Format: ebook
Published: October 12th, 2023
Age: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance – Christmas
Publisher: Sphere
Goodreads
Rating: 3/5 Stars
This is one of those books that’s a little silly, fun, and enjoyable, but more so if it hadn’t gone on for so long. Certain elements that came into play, especially towards the end, were a touch forced, maybe a bit too sickly sweet for me as they kind of gave me a case of the eye rolls and groans.
After a cute prologue, we meet Elle when she’s in a dark place, feeling a bit lost and sorry for herself in the run-up to Christmas. After her boyfriend has cheated on her with her best friend and boss, she’s homeless, single, and jobless. But an advert for a writer, offering bed and board to write the house and family’s history, seems like the perfect solution. There’s just one condition: the applicant must love Christmas, and Elle does not love Christmas.
Elle heads off to Mistletoe Square, where she meets Ben, who by coincidence has just moved in next door. In Christmas House, she meets Estelle and Angela, who are all too happy to share their home’s past with Elle.
I admit, considering it was part of the blurb, Elle’s not loving Christmas didn’t actually seem to impact whether or not she could do the job. It just felt a bit odd to put an emphasis on that particular thing when it doesn’t come into play in relation to the job itself. Okay, Elle isn’t the biggest fan of Christmas, but I’ve seen grumpy-doesn’t-like-Christmas characters enough now to see this is one of the weakest iterations. Ben, for pretty much similar reasons to Elle, also dislike Christmas. Admittedly, I prefer a sunshine/grumpy Christmas pairing, as I love seeing one character learn to love the season through another’s eyes.
The book, however, starts off fairly strong, if a couple of missteps – bit of a spoiler here, but admit I’m not a fan of “my partner left for another (same gender)”, especially when it feels like it’s being used for a bit of ‘shock’ value. We also keep getting told about how bad her relationship was, but we don’t see anything that leans towards that. Not to say it couldn’t have been bad, but paired with the reason for breaking up, it just seemed tagged on – though maybe the whole thing would have had more of an emotional punch if, from Elle’s perspective, the relationship had seemed good and solid?
After the first couple of ‘stories’ Elle hears from Estelle, however, the book hit a pattern. Around the middle it really felt like it was dragging, and I wasn’t invested enough in the relationship between Ben and Elle to make that side of things interesting. In every generation Estelle talks about, there’s at least one character is shown to be a bad partner or parent, maybe selfish or self-absorbed, yet from all this, Elle and Ben seem to walk away with the wrong message – family is everything, and Christmas isn’t Christmas unless you spend it with blood family! I guess I’m more of a found family type person, and the ‘blood family’ message at the core of this was kind of…not great. I think the ending came across as a bit convoluted, too, and it made the story itself drag out quite a bit.
This book was a sweet, fun enough read, but it quickly got repetitive and it’s not as strong as some other Christmas books out there. I might try the author’s other work, but right now I don’t think I’d be in a great rush to do so. I get that coincidences and nudges from mysterious white-bearded men and ‘otherworldly beings’ are a staple in Christmas fiction, but this one just felt a bit like it was trying too hard.
Thank you to Sphere for providing me a copy of this book via NetGalley – views remain my own.
Unwrapping Words 