Receive The Brightest Star Expressed By Fern Michaels Represented In E-Text

a.

I have mixed feelings about this one, The writing was good and I absolutely loved the Christmas spirit portrayed by Lauren but I think it just had too much going on, The beginning started out great and then the story went off on so many tangents I lost a bit of the initial love, The ending also felt extremely rushed,

There is a romance although it was very, very quick with no indepth quality, They meet, briefly, then all of a sudden they are in love with no real development leading to it, I enjoy a good loveatfirstsight but this lacked so much in showcasing that,

I haven't read anything by this author before and this is a more recent book of hers, I'm definitely going to check out her older stuff as I did enjoy the writing and the setting,

I would also still recommend this one as it does have plenty of feelgood moments and makes for a good Christmas read, It just didn't wholly work for me, Family is the bright spot in Lauren's life this holiday season despite their store's sales slipping into the red, A successful novelist, she moved home after her father's crippling diagnosis, While determined to make the store succeed, her parents refuse to embrace technology, Online sales would bring new life to the business but her father is determined to preserve tradition,

When a lucrative opportunity presents itself, Lauren embraces the possibility of saving the store and a spark of something new this Christmas, Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review, Fern Michaels' books are always a delightful read and TheBrightestStar was the perfect way to cozy up on the couch with a spot of tea and unwrap her latest serving.
I enjoyed the read as part of my Christmas in July novels, It's a great gift for those in need of a cup of cheer this year! Lauren Montgomery has had success in her life, but after her dad falls sick, she sells her condo on the beach, and heads back to NC.
Her mother takes over the care for her father, while she takes on her father's shop Razzle Dazzle, It has been in the family since her grandfather started it, and her father will not allow his daughter to put the items, or the shop on the Internet.
Lauren comes across as a true Angel since she uses her money from her prior best sellers to help the shop, and everyone else she comes in contact.
She is currently thirty five ,and will not just settle, unless it is someone she truly has a great love for, and he knocks her socks off.
. The book pulls you in deeply at first, with all the tasks she has taken on, and you look at it as a drama, then suddenly her life sends her in another direction, and she has fallen in love, both with a biography she is excited, and honored to write, and a gentleman we don't get to know a lot about.
. We know more about a crush that is really just a friend, on her side since high school, The ending is rushed, and just like a Christmas miracle all the problems go away, The drama in the first part is just set aside, and she take a magical ride to Seattle that makes all her dreams, and problems clear up.
This includes even those nearly at deaths door, I enjoy her writing, but as readers we need to have her, and her love John spend time together, we need her to check back about Lee, and see how that is going at least monthly, plus her father takes a new medicine, and in two weeks he can run his business, and the pain,brain fog, and problem just getting around has gone.
She does give us quick up dates, that come out of left field that she leaves us out of, The joy of the ending is also never talked about, at all prior to the end, The book needed a few more chapters ,so we can feel what Lauren is feeling, and experiencing, This author is much better than this book, but I gave it,rounded to a three, for the ability I know that she has.
DNFing atpages. This book has had many comments about the weight of their characters and jokes about a character being overweight and smelly was more than I could take.
I was hoping for a light and fluffy Christmas read, but this was not it, I dont tolerate weight shaming and this book did it in such a “gossipy” way, I will say this was my first Fern Michaels book, won in a Goodreads giveaway, and I have no interest in reading another one, Literally the worst book I think I have ever read, Awkward writing, repetitive, somehow she is suddenly in love based on absolutely nothing, Yada yadaed through her one actual “date” with the guy, Bizarre detail about her clothing and makeup options, So very much fat shaming, I cant even adequately explain how bad this was, A good, fun RomCom from Fern, but not I thought her usual quality The synopsis for this book is very misleading, What it should say is "Woman goes through normal daily life during the Christmas season, including eating meals, working, complaining about the weather, and being generous to those in need.
Woman hasminutes of interaction with man and falls in love, All works out in the end, including woman is now a billionaire, " This was a cozy hallmark Christmas movie with basically no plot, but I shall give itbecause I love Christmas, And it's the season of giving! Just finished this sweet read that I won from a giveaway here on Goodreads!

Cracking open the cover we meet Lauren Montgomery, a successful biography author, who is in the midst of trying to keep her family business a Christmas themed store afloat.
Along her journey we meet sweet characters such as Charlotte, Brent, and John, Each character brings out something different in Lauren and I really liked getting to know her, She really treats people well yall! A bit of romance rounds out the story and atpages its an easy read for me and definitely made me smile in many parts.
from me!

