A review by shanaqui
Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

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

2.0

Ali Hazelwood's Cruel Winter With You is a short seasonal romance, set around Christmas. Marc and Jamie have known each other since they were kids, and Marc's had a crush on Jamie for about that long -- even if he hasn't always been a perfect angel to her, teasing her throughout their teenage years.

If you examine the scenario, this does come across as quite creepy: he dedicates basically his whole life to becoming rich so he can take care of her and give her anything she wants, he collects photos of her, and sets a photo of her as his lockscreen. He is obsessed. It's otherwise thin on characterisation as well, which doesn't help, since most of the page count builds up events where they were both present, rather than developing each as a character.

That said, Jamie doesn't seem to mind what he's done, so if you take it at face value it's pretty cute. The misunderstanding seems a touch contrived (voice mails aren't that unobtrusive), but you can kind of believe it.