Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster

Some stories will haunt you for a long time and this is one of them. 

Grace and her husband have moved into a cottage in the moors with their new baby.  It’s the start of a new chapter as Grace starts to come to terms with leaving London.  Christmas is coming and a new year promises great things, until Grace opens the front door to find her child sleeping peacefully in her pram and no husband. 

A year later, Grace returns determined to discover what happened to her husband on that cold winter day.  Filled with tales of ghosts and omens, Grace fights her fears to uncover why her husband was gone.  Everyone around her feels she should just move on but how can she when she has so many unanswered questions.

The story is frightening, sad and full of twists and turns.  It reminds me of Mary Stewart’s mysteries.  You just never know what dark secrets people harbor until you start digging.  Not everyone will come out of this alive but Grace won’t stop until she knows the truth.

I was captivated by Sara Foster’s book.  The life on the moors is enchanting and yet harbors its own secrets.  Are there ghosts on the moor?  What is up with the grandfather clock that stops when it wants and seems to still keep time? 

There’s a touch of romance and sweetness in this book.  Beneath the Shadows deserves a place with other gothic mysteries such as Rebecca and Wuthering Heights.  There are far more things to be frightened of than ghosts and they are all here.

Edible Party Bouquets by Fox Chapel Publishing

When this title came up in the NetGalley catalog, I couldn't wait to review it.  I love the idea of edible bouquets and I'm always telling my husband that he should go into the business.  He's amazing when it comes to prepping beautiful food for parties (just wish he'd do it more often and perhaps would consider going into business).
This book totally blew me out of the water.  The bouquets were amazing.  The best part - they were all fairly simple.  The most complicated designs were created using cookie cutters making the work so easy. 
Not only were there fruit bouquets but Fox Chapel Publishing stretched the gamut by designing bouquets made of cinnamon rolls, wraps, mini pies, and tortilla chips.  Many of the designs were fully edible.
If you love to play with your food, this is the book for you.  Most of the bouquets don't require more than the food and skewers.  Some have you make foods from scratch while others have you use store bought ingredients such as a tree made out of chocolate covered mint cookies.
I'm thinking this might be a future Christmas gift for my husband and already gives me the best ideas for future party foods.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

After watching the newest re-make of the movie (with Jim Carrey) I found myself wanting to read the story. I found it on www.literature.org, a free site for classic books (those no longer copywrited). I recommend the site as it has such a great selection of classics.
The story was amazingly short. I had envisioned the book being deeply detailed but it was quite reader friendly. I am not going to bore any one with the plot details since most everyone should know what the plot is. However, I was amazed at the imagary and simplicity of the story. There was so much story in so few words. To be honest, reading the book actually made little parts of each movie make sense.
I was surprised to discover that Scrooge's morning reaction to the Spirit's doing it all in one night did make sense. Originally, Scrooge was told that the Spirit's would be coming over the course of three nights. It may be mentioned in the movies but what isn't is the distortion of time. When Scrooge finally falls asleep it's after 2 am. When he awakes after the first Spirit he remarks that he thinks he slept well into the day since it's about 12. He's confused and unsure of the time. The second Spirit takes him on a journey that he remarks feels like weeks but he is sure that the Spirit has changed time so he has no idea how long he's been gone.
The other thing that I was sad to see not in the movies is that Scrooge really starts to feel bad right away. His life was so hard that it made him mean and greedy but when he's at his school looking over the young version of himself he thinks back to a young man he cursed at in the day and feels bad. He even mentions Bob Cratchet before he sees his Christmas. That sort of feeling didn't convey in the movies. Most of them kept Scrooge hardhearted until towards the end.
Such a great story and I see why Dickens is considered a great writer.