The power of fiction, the beauty of words, and the God who made us to wield them for His glory.

Best of 2020 – Emoji Files, Part IV: Take Me Away

Welcome back, reader friends! It’s time for Part IV of my annual Emoji Files celebrating my best reads of 2020. If you’ve missed my previous posts for 2020, make sure you check out The Swoony Awards, Got Me in the Feels, and The WOW Awards.

The Take Me Away Awards go to those books that were truly immersive reads, carrying me away to different times and places with authentic historical, sensory, and cultural details and introducing me to some fantastic and intriguing characters who inhabit those worlds. Through these stories I’ve travelled all over the world and beyond—an experience that has had extra significance in 2020!

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Best of 2020 – Emoji Files Part III: The WOW Awards

Hello again, reader friends! Welcome to Part III of my annual Emoji Files celebrating my best reads of 2020. If you’ve missed either of the previous posts to date, make sure you check out The Swoony Awards and Got Me in the Feels.

Normally, the WOW Awards go to those books that kept me riveted with high-intensity action, pumping adrenaline, plot twists, or just some good old-fashioned suspense. And most of the books in this list did exactly that. This year, however, I’ve included two books that don’t necessary meet that criteria: Lu. by Beth Troy and Heartless by Tamara Leigh, both of which WOWed me in their own ways…

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Best of 2020 – Emoji Files Part II: Got Me in the Feels

Yesterday I began posting my annual best-of series of posts, which I’ve dubbed The Emoji Files, since I group my favourite reads of the year according to the emotional impact they had on me. It all started yesterday with the Swoony Awards, so if you missed that, make sure you check it out here.

Today, I’m giving you the reads that ‘Got Me in the Feels’. These are the books that made me really emotionally invested in the story, sometimes to the point of tears (sobs, in at least one case!). Stories of consequences and difficult decisions, stories of loss, stories of transformation, and stories that just plain had my emotions in a tangle!

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Best of 2020 – Emoji Files Part I: The Swoony Awards (and Top Ten Tuesday)

Happy Tuesday, reader friends, and welcome to the final Top Ten Tuesday for 2020 thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. As always, this week’s topic looks back at our favourite books for the year. I’m also kicking off my annual Emoji Files awards where I break down my favourite reads for the year into the following categories:

The Swoony Awards – all the romance (le sigh!)
Got Me In The Feels – the books that reached in and plucked my heartstrings
The WOW Awards – suspense, thrills, high stakes, and surprises
Take Me Away . . . – fully immersive reads that took me to times and places far away
The LOL Awards – from light-hearted to bust-a-gut humour

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The London Restoration (Rachel McMillan) – Review

The secrets that might save a nation could shatter a marriage.

Madly in love, Diana Foyle and Brent Somerville married in London as the bombs of World War II dropped on their beloved city. Without time for a honeymoon, the couple spent the next four years apart. Diana, an architectural historian, took a top-secret intelligence post at Bletchley Park. Brent, a professor of theology at King’s College, believed his wife was working for the Foreign Office as a translator when he was injured in an attack on the European front.

Now that the war is over, the Somervilles’ long-anticipated reunion is strained by everything they cannot speak of. Diana’s extensive knowledge of London’s churches could help bring down a Russian agent named Eternity. She’s eager to help MI6 thwart Communist efforts to start a new war, but because of the Official Secrets Act, Diana can’t tell Brent the truth about her work.

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First Line Friday – Christmas in Three Quarter Time (Rachel McMillan)

Happy Friday, and welcome to First Line Friday, hosted by Hoarding Books. If you’re missing being able to travel this year, then this Christmas read is for you! Christmas in Three Quarter Time by Rachel McMillan immerses you in a Viennese Christmas complete with Christkindl markets, Sachertorte, and a man who rescues a bunny. It’s simply delightful!

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Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Christmas Romances

Happy Tuesday, reading friends. It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a Christmas/Holiday freebie, so I’m listing ten Christmas romances I’ve got my eye on. All these romances (with the exception of Mimi Matthews’ A Holiday by Gaslight) are 2020 releases, and I’ve already read three of them (Christmas in Three Quarter Time, The Holiday Husband, and A Holiday by Gaslight), but I’m hoping to make my way through a few more before we reach Christmas!

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