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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
I bought this book because it was highly rated, but this is not a good book. The writing is pretty bad, each character repeats their motives at least four times, and I didn’t find the characters all that compelling or interesting. I wanted a fun holiday romance book for the season and this was not it.
What I read: Home Sweet Christmas by Susan Mallory
Why I picked it up: It’s the second in a series I loved about Wishing Tree.
How I read it: On paper in just two days – it was a real delight.
What it’s about: This book follows two friends who are newish to Wishing Tree. We met Camryn in the first book as the woman who owns Wrap Around the Clock right on The Wreath. She came home to care for her dying mother and has stayed to take care of her younger twin sisters. Her residence in Wishing Tree has an expiration date though; when they graduate, she’s moving back to Chicago. Enter Jake – her friend’s ex-fiance and subject of Project: Jake’s Bride – a new effort for a wife for her son and grandchildren for her from his mother. There’s also River and Dylan – this year’s Royal Christmas Couple. Neither of them have learned how to trust others very well – but maybe they’ll be able to trust each other, then again, maybe not.
What I liked: I loved visiting this town again. I also appreciated Jake and how much he’s grown since his appearance in the first book. He’s incredibly emotionally intelligent here and even when his mother and his girlfriend go off on two separate crazy paths, he keeps his head about him.
What I disliked: The big misunderstanding of trust between Dylan and River was a little ridiculous. She wanted him to reveal everything about him because she revealed herself to him – and when he didn’t, 4 weeks into knowing her, she took it as the fact that he doesn’t care. They’d been on like 5 dates.
Genre: Christmas, closed door romance, adoption, grief.
Rating & Recommendation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and yes – the first one and the novella aren’t necessary, but you’ll find that knowing those character’s back stories really make this more of a delight. I hope Paisley gets her story next year!
Why I picked it up: It’s the second in a series I loved about Wishing Tree.
How I read it: On paper in just two days – it was a real delight.
What it’s about: This book follows two friends who are newish to Wishing Tree. We met Camryn in the first book as the woman who owns Wrap Around the Clock right on The Wreath. She came home to care for her dying mother and has stayed to take care of her younger twin sisters. Her residence in Wishing Tree has an expiration date though; when they graduate, she’s moving back to Chicago. Enter Jake – her friend’s ex-fiance and subject of Project: Jake’s Bride – a new effort for a wife for her son and grandchildren for her from his mother. There’s also River and Dylan – this year’s Royal Christmas Couple. Neither of them have learned how to trust others very well – but maybe they’ll be able to trust each other, then again, maybe not.
What I liked: I loved visiting this town again. I also appreciated Jake and how much he’s grown since his appearance in the first book. He’s incredibly emotionally intelligent here and even when his mother and his girlfriend go off on two separate crazy paths, he keeps his head about him.
What I disliked: The big misunderstanding of trust between Dylan and River was a little ridiculous. She wanted him to reveal everything about him because she revealed herself to him – and when he didn’t, 4 weeks into knowing her, she took it as the fact that he doesn’t care. They’d been on like 5 dates.
Genre: Christmas, closed door romance, adoption, grief.
Rating & Recommendation: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and yes – the first one and the novella aren’t necessary, but you’ll find that knowing those character’s back stories really make this more of a delight. I hope Paisley gets her story next year!
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to read a lighthearted book to get me in the Christmas spirit, but instead I ended up with this misogynistic drivel.
The book focuses on two couples who are all bland, terrible people. Ironically, three of them have gender neutral names so if you get lost in their bland, interchangeable dialogue and forget their names, you’re truly fucked trying to figure out if you’re in the perspective of the handsome, rich guy or the other handsome rich guy. Or maybe you’re in the perspective of the girl who just moved from the big city to the small town or this other girl who just moved from the big city to the small town.
