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lilyfathersjoy 's review for:
Last Christmas
by Julia Williams
I'm trying to remember the last time I read a romance novel. I'm pretty sure the first time was when I was ten when my father gave me a copy of Immortal Queen by Elizabeth Byrd, because he knew I was interested in history. It was literally a bodice-ripper; it included a romanticized rape scene, although it was several months before I worked that out. I was a bit of a late-bloomer.
Anyway, as a caveat, I'm woefully ignorant about the romance genre, judging from what Wikipedia has to say. This is an ambitious work from Julia Williams, who is juggling two main story-lines: a younger pair of would-be lovers, and an married "sandwich generation" couple with several children, an impossible au pair, and some pleasant and unpleasant surprises from two grannies. There's also time-traveling back and forth between "last Christmas" (when everything was deceptively rosier), and the disasters leading to the happier look-out for "this Christmas", thanks to a healthy dose of reality and a touch of the supernatural.
For obvious reasons, I found the married couple story-line more compelling and relevant, although I did learn something about the British school system after googling "reception" (one of the main characters "teaches reception") and learning that a reception class is something like "kindergarten". or "senior kindergarten" in Ontario.
This is a pleasant and undemanding read with no romanticized rape scenes. I'm wondering whether to put "spoiler" warnings up, although Wikipedia tells me that romance novels are supposed to have happy endings...
Anyway, as a caveat, I'm woefully ignorant about the romance genre, judging from what Wikipedia has to say. This is an ambitious work from Julia Williams, who is juggling two main story-lines: a younger pair of would-be lovers, and an married "sandwich generation" couple with several children, an impossible au pair, and some pleasant and unpleasant surprises from two grannies. There's also time-traveling back and forth between "last Christmas" (when everything was deceptively rosier), and the disasters leading to the happier look-out for "this Christmas", thanks to a healthy dose of reality and a touch of the supernatural.
For obvious reasons, I found the married couple story-line more compelling and relevant, although I did learn something about the British school system after googling "reception" (one of the main characters "teaches reception") and learning that a reception class is something like "kindergarten". or "senior kindergarten" in Ontario.
This is a pleasant and undemanding read with no romanticized rape scenes. I'm wondering whether to put "spoiler" warnings up, although Wikipedia tells me that romance novels are supposed to have happy endings...