Book review: Let it Snow

Let it Snow is as it says on the cover a book filled with three holiday romances. I knew this was three different stories by three different authors but I didn't know that the stories were all connected. This was a positive surprise and made the book more coherent. I wondered in the first story about a certain character that was introduced but played almost no part. This particular character shows up again in the last story where his part is more essential. The stories take place in Gracetown where a big storm makes people who never would have met otherwise to cross paths. It all starts with Jubilee deciding to leave her stranded train to get som warmth:

The Jubilee Express by Maureen Johnson:
Jubilee (yes, that's her name) is about to go over to her boyfriend's house for Christmas lunch when their lawyer neighbour rings the doorbell with some bad news. Her parents are in jail (!) and will not make it home for Christmas so she has to pack her bag and get on a long train trip to her grandparents in Florida. She thinks her Christmas and maybe her life is ruined but the trip is going to make her take a look at her perfect life and see that maybe it's not all that perfect for her. I wasn't a great fan of Maureen Johnson's The Name og the Star even though I liked the storyline. I find this short story to be both cute and funny and it makes me want to read more by Johnson. The characters are believeable and I really sympathize with our main character Jubilee. There are also some fun minor characters like the boy Stuart's mother.

A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green:
I am a big fan of Green's The Fault in Our Stars and his name on the cover of this book in combination with the fact that it is Christmas is what made me read this book. Even though this is not as good as the book mentioned I also liked this story and I recognize Green's writing. Three friends, Angie, called the Duke, Tobin and JP are together for a night of James Bond-movies when they get a call from the local Waffle House where their friend Keun works. He says they have to come down because the Waffle House has been miraculously invaded by a bunch of cheerleaders. The two boys are eager and the Duke gets persuaded by the thought of hash browns (what is that excactly?) which she just can't resist. The only problem is that the roads are filled with snow and there are only room for one of the Waffle House employees friends, so it's important to be the first ones there. The race to the Waffle House makes this story exciting and up-tempo and Green's writing makes the journey a lot of fun.

The Patron of Pigs by Lauren Myracle:
Addie made a big mistake, cheats on her boyfriend and is now heartbroken. Her friends try to comfort her but she seems to be all wrapped up in self pity. When her friend Tegan is prevented from picking up her new teacup pig (!) Addie decides to step up and help her. On Goodreads I could see that many readers enjoyed this story the least of the three but I liked it. It is not as funny as the other two and the main character not as likable, but it is the story with most Christmas spirit. Part of the story is for Addie to realize that maybe she's a tad self-absorbed and needs to put other people's feeling in consideration more often. In that way it's a very classical Christmas story, because as in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful life, Addie meets someone who helps her see what she can do better and how she influence other people. It also contains several references to It's a Wonderful Life (which I haven't seen by the way).

To sum up this book as a whole, I thought it was a very cute read. I really liked how the three stories were tied together and you got to meet characters from a previous story again. The problem with short stories is often that it is very difficult to create a good story, get to know the characters and so on in a short amount of pages. In this case each writer gets about 100 pages each so it's not that short, and that the parts are tied together makes it feel like a book about the residents of Gracetown instead of three different stories. It still doesn't give you a deep knowledge of any of the characters or relationships, so even though I did enjoy the book a lot it is not much more than three very cute and funny tales and that's alright for Christmas. So with this I wish you all a merry Christmas filled with romance, friendship, family and a lot of fun:-)


My rating:



Source:
Checked out at the school library