Christmas in July!

I have my first review up and it looks like Debbie Macomber's There's Something About Christmas won the race. I have read a few other Debbie Macomber books and would definitely call myself a fan. I have only in recent years started reading chick-lit and don't typically read anything to heavy in that group (classic bodice-rippers come to mind and I shudder) but I do like feel good stories sometimes. And sometimes I don't (Gone Girl comes to mind - haven't read it? No worries, review to come soon). Enjoy!


There's Something About Christmas by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Emma Collins is a budding journalist looking for her chance to prove it to her boss at The Examiner where she writes obituaries. She has sworn off relationships after seeing her parents' fail disastrously and hates all things Christmas as a result, including fruitcake. So as fate would have it her first real assignment as a journalist is the interview three of the finalists in a fruitcake contest. In comes our romantic hero, Oliver Hamilton, (and his dog Oscar) the pilot who has agreed to fly her to each interview location around Washington in his little plane that terrifies Emma. Through her interviews and flying with self-assured Oliver, Emma learns life lessons about Christmas, relationships and fruitcake.

I found this an enjoyable book but not as well developed as Debbie Macomber's other books. It was a quick read and nice holiday story though not overly festive. Through the interviews there are short and simple life lessons that give the story some depth. Beyond that the story line between Emma, Oliver, her friend Phoebe and boss Walt feels underdeveloped and progresses too quickly for the reader to experience what they are going through. Macomber adds some backstory for why Emma does not like Christmas and the conflict between her and her father but does not go into great detail with it. She does include the three fruitcake recipes from the finalists which is a plus. We get to hear all about how the finalists created them and how different they are from the typical fruitcake recipes so its exciting to have the recipes to try at home. I love when I find recipes included for this reason as it feels like parts of the book are coming to life (in this case fruitcake!) Overall, this is a good book to read during the holiday season or anytime during the year to get a quick holiday fix.

View all my reviews