Now onto the cons, Unfortunately I felt like he last few chapters were completely rushed, I would have LOVED more relationship development from Lauren and John, I really like them together but wish we had more meat and potatoes to go on than just their mutual physical attraction and a few other details.
If that development would have been there for me Id definitely have given more,
A light, fun romance and Christmas story! Too much repetition of ideas, too many subplots, too little romantic developmental, and a superficial protagonist, I wanted to like this one more than I did, Not much actual "christmas" in the story, Predictable, cliche and repetitive. sitelinked at Keeper Bookshelf

The Brightest Star mixes todays shopping/selling technology with those small independent shops that, for one reason or another, have not hopped onto the online purchase bandwagon and are paying the price for that decision in lowered sales and an uncertain business future.


Lauren writes biographies, and shes quite good at it, Shes been offered the chance to write a very famous businessmans story, yet that man and his online shopping dynasty are the very reason she left Florida to return home to help her parents in their small specialty shop when her father became unable to run the shop.
Its hard to turn down the offer for several reasons, yet Lauren eventually goes to the meeting and discovers that love strikes unexpectedly when she meets the mans son, and an almost instant attraction sparks between them.


The Brightest Star is a good book, There were parts where I had some serious for me issues yet to go into those issues would definitely involve spoilers so Im simply going to leave it alone.
Its one of those times when I enjoyed most of a story but those sticky issues often took me so far out of the story that it became annoying.
Yet what one person simply likes another person would love, so the final decision should be up to you, Ive read Fern Michaels work for years, so Ill look forward to the next book,

I received an eARC of this novel from the publisher, Kensington Books via NetGalley, That does not change what I think of this story, It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book, Other reviews mentioned how this book just kinda screeched to a halt towards the end and I agree, The story was going along great, I enjoyed the plot of a girl who had to move home to care for her sick/somewhat elderly parents, She ran the family store for them and was trying to get them to modernize a bit but the dad refused, But then all of a sudden the storyline picked up fast and then was over, Felt like the author hit a deadline and had to quickly end,

Still a good story, Still worth ready. Still enjoyed it. A warm hearted story about Lauren Montgomery who wishes to save her
Parents store by bringing it into the twenty first century, Lauren is also an
Author and has been asked to write the biography of the wealthy
John Gerald Giompalo, She falls in love his son John, There are multiply
Side stories which interferes with the main storyline, It moves along
Swiftly with not much development, It seemed to just have a beginning and an
End, DNF atI found the skinny heroine and her friend giggling over setting up their friend with the “lb overweight” smelly librarian rather distasteful, Especially in a conversation that started with “why werent you in church this morning” This is supposed to be a Christmas romance I held on for a little bit but I just couldn't stop thinking about this conversation.
This was my first time reading a Fern Michaels novel and I have mixed feelings about The Brightest Star, I can appreciate the fact the entire story didn't revolve around the character's love life, However, the romance was so minimal in this one that I kinda wonder what was the point of even including it, An okay read but certainly had the potential to be so much better,

Lauren Montgomery has a career writing biographies for key figures in the business world, But her father's health has made him unable to run the family's Christmas decor store, Razzle Dazzle, so Lauren moves back to her hometown to manage the place.
Unfortunately, business isn't so good and if some changes aren't made soon, the store is going to go under,

I thought about writing a more detailed synopsis but didn't see much point as the bulk of the story revolves around Lauren running the store.
I do think her father's reluctance to jump into thest century was a bit ridiculous, Given his age is aboutand the fact the Internet has been around for a long time now, it seems odd he would be so against any type of online activity.
I'm not even talking about the store creating a website to do some online sales, I'm referring to how his adult daughter has to set up secret internet access so her father doesn't find out, That is weird! Even my set in his own ways,year old father who up until recently still had a flip phone, was able to embrace the Internet decades ago.


Lauren was a likeable character because she enjoys helping other people and so it

was easy to root for her happiness, The second big plot of the story involves Lauren, and a teenage girl and her mother, Between that plot and the store problems, the romance is pretty rushed and basically relegated to the final chapters with barely any development at all.
With this type of book, you know the end game when you first start reading, but you still want to see all the steps to get to that point.
When you dont have much interaction between the two characters until the final scenes, that's not good,

Overall the story felt like a hodge podge of multiple side plots without a cohesive flow, A lot of repetition which came across as the author trying to stretch out the story as much as possible, I had high hopes for this book because she is a best selling author but no one will be able to convince me this book is the best showcase of her writing talent.
The bare bones of a good story were here but the key is in the details, Could have used some more tlc during the writing process,

I won a free copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway but was not obligated to post a review, All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion, .