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A review by brooke_review
One Christmas Morning by Rachel Greenlaw
3.0
What do you get when you mash-up A Christmas Carol with Groundhog Day? Why Rachel Greenlaw's One Christmas Morning, of course! This reflective holiday novel follows one burnt out small business owner as she attempts to juggle both her nascent company and her failing relationships.
Eva is attending a Christmas party, but the last thing on her mind is making merry and being bright with all of her friends. Rather, Eva can't get her mind off of work as she tries to get her business off of the ground. In fact, she is acting like a veritable Scrooge, which is why her recently deceased grandmother visits her at midnight like a Ghost of Christmas Past in an attempt to open Eva's eyes to the destruction she is creating all around her.
If reuniting with her grandmother wasn't surreal enough, she finds herself reliving Christmas Day over and over again as different people in her life. From her assistant to her best friend, Eva inhabits their bodies, seeing herself through their eyes. Just what is it that Eva is supposed to learn about herself through this strange turn of events, and can she save her relationships before it is too late?
The Christmas season often finds many of us looking back over the years, considering our life choices and pondering the people, places, and events that have landed us where we are today. One Christmas Morning is that thought-provoking, ruminative feeling wrapped up in a book. This isn't a holly jolly holiday read, but rather one that glaringly looks down upon a young woman's rather selfish and narrow-minded life decisions made among stress and strife. That being said, you should only pick up this novel if you are in the right sort of mood, and if, on the other hand, you are craving a book of comfort and joy, look elsewhere.
Tone aside, One Christmas Morning is not without other problems. Lacking any agreeable or redeeming characteristics, Eva is quite an unappealing protagonist, and furthermore, the writing style is disconnected, making this a difficult novel with which to engage. I often found myself lacking any real motivation to continue on through Eva's story, which is something that I never want to feel as a reader. Nonetheless, One Christmas Morning, while a solid story, is one that would benefit from a bit of spit and shine to make it stand out from similar novels in the genre.
Eva is attending a Christmas party, but the last thing on her mind is making merry and being bright with all of her friends. Rather, Eva can't get her mind off of work as she tries to get her business off of the ground. In fact, she is acting like a veritable Scrooge, which is why her recently deceased grandmother visits her at midnight like a Ghost of Christmas Past in an attempt to open Eva's eyes to the destruction she is creating all around her.
If reuniting with her grandmother wasn't surreal enough, she finds herself reliving Christmas Day over and over again as different people in her life. From her assistant to her best friend, Eva inhabits their bodies, seeing herself through their eyes. Just what is it that Eva is supposed to learn about herself through this strange turn of events, and can she save her relationships before it is too late?
The Christmas season often finds many of us looking back over the years, considering our life choices and pondering the people, places, and events that have landed us where we are today. One Christmas Morning is that thought-provoking, ruminative feeling wrapped up in a book. This isn't a holly jolly holiday read, but rather one that glaringly looks down upon a young woman's rather selfish and narrow-minded life decisions made among stress and strife. That being said, you should only pick up this novel if you are in the right sort of mood, and if, on the other hand, you are craving a book of comfort and joy, look elsewhere.
Tone aside, One Christmas Morning is not without other problems. Lacking any agreeable or redeeming characteristics, Eva is quite an unappealing protagonist, and furthermore, the writing style is disconnected, making this a difficult novel with which to engage. I often found myself lacking any real motivation to continue on through Eva's story, which is something that I never want to feel as a reader. Nonetheless, One Christmas Morning, while a solid story, is one that would benefit from a bit of spit and shine to make it stand out from similar novels in the genre.