Nocturnal Book Reviews: Christmas with Suzanne McLeod + Giveaway(INT)!

Christmas with Suzanne McLeod + Giveaway(INT)!

Thursday, December 13, 2012 | Posted by kara-karina@Nocturnal Book Reviews

Genevieve's Christmas

Hello, and thank you to Karina for inviting me to tell you something about Genevieve’s Christmas!

Christmas is busy work-wise for Genny. There’s the perennial pixie problem which, with all the extra decorations about, reaches new highs. This year, the huge 32 foot topiary reindeer in Covent Garden, while not the pixies usual choice of material to animate (they prefer stone or metal) has presented a challenge they couldn’t resist.

Since the reindeer’s been up a gang of them has managed to animate and ride it around the market half-a-dozen times (all those sugary Christmas candies on offer, don’t help). Each time it’s taken Genny and three of her Spellcrackers witches the whole night to catch them all and put everything straight.

Then there are the gremlins – they love mechanical things, or rather love making mechanical things go wrong, so all the thousands of Christmas lights are like gremlin magnets.
This year Harrold’s windows have a Disney theme

which is proving as popular with the gremlins as the tourists and shoppers, so Genny and her witchy girls have been flying around on their broomsticks fixing all the little gremlin-inspired niggles.

Another magical creature that causes disruption around the holiday period is the fossegrim, the Norwegian water fae who lives in the fountains in Trafalgar Square. He gets a bit angsty around Christmas.

He was in love a dryad who died fighting with the resistance in World War II, and the Norwegians honoured her, and thanked Britain for their support, by gifting her tree to them after the war. So every new Christmas tree (this year is the 66th tree ) brings back sad memories for the fossegrim.

And once the carol singers start performing, he brings out his fiddle and, while he doesn’t mean to, he often ends up enchanting listeners into the fountains. Spellcrackers have the contract to make sure he doesn’t succeed or, if he does, that no one actually drowns.

But it’s not all work for Genny. She celebrates on three specific occasions over the holidays.

attribution

The first is the Winter Solstice which is held by the witches, unsurprisingly enough on the Winter Solstice. There’s a communal feast of spit-roasted beef (and lots of other tasty noms), barrels of spiced wine, a spell creation contest and, at midnight, the ritual solstice ceremony to worship The Mother goddess. After which the Mid-Winter Fertility Rites are held for those witches who’ve won the golden ears of wheat in their Christmas crackers (which is Genny’s cue to make herself scarce!). The Solstice celebrations are held at Greenwich on the Meridian Line.

Genny’s second celebration is on Christmas Day when she has the full roast-turkey-with-all-the-trimmings lunch with Connie (Genny’s unofficial foster mum since Genny was fourteen, who is human), Katie (Genny’s sort of ‘little sister’), the rest of Katie’s family, a crowd of Connie’s other foster kids, past and present, and any homeless kids (and their families) at the Hartwell drop in centre that Connie runs.

Attribution

Her third ‘celebration’ is a more personal one. She attends the services at one of the Russian Orthodox Churches in London (held on the 6th – 7th January: the Russian Orthodox church celebrates Christmas according to the Julian Calendar, rather than the Gregorian Calendar, hence the January dates), in memory of her father and stepmother who arrived as Russian exiles in Britain in early 1917 after fleeing the Russian Revolution (they were hunted as vampires, and in danger as distant relatives of the Romanovs).

Attribution

And there is one other, secret visit that Genny makes at Dawn on Christmas morning. She visits Finsbury Park (which is a small public park not far from the Gherkin) to meet with her old friend, Moxy, and take her a huge box of what all unicorns love: chocolate covered cherries!

Moxy doesn’t usually give Genny anything in return, but then it’s not easy for unicorns to go gift buying. Getting mobbed by virgins or hounded by horn-hunters really takes the ‘merry’ out of Merry Christmas, so Moxy likes to keep a low profile. Not that Genny minds, after all, Moxy is the one who gave Genny the sword, Ascalon . *teases*

*What, you didn’t know unicorns go mad for choc covered cherries? *g*

Attribution

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Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you all enjoyed Genevieve’s Christmas, and wishing you all a wonderful time over the holidays, however you celebrate.
And if you’d like to win one of my books (winner’s choice) leave a comment telling us what sweetie (candy, for all you in the US), or other food you go mad for at Christmas!

Suzanne has been a cocktail waitress, dance group roadie, and retail manager before becoming a writer. She was born in London (her favourite city and the home of Spellcrackers.com) and now lives on the (sometimes) sunny South Coast of England, about a mile away from the sea, with her husband, Mr Mc, and Bella the Hound.

Find Suzanne:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Goodreads

GIVEAWAY

One Suzanne McLeod's Book of your choice

Open to all.

Ends 30th of December 2012.

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tags: christmas with, giveaways, guest post, international, suzanne mcleod, авторский пост, международный контест

39 comments:

Blodeuedd said...: Great post Suzanne :D I wish I was in LOndon with Genny; 13 December 2012 06:42
jc said...: Anything with caramel, yum!

