A review by immovabletype
Winter Stroll by Elin Hilderbrand

emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i feel so conflicted about this one! on the one hand, it felt so cozy to be back in these characters' lives. i care about all of them, and their foibles are annoying in the way foibles are annoying in people you love, because you know they're capable of doing better. i didn't think i would enjoy the additional pov characters--mitzi, drake, george??--but i really did. i especially adored jennifer's addition. i rarely read books in a series back-to-back, i need to break things up a bit, but i'm really tempted to start the next one in this series immediately. and just like the last book, i loved how this balanced the coziness of the setting with the author's unsentimental approach to relationships.

that being said, by some point nearly every single character had cheated, thought about cheating, or been mistaken by their partner/mistaken their partner as cheating. literally everyone but jennifer. i have no interest in infidelity as a theme and only didn't mind it in the first book because it kind of kickstarted the plot and didn't actually focus on that relationship. so it just got exhausting here and really detracted from my enjoyment. the only one who acted like an adult throughout was drake, and at least jennifer's addiction issues were unique. i hope the cheating isn't as ubiquitous in the next book, but it seems to be a theme the author is interested in exploring, so who knows.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings