My True Love Gave To Me by Various Authors

Just a short review today as this is a Christmassy book, so that means there also won't be any songs, as these would be festive, but I will still add in books as some of them may work all year round.

Review: 

As you may have guessed, I recently read this in the run up to Christmas, to get me in more of a festive mood.  This added to the fact that it contained 12 short stories, it was almost a given that I would enjoy this - which I did.

I loved pretty much all of these short stories, with myself only truly disliking one, and they really filled me with even more Christmas spirit! I loved the style of writing of most of the stories again, and I have definitely discovered some new authors who I will make sure to check out soon. My personal favourites were The Lady and The Fox by Kelly Link, Its a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins, and Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten White, although it was a very close call!

I actually haven't read all of the stories in here yet, as two of them centered around New Years Eve but I have no problem with this  as it will give me something extra to read to get me in the spirit for that.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for next year, as it's great for busy festive seasons and will keep you entertained on cold winter nights! 

Quotes:

"There are two types of children.  The kind who believe and the kind who don't.  Every year, it seems there are fewer in the world who do.  Papa says it's not an easy thing to ask a child to believe in what they can't see; he says it's its own magic.  He says that if you have that magic inside you, you should protect it all your life and never let it go, because once it's gone, it's gone forever.""Tomorrow would be different, Sophie understood this.

There really was no such thing as a minor miracle.""Rules make people feel safe.  But they can turn into judgments.  Condemnation is easy, Vaughn.  The harder choice is love..." "I'm of the opinion that," she said, tucking her arm around mine, "that if you let a single life event define you, then all you need to change things - if you want them to change - is another." "But people don't need to remember how it felt to be happy and safe in the past. They need to have hope that they can get there again in the future."

Other Books: 

Let It Snow by Various Authors - These three interconnected Christmas short stories will make you believe that Christmas Eve is truly magical!How They Met and Other Short Stories  by David Levithan - These short stories are ones that can be read at any point in the year when you need a little reading push or are simply a little short of time for a full book. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn - (review here)  Another Christmas read, this tale is about two teenagers who spend their Christmas completing tasks set by the other, all whilst they only communicate through family, friends and a small red notebook...