Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Love in Winter Wonderland

I'm a sucker for any book that takes place in a bookstore. Make it a Black-owned independent bookstore, and I'm sold. Wonderland has been in Trey's family for generations, ever since his great-grandfather opened its doors. In the beginning, he decidedly does not like his family's bookshop and resents having to work there (and being expected to one day take the reins), but when he hears they are in trouble and they will have no choice to sell it after Christmas, he becomes passionate about finding a way to save it. After his dad suffers a ladder injury, Ariel comes on board to help the cause. Ariel and Trey are in different crowds at school; Trey is popular and Ariel is, well, not. However, in the process of saving Wonderland, they become friends and maybe even hover in the gray area between friends and "more." (Trey, though, is dating Blair.) Ariel wants to attend the art school her late father attended, but she needs to show how her art has changed her community. She views saving Wonderland as her opportunity, painting a huge mural of Black authors on one of the walls.

I liked how they used digital marketing to appeal to others to donate, but some of the plot seemed unbelievable. Like how Wonderland stayed in the news for as long as it did. These days, people move on so quickly and jump from one cause or story to the next. Also, you're telling me Rihanna—fucking Rihanna—reposted your GoFundMe, and you didn't reach your goal? Rihanna, a billionaire, could donate the entire $50,000 without making a dent in her net worth. This actually made Rihanna seem out of touch.

There is other woman drama, but in this case, Ariel felt like the other woman. I was very uncomfortable with the emotional cheating between Trey and Ariel. For about 90 percent of the book, Trey is in a relationship with Blair, though God knows why because he can't seem to stand her most of the time. What he sees in Blair is beyond me, but no one deserves to be cheated on. Ariel, babe, if he's willing to cheat on one girl—one he's been dating for almost two years, no less—with you, then what's stopping him from cheating on you with some other girl? Especially if he doesn't view what he did as cheating, which I'm not sure he does. To me, it feels like we're expected to excuse Trey's emotional cheating because his girlfriend is a snobby bitch, but it reflects poorly on him that he was with her for so long. How does he not see Blair for who she truly is? Truthfully, Trey isn't a very good boyfriend. He forgets about Blair's birthday and has his little brother draw a card for him to give to her, he dances with other girls at the birthday party he's throwing for her (which gets blackout drunk at), and he keeps things from her. And yeah, Blair isn't a very good girlfriend either, but that's besides the point. How are we to believe Trey would be a better boyfriend to Ariel?

As he's breaking up with her, and after she confesses what she did, Trey says that he loves her but they're just toxic together??? Bffr. He also says, "The twins are by far the hottest girls in college. But then Ariel came along, and for the first time, I was looking at another girl in a romantic way." Um. Ariel has always been there; you just never noticed her. This feels so icky to me. If I were Ariel, I wouldn't forgive him for believing Blair over me. Saying something to the effect of, "I didn't believe it when you told me, but I believe it now that I heard it from my lying and vindictive ex-girlfriend" is not a very good start to a happy non-relationship.

Which leads me to the ending:

Trey decides he's not ready to jump into a new relationship with Ariel after breaking up with his long-term girlfriend, so they agree to just continue getting to know each other and if they're meant to be, they'll be. While this makes sense practically, it's not very satisfying fictionally. They do kiss one time at the VERY end (we're talking final paragraphs), but we have no insight into what happens after.

Forget about their relationship, we don't even know how Ariel's art school application pans out! As a reader, this is frustrating, especially when it's a huge part of the plot.

Audiobook Note: Ben Bailey Smith and Nneka Okoye were fantastic (especially Nneka)! It is a dual narration, and I feel like Nneka does a better job at changing her voice for each character than Ben, who only deepens his voice for Trey's dad. At just over 7.5 hours, it is possible to binge in just a day, especially if you listen on 1.5x or 2x speed—and since it is YA, it is an appropriate office listen. Since I didn't have accompanying text, I totally thought Trey's best friend was called "Books" and not "Boogs, haha.

Thank you to RB Media for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

Content Warnings

mishale1's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed this Christmas story about two Black teenagers working at a Black owned, family run bookstore. It had depth but that also meant I found it a bit heavy sometimes. I’ll go into a little more detail and hope it doesn’t veer spoilerish. If it does, let me know, I can always fix that.

Trey’s family owns Wonderland books. It’s been in his family for generations. And it’s a big deal to Trey’s family but it wasn’t really a big deal to Trey until the day he thought his family might lose it.

Ariel knows Trey from school, she had a crush on him years ago but he’s been dating someone for two years.
Ariel dreams of being an artist. She’s very talented, she got her artistic side from her father who passed away suddenly last year.
Now she has the opportunity to go to art school but isn’t sure if she’ll get a scholarship and if she doesn’t she’ll need a lot of money to go.

Ariel decides to look for an after school job and winds up at Wonderland right in the midst of Trey’s father having a minor accident and being unable to work. She’s also there right at the beginning of the drama about potentially having to sell the bookstore.

Ariel is pretty amazing because she immediately jumps into “save the day” mode. She decides that her and Trey are going to find a way to save this bookstore before the Christmas Eve deadline.

I loved all of that.

Here’s what I was less of a fan of:
Ariel has an eating disorder that’s just minorly touched on. It felt kind of out of place in a Christmas book.
Also, the amount of money they had to raise before Christmas Eve seemed astronomical in my opinion.

I liked Ariel best. I liked Trey most of the time. Sometimes he was a bit short with Ariel and of course I wasn’t a fan of that. But otherwise I liked him.

I liked how each chapter was introduced with a Christmas song and I believe they were all by Black artists.

I’d also say that Ariel’s grief for her father was not overly sad in the story. I appreciate that. I wasn’t looking for a sad story and definitely not one where the father dies. But this book kind of goes the line between adding depth and adding heaviness. Overall, I’m a fan.

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