Skip to main content

A Recipe for Christmas book review

 


I read my first Jo Thomas festive book last year and really really enjoyed it so had reasonable hopes for this one but I also didn't feel that they were too high. However while this book was by no means bad it also wasn't really anything special and didn't stand out among all the other festive books I've read. 

A Recipe for Christmas follows Clara who has just moved to Switzerland with her new boyfriend and has signed up for a chocolate making course that is more serious than it seemed and not everything is going to plan with her new boyfriend either. 

I enjoyed reading about Clara and seeing her discover what it was she actually wanted in life rather than just following the path she had been set on since her first job and starting to take risks that she wouldn't have previously. I also enjoyed meeting many of the other characters that this book featured including Clara's friends from home and those on the chocolate making course with her. 

The chocolate was fun and a part of the book I found myself looking forward to reading. It was nice to watch Clara learn, find her feet and work out what she wanted to do with her chocolates, it also made me crave proper chocolate which is a good sign. 

However where this book fell flat for me was that I didn't find myself invested in the story like I normally am, I definitely had opinions about what I didn’t want to happen but with some characters featured you definitely are meant to feel that way. I wasn't invested in Clara and Gabriel's budding relationship and I felt like I could have just put the book down one day, not gone back to it and that not have ultimately bothered me. I can also pretty certainly say that it wasn't the predictably of this sort of storyline that put it off for me as that is one of my favourite things about festive books, you know what will ultimately happen in the end but get to experience it with slightly different plots and new characters. 

I also found that while parts of the book made clever sense for the book and worked really well, they were kind of resolved too easy for the ending and everything conveniently comes together at the end to make this perfect ending and it just felt like it was done to make the ending as meaningful as possible to the plot but instead to me just felt convenient and I wasn't a fan of. 

Overall this was a festive book that I would recommend to some people however with the window that I read festive books in I almost wish I had read something else as I think I will just forget this one as time goes on. I will give Jo Thomas another chance as I loved Countdown to Christmas last year however I suspect if I feel similarly about that book as I do this one she may not be an author I return to.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Match book review

  Back in April I was recommended my first Sarah Adams book and really enjoyed it however it wasn’t my favourite type of romance book so when I saw this one had been rereleased and was 99p on Kindle I knew that I needed to read it.  The Match follows Evie who works for a company that trains service dogs to help people with all sorts of disabilities after her life was changed when she got a service dog to help with her epilepsy and when she meets Jacob when trying to convince him how much a service dog would help his daughter she begins to fall for him and his small family.  This was such a light brilliant romance that I just wanted to read and continue to be immersed in the story for as long as I could. I loved all of our major characters particularly Evie, Jacob and Sam (Jacob's daughter). Sam just added the best things to the story and the romance going on between Evie and Jacob. She was also a brilliant character on her own that you really felt for and you just underst...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mistletoe Motive book review

  I discovered Chloe Liese for the first time this year and have since May read her entire backlist and loved all of them. The Mistletoe Motive was no exception to this and another one I read within 24 hours.  Over the course of The Mistletoe Motive we get to know Gabrielle and Jonathan who have worked together at Bailey’s Bookshop for about a year but don’t find themselves getting along. They have recently learned that the bookshop is at risk of closing though and set a challenge of whoever sells the least books in December has to resign and through this challenge Gabrielle meets a new side of Jonathan that she didn’t expect.  This is a novella of under 200 pages so while going in I knew I love Chloe Liese as an author I wasn’t sure what I would think of it with it being so short and having less time with the characters. However I was not at all let down by this book and absolutely loved reading it.  Gabrielle was a character I connected to from early on in the stor...
Post a Comment
Read more

It Only Happens in the Movies book review

  I have previously loved Holly Bourne books but found that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the one I read in 2024 so was a bit anxious going into It Only Happens in the Movies however I had no need for that anxiety because this book was exactly what I wanted and more.  It Only Happens in the Movies follows Audrey who is over romance after her parents divorce that has left her stuck in the middle, a tough break up and teenage friendship struggles. When she starts a new job and meets Harry, Audrey tries to stay away however she can’t help falling for him even if she knows she shouldn’t.  When I first started I was unsure about the book with the elements of romance however I was pleasantly surprised. Holly Bourne built up a character who I understood and felt relatable. The book had the expected message present in almost all Holly Bourne books which made the story more impactful and me wanting to keep reading to see how things worked out.  All the characters were well-deve...
Post a Comment
Read more