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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
ugh, my perfect Christmas read! I loved this book with its beautifully flawed and relatable characters.
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a surprisingly emotional Christmas read. It was fun and it was gay but it had some darker themes I wasn’t expecting. Overall it was good, but not one I think I would return to.
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
lighthearted
medium-paced
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A beautiful, heartfelt story of three siblings finding love at their mother’s Catskills manor during Christmastime, Most Wonderful captures the feelings of love, grief, and change summarized in the stories of the Blevedere siblings, Divorced showrunner Liz shares a moment of passion with her lead actress, and now she had writes block. Birdie is a terminal bachelorette, her comedy stalled for years as she plays her way across NYC. And Rafi, who falls in love with everyone he meets, has been unceremoniously dumped in front of all his coworkers by the woman he asked to marry him. Each sibling finds their way back to their famous actress mother’s house, attempting to escape the things that plague them and find their muse.
Liz was my favorite of the siblings - I thought her life felt more full, at 37 she was divorced from her horrible ex, struggling to write the second season of her hit show “Sweet,” and weeks prior to the story she kissed (and was kissed by) her leading lady Violet Grace. When she runs off to Woodstock to visit her mom, the last thing she expects is Violet to appear, looking to help her write and fix their relationship. In the midst of brainstorming, they rekindle and begin seeing each other. For this story I didn’t think the third act break up fit when so much of Liz’s story was about trusting again after a bad divorce. I can understand Vi’s response to the media attention, but I’d expected them to work through it instead of imploding.
Birdie’s story felt right. Although my initial criticism was that Jecka became more of a therapist to Birdie than a girlfriend or friend, I think it was necessary for Birdie to have that level of connection with someone. Birthed from a mishap, grown through understanding and solid advice regarding her father, Jecka and Birdie’s story did not interest me much until it began to fail. Sometimes it takes a significant loss to spur change, and although Jecka’s rejection is what flung Birdie into her spiral, it was the fear of losing her mother and not being present for her that propelled her forward. Birdie’s was less of a story of romantic or sexual love (although she did briefly have a relationship) but one of falling back in love with life. It is implied that Birdie is a functioning alcoholic, and so her journey’s natural conclusion is taking steps towards sobriety.
Rafi’s story was my least favorite if only because there were two more interesting, more complex stories going on around him. Although best friends to lovers is a cute trope, it had little complication and didn’t really move Rafi’s character in a new direction. It seems the man who always fell too quickly, loved too hard, and took things too far got to do all that but this time without consequence. Despite being a firm believer that romance requires an HEA, Rafi was chronically in a relationship until the last page. With so much progress for his sisters, it felt like regression.
Finally, Babs. I spent much of the book assuming she had Alzheimer’s, so to learn of her MS was not so much shock as sadness. To us our mothers seem invincible, immortal, and MS is one of those painful reminders of the frailty of the human body. The undercurrent of her story woven through the web of her children’s individual struggles was a beautiful tie that bound them all together - as they shared their mother physically, they also shared her in spirit - strong willed, funny, romantic, each of them a piece of her themselves. Babs tight control over her image wasn’t simply for the public, but also for her children.
There was a little spice here and there but ultimately it was sparse in just the right way. My biggest criticism for most of the book was that they were having sex in a house with a half dozen other people and never got caught.
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this queer Christmas romance! It was very cute. I felt so much second hand embarrassment many times in this book which I didn’t love. There was also a bit much smut for me and it was a bit too long. But overall it was funny, cutesy, and heartwarming while also including important serious topics.