Joanne Bischof | It Starts With A Book

Looking for some good Christmas reads? Check out these Christmas titles I have read this year and recommend!

Seasons Readings

Christmas at the Circus by Joanne Biscoff

A short story about The Greatest Season on Earth
In 1800’s New Orleans, newlyweds Charlie and Ella Lionheart are spending their first holiday season together within the circus. It’s Ella’s first Christmas away from her mountain home and with thoughts of family and new beginnings, see what surprises the kindhearted lion tamer has in store for her on Christmas Eve.
A touch of holiday magic beneath the Big Top!

Gideon’s Gift by Karen Kingsbury

Gideon's Gift (The Red Gloves, #1)

One long-ago Christmas, Earl Gibson lost the two things most precious to him: his wife and daughter. Angry and heartbroken, he ended up living on the streets and abandoned any belief he’d once had in God. Ten years later Big Earl meets Gideon, a seven-year-old leukemia patient who believes with all her heart that “Christmas means never having to ask God how much he loves us.” Gideon is determined to reach this lonely and hurting man who hates Christmas–and he is just as determined to rebuff her. It will take a miracle for Earl to come to understand the true meaning of Christmas. But if he can accept what Gideon wants to give him, he might find that he can return the favor with a precious gift of his own.

Christmas at Whitefriars by Elizabeth Camden

Mary Beckwith lives in a magnificent English castle during the twilight years of the gilded age. With the help of an American millionaire, she has succeeded in renovating her beloved Whitefriars castle into a splendid estate just in time for Christmas.
From across the ocean, millionaire Everett Wooten has spent a fortune propping up Whitefriars to add modern conveniences and rebuild crumbling old walls. Even though he’s never met Mary, they have enjoyed a lively business correspondence over the nine years they have been working toward a renovation. Now he has finally come to see Mary and the castle in person, but nothing is as he was led to believe.
Mary and Everett try to find a way forward, but red-blooded American entrepreneurship doesn’t always mingle with blue-blooded English tradition. Can a Manhattan business tycoon and an English lady come to an accord, or will their joint venture in Whitefriars result in heartbreak for them both?

Christmas in Winter Hill by Melody Carlson

Krista Galloway is not a fan of Christmas. After her rough childhood in multiple foster homes, the holiday season just brings too many bad memories to the surface. But when she accepts a job as a city manager in the mountain town of Winter Hill, Washington, Christmas is part of the deal. The small town is famous for its Christmasville celebration, something that the city manager . . . well, manages. As she tries to make her tiny new apartment feel like home for her and her eight-year-old daughter, Emily, Krista begins to wonder if this move was a mistake. She doesn’t always feel welcomed in the close-knit town, and Emily continually wonders, “Where’s the snow?” Can a friendly stranger and his family help restore Krista’s Christmas spirit before the big day?

Do you have any Christmas favorites?

Related image

Virginia, 1890: Raised amid the fame and mystique of the Big Top, Charlie Lionheart holds the audience in the palm of his hand. But while his act captivates thousands, it’s away from the spotlight where his true heart lies. Here he humbly cares for his pride of lions as if they were his brothers, a skill of bravery and strength that has prepared him for his most challenging feat yet—freeing an orphaned infant from the dark bondage of a sideshow. A trade so costly, it requires his life in exchange for hers, leaving him tarnished by the price of that choice. As the circus tents are raised on the outskirts of Roanoke, nurse Ella Beckley arrives to tend to this Gypsy girl. All under the watchful eye of a guardian who not only bears a striking resemblance to the child, but who protects the baby with a love that wraps around Ella’s own tragic past, awakening a hope that goodness may yet reign. When their forbidden friendship deepens, Charlie dares to ask for her heart, bringing her behind the curtain of his secret world to reveal the sacrifice that gave hope to one little girl—boldly showing Ella that while her tattered faith is deeply scarred, the only marks that need be permanent are his own.

The Lady and the Lionheart

2017 INSPY Award winner

2017 Carol Award finalist

2017 RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award winner

2017 Christy Award Winner

I am in a book coma. I don’t know what to read anymore. This book is so good. It took me barely one day to finish it and to be honest it is so worth reading. This is actually a book that I want to get for my bookshelf. I have four more book reviews to write, some are actually written already, but once I finished this one I had to recommend it. Literally, right when I finished the book, I was disappointed that I read it so quickly. I looked at the other books I have sitting on my nightstand but could not get myself to start another because The Lady and the Lionheart was such a good read!

This book caught my eye a couple years ago and I was just now able to get a hold of a copy. Let me say, this book deserves every award it has. The story, the plot, and the characters were so well done. This is the first Joanne Bischof book I have read and to be honest, (Note for the author) Joanna you are going to have to work really hard to write a book better than this one. (:

Ella and Charlie were both amazing. Charlie is one of those characters that my younger sister would call swoon worthy and I cannot wait to see his name on her list of book boyfriends. Ella was the kind of character that the readers could feel for in a personal level. Her history was so sad and depressing that you had to like her. But during the sad parts and the happy parts, the whole book was good. I can honestly say that there isn’t one scene that annoyed me. Very few book have that.

So, if you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it! If you have read it, tell me what you thought about it.

So to end this review, even though it is only February and there are ten more months in the year, this book is already on my favorite books that I have read in 2018! I don’t rate books (except on Goodreads) but I am going to rate this one. And yes this book deserves five bright and shining stars! Well done, Joanna Bischof!!!