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A review by ezwolf
Season of Love by Helena Greer
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I am so happy to say that I really enjoyed this book! Jewish and sapphic are always books I want to give a chance, but I feel like I've been let down in ones that have the combination, this one did not fail though.
I was wary at first because of Hallmark-esque description of it, but soon found out that while it was set at Christmas and the story IS about saving a Christmas tree farm, the book sticks to its Jewish roots (as a caveat I will not that this is Ashkenazi Judasim). I was also interested by the cover art which seemed to imply a plus size half of the queer couple and there's not enough of that either. I was very pleased to find out that Noelle, Miriam's love interest, is in fact a fat butch and it is greatly appreciated by myself and Miriam.
The way that the book is about a Jewish character and her family (and love interest) trying to save a Christmas tree farm, but still manages to have such a great discussion of Judaism and there's never any spoken hate or dislike or Jewish holidays or a preference for Christmas instead, in fact there's even a moment where Miriam talks about being at her limit for Christmas-y things. And the discussion of the fact that Christmas is in fact not secular and no we are not arguing about it!
There's a non-binary rabbi (this is minor, so don't go into it just for that, but it was still worth the note!), good discussions of the spectrum of being queer, positive discussions of recovering from alcoholism and emotional abuse, and also a healthy break up/post-break up relationship! And so many more things I didn't cover that I am very appreciative of from this book.
I am sticking to my four star review, but I also wanted to include some of the minor things that I noted as dislikes but in the end didn't change my love for the book:
1. Some random foot notes at the start of the book and then footnotes are never used again.
2. The references, most of which I had to Google (though the last one I did about January 6th and epiphany was funny in the weirdest way).
4. Some random parenthesis while already in third person POV.
5. The use of "tribes" in reference to Avatar the Last Airbender bending abilities, but then later having a discussion about why white people shouldn't use tribe was a bit of a weird turn around.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
I was wary at first because of Hallmark-esque description of it, but soon found out that while it was set at Christmas and the story IS about saving a Christmas tree farm, the book sticks to its Jewish roots (as a caveat I will not that this is Ashkenazi Judasim). I was also interested by the cover art which seemed to imply a plus size half of the queer couple and there's not enough of that either. I was very pleased to find out that Noelle, Miriam's love interest, is in fact a fat butch and it is greatly appreciated by myself and Miriam.
The way that the book is about a Jewish character and her family (and love interest) trying to save a Christmas tree farm, but still manages to have such a great discussion of Judaism and there's never any spoken hate or dislike or Jewish holidays or a preference for Christmas instead, in fact there's even a moment where Miriam talks about being at her limit for Christmas-y things. And the discussion of the fact that Christmas is in fact not secular and no we are not arguing about it!
There's a non-binary rabbi (this is minor, so don't go into it just for that, but it was still worth the note!), good discussions of the spectrum of being queer, positive discussions of recovering from alcoholism and emotional abuse, and also a healthy break up/post-break up relationship! And so many more things I didn't cover that I am very appreciative of from this book.
I am sticking to my four star review, but I also wanted to include some of the minor things that I noted as dislikes but in the end didn't change my love for the book:
1. Some random foot notes at the start of the book and then footnotes are never used again.
2. The references, most of which I had to Google (though the last one I did about January 6th and epiphany was funny in the weirdest way).
4. Some random parenthesis while already in third person POV.
5. The use of "tribes" in reference to Avatar the Last Airbender bending abilities, but then later having a discussion about why white people shouldn't use tribe was a bit of a weird turn around.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Sexual content and Toxic relationship