None of the characters talk or act like normal people. They are all some level of unhinged and it doesn’t help that the author likes to “tell not show.” You’ll have a character declaring that another character has traits that have never appeared on the page or guessing at the innermost secret thoughts and feelings of another character despite the fact that these two people have only had two conversations in their lives. Just…truly unhinged. You also have the book calling women sexy and then describe them as anything but. For example, the book describes River as being an incredibly short woman with short spikey hair who can’t stand the cold and is always wearing 20 layers of clothing. So you have the mental image of a four foot tall woman waddling around like a penguin with a bad hair cut, but her love interest, Dylan, finds her so sexy that his dick gets erect. And, I’m not kidding you, the author loves dropping into the male characters perspective just for us to read about them finding the woman characters to be so sexy and how it makes their dicks hard. This book isn’t spicy, thank god, because the way the men talk about their dicks is just repulsive and off putting. Imagine watching a Hallmark movie and just randomly pausing it and going “my dick just got so hard bro!” That is what this book is like.
And I cannot adequately describe the misogyny and abusive qualities these characters have. One of the first times we’re dropped into River’s perspective, she’s hacking into someone’s social media to build a profile about this person for a potential employer and River reflects on what a dirty slut whore this girl is and how she should never be around kids let alone a nanny but she’ll let the parents decide if they want to hire her to babysit their kids. And you might think, “oh! does this come up again?” No, it doesn’t. The author just really wants you to know that women are dirty slut whores but River isn’t one of them.
The author likes doing this; just dropping in a random woman to point at and go “look at that dirty slut whore over there! So dirty! What a slut! Such a whore!” Which is extra hilarious when Camryn decides she doesn’t want to get into a relationship with Jake but just wants to fuck him. She’s not a dirty slut whore, but all the other women who do this are. To be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being in a situationship or having a fling or a one night stand, but the book fucking hates it and only lets Camryn get away with it because it quickly becomes a relationship that turns into an engagement in the span of about three weeks.
In fact, this is one of the first little bits of abusive behavior that the book does. Camryn doesn’t want to get into a relationship because she wants to move out of town in a couple of years and she doesn’t want her little sisters to get attached to anyone that she dates because she thinks it will hurt them when they break up. She’s interested in Jake though, and he’s interested in her. So they agree to a situationship to last through the holidays and to keep it a secret so that Camryn’s little sisters don’t find out. But three days into this arrangement, Jake gets a bug up his ass when he realizes that Camryn could be messing around with other guys, he loses his shit, demands that she be monogamous to him, and declares to everyone that they’re dating. And this all happens in the span of two paragraphs and just kind of blends into the other bad writing of telling and not showing and none of the characters acting like normal people, so you could easily miss this giant red flag. But this man does not listen to or respect his partners needs or boundaries, even when they are clearly stated and agreed to.
Jake’s second little bit of abusiveness pops up in a truly unnecessary scene with his ex. His ex shows up in a scene just for the author to point at and scream about what a dirty slut whore she is, and Jake ends the scene by telling her that she’s fundamentally unlovable. It’s so deranged. I can’t imagine telling anyone that they’re fundamentally unlovable, let alone someone I was in a relationship with for years—and, presumably, LOVED—that they’re unlovable. And it’s even worse because the book depicts Jake as always being right so the book is telling us that he’s right in saying this; that she’s fundamentally unlovable. Now, reader, you might be thinking “maybe she really deserved it.” But no, do you know what we know of her perspective? She’s in a relationship with Jake for a while, realizes she doesn’t actually love him, she tells him that she doesn’t love him and wants to break up. A year later, she reaches out to him and says she thinks she made a mistake and wants to try again, he turns her down, and then a year later, his mom reaches out to her and tells her that Jake is looking for a wife and maybe would be open to getting back into a relationship with her again, and when she goes to see him, he tells her she fundamentally unlovable. Unhinged. This book is unhinged.
