A review by dundiesbooks
The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I was curious about this after reading a review saying, it's more than a fluffy romance novel and decided to read it spontaneously when Libby had it available in the lucky day section.
Safe to say, the review wasn't lying. It's a book with a love story as its base, but it's also so much more. It's about family dynamics, self-discovery, figuring out emotions and purpose and how we can create moments of meaningful joy. The topics are dealt with in a caring manner and the story did not fall too heavily into cliché tropes - at least not in the usual way of creating unnecessary drama for the sake of drama alone. 
I liked the complexity of the characters and their emotions. The underlying critiques were unexpected, though a nice surprise, all while still being embedded in a very cozy setting. This way it felt safe to go on the ride and I was only slightly stressed out the few times they had conversations/did things, when they were supposed to participate in activities (realistically, them talking would have been suspicious after two minutes max and someone would have urged them to get on with it) or when they risked the plan failing by being obvious in public, when they could have easily gotten somewhere private or simply cut out some of their shenanigans. I get it though, it's part of the fun and I enjoyed this book a lot. Would recommend :)