Disclosure: I received these books to review. Post contains affiliate links; opinions shared are mine.

It’s tough to find time to read around the holidays, but if you have a chance, check out these titles!  Be sure to pin the covers so you’ll remember what to read when you have a free moment.

If you find yourself weirdly fascinated by celebrity news, you’ve gotta check out The Diamond Sisters.  In the third and final title of the series, Diamonds are Forever, author Michelle Madow presents an outlandish but entertaining view into the lives of the ultrarich and famous.   The book focuses on three teens who  –surprise!!— found out that their dad is none other than Adrian Diamond, the billionaire hotel-owner.  Of course.  As affluenza strikes, the girls indulge in skiing trips to Aspen, spendy dinners with friends, and throw extravagant parties.  All on Daddy’s credit card, natch.   If you had any teenage dreams of kissing a boy-band member or being an international pop star, you can revisit those visions in Diamonds Are Forever.

The storyline reminds me a little bit of Gossip Girl, mixed with equal parts of Beverly Hills 90210 and One Tree Hill.  Although I didn’t read any of the other books, I caught up quickly.  There are plenty of grudges to rehash, which provided background information to make sense of the story.  Slightly modified fictional names give nod to current trends (American StarMaker?  One Connection?) while keeping a foot in the door of high school drama.  Each of the three sisters has a unique personality, and I liked the way that Madow clearly portrayed their strengths.  While I expected a lot of grown-up action to happen, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  Sexual references were tasteful and mature, while the profanity was kept to a tame number of occurrences.  It was disappointing that the girls were rather left to their own devices without being truly parented; however, this is what allowed them to live their extravagant, unsupervised lifestyles.  It’s definitely not the way that I’d like my daughter to be raised, but it was fun to live in the carefree world for the two hours it took to read the book.

The James Code is based on the interesting idea that the book of James provides a code about putting faith into action. Rather than separation faith and works, the age-old argument, James explains a faith that works.  Author O. S. Hawkins outlines the main idea of the book of James in a completely preachable pattern.  Complete with alliteration (the 5 “P’s” of stress, for example) and calls to action, The James Code makes a thoughtful gift for a pastor or devotion leader.   Hawkins presents the book of James from a modern standpoint. Comparing the temptations of James’ day to the ethics of 2015 society, topics relevant for today’s Christian make the book feel timely and current.

As a side note, The James Code makes a beautiful presentation. The imitation leather cover is a masculine gray with intricate etching along the front cover border.   Though it might sound silly, the pages were my favorite part of the book.  I love hardcopy books because turning the pages is such a big part of the reading experience.  The James Code pages are smooth and lovely.   Give this to a bibliophile and you’ve earned a friend forever!

The Brides of Seattle series continues with book three, Love Everlasting. Even if you haven’t read the other titles in this series, you’ll enjoy the romantic tension that Abrianna’s love triangle endures.   The first chapter gives enough background to cover the family history, and the introduction of characters is quite thorough. At times, I felt that almost too many people were brought into the beginning of the book.   The cluster of aunts, friends, and neighborhood people were too much to keep up with.  I found myself grazing over the names without committing them to memory.  This worked out well, since few of the extraneous characters played vital roles in the story.

While entertaining, Love Everlasting was overly predictable.    In part of the story, Abrianna is figuratively held hostage by the shameless cad Welby.  During this interlude, the romance between Abrianna and Wade seems to flounder.  The repetitive “I love you so dearly” and “How I love you” declarations grew quite tiresome.   The only thing missing from the formulaic tale was the villain’s mutters of, “I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddlesome kids…..”

Not all was lost, however.  I think there’s a fairly good possibility of new stories stemming from Abrianna’s social circle. Perhaps baby Daniel and his story could be told in a future novel.  I’d like to know more about the aunts’ business.  It would also be interesting to find out what happened to Flora.  There’s plenty to look forward to from the Brides of Seattle.