I really wanted to like this book, but it just seemed too unrealistic and left some questions unanswered. Fair warning..Spoilers ahead.
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Things I had issues with:
For me I felt like the major question of the story, will the tree farm be back another year, was never properly answered. They said probably not, but they never gave a final answer of yes or no at the end. I wanted a firm answer, not a well no maybe, probably notish, and what their plans would have been. Honestly I thought Caleb was going to help save the lot or maybe the other tree lot would combine with theirs and make it so they could come back a final year.
As for Caleb, let's just send the wrong message shall we. He stabs the door multiple times and the mom just paints over it!? Who does that!? Why wasn't the door replaced after all those years? That didn't make sense to me.
Sierra seemed like a crutch to the story, the character who just is there to do what needs done to move the story along. Also, some of the decisions she made just seemed odd. Could you really convince Caleb's ex best friend to become his best friend again in a five minute conversation....I don't think so.
Caleb has domestic issues, it's obvious. If someone nagging at him gets him to go off and stab a door repeatedly, and he has some moments of anger in the book, why is she so trusting? Oh yes let's just drop everything and be trusting in a few days. Again..let's be realistic here.
Sierra's tree getting cut and just thrown down on the ground. Why didn't they go ahead and give it to Heather and save it? It wad getting dry but surely they could have saved it. I didn't like how they just left that super important tree laying there.
How Caleb and Sierra last or handle long distance was also left out, it's just..The End. No are they coming back next year, is he going to see her, just not much is given to the finale of it all.
The parents just seemed to be filler. If they really wanted to protect their daughter from Caleb why did the parents not talk to him right after Andrew told about his past? Why listen to the daughter who is obviously going to go..ooh he's fine..yep everything's fine.. Why not go to the source? Again, that bugged me.
The good:
As a Christmas book, yes it spoke of second chances, forgiveness, and love. Which is what Christmas is about. This is a great book to read a Christmas time as it really is a lot about Christmas and focuses around Christmas.
I think the subject matter is a little touchy and could be toxic, especially to teenagers because the author is trying to say that even someone with a violent past is okay. Yes there is a thing as second chances BUT when it comes to someone have an abusive, domestic violence type of past, falling in love in a week is not a good thing to portray to the readers of this story, especially someone who went after their sister with a knife and stabbed the door she was hiding behind repeatedly because he'd "never hurt her, just wanted to scare her" that's a thing abusers say.
So be careful about reading this book, as an adult it's an easier read and one that we can discuss and know the difference about. As a teenager, it would send the wrong message.
.
.
.
.
.
Things I had issues with:
For me I felt like the major question of the story, will the tree farm be back another year, was never properly answered. They said probably not, but they never gave a final answer of yes or no at the end. I wanted a firm answer, not a well no maybe, probably notish, and what their plans would have been. Honestly I thought Caleb was going to help save the lot or maybe the other tree lot would combine with theirs and make it so they could come back a final year.
As for Caleb, let's just send the wrong message shall we. He stabs the door multiple times and the mom just paints over it!? Who does that!? Why wasn't the door replaced after all those years? That didn't make sense to me.
Sierra seemed like a crutch to the story, the character who just is there to do what needs done to move the story along. Also, some of the decisions she made just seemed odd. Could you really convince Caleb's ex best friend to become his best friend again in a five minute conversation....I don't think so.
Caleb has domestic issues, it's obvious. If someone nagging at him gets him to go off and stab a door repeatedly, and he has some moments of anger in the book, why is she so trusting? Oh yes let's just drop everything and be trusting in a few days. Again..let's be realistic here.
Sierra's tree getting cut and just thrown down on the ground. Why didn't they go ahead and give it to Heather and save it? It wad getting dry but surely they could have saved it. I didn't like how they just left that super important tree laying there.
How Caleb and Sierra last or handle long distance was also left out, it's just..The End. No are they coming back next year, is he going to see her, just not much is given to the finale of it all.
The parents just seemed to be filler. If they really wanted to protect their daughter from Caleb why did the parents not talk to him right after Andrew told about his past? Why listen to the daughter who is obviously going to go..ooh he's fine..yep everything's fine.. Why not go to the source? Again, that bugged me.
The good:
As a Christmas book, yes it spoke of second chances, forgiveness, and love. Which is what Christmas is about. This is a great book to read a Christmas time as it really is a lot about Christmas and focuses around Christmas.
I think the subject matter is a little touchy and could be toxic, especially to teenagers because the author is trying to say that even someone with a violent past is okay. Yes there is a thing as second chances BUT when it comes to someone have an abusive, domestic violence type of past, falling in love in a week is not a good thing to portray to the readers of this story, especially someone who went after their sister with a knife and stabbed the door she was hiding behind repeatedly because he'd "never hurt her, just wanted to scare her" that's a thing abusers say.
So be careful about reading this book, as an adult it's an easier read and one that we can discuss and know the difference about. As a teenager, it would send the wrong message.