Let’s visit our other couple and their little bits of abusiveness. Dylan is a secret millionaire and is ashamed of his money and is keeping it a secret from everyone. River realizes he has a secret and is lying to her. So she decides to HACK INTO HIS COMPUTER AND BANK ACCOUNTS and discovers he has 22 million dollars he’s just sitting on. She confronts him. They lose their shit on each other. And at the end of their argument, Dylan takes a moment to withdraw emotionally from the argument and think to himself how he is going to win this argument by making sure he hurts River emotionally as much as possible with his next insult. And then, as he leaves her apartment and walks downstairs, he pauses when he hears her throw something against the wall and smirks to himself because he’s proud of himself for hurting her really good. Again, deranged behavior all around. Even more deranged because the author deliberately put this thought process in there. You may be wondering what the insult was that he hurled at River, he called her a criminal. Which is apt because she had just committed a crime against him. But the backstory is, she had previously been arrested for hacking into computers when she was younger and is terribly embarrassed by the whole thing and doesn’t like talking about it and the whole thing makes her feel really bad. So Dylan stopped in the middle of the argument to really reflect on that and use it against her specifically to cause her the most emotional turmoil. Now, I want to point out that River breaking boundaries and hacking into Dylan’s files and bank records is abusive and her throwing something against the wall is worrisome (I don’t think it rises to the level of abuse because she’s breaking her own property and Dylan isn’t present and she doesn’t seem to realize that he even heard it) but I also want to point out that Dylan’s desire to hurt River and the absolute glee he has when he does is so unhinged. And I also want to point out that it’s so unhinged that the author wrote it like this. She could have just had Dylan call River a criminal, considering the crime she just committed, and then have him hear something break in her apartment as he’s walking down the stairs. But the author specifically wants to point out what a bad dude he is and then she wants us to completely forget how unhinged this all was.
The author also likes throwing in plot points that don’t make sense or don’t really go anywhere or could easily be made more interesting if she thought about it for more than two seconds or used the foreshadowing device AT ALL. Seriously, if you read anything in this book that makes you perk your ears up and go “I know what this is! It’s foreshadowing!” Just sit down because you’re wrong. One example is this dog that shows up in the book. Camryn’s two sisters go outside and play in the snow in the dark and find this little four pound chihuahua freezing to death. They save her and all the characters sit around and talk about how impossible it is that this tiny dog shows up at a house that’s at least five miles away from anyone or anything. Everyone wonders how the dog got there and they ponder on whether or not the owner abandoned the dog outside their door. And then we spend two weeks deeply concerned on whether or not the dog’s owners will show up or if the girls will be able to adopt it. And you’re a smart reader and you know the male characters have a bunch of evil exes lurking in the background. You know how this works. One of them is going to pop up as the owner and try to worm her way back into the male character’s life and break up one of the happy couples. Hell, I told you in an above paragraph that one of the exes does just that. But you’re wrong! The dog’s just there! And now you’re reading about it! No one claims it! Its existence doesn’t impact the story at all! Hope you enjoyed that!
Honestly, the dog is the best part of the story and I would have loved nothing more than to read about it and all its handmade sweaters and how it has a million beds in the house because the little sisters wanted to make sure the dog knew it was wanted and belonged wherever it went in the house. I would have preferred this book just be about Tinsel, the miracle Christmas chihuahua than the slop we got instead.
Another missed opportunity comes in the form of how Dylan comes by his 22 million dollars that he’s deeply ashamed of. Now, Jake’s whole arc is about his dead father always cheating on his mother and Jake is worried that cheating on partners is an inheritable trait. And then you read about how Jake’s mother, Helen, is actually fine with all the cheating and also, she really loves Dylan, Jake’s best friend. In fact, she raises him and becomes his guardian because no one knows who Dylan’s father is and Dylan’s mother is just a dirty slut whore who can’t take care of her son. And Jake and Helen are both rich. And then, reader, the little wheels in your head start turning and you go “oh my god! When are we going to find out that Jake’s dad cheated with Dylan’s mom and Dylan is his son and Jake and Dylan are half-siblings?! Does Dylan know?! Is the money from Jake’s dad and that’s why he’s so ashamed of it?! Did Helen find out?! Is that why she’s ok with the cheating? She got to have the second son she always wanted and that’s why she really made peace with the cheating?! Is the money really from Helen?! Was she setting up a trust for Dylan all this time or did she try to pay off Dylan’s mom to skip town and let Helen adopt Dylan and the money is from that?! I’m so so excited to find out the answers!!” But no, reader, foreshadowing doesn’t exist in this book. Dylan won 3 million dollars by buying a few scratch offs while on a road trip and then ignored the money so hard it turned into 22 million dollars. That’s it. This book is so stupid and uninteresting.
We should have gotten a book about Tinsel the Christmas Miracle Chihuahua and all her adventures with Belle, the giant Great Dane and their matching handmade sweaters. Instead, we got this garbage.
Don’t read it. Pick up something else instead.
