A review by beckyyreadss
Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

emotional lighthearted fast-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

3.0

When Amazon announced this short series of books by some of my favourite authors, I was all for it. I know it was supposed to be a short story, but I just wanted more.  

This book is about Jamie Malek, and she is a newly minted paediatrician and all she wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc – her best friend’s troublemaking younger brother, who is now a tech billionaire. He's the one that got away. She's the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night. 

Like with the other books, this was just too small. I wanted more. I would have loved for it to be dual POV but obviously with the six chapters, it wouldn’t have worked. I would have liked maybe one chapter from Marc’s point of view after the prom night or after her birthday to see how he saw things. Ali Hazelwood knows how to write an MMC, the fact that he had the photo of Jamie in her prom dress as his lockscreen several years later and never really committed to a relationship because he was waiting for her was sweet.  

I felt like this book was more of a prequel to a bigger book like here’s all the information about childhood friends and then here’s the bigger book with the bigger issues. There was just a lot of information about them as children and I think that was to clear the insta-love vibes, but it was just an information overload.  

I would have loved this to be a full book, because I want to know the families' reactions to them getting together. Does Jamie stand up against her dad? Does she say I love you by next Christmas? I wanted more.  
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