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A review by beautifullybookishbethany
American Christmas by Adriana Herrera
3.0
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
American Christmas is a sweet and steamy m/m holiday romance novella featuring side characters from the American Dreamers series, with appearances from the main characters in the series. It plays with the tropes of Gifts of the Magi, but with a really great twist that emphasizes working through issues in a relationship, recognizing your own value as a person of color, and the importance of a vibrant community.
Yin and Ari are both American immigrants, in love and spending their first Christmas together. They both want it to be perfect, so they secretly plan over the top gifts for each other, not realizing things are about to go very wrong. Early on we get a lot of backstory on Yin and Ari, which is interesting but feels a bit rushed an info-dumpy. Because it's a novella of course, but I would have liked to see that woven into the narrative a bit more smoothly. The back half of the novella was just lovely though.
As always, Adriana Herrera brings in great diversity. Yin spent his early childhood in a refugee camp in Myanmar and still feels the need to prove himself worthy of the second chance he got in America. Ari is Afro-Latinx and also struggles with not feeling good enough. They feel like real people dealing with real relationship issues, but who care deeply for each other. This is a great holiday story filled with love and friendship. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
American Christmas is a sweet and steamy m/m holiday romance novella featuring side characters from the American Dreamers series, with appearances from the main characters in the series. It plays with the tropes of Gifts of the Magi, but with a really great twist that emphasizes working through issues in a relationship, recognizing your own value as a person of color, and the importance of a vibrant community.
Yin and Ari are both American immigrants, in love and spending their first Christmas together. They both want it to be perfect, so they secretly plan over the top gifts for each other, not realizing things are about to go very wrong. Early on we get a lot of backstory on Yin and Ari, which is interesting but feels a bit rushed an info-dumpy. Because it's a novella of course, but I would have liked to see that woven into the narrative a bit more smoothly. The back half of the novella was just lovely though.
As always, Adriana Herrera brings in great diversity. Yin spent his early childhood in a refugee camp in Myanmar and still feels the need to prove himself worthy of the second chance he got in America. Ari is Afro-Latinx and also struggles with not feeling good enough. They feel like real people dealing with real relationship issues, but who care deeply for each other. This is a great holiday story filled with love and friendship. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.