Basil Scheuring

Lillian had a stressful childhood where she felt like a burden to her mother and didn't think she was going to amount to much in or after school. She proved them wrong by getting accepted, on scholarship, to the private high school during her freshman year. She meets her unusual roommate, Madison, and Lillian feels like her life is going somewhere. That all crumbles when Madison gets caught with cocaine in her desk and her father pays Lillians's mom to have Lillian take the wrap for the drugs. She gets expelled from the school and gets into a pen pal situation with Madison for the next ten-plus years.

Lillian is contemplating what to do with her life after many failed attempts at going to college and working multiple dead-end jobs when she gets a call from Madison asking her to come over to her mansion in the Tennessee countryside to help raise her husband's two kids from his previous marriage. But there's a catch - these kids catch on fire when they are stressed or upset.

The kids and Lillian have to circumnavigate around how to keep them from catching fire, and how to assimilate them into their senator father's picture-perfect world.

I've seen this book on a lot of lists and I didn't think I was going to like it. I think if I read it in book form I would have quit, but I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was perfect. I really enjoyed the characters and I could relate to the kids (not the catching on fire part - the feeling like they're a burden part). This book caught me by surprise and I truly enjoyed listening to it.

Comfort and tradition are the name of the game for Maelyn Jones when it comes to her Christmas vacation. Ever since Maelyn was born her family, and family friends, vacation at the snowy cabin in Utah. This bucolic setting is what Maelyn looks forward to every year and never wants things to change - until the status quo was challenged and Maelyn's world went to hell.

Maelyn is petrified to face her families but when she opens her eyes, she realizes that she is back on the plane heading to Utah. She gets to redo the Christmas holiday over again and relive the same routines over and over. She needs to figure out how to get out of the time loop and figure out what will make her happy.

I really enjoyed this book! I thought I would hate it based solely on the description but, in the traditional Christina Lauren style, it wins you over with a very relatable main character facing (mostly realistic) predicaments of life.