Another Backwards Christmas by Brooke Williams
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I received this ARC from Red Coat Publishing and the author in exchange for an honest review.
I have a feeling that this is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but this story wasn’t for me in every possible way.
The characters, specifically the female protagonist, were extremely naive and had unrealistic romantic views that make the reading experience rather less than joyful. I could understand the male romantic interest’s motivation slightly better, but with the focus placed on the female character, the reader does not get much of a chance to fully appreciate the character.
The plot is a typical and traditional one for Christmas stories, with the quirky twist of creating Christmas traditions in a backwards way, hence the title.
The writing left a few things to be desired. As this was a short story, I was surprised to find a lot of repetition in the narration and much time was spent on internal contemplation done by the female protagonist. The repeated use of the word “giggled” gave the character an image of a silly school girl and took away from the potential of being more realistically romantic.
Overall, this wasn’t for me. I puzzled throughout reading this story why the author chose to write most of the story from the female character’s point of view instead of the male character’s, which would have possibly provided the story with more of a Christmas spirit. I would give this one a pass.