Merry Christmas and thanks for the giveaway.; 13 December 2012 08:04
Birgit said...: One word: GINGERBREAD!!!; 13 December 2012 08:08
miki said...: oh oh ^^ i have those on my wishlist so i would be delighted to win ^^ a sweet i'm fond of at this time of the year...none in particular but there is the christmas dessert...." la bûche de noel" in ice cream" that's a real treat...
oki i do a seet: " truffes au chocolat" ( i'm making them not eating them but that's typical of christmas in my family^^; 13 December 2012 08:38
Mel said...: This time of year I go mad for After Eights...I've been known to sit there watching christmas films and finish a whole box, leaving only the little paper wrappers behind so other people think there are some left!! :-); 13 December 2012 09:03
nurmawati djuhawan said...: cake !!
thxu for the giveaway :0; 13 December 2012 10:42
Reading Mind / The Loyal Book said...: gingerbread and panettone!; 13 December 2012 11:10
magic5905 said...: I love pie, especially pumpkin and pecan for the holidays.
magic5905 at embarqmail dot com; 13 December 2012 14:10
kimbacaffeinate said...: What an awesome guest post, I found it all intriguing and i want those chocolate covered cherries.
I love Christmas cookies, especially crescent cookies.; 13 December 2012 14:18
Kirsten! said...: Gingerbread house. All the time spent making it just makes destroying it even tastier :); 13 December 2012 14:29
Joyous Reads said...: Holy crap. I've never been scared of Christmas. Lol! Love this post - gives this cheery season another face, for sure.

Thanks for sharing :); 13 December 2012 14:35
Eli Yanti said...: all about chocholate I love it :)

eli_y83@yahoo.com; 13 December 2012 14:57
illflyawayoneday said...: stuffing!; 13 December 2012 15:13
Dovile said...: Gingerbread cookies and nut pies!; 13 December 2012 16:06
tinachristopher said...: I love mince pies, but I can't get them over here;).; 13 December 2012 17:29
Van Pham said...: I love Suzanne's books, great post on Genny's Christmas! As for the question, I like Gingerbread cookies, pumpkin pie, and cherry-flavored candy canes ;).; 13 December 2012 17:48
Carrie at In the Hammock Blog said...: I love those Harrods windows!; 13 December 2012 18:13
Melliane said...: thank you for this great post! I think my favorite thing is the chocolate lol. So many at one times, it's always soooooo good!; 13 December 2012 21:09
Kristia said...: I love the stuffed turkey we have every year for christmas dinner!
Thank you for the giveaway :); 13 December 2012 23:39
Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...: Oh I love the unicorn!! LOL! Great post. Thank you!; 14 December 2012 01:00
AmelArmeliana said...: Since I don't celebrate chistmas, I don't have any favorite foods. But I love christmas cookies :); 14 December 2012 08:12
Mary Preston said...: Here in Australia I go mad for all the 'Christmas' fruit - cherries, mangoes, peaches, watermelon etc.; 14 December 2012 10:50
Anna Ch said...: Oh well, it's a special greek sweet called melomakarona. Don't try to even spell it :)It' with honey and it is incredibly tasty!; 15 December 2012 21:59
Julie S said...: Anything with chocolate :); 15 December 2012 23:31
donnas said...: Pecan pie; 16 December 2012 06:41
Tiffany said...: I go crazy for Chocolate Covered Cherries. I love them things. LOL

Thanks for the giveaway!!! :D; 16 December 2012 19:34
Hannah @ Once Upon A Time said...: Mmmm Santa Bakewells! I haven't seen them this year though. :(; 16 December 2012 20:45
Gisele said...: Brownies!; 17 December 2012 21:13
Mardel said...: Loved the post - McLeod's books are just as fun as this post. Merry Christmas, everyone; 18 December 2012 06:16
Jolene and Family said...: Starburst candy canes :); 19 December 2012 02:32
kaya said...: Pandoro! *_* I love it!; 23 December 2012 17:37
Denise Z said...: We do nibbles on Christmas day with artichoke squares, stuffed mushrooms, chips and clam dip, veggies and dip, and brie with fruit wrapped in puffed pastry - So look forward to these treats each year :) Thank you for sharing with us and may your holiday be filled with treats!; 25 December 2012 09:59
Brooke Banks said...: At Christmas time I love indulging in everything chocolate. Chocolate covered cherries, oranges, peanuts...everything. The chocolate is not very Christmas-y but I do make sugar cookies and decorate them with the family. We hang candy canes on the tree but those usually get devoured early and have to be replaced often.

As you can tell, the whole family has a undiscriminating sweet tooth. =); 26 December 2012 09:17
Jax Blunt said...: Christmas pudding with brandy butter, sherry sauce and cream.; 30 December 2012 00:47
Jax Blunt said...: Christmas pudding with brandy butter, sherry sauce and cream.; 30 December 2012 00:48
Lily B said...: Mm anything with coconut or mint chocolate. Recently I been making really yummy mint chocolate cookies, which can be very dangerous to have around the house hehe; 30 December 2012 03:49
Kamla L. said...: Black Rum Cake (but it has to be a really good one)with or w/o the royal icing.
Or Rum Balls a no bake concoction that I make every year. I've been trying different combos of different nuts, liquors, and coatings.

I'm a glutton for desserts,cookies, cakes, pastries puddings and custards especially if chocolate is involved.; 30 December 2012 09:15
Farhana said...: Rice!; 30 December 2012 12:40
Alexa Ale said...: I love cakes; 30 December 2012 18:13