Emma Heatherington

Cute but emotional Christmas romance
4 Stars

I am a sucker for a Christmas romance and this one sounded cute and cosy - I couldn’t resist. It’s my first time reading Emma Heatherington even though I now see she’s written over 15 other books. But where better to start than a festive tale?

Firstly, I have to say that I hate the practice of name-checking other books and films when trying to sell other books. And this one chooses to say that it’s “the most romantic love story since The Holiday.” I love The Holiday. I don’t see it as a particularly romantic film - and even so, this book just doesn’t do well by any comparison. It’s not as light-hearted or have that same sparkle. But what about the book when not compared to something else?

I knew from the blurb that there was going to be some hard times with this book but I wasn’t prepared for the difficult emotions to be blasted right from the first page. We obviously know that something has happened to our main characters - Rose and Charlie - but everything is drip-fed to us, so much so that I started getting annoyed. Just tell us what happened, for goodness sake! So from the start, I definitely didn’t get the fun, cute and festive vibes I was looking for.

I liked both Rose and Charlie. Rose was such a sweetheart and I felt so bad for her. While she was successful in her professional life, I so wanted for her to move on in her personal life. While I couldn’t relate with her in many ways - I definitely did identify with her practice of hiding her true feelings behind a cheerful or happy facade. Charlie was a little grumpy at first but he grew on me in much the same way that he grew on Rose. And special mention for the dogs - gah, so cute!

This book was an extremely slow burn romance. A glacial pace burn. It was nice to watch our couple develop their relationship and grow into something much more than they started with but I would have liked the pacing to be a little bit faster and keep my attention a little more.

A really big part of the joy of this book was in the setting. It was cosy, cute, festive and everything you can imagine when you think of a Christmas cottage in the countryside. The writing was engaging, the scene wonderful and the romance satisfying. It’s not a 5 star read for me but it was enjoyable if a little too emotional for me to love it. 4 stars.… (mais)