Book Review: “Letters for Phoebe” by Sally Britton

Hi there.

Over the Christmas holidays, I came across two series of books written in the genres: Regency-Era and clean romance on YouTube. Since I was in the midst of publishing Blogmas content, I really wanted to listen to a story rather than read it on my own, and I was actually surprised of my enjoyment on the stories I had found, but I was only able to finish one of the two series, but I’ve got them saved up for next Christmas and I’m excited to get back into them and hopefully share them with you.

In January, I was in a very historical, fantasy kind of mood, and towards the end, I wanted another book outside of the two main genres, so i went looking for novellas on YouTube like I had back in December, and I came across one titled “Letters for Phoebe” by Sally Britton and decided to give it a shot.

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When Phoebe starts receiving anonymous letters, she never once thinks the most irresponsible man in London is her correspondent. Or that she will fall in love with him.

Phoebe Kimball grew up believing in love, but after failing to find a gentleman capable of capturing her heart, she has turned more practical than romantic. She is determined to find a husband in London this Season. If only the annoying Mr. Fenwick would stop appearing every time she sets her cap at someone! When an anonymous letter arrives warning her that her current target is unsuitable marital material, Phoebe begins a relationship with the letter writer that promises something more than a practical alliance.

Griffin Fenwick does not usually care for women on the hunt for a husband, but Miss Kimball’s quick wit and refusal to admit she enjoys his company intrigues him. When he realizes the gentlemen on her list of eligible bachelors is full with scoundrels, he warns her the only way he can – through a letter. As he comes to know Phoebe better, he soon realizes he wishes to put his own name on her list. If only she liked Griffin as much as she liked her anonymous correspondent.

When Phoebe realizes its been Griffin writing her all along, will she put aside practicality for love, or spurn Griffin for even trying to woo her?

taken from Goodreads.

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What I found most interesting about this series, is that it’s center around this group of girls Lavinia, Marah, Isabel, Daphne and Phoebe. They make a pact to not settle for anything less than a lovable marriage, which in the Regency Era or the Victorian/Edwardian times, a person wasn’t allowed to marry for love. Everything was about inheritance and political.

As far as personality, I’d say Phoebe was posh or stuck-up around people. I just wasn’t a big fan of her overall attitude, but I did grow to understand her better as the story went on.

For the love interest, I fell in love with Griffin. He was charming and friendly.

I felt he took a big gamble in his role with these letters to Phoebe. This was another real aspect of the time, a woman wasn’t allowed to do anything without an older chaperone, and accepting letters from a stranger, warning her of unlikely suitors was not acceptable.

I’m used to dirty, smut books, and with these clean romances, I am out of my element but. I enjoy the fact I’m not so lost in the lyrical and crazy sex scenes. I feel like, I notice various traits of the characters than I do with other historical romance books.

Honestly, this was a great novella. I tried to read the next story, continuing to talk about the girls in Phoebe’s group. I can’t find any of them on YouTube, which really sucks, but they are available on Kindle Unlimited (this book is not though!) and they are written by other authors. This is something that I am learning and it’s interesting to see how these other women talking about these young women of this era.

Have you read Sally Britton's "Letters To Phoebe" yet? What are other novels or novellas should I look into on YouTube? Leave me your thoughts below!

Book Review: “Writers and their Cats” by Alison Nastasi

Hello!

Welcome back to Got Meghan’s blog.

It’s a new year and I’m ending the first month of 2024 with an interesting book I got for Christmas. As I’ve mentioned in my Blogmas content every year, I make an assortment of ornaments and send them out to family and close friends. It’s my way of sending a card during the holidays, but I don’t normally receive anything back, and I prefer to go about it this way. However, I got sent a gift back from a fellow blogger/writer and lover of cats, Rebekah, and she sent me this cute little book called “Writers and their Cats” by Alison Nastasi.

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Every great writer needs a mews: Mark Twain, Alice Walker, Haruki Murakami, Ursula K. Le Guin—this volume celebrates many famous authors who have shared their homes and hearts with furry feline friends. From the six-toed kitties who still inhabit the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Florida to the mewling muses of mystery writer Lilian Jackson Braun, cats are clearly, in the words of Gloria Steinem, “a writer’s most logical and agreeable companion.”

