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Member Reviews
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3.5 stars.
This is another book I should've gotten round to at the time of its publication, but with it being Christmas-themed I thought now would be a perfect time. I do remember enjoying 13 Reasons Why, also by Asher, when it came out (as much as you could enjoy a book dealing with such tough subjects), so I hoped the writing in this would be good, and it was! I actually thought that the emotional maturity of Sierra, the protagonist, and her friend Heather in recognising that people with a lot of emotional baggage might not be the best candidates for entering into a relationship with was great, and unlike a lot of characterisation I've read in YA books. Again, Asher is not afraid to tackle tricky topics like violence but I thought for the most part it was handled well from both the adult and teenage characters. Other than my disappointment in Sierra's peers having such a limited vocabulary and a slight concern that the romance was unrealistic in how quickly it got so serious, this was a solid book.
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Jay Asher is always an auto-buy author for me. Thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas theme story that doesn't veer into any of the holiday cliches. It wasn't very memorable or particularly for the people reading my blog, but I did enjoy it overall.
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Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for sending this book to me for review.
Sierra lives in Oregon on a Christmas tree farm with her parents, she has quite a good life there with her best friends Rachel and Elizabeth, however every festive season Sierra and her family move to California until Christmas day where they have a lot selling Christmas trees, this is the only Christmas Sierra has every known, she also enjoys her time working on the lot and spending time with her best friend Heather, however Sierra has to come to terms that this may be her last Christmas on the lot as it is no longer profitable for her family, While working on the lot she meets a boy called Caleb and falls for him hard and fast, however there is a rumour going around the town about Caleb and he may or may not be dangerous. while Sierra and Caleb start falling for each other they have to deal with the fall out of the rumour and also the fact that after Christmas they may never see each other again.
I went into this book not expecting much, I had heard so many bad things about it I was geared up not to like this book at all, however I ended up loving it. I really liked the relationship between Sierra and Caleb and them trying to deal with the things in their way, I also weirdly enjoyed reading about the working of the Christmas tree lot and getting to know the ins and outs of it all. My only fault with this book was the ending, I think I would have liked a bit more closure, maybe an epilogue from the following Christmas that tied things up a bit better and answered some of the questions I had at then end.
Overall though I really enjoyed this book and don't think it deserves the flack it gets.
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I found this book tedious and boring, the characters were flat and uninteresting. I read about 100 pages but it was taking longer and longer to pick up again. After the comments in the School Library Journal article https://www.slj.com/2018/01/industry-news/childrens-publishing-reckons-sexual-harassment-ranks/ I have no interest in reading or reviewing anything written by this author.
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I wasn't keen on this; I enjoyed the setting and Christmassy feel but felt ir was very basic
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I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more maybe if I’d read it around Christmas. With Christmas being my favourite holiday and the Christmassy setting of this book I think it would have made it more of a magical and whimsical read for me. Nonetheless the gorgeous backdrop for this story really made this a beautiful story. I just wished I could have enjoyed it more, I think I just had a hard time connecting with our MC Sienna, I could understand how difficult it could be for her spending Christmas away from close friends back home, so that she could help with her family’s business. And then falling for a guy she didn’t know much about and the stuff she did know wasn’t that great and of course everyone was saying that a holiday romance wouldn’t be the best thing for her, as it would be difficult to maintain the relationship when she got back home. And like Sienna’s parents I did have my doubts about Caleb, we didn’t really know his complete back story until much later on, but as the story progressed I could see why Sienna had a hard time of resisting him, I would have a hard time saying no to those killer dimples! But also Caleb was a genuinely nice guy, once you got past all the judgements and assumptions people were making of him. I just wished that I could have enjoyed this one more, as I loved Caleb, Sienna’s friendship with Heather and her relationship with her parents was done really well too. I just felt as if parts were rushed too much, I know Caleb and Sienna didn’t have a long time to spend with each other and I think that just as a constant reminder, didn’t really make their relationship as believable as I wanted it to be. Also as I mentioned before I just didn’t click with Sienna’s character either, and forming this relationship with the MC usually plays a pivotal part in allowing me to enjoy a book that much more. But don’t let my review put you off from giving this book a go, as I know many readers who thoroughly enjoyed it and Asher’s writing was just beautiful!