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A review by peristome
The Christmas Inn by Pamela Kelley
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I am fully willing to admit that my dislike of this book is a me problem. The style of writing just doesn't gel with me. It was both bland and descriptive, which seems contradictory, but it was like the author wanted to describe everything to us in the most robotic way possible. The author seems to have a thing where they summarize conversations for us instead of writing them. This is especially prevalent in the beginning of the book. Let me be clear, this is not something that happens once or twice, it was many, and it took me out of the story every time. I realize that summarizing conversations can be done well, but it needs to be a tool that's used sparingly. That being said, I'm not sure actually writing out the dialogue would have been better. The writing suffers from a severe case of "every character talks the same" syndrome. I felt very little passion from the pages, which made me unable to connect with any character in this story.
What I'm most shocked by is that this is so poorly edited. This book is not self-published, but it sure felt like it. I noticed multiple formatting and spelling errors. For example, there is a character named Franny, and there are multiple instances where her name is spelled wrong—and the kicker is that it's done in multiple different ways! Sometimes she's Frannie, sometimes she's Fanny. There was also a time where a minor character, Phoebe, suddenly became "Heather" in a scene. This sort of thing happened more than once. And don't even get me started on how many printing errors I had in my copy of the book. I counted not one, not two, but nine times where whole paragraphs were skipped. I literally had to borrow a digital copy of this book from my library so that I could read the missing text in my physical copy.
I also felt some really weird trad vibes from the way the author portrayed a lot of the relationships in the book. There's a lot of obsession with "first loves" and marriage and how great having kids is. These aren't necessarily bad things, but the way they were presented gave me the ick.Pretty much every character that's in a "happy" marriage rushed into it and any relationship that "waits" for marriage is "not right" in the end, because they didn't "feel it" right away. That's insane. Futhermore, I didn't feel any chemistry between any pair of characters in this book, most of all Riley and Aidan. Am I missing something? Tell me honestly, because like I said at the beginning of the review, I am willing to admit this is a me problem.
I also didn't like the author's commentary around job hunting.One of the main characters, Riley, is job searching after being laid off and every character gives her the same advice: "your job making you happy is the most important thing." While I agree that having a job that makes you happy is important... what about her bills? Literally not one character is pragmatic enough to be like "you might not like this job, but you should take it and keep searching so that you can have money to live on"? It just made me feel like the author comes from a place of privilege and doesn't understand the concept of having to take a job that's your "second choice" to keep a roof over your head . Honestly, this isn't that big of a deal, and I could have overlooked it in a better book, but as it is, this was just another straw on the camel's back.
And now we come to the straw that broke the camel's back. The toeing-the-line cheating. Normally, I would put something like this in a spoiler warning, but I think everyone should know this happens in order to make a decision on the book. For me, cheating, wheather emotionally or physically, is a no-go in romance books when it involves members of the main couple. In this case, multiple characters basically try to get Riley with Aidan while she's still dating her boyfriend Jack. Aidan also asks her to be with him knowing she's with Jack, and even though Riley rejects him for this, she admits that she feels romantically attracted to Aidan. All around, that sort of storyline has never done it for me, and if you're the same, this should be an easy skip for you.
The only reason I ended up finishing this book is because I was reading this both my bookclub and Lightfall 2024. I know my reasons for disliking this book are kind of petty, so if you don't think anything that I listed would bother you, then this could be a great book for you. If even one of the things I mentioned bothers you as well, my recommendation is to go elsewhere for a Christmas romance.
What I'm most shocked by is that this is so poorly edited. This book is not self-published, but it sure felt like it. I noticed multiple formatting and spelling errors. For example, there is a character named Franny, and there are multiple instances where her name is spelled wrong—and the kicker is that it's done in multiple different ways! Sometimes she's Frannie, sometimes she's Fanny. There was also a time where a minor character, Phoebe, suddenly became "Heather" in a scene. This sort of thing happened more than once. And don't even get me started on how many printing errors I had in my copy of the book. I counted not one, not two, but nine times where whole paragraphs were skipped. I literally had to borrow a digital copy of this book from my library so that I could read the missing text in my physical copy.
I also felt some really weird trad vibes from the way the author portrayed a lot of the relationships in the book. There's a lot of obsession with "first loves" and marriage and how great having kids is. These aren't necessarily bad things, but the way they were presented gave me the ick.
I also didn't like the author's commentary around job hunting.
And now we come to the straw that broke the camel's back. The toeing-the-line cheating. Normally, I would put something like this in a spoiler warning, but I think everyone should know this happens in order to make a decision on the book. For me, cheating, wheather emotionally or physically, is a no-go in romance books when it involves members of the main couple. In this case, multiple characters basically try to get Riley with Aidan while she's still dating her boyfriend Jack. Aidan also asks her to be with him knowing she's with Jack, and even though Riley rejects him for this, she admits that she feels romantically attracted to Aidan. All around, that sort of storyline has never done it for me, and if you're the same, this should be an easy skip for you.
The only reason I ended up finishing this book is because I was reading this both my bookclub and Lightfall 2024. I know my reasons for disliking this book are kind of petty, so if you don't think anything that I listed would bother you, then this could be a great book for you. If even one of the things I mentioned bothers you as well, my recommendation is to go elsewhere for a Christmas romance.