Mini Reviews #16 It’s Christmas All Around

The Last Day of Winter – Shari Low

Story

One December wedding. One runaway bride. One winter’s day to bring everyone together again.

Today is meant to be the happiest of Caro’s life. She’s finally going to say ‘I do’ to the man she loves, until her past comes back to haunt her.

Josie will do anything to keep this wedding on track, even if it requires tracking down a runaway bride, keeping the groom in the dark and appeasing a variety of family members.

Stacey has one last chance to tell the one that got away how she feels, she can only hope that he feels the same way.

Cammy just wants to call Caro his wife. He’s ready to settle down with her, she’s the one. But can he get her to realise that marriage doesn’t always end in sadness? That they could live happily-ever-after…

Opinion

Apparently, I should really keep an eye out for anything Shari Low does. Because, last year, I got the chance to read her book “Another Day in Winter” and it was one of my absolute highlights for the fall of 2018. As it turns out I have a feeling that the same will be true for “The Last Day of Winter”. 
This book is narrated from multiple POV’s and, while that’s often not the easiest feat to accomplish, Shari Low really shines in that format. She manages to strike a beautiful balance between each person and what they have to bring to the story. What’s more, in spite of the multiple POV’s and the many hints this offers you along the way, there are still twists and turns that you don’t see coming. Low masterfully sets you off on stray paths of plot, than links everything back together in a way that made me want to go back and reread the entire book as soon as I had finished it.
Seasoned with an additional layer of wedding-talk and Christmas-celebrations, “The Last Day of Winter” was an absolute top-rate read for me! 

5/5 stars – Goodreads

We Met In December – Rosie Curtis

Story

This December, unlucky-in-love Jess is following her dream and moving to Notting Hill. On the first night in her new house-share she meets Alex, the guy in the room next door. They don’t kiss under the mistletoe, but there’s still a spark that leaves Jess imagining how they might spend the year together – never mind the house rule against dating…

But when Jess returns from her Christmas holiday, she finds Alex has started seeing Emma, who lives on the floor above them. Now Jess faces a year of bumping into the man of her dreams – and, apparently, the woman of his.

Jess is determined to move on and spend the year falling in love with London, not Alex – but what if her heart has other ideas?

Opinion

There’s something really comforting about a cyclical story. You know the ones – start at point A go around the world, end at point A. Or – in the case of We Met in December – starts in December, ends in December.
Maybe it’s the idea that we all have something – a location, a time, a person – to come home to. Something that feels familiar, that allows you to see how you and “it” have changed. To realise the (r)evolutions you have gone through. Rosie Curtis manages to express that feeling beautifully in We Met In December. 
Christmas is always a bit of a time for reflection, and, at the start of this book, both Jess and Alex are using it as a dive board into a new future. Just across the hall from each other, they get a first row seat as the other tries to manoeuvre a new life. They support each other the way friends do – even if they *happen* to be the kind of friends that wouldn’t mind moving into something beyond friendship. 
Seeing the support these two had for each other, and for their friends? Add to that the amazing descriptions of London through the seasons, but especially in Holiday mode? Rooting for them both to see what they really have in the other person? It made for the type of cosy read that goes perfectly with a hot drink, a roaring fire – and a new start to look forward to!

3/5 stars – Goodreads

Christmas Every Day – Beth Moran

Story

When Jenny inherits her estranged grandmother’s cottage in Sherwood Forest, she has nothing to lose – no money, no job, no friends, no family to speak of, and zero self-respect. Things can only get better…

Her grumpy, but decidedly handsome new neighbour, Mack, has a habit of bestowing unsolicited good deeds on her. And when Jenny is welcomed into a rather unusual book club, life seems to finally be getting more interesting.

Instead of reading, the members pledge to complete individual challenges before Christmas: from finding new love, learning to bake, to completing a daredevil bucket list. Jenny can’t resist joining in, and soon a year of friendship and laughter, tears and regrets unfolds in the most unexpected ways

Opinion

It’s basically the real theme of this post – no “Christmas is all around”, but just: I love a good cyclical story. Especially when the beginning and the end of that cyclus are Christmas. I mean, that’s 2 Christmas’ worth in one book. What’s not to love? 
And this book really does have it all. There’s women supporting women, there’s kids learning to love themselves, there’s an ingenious case of mistaken identity. There’s a quest for an author and a classically evil bad guy, there’s personal growth… 
And best of all? There’s a slow growing love story that managed to catch me by surprise on various occasions! Christmas Every Day manages to not only do it all, but to do all of it right – and at Christmas, at that!

3,5/5 stars – Goodreads

Have you already read any of these books? Are you as enamoured by the concept of Christmas All Around as I am? If not – I ‘d definitely recommend you read all of the above… They might just convert you! Or, if you really don’t have the time to do all that – why not have a quick read of the rest of this year’s blogmas posts, as well as the rest of my Christmas content?

-Saar