Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Love in Winter Wonderland

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello

7 reviews

thirdeyeangel23's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This may be my favorite holiday read of 2023. Love in Winter Wonderland follows two teens who fall hard while fighting to save their beloved family book store. This story has everything from tender young romance to the importance of preserving black history and family. This was funny, sweet, a little angsty, and everything I love about Christmas romcoms.

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dianaschmidty's review against another edition

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lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Okay, so this book started off really cute! I loved the vibes of them working in a bookstore at Christmastime and it also gave my 2000s teen drama vibes, which I loved. This book would have easily been at least four stars, maybe higher, but then we hit the 70% point…

(This is going to have slight spoilers because I can’t properly rant without them)

At the 70% point, this became a retelling of Mean Girls, but whereas Regina George is hilarious and iconic, Blair is just annoying and psychotic. And for some strange reason, Trey’s fine with that?!? Him not believing Ariel right away is one thing, but spending the night at Blair’s after learning (and ignoring) what she did is insane! Especially for a YA book! Also, once she confirms what she did, he’s not even positive that he wants to breakup with her and calls her “amazing.” Like, a psycho that bullies practically everyone, doesn’t have any interest in anything you like, and locked a girl in a classroom because she was a little jealous is considered “amazing”?!?!?!? I guess this can all be chalked up to stupid 18 year old behavior on both parties, but also, it gave me the ick.

I did really like the narrators’ accents. I often have trouble understanding non-American accents, especially when I speed up the narration, but I had absolutely no issues with understanding and I really liked both narrators’ voices.

I would be interested in reading books by this author in the future, but I really wish the last 40% of this book was a lot different…

Thank you to NetGalley, RB Media, and Abiola Bello for providing me access to this book.

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evawondergem's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

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wren_rainbow's review against another edition

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4.25

This book was just so good and really cute and wholesome!! A wonderful Christmas time black love story! I’m definitely rooting for Ariel and Wonderland. Also, I’m not ashamed to admit that I sobbed for a couple of minutes towards the end ❤️ I highly recommend listening to the playlist as you read this book. So glad I’ve come across this book.

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booknerderika's review against another edition

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lighthearted reflective fast-paced

This was a sweet story of the power of community and others showing up for one another.

As for the romance, I'm not a fan of stories of people in relationships falling for someone else. There was borderline cheating going on just by the flirting

and almost kissing.

I understand the toxic relationship aspect but I still don't think that justifies the behavior.

I'm glad Trey made the mature decision in the end even though it was hard. That alone is representation we need more of in books.

I still enjoyed the book, I just felt uncomfortable with how Trey was in a relationship with someone else

for almost the entire book.

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shellysbookcorner's review against another edition

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4.0

Thank you Goodreads and SoHo Teen for my giveaway win copy.
⠀
My 💭:
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Holiday setting in the UK about saving a Black owned book store? Sign me up! I really enjoyed this story and I’m not going to lie I wanted to reach into the book and throttle Blair. I loved when Ariel found her strength and courage and finally stood up to the mean girls in this book. Trey had his moments but he was a sweetheart.
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Notable Quote:
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“I wonder if people care now that the hype has died down.”
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Trey was reluctant to ask for help with the bookshop via social media because he felt people didn’t care after the hype died down for George Floyd. As a Black person this is exactly how I feel at times. The hashtags aren’t trending, but we are still in the same place dealing with ongoing racism. Do people even care?

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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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