readingwitherin's reviews
1608 reviews

 Nope. Too many mentions of how big this guy is all over. The part where she goes to his house gives me weird vibes. Just nope can't. 

All I want for Christmas is the Girl in Charge is a book that I struggled with at first because I did not like the male main character Beckett. He seemed to have a chip on his shoulder and did not want to do anything that he was supposed to. After a bit into the book though you realize that this is a defense mechanism that he does in order to keep himself safe, due to his childhood and now having to complete lots of community service. Once that as figured out I did enjoy the book. Evelyn who is the main female character is one that is extremely type A and just wants to put on an excellent performance of her favorite story, enter Beckett to be her Mr. Darcy and finish up some of the community service hours he has and you have a match of two people that just might balance each other out. 

Overall this story was a quick read, not overall Christmassy, and focuses on some tough topics. With Beckett, we see parents who are not interested in him or his wants at all only what he can do for them. While this is extremely bad, it has also led him to where he is now living with his aunt and uncle and getting a second chance at life in this small town. Evelyn helps him with some of this during the prep for the school play, and shows him that he can want more out of life again. Between his aunt and uncle, and Evelyn he sees a possible life ahead of him that is bright again for the first time in a long time. Evelyn is also a character I enjoyed, and while she didn't grow a whole lot in this book, we do see her grow some and realize that she doesn't need to be super type A all the time in order to excel. It's okay to have fun sometimes, alongside completing your goals. 
I'm interested in continuing on with this companion series and seeing who we get to follow next. 

TW: Abusive parents, and drug use by parent. 

As we live in a consumerism culture, attempting to buy less and only buy what you actually need can be hard. Cait shows her struggles in doing this over a year and how for several years after it helped prepare her for the future of being able to work for herself and move back closer to family again. Cait shows that while it is hard, and will take time to 'rewire' your brain in a way that takes a day or two to buy something to make sure it isn't an impulse purchase. To slowly get rid of what you are not using in order not just to have to repurchase it again in a few months because you do actually use that something during certain seasons. Her approach is to take inventory of what you have of the top items that you own multiple of and see how long it takes you to go through them to see how much you use in a year to make sure you are not overbuying. Certain things go bad before you can use them because you buy too much. Make a list of what you are allowed to buy and what you are not allowed to buy, this makes it so you can stick to the plan easier. Getting rid of shopping apps, and emails to make sure you are not getting tempted by things you do not need. 
Make sure your family and friends know that you are doing a low buy year and see if they want to join you. At the very least maybe they can help you when you are struggling through your low buy. 
Lastly, find hobbies or ways that you can distract yourself from the urge to shop. 

Overall I think these are good tips and ones that I will be using throughout this year to try and buy less consumerism products that I am not using immediately.