I’m the sort of person always looking for new Christmas books to read and this one piqued my interest for many reasons and even with it being just after Christmas I still knew I needed to read it and see what I ultimately thought of it.
A Concert for Christmas follows Sophie, a primary school teacher, who is organising the Christmas Concert for her choir this year but soon enough disaster strikes and problems start to appear for Sophie to deal with all while coping with her past and a possible new budding romance.
While this is not one of my new top festive romances from this year it was still very enjoyable to curl up with and root for these characters. Our characters have gone through a lot and in many ways are still learning how to manage all that they have gone through as well as in Sophie's case organise this concert and for both Liam and Sophie care for those around them as much as they want to.
We follow Sophie who I really liked as a character, you could understand how and why she was where she was in life but you could also see how much she cares about everyone and just wants to try and do what she thinks is the right thing to do. As we continued through the book she did frustrate me a few times and there were times I found myself wishing she had acted differently but I still wanted to read and continued rooting for her in the end. Sophie isn’t always surrounded by the most supportive people throughout the story but she does well figuring out what she wants and how to find the people that do benefit her to be around. Overall, while she’s not my favourite character ever I did really enjoy reading about her and genuinely hope the best for her as well as really enjoying her character development.
Liam our main love interest on the other hand had periods when I loved him and periods when I hated him. By the end while I loved the main couple Liam still wasn’t my favourite, I could understand many of the actions he made that caused me frustration but that doesn’t mean I was a fan of him in the way I would hope to be. He does the best he can and knows how to for his daughter Cassie but that doesn’t mean his actions are the best or that you don’t wish he would do differently.
We do also meet lots of other characters throughout the story some of which I felt neutral about, some I loved throughout, some I was not the biggest fan of throughout and some who I felt differently about at different points of the story. If I had to pick one reason why I felt like I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I expected and hoped it would probably be the characters and how they acted.
I enjoyed the overall plot and how the romance evolved but as you can probably tell I didn't enjoy the entire book. I really liked Cassie as a character, she was very enjoyable to read about and I hope the best for her and her future as well as enjoying all the festive feels because who doesn’t? Liam helping Sophie through her anxiety when performing was one of my favourite parts of the book and something that truly helped me support the romance because I think without it and my overall feeling on the characters I may not have supported it anywhere near as much.
Overall, I would still recommend this book. It’s not a recommendation I would give first as there are many other Christmas romances I love so much more but I would still recommend it and I do think there are people out there who are perfectly suited to this book and would give it five stars, that just not me. Overall I would rate it 3.5 stars as it wasn’t absolutely horrible and I will definitely recommend it at points but it’s not a book I loved or highly enjoyed in the way I look for in a 4+ star rating.
Thank you Netgalley and Allison & Busby for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
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