Publication Date: 08th Oct 2024
Genre: Christmas Romance
3.5 Stars
One Liner: Enjoyable in parts; I wanted more
Charlotte Calhoun has avoided Hayden Porter, her brother’s best friend after he rejected her love and broke her heart. Now, Charlotte is on her way to attend her brother’s bachelor party. It’s Christmas too, the most favorite time of the year for the Calhoun family. Charlotte tells herself she would do whatever possible to act normal around Hayden.
Hayden is a single dad to an adorable little girl and a sports coach at a college. He has no time for romance or love. However, he cannot help but want to be with Charlotte. His feelings for her haven’t been casual for a long time.
With the impending Christmas and the wedding, Charlotte and Hayden also have to navigate their feelings for each other and decide what they want from life.
The story comes in the first-person POV of Charlotte and Hayden.
My Thoughts:
Well, I wanted to like it more than I did!
The Calhouns are crazy about Christmas. The Christmas-obsessed family is also C-centric – Christopher, Claire, Christian, and Charlotte. Thank god, Christian’s girl is named Penny. Though I don’t like it when more than one character has names starting with the same alphabet, I found this cheeky. Also, the parents don’t have a major role, so less confusion all around.
The blurb makes it clear about what to expect from the FMC. Her love for the guy shines throughout the book. Her POV was enjoyable with genuine emotions. Her reactions feel appropriate since her feelings for the MMC are a (major) part of her.
Fortunately, in the very first (second) chapter from the MMC’s POV, we know about his feelings for the FMC. I liked it as it wasn’t some ‘oh why didn’t I see you this way before’ which doesn’t always work well.
However, I’m not a fan of Hayden. I liked him enough initially even if the repetition got on my nerves. But well, let’s just say he needed to be a lot better. Not impressed, dude! We have some great book boyfriends out there. He is not on that list.
I also feel the characters could have had a little more depth since they have been crafted to carry the book. There’s potential but somehow a majority of it is limited to surface-level stuff aka lust. I don’t complain about steam in books. However, this one needed less steam and more genuine interactions. Scenes where they truly deepen the bond (like that conversation about how much he hurt her years ago).
The middle drags. Yep. Though there’s some plot progress, we seem to go in circles with the MCs circling each other. I would have loved a couple of more scenes with the family. After all, the side characters (Christian, Penny, & Garrett) were great. Heck, give us some scenes with Gwen instead of telling us about it.
I could guess what would get messed up in the last quarter. There are clues to it. However, the execution made me dislike the MMC even more. Flawed characters are okay but I think I’m over this kind of hero. They no longer appeal to me.
There’s an epilogue of sorts, which is good. Somehow, I wasn’t that impressed. In fact, my favorite scenes in this quarter were the ones with the family members. Go figure!
To summarize, Christmas Sweater Weather has great potential and shines in parts but doesn’t meet my expectations. While it is a cute read with fun Christmasy things, it could have been so much better!
Not sure if the problem is because the characters are in their mid to late 20s. They are projected to be mature beyond their age but don’t act like that often.
Thank you, NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), for eARC.
#NetGalley #ChristmasSweaterWeather
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