• Features photographs and stories from 45 famous authors that capture the special bond between wordsmith and mouser
• Sorted by alphabetical order, you’ll see photographs from some of the most well-known authors including Beverly Cleary, Mark Twain, Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, and many more
• Alison Nastasi is a journalist and the author of Artists and Their Cats, also from Chronicle Books. She lives in Los Angeles, California

“Full of charming anecdotes and feline whimsy, this collection is catnip for lit nerds.” — Shelf Awareness

• Makes a charming and thoughtful gift for any fan of great literature and cats
• An excellent addition to your coffee table books for guests to enjoy browsing

taken from Amazon.

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This was probably the cutest book I’ve seen in a long time!

As much as I love cats, I don’t really read books with them being part of the main character/story. I think this stems from the number of animal-related picture books I used to “read” as a child. When I was a younger, books represented something to fear at school and home. It wasn’t fun and I desperately hated reading out loud in front of my family, friends, teachers, etc. It wasn’t until I was in high school, and I was shone how to read to myself that I started to enjoy, and I just broke apart from animal stories to human’s histories.

“Writers and their Cats” was a good medium between my old self interested in animals and knowing their owners (or the authors themselves). You get a large mix of writers who have owned a few felines here and there, and then you get people who have a large community of cats.

What is interesting is that after an author has died, the cats continued to stay in and around the writer’s home. I’ve always known about Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West, Florida, he had a special love for cats named Snow White and it’s her descendants that still live on the property, but my heart loved the fact they are all born with an extra toe on their paws. This is called polydactyl. We used to have a cat who had 23 toes, one of his legs had the standard five toes. We liked to call him Bear-Bear. Sadly, before fall came around, we think he may have died.

There was one person in the entire book that really got me, and Charles Bukowski. He wrote about a one-eared cat named Butch van Gogh Arnaud in his poem “The History of One Tough Motherfucker” and it seriously made me laugh out loud. I thought I was going to fall off my bed as I was reading his section in the book. It made think of our cats because they’re all feral, but they love attention from us. I just kept thinking about Bukowski’s cat and thinking “yeah, I bet that cat was a tough motherfucker at one point in time!”

I thoroughly enjoyed this little book, and getting to know how people, writers like Rebekah and I, enjoy the shit of our cats. We give them cute and funny names. They have odd quirks about them. They are like us as they can be extremely out there and sometimes, they enjoy slow living indoors on a soft bed. And when it’s their time to pass away, we mourn deeply as they were a close family member. So, if you enjoy cats or not, this is a funny short read that can capture the hearts of anyone. You might find yourselves looking up various work on the authors included as well.

Have you read Writers and their Cats by Alison Nastasi before? Do you yourself own a cat? What is their name(s) and favorite part about them? Let me know in the comments below.

Blogmas: December Playlist

Hello!

Well, we are at the final week of Blogmas. Can you believe Christmas is next Monday? How crazy is that?!

This month has been somewhat hectic. While I was doing Blogmas, I was trying to finish out my reading goals of the year. By this time, I am actually reading something to pass the time, this year not so much. It’ll be interesting whether I decide to continue reading Christmas-y books two days after the holiday had ended. Honestly, I just hope I can get to 60 by New Year’s Day!

As far as I know, my little family is planning on having Christmas earlier as my sister has plans and my nephew will be with his daddy this year. Our actual plan is to do what we tried last year and let Nolan sleepover Christmas Eve, but my parents would like Kimber to spend the night too, I’d like to have both of them in my room for the sleepover, but Nolan becomes a little jealous when she tries to take away my attention on him. We also need to remember Kimber is wild. She can climb in and out of chairs, beds, couches, etc. She’s been like this since she was a few weeks old, she would literally roll off Blondie’s chest–she has no boundaries, which should be interesting in the future!

Last week I shared my “Ultimate Christmas Playlist” so I will not be adding any holiday songs on this post. These are my non-festive favorites for the month of December.

King of Anything by Sara Bareilles
Harleys In Hawaii by Katy Perry
When The Darkness Comes by Jeris Johnson
Might Love Myself by Beartooth
You’re Losing Me by Taylor Swift
Fields Of Gold by Ellie Goulding
Forged In Fire by Leaves;’ Eyes
Sun Meets Shadow by AG featuring Katie Herzig
Afraid To Die by P.O.D. featuring Tatiana Shamyluke of Jinjer
Come Little Children by Hildegard von Billingin’
The Grove by Hellsir
Cruel Summer by The Animal In Me
Trench by Elliphant
Battle by Yuna
Slayer by Bryce Savage
I Feel Like Dancing by Jason Mraz
Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars
Harley by Letters From The Fire
Header To Breathe by Letdown
Knives by Neoni featuring Ga$p
Castaway by Of Mice & Men
Toxic by Major Moment
Morally Grey by April Jal
Amaranthine by Halocene featuring Lauren Babic
Seeing Red by Architects

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this, but I’m not really a podcast kind of person. I’ve tried various of them in the past couple of years now, but nothing has really worked on me. Until I found LuAnna.

