lezreadalot 's review for:

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

2.0

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2.5 stars. Not like, in a bad way? But after the way I absolutely devoured the first book, The Appeal, loved all of its twists and turns and had soooo much fun sniffing out the clues and trying to suss out what was correct and what was important information... after that, this fell flat in a very noticeable way. It just wasn't as good! I've been trying to read this for weeks, and I kept putting it down to read other stuff. I figured that was just down to me being easily distracted, and not having the time to devote to a physical read. But now that I'm done... idk, maybe it was hard to get into because the story and mystery just wasn't as good. We've got some returning characters who I really like (Sarah-Jane does crack me up) but all in all, the interpersonal drama and bickering and jockeying for power within the Fairway Players wasn't as entertaining as I might have expected. The were some new characters, but no one super interesting. I loved the breadcrumbs aspect of The Appeal, and the way I could look back, after the solution, and see hints at stuff that would have pointed the reader in the right direction. That wasn't really the case there. There were little, clues, yeah, but I don't think this was something the reader could have solved. I really wish that we had gotten more insight into certain characters, stuff that would've given this more of an emotional hook. It did have one, but since we barely got to know those characters, it felt tacked on. 

Also, I saved this for Christmas because, well, I expected it to be Christmassy, and I guess it was? It certainly did take place in the weeks leading up to Christmas. But it didn't really give me the Vibes I wanted. I don't know, I might be being a little too harsh on this. There truly wasn't anything bad about this, at all. If you liked the first book, you might like this too! But after how much I LOVED the first book... meh! This was just okay.