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A review by lillimoore
Christmas at Frozen Falls by Kiley Dunbar
3.0
Get whisked away on a dream Christmas vacation to Lapland, Finland with this dual holiday romance!
34-year-old Sylvie Magnusson has historically adored Christmas. This year, however, she's struggling to find her Christmas cheer. If he hadn't abruptly left her in the days leading up to their wedding, she would be gearing up to fly off to Mauritius with her would've-been husband Cole on her honeymoon, but instead she's preparing herself for a lonely, solemn holiday. In an attempt to cheer her up, her travel-blogger best friend Nari convinces Sylvie to take her on vacation instead, and at Sylvie's request, uses her many connections to switch the trip at the last minute from tropical Mauritius to the winter wonderland that is Lapland, Finland. Sylvie just might have a reason for choosing Lapland out of the available vacation options—it's the home of Stellan, an old flame that has never quite fully extinguished in her heart. Will the two reconnect under the Northern lights?
Of course they will, silly, because this is a second chance romance! Unfortunately, it's only a decent one at best. For me, this book was just very boring a lot of the time and suffered from poor pacing and transitions. I wonder if maybe having grown up in a "winter wonderland" myself in Vail, Colorado, took away some of the charm that other readers of this book seem to have loved so much. I did appreciate the wintery descriptions and landscape, and at moments this book was very festive, but it just seemed to drag on forever! I enjoyed the characters, but thought the main romance wasn't compelling enough. Many other reviewers have complained about the main character, Sylvie, noting that she seems to be very immature and unreasonable. I have to agree with this complaint, but I think I liked her more than the average reader seems to have. I enjoy when my characters have obvious flaws, and she has more than her fair share of them. I only wish we could have seen more character development from Sylvie before the end of the book. I felt similarly about Stellan, her romantic interest. I thought a lot of his and other Finland native Niilo's backstory felt underdeveloped, and they were both cases of telling without showing.
I also think having two central romances detracted from the reading experience a bit. I loved the characters of Nari and Niilo maybe even more than Stellan and Sylvie, but I felt like we didn't get the right amount of perspective from them. We either needed way more to be fully engaged with their romance, or we needed them to just not have a romantic arc at all. Come to mention it, Nari altogether felt a bit underdevloped. Maybe this whole book just needed a few more minutes in the oven to bake.
Don't let my lukewarm review of this one deter you from picking it up though! There's plenty of warmth and much to love in this Scandinavian Christmas romance for the right reader. If the blurb sounds like a good one to you, I think you'll enjoy it! I just have way too high of expectations for my romances these days. All in all though it led me to continue seeking more Christmas romances, so all was not lost!
34-year-old Sylvie Magnusson has historically adored Christmas. This year, however, she's struggling to find her Christmas cheer. If he hadn't abruptly left her in the days leading up to their wedding, she would be gearing up to fly off to Mauritius with her would've-been husband Cole on her honeymoon, but instead she's preparing herself for a lonely, solemn holiday. In an attempt to cheer her up, her travel-blogger best friend Nari convinces Sylvie to take her on vacation instead, and at Sylvie's request, uses her many connections to switch the trip at the last minute from tropical Mauritius to the winter wonderland that is Lapland, Finland. Sylvie just might have a reason for choosing Lapland out of the available vacation options—it's the home of Stellan, an old flame that has never quite fully extinguished in her heart. Will the two reconnect under the Northern lights?
Of course they will, silly, because this is a second chance romance! Unfortunately, it's only a decent one at best. For me, this book was just very boring a lot of the time and suffered from poor pacing and transitions. I wonder if maybe having grown up in a "winter wonderland" myself in Vail, Colorado, took away some of the charm that other readers of this book seem to have loved so much. I did appreciate the wintery descriptions and landscape, and at moments this book was very festive, but it just seemed to drag on forever! I enjoyed the characters, but thought the main romance wasn't compelling enough. Many other reviewers have complained about the main character, Sylvie, noting that she seems to be very immature and unreasonable. I have to agree with this complaint, but I think I liked her more than the average reader seems to have. I enjoy when my characters have obvious flaws, and she has more than her fair share of them. I only wish we could have seen more character development from Sylvie before the end of the book. I felt similarly about Stellan, her romantic interest. I thought a lot of his and other Finland native Niilo's backstory felt underdeveloped, and they were both cases of telling without showing.
I also think having two central romances detracted from the reading experience a bit. I loved the characters of Nari and Niilo maybe even more than Stellan and Sylvie, but I felt like we didn't get the right amount of perspective from them. We either needed way more to be fully engaged with their romance, or we needed them to just not have a romantic arc at all. Come to mention it, Nari altogether felt a bit underdevloped. Maybe this whole book just needed a few more minutes in the oven to bake.
Don't let my lukewarm review of this one deter you from picking it up though! There's plenty of warmth and much to love in this Scandinavian Christmas romance for the right reader. If the blurb sounds like a good one to you, I think you'll enjoy it! I just have way too high of expectations for my romances these days. All in all though it led me to continue seeking more Christmas romances, so all was not lost!