Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Succede quasi sempre per caso

Anyone who knows me knows I strongly dislike romance novels. Throw in a Christmas setting and I'm even more likely to avoid. However, my book club picked this one as our holiday read and after a series of very heavy books, I knew I needed something quite light and easy-going. Now, this book is everything but light and easy-going but that is the reason it worked for me. I'm not here for unrealistic happily ever afters - I like books with a bit of substance and a character twist that throws you off-guard. I want all the imperfects and none of the steam. Did this book tick these boxes? It absolutely definitely did.

It's a hard book to categorise without spoilers and I was actually quite disappointed that the blurb compared it to a certain book as that kind of gave a huge hint as to what was to come. It's certainly not your typical cutesy Christmas read which is refreshing considering how many saturate the market.

I really connected to the characters, especially once we had the shift in perspective and heard Max's side of the story. I loved all the different settings, from Christmassy London and autumnal Scotland to glorious spring in New York. This gave me all the armchair travel I've been missing, especially the UK parts that I miss terribly at this time of year.

The reason this one dropped a star was because it felt dragged out in places, such as the party in New York and the wedding in Scotland and that slowed the pace for me and made it a bit of a slog to get through.

That being said, this one clearly made an impact as I rarely ever cry at books but this one had me sobbing into my pillow. I can't wait to read the author's next book!

Rating breakdown

Plot/narrative - 4.4
Writing style/readability - 4.1
Characters - 4.4
Diverse themes - 3.8
Ending - 4.3

Overall - 4.2

Content Warnings

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Content Warnings

soobooksalot's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This may have been a case of "the cover made me do it". I'm a sucker for beautiful winter/holiday book covers!
Christmas is tough for Josie, the main character of Always, In December.
She lost her parents in a car accident on Christmas Day and has a secret tradition to write a letter to them every year since.
En route to mail her letter, she falls in the street and meets Max. Sparks are immediate, despite recent breakups on either side.
The description of this one said its's an emotional and romantic read. And it does get there! Much of it fell flat for me until the end, unfortunately. Perhaps a pacing issue.
It happens! Onto the next!

Content Warnings