Dash and Lily have been dating for nearly a year, but when Lily’s beloved grandfather falls ill, the repercussions take their toll on everyone. Even though they are still together, somehow the magic has gone out of their relationship and it’s clear that Lily has fallen out of love with life.
Action must be taken! Dash teams up with Lily’s brother and a host of their friends, who have just twelve days to get Lily’s groove back in time for Christmas
A little bit late on the old Christmas reading but here’s a bitesize book review…
I’ll admit I haven’t read the first in the Dash and Lily series so I didn’t have much of a background to go off. That being said I needed some Christmas feels to get me over my recent book slump and this seemed to do the trick – for the most part.
The premise of the book is that Lily, a protected young woman, has her life turned a little topsy turvy and takes to shutting herself out and closing herself off from her boyfriend Dash, the rest of her family and Christmas. And so with some gusto, apparently uncharacteristically of Dash, a mission ensues to bring back the spirit of Christmas to Lily’s life.
While this is a light and easy read I found myself questioning a lot of what goes on in this book with what I feel were a few missed opportunities for real and captivating messages, although maybe that would have deflected from the very notion of a “Christmas book”.
My main issues, and I’ll keep this brief, is that Lily clearly needs help and clearly has a support structure that loves her and worries but what we get is merely surface level. Additionally the character of Dash has a number of issues surrounding his parents situation, and while I’m aware that this may have been addressed in the first book, again what we get as the readers is clearly surface level. Dialogue regarding situations are kept to a minimum and while the characters tell their version of events through the narrative there is the potential for a look into mental health while what we get is a Christmas coated emotional piece that warms the bones after a long day.
Perhaps this is coming across as a bit unfair, maybe I was a bit of a Grinch with this book and maybe you’re thinking that I am too harsh on something that’s a second in a series and a Christmas story at that. Please don’t get me wrong. I devoured this book and thoroughly enjoyed the journey I took as it really helped me get out of my book slump. I enjoyed the light style of the writing and the ease of entering the world but like with Christmas dinner, I was full to the brim when finishing this book, but hungry again a few hours later.
3.5 stars out of 5.
Thérèse talks books 