The book focuses on two couples who are all bland, terrible people. Ironically, three of them have gender neutral names so if you get lost in their bland, interchangeable dialogue and forget their names, you’re truly fucked trying to figure out if you’re in the perspective of the handsome, rich guy or the other handsome rich guy. Or maybe you’re in the perspective of the girl who just moved from the big city to the small town or this other girl who just moved from the big city to the small town.
None of the characters talk or act like normal people. They are all some level of unhinged and it doesn’t help that the author likes to “tell not show.” You’ll have a character declaring that another character has traits that have never appeared on the page or guessing at the innermost secret thoughts and feelings of another character despite the fact that these two people have only had two conversations in their lives. Just…truly unhinged. You also have the book calling women sexy and then describe them as anything but. For example, the book describes River as being an incredibly short woman with short spikey hair who can’t stand the cold and is always wearing 20 layers of clothing. So you have the mental image of a four foot tall woman waddling around like a penguin with a bad hair cut, but her love interest, Dylan, finds her so sexy that his dick gets erect. And, I’m not kidding you, the author loves dropping into the male characters perspective just for us to read about them finding the woman characters to be so sexy and how it makes their dicks hard. This book isn’t spicy, thank god, because the way the men talk about their dicks is just repulsive and off putting. Imagine watching a Hallmark movie and just randomly pausing it and going “my dick just got so hard bro!” That is what this book is like.
And I cannot adequately describe the misogyny and abusive qualities these characters have. One of the first times we’re dropped into River’s perspective, she’s hacking into someone’s social media to build a profile about this person for a potential employer and River reflects on what a dirty slut whore this girl is and how she should never be around kids let alone a nanny but she’ll let the parents decide if they want to hire her to babysit their kids. And you might think, “oh! does this come up again?” No, it doesn’t. The author just really wants you to know that women are dirty slut whores but River isn’t one of them.
The author likes doing this; just dropping in a random woman to point at and go “look at that dirty slut whore over there! So dirty! What a slut! Such a whore!” Which is extra hilarious when Camryn decides she doesn’t want to get into a relationship with Jake but just wants to fuck him. She’s not a dirty slut whore, but all the other women who do this are. To be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being in a situationship or having a fling or a one night stand, but the book fucking hates it and only lets Camryn get away with it because it quickly becomes a relationship that turns into an engagement in the span of about three weeks.
In fact, this is one of the first little bits of abusive behavior that the book does. Camryn doesn’t want to get into a relationship because she wants to move out of town in a couple of years and she doesn’t want her little sisters to get attached to anyone that she dates because she thinks it will hurt them when they break up. She’s interested in Jake though, and he’s interested in her. So they agree to a situationship to last through the holidays and to keep it a secret so that Camryn’s little sisters don’t find out. But three days into this arrangement, Jake gets a bug up his ass when he realizes that Camryn could be messing around with other guys, he loses his shit, demands that she be monogamous to him, and declares to everyone that they’re dating. And this all happens in the span of two paragraphs and just kind of blends into the other bad writing of telling and not showing and none of the characters acting like normal people, so you could easily miss this giant red flag. But this man does not listen to or respect his partners needs or boundaries, even when they are clearly stated and agreed to.
Jake’s second little bit of abusiveness pops up in a truly unnecessary scene with his ex. His ex shows up in a scene just for the author to point at and scream about what a dirty slut whore she is, and Jake ends the scene by telling her that she’s fundamentally unlovable. It’s so deranged. I can’t imagine telling anyone that they’re fundamentally unlovable, let alone someone I was in a relationship with for years—and, presumably, LOVED—that they’re unlovable. And it’s even worse because the book depicts Jake as always being right so the book is telling us that he’s right in saying this; that she’s fundamentally unlovable. Now, reader, you might be thinking “maybe she really deserved it.” But no, do you know what we know of her perspective? She’s in a relationship with Jake for a while, realizes she doesn’t actually love him, she tells him that she doesn’t love him and wants to break up. A year later, she reaches out to him and says she thinks she made a mistake and wants to try again, he turns her down, and then a year later, his mom reaches out to her and tells her that Jake is looking for a wife and maybe would be open to getting back into a relationship with her again, and when she goes to see him, he tells her she fundamentally unlovable. Unhinged. This book is unhinged.
