Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by beate251
Yours for the Season by Emily Stone
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
3.5
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for this ARC.
Mel is a jewellery designer, Finn does up houses to sell them on. They were together for three years before Finn suddenly dumped Mel at his sister Hattie's engagement party. Now, six months later, he is back, begging Mel to spend Christmas with him and his family in a cottage in the Scottish Highlands, pretending to date again, as it would make his mother happy. I have no idea why Mel agrees to this, but she does.
So we get the fake dating, forced proximity and one bed only tropes neatly tied in a Christmas bow. Unfortunately we also get miscommunication, my least liked trope. No wonder Mel and Finn broke up if they couldn't talk to each other. Now they are thrown together again but it still takes until the end of the book for them to sit down and talk it out.
The rest of this fairly formulaic story is bulked out by the antics of Finn's family - mother Susan, brother Mark with Kristen and little Freya, and Hattie and Dylan. Mel's best friend Priya gets to weigh in from Australia and her parents from some other far-flung place. There are also flashbacks to Mel and Finn's relationship.
Christmas in the Scottish Highlands sounds dreamy but while there was a nice number of Christmas activities, I didn't feel that the Scottish Highlands were described enticingly enough. It's a solid and well-written story, but not very original. If you like books that describe family holidays in rented cottages with all the chaos that comes with that, this will be for you. The characters are all likeable and you will root for them.
Mel is a jewellery designer, Finn does up houses to sell them on. They were together for three years before Finn suddenly dumped Mel at his sister Hattie's engagement party. Now, six months later, he is back, begging Mel to spend Christmas with him and his family in a cottage in the Scottish Highlands, pretending to date again, as it would make his mother happy. I have no idea why Mel agrees to this, but she does.
So we get the fake dating, forced proximity and one bed only tropes neatly tied in a Christmas bow. Unfortunately we also get miscommunication, my least liked trope. No wonder Mel and Finn broke up if they couldn't talk to each other. Now they are thrown together again but it still takes until the end of the book for them to sit down and talk it out.
The rest of this fairly formulaic story is bulked out by the antics of Finn's family - mother Susan, brother Mark with Kristen and little Freya, and Hattie and Dylan. Mel's best friend Priya gets to weigh in from Australia and her parents from some other far-flung place. There are also flashbacks to Mel and Finn's relationship.
Christmas in the Scottish Highlands sounds dreamy but while there was a nice number of Christmas activities, I didn't feel that the Scottish Highlands were described enticingly enough. It's a solid and well-written story, but not very original. If you like books that describe family holidays in rented cottages with all the chaos that comes with that, this will be for you. The characters are all likeable and you will root for them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, Medical content, Pregnancy, Alcohol