I was on Instagram watching hundreds of stories and reels, and I began to see these ladies talking about life topics and what I learned later was the majority of their material is sent in by other listeners and they are always hilarious! I just following them on IG, but one morning I wanted more and then I realized they were an actual podcast, and they were available on Spotify for free. It is hosted by Luisa Zissman and Anna Williamson, they’re based in the United Kingdom, they’re very British with their vocabulary and it can be difficult to follow along; the channel in general has a warning about the graphic messages and stories they tell on air,

My favorite part is the fact they’re out there and the stories they talk about the most are regular woman-ly things, like annoying spouses, motherhood, crazy kids, sex, etc. I am so happy to hear their podcast on a daily basis–they upload a new episode on Monday and Thursday. Thursday is when they basically continue their fun earlier in the week, but it’s just more stories. If you want to listen to these lovely ladies, look into their podcast on Instagram like I did or on Spotify instead–I’ve included the link in the paragraph above so you can check it out for yourself.

If you know any other podcasts like LuAnna that are on Spotify (for free) I might be interested in, leave it in the comments below! And of course, what music were you that wasn’t Christmas related?

Blogmas: Nolan & Meghan’s DIY Christmas Project

Hello!

I think my time of creating Christmas ornaments are done for now at least. Technically, I’m not done, I’m just not doing them by myself anymore. This year my nephew decided to accompany me on this conquest.

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What you will need for this project:

• Unfinished wooden ornaments – Gnomes & Reindeer
• Super Tip Crayola Markers
• Decorative String (optional as many packs of ornaments come with them)
• Baby Wipes
• Full of creativity (and energy!)

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For my birthday, I got a huge box that was full of two large bags of Christmas ornaments. I had plans to do gnomes and gingerbread men this year, but I couldn’t find an even number of both characters, so I looked for reindeer and they were so cute on the site, and I knew everybody would enjoy them just as much and once my nephew saw the ornaments, h immediately wanted in on everything that had to do with them.

Honestly, it was amazing to see how much excitement he had for these gnomes, because I feared he wouldn’t like them, but I was very wrong with that assumption.

He comes over for a slumber party every Friday (unless his mom or dad have other plans with him) and he looks for the massive box they’re stored in and arranges one from each baggy on the opposite side of my little table. We have five gnomes in a different ensemble while one reindeer head or face, and it doesn’t matter how many times I tell Nolan they don’t have to be Rudolph, because it’ll go in one ear and out the other, so there are many Rudolph on his side.

I’ve done some kind of ornament since 2014. I worked on them with my nana first and she was fine with using paint to decorate anything, including glitter (although there were years, she tried to cut me off!) but even after she moved up north, I still used acrylic paint for everything. I never thought to use markers before. My little nephew literally grabbed my box of markers and went to town on his stack, and I was speechless!

After I recovered from this epiphany, the ideas didn’t stop coming to neither one of us. Since he is in kindergarten now, he has learned how to stay in the lines, but for these ornaments he is able to scribble or use a LOT of black on his characters. He is definitely a fun of darker colors mixed in with some neon here and there. And since he loves these coloring so much, he usually has the sides of his hands smeared with fresh markings. He wears them like they are his tattoos or something!

We actually have one gnome we call the “Pawpaw Gnome” because I told Nolan he reminded me of my dad/his papaw. This one has a full and long bread with deer antlers poking out of his hood. I tend to go with my favorite colors that actually look great on my dad. I know dad enjoys the fact that he has a gnome dedicated to him, even though he no longer wears his bread/hair long anymore.

My second favorite is the girl gnome or has a feminine touch as it has pig tails in a bow standing out of the hood. The hat itself has medium and small size circles throughout and I like to add shadows on them to make them pop out a little more. This is the only gnome I’ll use a bright pink shade because it reminds me of the girly aspect.

I liked this one so much that I kept it back for myself as a little gift. The color scheme is made up of the Frozen films and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, I used on this year’s reading journal. I never had the perfect moment to publish what I was doing in the journal at the beginning of 2023, but I wanted to give you an idea of how everything turned out inside my journal. So, this gnome has my main colors: pink and green for Princess Anna and light blue and purple for Queen Elsa. Unfortunately, I didn’t refer to any other characters in my journal, but I added a bright orange to mimic Olaf’s carrot nose for the gnome’s pigtails and gave her brown boots to represent Kristoff and Sven.

I’m hoping by the time this post goes out, Nolan and I are finished with them and have been sent to their owners. If not, I hope you enjoy reading about my nephew and I’s new tradition. I think it will be probably three more years before my niece Kimber will join us. It’ll be interesting to see if Nolan wants to continue doing them with me once that time comes, but I’m focusing on the “now” rather than the future.

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What kind of holiday craft(s) were you working on this holiday season? For those who include young kids, how do you help convince them to continue the traditions you’ve built with them?

Blogmas | Book Review: “Christmas Parcel: Sequel to Charles Dickens’ Classic “A Christmas Carol” by Alydia Rackham

Hello!

One of the things I wanted to do this year was listen to more audiobooks, and I think I did very well with this goal, and I am currently listening to another holiday novella, it’s called “Goodwill for the Gentleman” by Martha Keyes.

The first time I ever listened to an audiobook, I used “A Christmas Carol” as my starting point, and it was bad… I still had Disney’s take with Jim Carrey playing out of my head, and I kept comparing the two and it was the worst thing I could have done to myself. However, I was able to redeem myself this year when I decided to read “Great Expectations” and I was thoroughly proud of myself on giving Mr. Dickens another shot, and I loved it. I have a couple others on my list for 2024.

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What if, without knowing it, you began to follow the same dark path as Ebenezer Scrooge…?

Ebenezer Scrooge is dead. Timothy Cratchit has grown into a young man who is terrified of poverty–willing to forfeit Christmas to chase the opportunity for monetary profit. And Scrooge, living or not, is determined not to allow Tim to follow in his footsteps…by whatever ghostly means necessary.

“Christmas Parcel” is written by a great lover of Charles Dickens, true to the spirit of that cherished author while delivering something completely unexpected. If you enjoy the nostalgic richness of a Victorian Christmas, the thrills and chills of a good haunting, and a cozy read you can curl up with by the fire, you will love this tale.

Step back into Dickens’ London once more with “Christmas Parcel” today!

taken from Amazon.

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When I found this little gem on Kindle Unlimited, I felt intrigued by the fact that anyone would want to add-on to a classic story that is “A Christmas Carol” but honestly, it was interesting to see how life could have fared for Timothy Cartchit after Scrooge dies. You have familiar settings and characters, the ghost of Scrooge included–it wasn’t as terrifying when Marley showed up to Scrooge, but it was enough! Anyways, you meet the “Ghost of Chance” and this is an important character for this young man. He is an odd dresser, but he showed Tim many stages of his life that could happen by a choice he would make for his future.

I actually loved learning more about the Cartchit family. Bob and his sons Peter, Thomas and Tim work in the old shop, even though, they have moved up after Ebenezer’s death, Tim remembers their life before they changed their ways, and he does not want to return to that at all. This is very important to keep in mind when you go with meeting Chance and seeing different phases of Tim’s life such as celebrating with his children and grandchildren at Christmas, plus you meet his wife.

“Goodbye, Tiny Tim,” the Spirit said fondly, and withdrew. “Wait!” Tim cried, trying to catch hold of his sleeve. “What am I to do?”

There is a scene when Tim is in his 30’s, he’s married with three children, and when he goes to find his wife in the kitchen, and they have a seductive moment, and it totally threw me back a bit, I liked it. You’re just not prepared to see something like this as this was definitely not mentioned in the original. You hope when you read historical fiction that every character loves each other completely, and they do love each other very much early on and you see it whenever you’re transferred into the future when they’re older. When the spirit Chance gives him these moments, it seems so heartbreaking, because he knows it’s not real, but he does want everything that his parents had for each other and gave to their children as well.

When Tim finally understands what Chance was here for in the first place, he finds himself at a crossroads of the next phase on life, it’s not an easy road and it’s not supposed to as you don’t learn anything by going in the easy direction and Tim learns this at the end of the visit.

My only pet peeve was this and I think a lot of other readers will be annoyed about, is you don’t get to know the name of his wife. You’ll know the names their children and grandchildren, but not her. Other than that, it was a really good sequel. It was very interesting and I’m glad I had a better time with it compared to the first book.

Have you read Alydia Rackham’s “Christmas Parcel” before? What were your thoughts on it? I’d also like to hear what you think of retellings such as this one?