Let’s visit our other couple and their little bits of abusiveness. Dylan is a secret millionaire and is ashamed of his money and is keeping it a secret from everyone. River realizes he has a secret and is lying to her. So she decides to HACK INTO HIS COMPUTER AND BANK ACCOUNTS and discovers he has 22 million dollars he’s just sitting on. She confronts him. They lose their shit on each other. And at the end of their argument, Dylan takes a moment to withdraw emotionally from the argument and think to himself how he is going to win this argument by making sure he hurts River emotionally as much as possible with his next insult. And then, as he leaves her apartment and walks downstairs, he pauses when he hears her throw something against the wall and smirks to himself because he’s proud of himself for hurting her really good. Again, deranged behavior all around. Even more deranged because the author deliberately put this thought process in there. You may be wondering what the insult was that he hurled at River, he called her a criminal. Which is apt because she had just committed a crime against him. But the backstory is, she had previously been arrested for hacking into computers when she was younger and is terribly embarrassed by the whole thing and doesn’t like talking about it and the whole thing makes her feel really bad. So Dylan stopped in the middle of the argument to really reflect on that and use it against her specifically to cause her the most emotional turmoil. Now, I want to point out that River breaking boundaries and hacking into Dylan’s files and bank records is abusive and her throwing something against the wall is worrisome (I don’t think it rises to the level of abuse because she’s breaking her own property and Dylan isn’t present and she doesn’t seem to realize that he even heard it) but I also want to point out that Dylan’s desire to hurt River and the absolute glee he has when he does is so unhinged. And I also want to point out that it’s so unhinged that the author wrote it like this. She could have just had Dylan call River a criminal, considering the crime she just committed, and then have him hear something break in her apartment as he’s walking down the stairs. But the author specifically wants to point out what a bad dude he is and then she wants us to completely forget how unhinged this all was.
The author also likes throwing in plot points that don’t make sense or don’t really go anywhere or could easily be made more interesting if she thought about it for more than two seconds or used the foreshadowing device AT ALL. Seriously, if you read anything in this book that makes you perk your ears up and go “I know what this is! It’s foreshadowing!” Just sit down because you’re wrong. One example is this dog that shows up in the book. Camryn’s two sisters go outside and play in the snow in the dark and find this little four pound chihuahua freezing to death. They save her and all the characters sit around and talk about how impossible it is that this tiny dog shows up at a house that’s at least five miles away from anyone or anything. Everyone wonders how the dog got there and they ponder on whether or not the owner abandoned the dog outside their door. And then we spend two weeks deeply concerned on whether or not the dog’s owners will show up or if the girls will be able to adopt it. And you’re a smart reader and you know the male characters have a bunch of evil exes lurking in the background. You know how this works. One of them is going to pop up as the owner and try to worm her way back into the male character’s life and break up one of the happy couples. Hell, I told you in an above paragraph that one of the exes does just that. But you’re wrong! The dog’s just there! And now you’re reading about it! No one claims it! Its existence doesn’t impact the story at all! Hope you enjoyed that!
Honestly, the dog is the best part of the story and I would have loved nothing more than to read about it and all its handmade sweaters and how it has a million beds in the house because the little sisters wanted to make sure the dog knew it was wanted and belonged wherever it went in the house. I would have preferred this book just be about Tinsel, the miracle Christmas chihuahua than the slop we got instead.
Another missed opportunity comes in the form of how Dylan comes by his 22 million dollars that he’s deeply ashamed of. Now, Jake’s whole arc is about his dead father always cheating on his mother and Jake is worried that cheating on partners is an inheritable trait. And then you read about how Jake’s mother, Helen, is actually fine with all the cheating and also, she really loves Dylan, Jake’s best friend. In fact, she raises him and becomes his guardian because no one knows who Dylan’s father is and Dylan’s mother is just a dirty slut whore who can’t take care of her son. And Jake and Helen are both rich. And then, reader, the little wheels in your head start turning and you go “oh my god! When are we going to find out that Jake’s dad cheated with Dylan’s mom and Dylan is his son and Jake and Dylan are half-siblings?! Does Dylan know?! Is the money from Jake’s dad and that’s why he’s so ashamed of it?! Did Helen find out?! Is that why she’s ok with the cheating? She got to have the second son she always wanted and that’s why she really made peace with the cheating?! Is the money really from Helen?! Was she setting up a trust for Dylan all this time or did she try to pay off Dylan’s mom to skip town and let Helen adopt Dylan and the money is from that?! I’m so so excited to find out the answers!!” But no, reader, foreshadowing doesn’t exist in this book. Dylan won 3 million dollars by buying a few scratch offs while on a road trip and then ignored the money so hard it turned into 22 million dollars. That’s it. This book is so stupid and uninteresting.
