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jesslinkletter 's review for:
Most Wonderful
by Georgia Clark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Growing up watching copious amounts of Hallmark movies and being disappointed in the lack of queer couples means the premise of this book was a dream come true for me. We follow three queer siblings returning home to their mother's house for a Christmas filled with chaos, tears, and love. This book is great for anyone who is a fan of the classic features of Hallmark movies - cheesy, corny dialogue, too perfect to be real happenstances, and happy endings for all - but make it queer.
In terms of the couples, I really enjoyed the best friends to lovers story of Rafi and Ash, and the coworkers to lovers story of Liz and Violet. All four of these characters felt real and I was rooting for their happiness at the end. Unfortunately I didn't quite feel the same for Birdie and Jecka. I really didn't like Birdie for the first half of the book, and maybe that was intentional, but it made me drastically slow down in my reading and enjoyment every time one of her chapters would come up. By the end of the book, Birdie had grown on me a bit and I did like the conclusion to her story with Jecka, but overall I wasn't a fan of her parts of the book. I felt like Birdie as well as the siblings' mom, Babs, felt like caricatures which stood out negatively against the other characterizations in the book. Despite having so many main couples, I felt like Clark did a great job at balancing all of the characters' page time and development, and they all felt like unique voices.
While I did find there to be too many pop culture references for my liking, I was pleasantly surprised by the way several different serious topics were woven into the story. Things like alcoholism/addiction, depression and anxiety, and parent death were all handled with care.
Overall, I found this to be a cute Christmas read despite its imperfections! Thank you to
In terms of the couples, I really enjoyed the best friends to lovers story of Rafi and Ash, and the coworkers to lovers story of Liz and Violet. All four of these characters felt real and I was rooting for their happiness at the end. Unfortunately I didn't quite feel the same for Birdie and Jecka. I really didn't like Birdie for the first half of the book, and maybe that was intentional, but it made me drastically slow down in my reading and enjoyment every time one of her chapters would come up. By the end of the book, Birdie had grown on me a bit and I did like the conclusion to her story with Jecka, but overall I wasn't a fan of her parts of the book. I felt like Birdie as well as the siblings' mom, Babs, felt like caricatures which stood out negatively against the other characterizations in the book. Despite having so many main couples, I felt like Clark did a great job at balancing all of the characters' page time and development, and they all felt like unique voices.
While I did find there to be too many pop culture references for my liking, I was pleasantly surprised by the way several different serious topics were woven into the story. Things like alcoholism/addiction, depression and anxiety, and parent death were all handled with care.
Overall, I found this to be a cute Christmas read despite its imperfections! Thank you to
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Death of parent, Alcohol