never told her! Georgie fears that instead of being magical, this will be her worst Christmas ever!

What Georgie doesn’t count on, however, is that Christmas is full of magic and a little bit of it might just come her way…

I flat out adore Alexandra Brown’s Carrington’s series. The books go beyond the genre of chick lit and make it something more, something deeper. Laugh out loud funny and told with tons of heart, Christmas at Carrington’s is no exception.

Eddie, Sam and the whole Carrington’s gang is back for me. It’s a thrill to see them all again. One of Alexandra Brown’s strength lies in the characters she creates. Georgie  is flat out the best heroine I’ve read in ages. Brown doesn’t just write characters, she creates them. You feel as if you know them, even after a few pages.

What’s great about Christmas at Carrington’s is that the book doesn’t go anywhere you think it will. The reality show (or as Eddie calls is Dramality) adds a whole new dimension to the book. Georgie is shocked to learn that a lot of the reality tv shows she loves are actually staged and there is the real reality and the one portrayed on the show.

I also loved the development in character between Georgie and her father. It was heart breaking but beautiful and tender hearted and it speaks again to Alexandra Brown’s strength that in one book, she was able to make me laugh out loud and tear up. There is such a range of emotions in Christmas at Carrington’s and it takes a very skilled author to perfect that balance.

I’ve already read the book twice and will read it for a third time over the Christmas Holidays. What makes Christmas at Carrington’s (and all of her books) so wonderful is that these are people you care about, people you root for and some that you love to hate. She’s able to pull you right into the story from page one and you won’t want to stop reading, anticipating the ending but dreading it at the same time because you never want the book to end.

Christmas at Carrington’s is a fantastic, wonderful, magical read. I for one, can’t wait to read it again. Do yourself a favour and treat yourself to an early Christmas present. One that you’ll want to read again and again.

Will Georgie get a happily ever after for Christmas? You’ll just have to read it yourself and find out!

Claire Kincaid has never believed.

Growing up in New Orleans, she has been surrounded by voodoo all of her life. What’s more, she is the great granddaughter of Marie Laveau, the most powerful voodoo priestess in history. As if that wasn’t enough, her parents hold high ranking positions in the Guild, the body of power in the voodoo community.

Still she doesn’t believe. Claire has always believed in what she can see and touch, what is explainable. She has never had any patience for voodoo magic and hexes. However, something happens to change her mind and put her in danger.

A woman comes to her shop looking for a black listed substance. They are not the only shop to be visited, though, and this puts everyone on high alert. When several of the shops are broken into and whispers of the Cold Blood spell start circulating, Clare knows something has to be done.

She joins forces with Sasha and Allegra and her boyfriend Xander and they must fight magic with magic, if they have a hope of surviving. Clare must fight an unfamiliar magic, whether she believes or not, if they have any hope of surviving…

I absolutely loved every page of this book! Michelle Zink always writes an amazing story with characters you will grow to love, but there are things that stand out in This Wicked Game that help the book stand out.

It’s the first of Zink’s novels to be held in modern times. Her previous four novels have all involved places and times from the past. Though This Wicked Game doesn’t have the flowery Victorian dialogue, the book doesn’t suffer from this.

Far from it. There’s something that makes the story in This Wicked Game more frightening and more real having it told in modern times and modern language. It also features Voodoo, something at once instantly fascinating and alluring. Zink does a magnificent job bring voodoo and New Orleans to life. It’s as if we’re right there with Claire, fighting alongside her.

The other thing that works so well for This Wicked Game is a dark mystery of the novel. Her other books have featured a paranormal mystery of sorts, but this is the first time Zink has delved into full on mystery and it works so well for the novel. There are fantasy elements within the book, but they don’t over power it. The mystery is all consuming and you will want to read to the very end to find out what happens.

Claire is another reason why this novel succeeds. She makes a believable progression from non-belief to believer though out the book and every emotion she goes through is pitch perfect. Her transition is so well done, so well crafted, that by the time Claire believes, we will too.

Zink has outdone herself with This Wicked Game. It involves mystery, suspense, secrets from the past, betrayals and young love. It has everything you could want in a novel.

I can’t wait to read it all over again.