We should have gotten a book about Tinsel the Christmas Miracle Chihuahua and all her adventures with Belle, the giant Great Dane and their matching handmade sweaters. Instead, we got this garbage.
Don’t read it. Pick up something else instead.
Honestly, this was the cutest little Christmas story. Not heavy on the Spice but more Heavy on the Romance and the trials of finding and accepting love. I loved how much Dylan Swoons over River when he first meets her. But, I did find the last 20 pages a bit boring as there’s so much internal dialogue in the resolution that it just seems overkill. But it does summarize the story to a happy ending which is always appreciated during Christmas ❤️
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can’t remember where this book recommendation came from, but WOW, I’m so happy I found it. This book is the perfect Christmas treat—romance and drama in a small town called Wishing Tree centered around Christmas time and traditions. I think this book is going to make it on my re-read Christmas stack for future years; it was that cute and cozy.
“You’re making a mistake,” River told her flatly. “You’re letting the fear win and that makes you small. You’re not a small person. You’re strong. Why can’t you see that?” (84%)
The book starts when Helen Crane, a lonely wealthy widow, establishes a plan to get her son, Jake Crane, married. She reaches out to a local business owner, Camryn, as her first candidate. While a meddlesome mother can be a huge red flag, she truly wants the best for everyone and actually respects boundaries (for the most part).
One second she’d been engaged, thriving at work, and happy, and the next she’d been caring for her dying mother, knowing she was about to be the guardian of her fourteen-year-old sisters and running Wrap Around the Clock. She’d lost everything important to her and she wanted it back. (77%)
Camryn has taken her mother’s place in her family after her death, taking over her gift-wrapping business, raising her younger twin sisters, and leaving behind the life she loved in Chicago to keep her family together. She struggles with the life she was building with the life she has, and how to reconcile the life and person she left behind with who she is now. This winter, she has to face the fact she put her entire life and who she thought she was into the person she is now while trying to figure out the future of an adorable rescue dog, Tinsel, that her sisters are fostering as well as her complex feelings for a man she had a crush on in her childhood.
“Why is everyone so obsessed with Braydon?” Camryn asked as she washed her hands. “Because he’s the guy.” Lily looked at her pityingly. “Didn’t you have a guy when you were in high school? Someone everybody had a crush on? You know, handsome and older.” She sighed. “I love him so much.” (6%)
Jake Crane runs his family’s hotel business and struggles with the knowledge of his father’s infidelity and how he handles his relationships as an adult.
“My point is everyone has a story they tell themselves and most of the time that story isn’t true. You hold back because you won’t be your father. That’s your story. But what you refuse to see is you can’t be like him. It’s not in your nature. (59%)
Jake’s best friend, Dylan, was adopted by the Crane family, and Helen takes it upon herself to get him paired off as her adopted son should be. She fixes the election of the town Snow King to make the semi-successful craftsman a match for his Snow Queen, who happens to be nominated by her friends. River is a cybersecurity expert, having just followed her sister to Wishing Tree and getting the lay of the land.
“Whatever the outcome, she would have done the right thing, which meant she would be able to sleep that night. Some days that was as good as it was going to get.”
While this read contained miscommunication, these characters had a lot of fears and baggage they needed to work through and process, and I enjoyed seeing how they handled everything. This book felt the like perfect amount of Christmas spirit and romance, with emotional intelligence growth being at the forefront of these young adults' romances.
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I knew this would be a cozy Christmas story with a HEA. Susan Mallery did not let me down. I would love to live in Wishing Tree! I liked the main characters and their romantic pairings. The secondary characters added interest to the story and will likely become future main characters in their own books. The usual third act breakup with well written and didn't have me rolling my eyes. All in all, it was time well spent on a good book.