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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
An enjoyable Christmas tale centred on family relationships. I loved the fact that it was written from different points of view, this meant I got an excellent overall picture of events. Romantic without being cloying and about real fallible people, not perfect heroes and heroines. Just fab!
MoMo’s Book Diary loved Julia Williams’ It’s a Wonderful Life and recommends this sparkling 5 star read.
This is the first Julia Williams book I have read and I loved it! I will certainly be reading more of this author in future.
I was initially drawn by the cover - there is just something about a Christmas cover that I just can’t resist – and the synopsis had me hooked. It is a book about second chances, appreciating what you have in life, and doing what makes you happy. It is a nice quick and easy read which is what you need around Christmas time when there are so many other things we need to be doing with our time.
Julia Willliams brings us a heart-warming family tale full of loveable characters and situations which we can easily relate to. The book covers a year from one Christmas to the next, telling the story from three different people’s viewpoint – Beth, Daniel and Lou.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Avon UK for the opportunity to read and review this novel prior to publication.
This review is published on my blog momobookdiary.com, netgalley and amazon
This is the first Julia Williams book I have read and I loved it! I will certainly be reading more of this author in future.
I was initially drawn by the cover - there is just something about a Christmas cover that I just can’t resist – and the synopsis had me hooked. It is a book about second chances, appreciating what you have in life, and doing what makes you happy. It is a nice quick and easy read which is what you need around Christmas time when there are so many other things we need to be doing with our time.
Julia Willliams brings us a heart-warming family tale full of loveable characters and situations which we can easily relate to. The book covers a year from one Christmas to the next, telling the story from three different people’s viewpoint – Beth, Daniel and Lou.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Avon UK for the opportunity to read and review this novel prior to publication.
This review is published on my blog momobookdiary.com, netgalley and amazon
I rate simply: 5 = liked it, 3 = meh, and 1 = didn't like it.
The Holroyd family started planning Christmas in August, as Mary, the family's mother, insists. Christmas Day comes along, and the family is rocked by the discovery that Fred, the father, has been having an affair with Lilian Mountjoy. Fred and Mary’s marriage falls apart, which horrifies their children.
The eldest, Beth, has a perfect life on the surface: the house, the husband, and the children. When there are staff changes at the publishing house she does picture books for; she’s horrified to discover that her new art director is an old boyfriend from nearly 20 years ago. Is Beth willing to give up everything she has for a fantasy she’s allowing herself to live?
Lou believes her parents are too old-fashioned to accept her ways. She’s childless, single and always jumping from one relationship to the next, unable to seem to settle down. Nobody has ever met any of Lou’s partners, and nobody knows why... What is Lou hiding?
Ged, the family's golden boy, is always on a permanent gap year and seems unlikely to settle down until he rocks up at his parent’s house on Christmas Day with his new, pregnant girlfriend. Will his girlfriend tame the wild Ged? Or is she just another fling?
There’s so much I want to say about this book. I started it in December ‘21 and finished it in November ‘22. Most people would have given up by now, knowing that the book wasn’t drawing them in, but I persevered.
The cover implies it is a Christmas book. The only Christmas theme is that chapter one starts on Christmas Day, and the book finishes on Christmas Day the following year. The rest of the book follows the lives of three characters and the family throughout the year through the eyes of Beth, her sister Lou, and her husband, Daniel.
I couldn’t connect with the characters. They didn’t seem to have any dimension; they felt dull and flat. Every chapter has a part from Beth, Lou, and Daniel, but only Daniel’s section refers to him in the third person; Beth and Lou’s were in the first person. I didn't understand why that was, and it threw me off for a few chapters.
Poor Lou hides from her family, who she loves, thinking they won't accept her for who she is. If you didn't already guess, Lou is a Out of all of the characters, despite them not being very easy to connect with, care about or get to know in a more in-depth way, Lou was the one I was hoping would eventually have the universe change for her and give her some happiness in her life.
Why is everything aimed at the American audience? At one point, Beth is told to change her book for the American audience despite living in the U.K. Not everything needs to revolve around the Americans. This is just a quick rant, hah.
I was intrigued by if this was an accurate reflection of teenagers. The teenagers found it funny that Grandad was having an affair at his age. It’s a bit of a weird thing to find amusing. Then, throughout, everybody often says that he should stay with his wife and that finding new love in his 70s isn’t the done thing.
Beth was a massive hypocrite. She wasn't the most pleasant about her dad, acting all holier-than-thou, believing a bit of light flirting wouldn't hurt, with an old boyfriend. I'm sure her dad thought similarly, ex aside when he met Lilian. And then Beth nearly did the same thing. The kicker was that she even had the nerve to blame it on her husband. She was the most annoying character in the book, followed closely by her mother, who insisted on emphasising her failed marriage because of how many years they were married. I don't agree with just breaking up/divorcing for trivial reasons, but neither of them was happy.
The ending with the version of Beth’s finished book was a nice touch. You get snippets of it throughout at the start of each section, where she discusses it with Vanessa, but the finished version combines those snippets.
However, if you're looking for a light-hearted Christmas read, this may not be for you. Christmas isn't the book's central theme, and I didn't find it a particularly light-hearted, easy read. At times, reading felt more like a chore than reading for enjoyment.
The eldest, Beth, has a perfect life on the surface: the house, the husband, and the children. When there are staff changes at the publishing house she does picture books for; she’s horrified to discover that her new art director is an old boyfriend from nearly 20 years ago. Is Beth willing to give up everything she has for a fantasy she’s allowing herself to live?
Lou believes her parents are too old-fashioned to accept her ways. She’s childless, single and always jumping from one relationship to the next, unable to seem to settle down. Nobody has ever met any of Lou’s partners, and nobody knows why... What is Lou hiding?
Ged, the family's golden boy, is always on a permanent gap year and seems unlikely to settle down until he rocks up at his parent’s house on Christmas Day with his new, pregnant girlfriend. Will his girlfriend tame the wild Ged? Or is she just another fling?
There’s so much I want to say about this book. I started it in December ‘21 and finished it in November ‘22. Most people would have given up by now, knowing that the book wasn’t drawing them in, but I persevered.
The cover implies it is a Christmas book. The only Christmas theme is that chapter one starts on Christmas Day, and the book finishes on Christmas Day the following year. The rest of the book follows the lives of three characters and the family throughout the year through the eyes of Beth, her sister Lou, and her husband, Daniel.
I couldn’t connect with the characters. They didn’t seem to have any dimension; they felt dull and flat. Every chapter has a part from Beth, Lou, and Daniel, but only Daniel’s section refers to him in the third person; Beth and Lou’s were in the first person. I didn't understand why that was, and it threw me off for a few chapters.
Poor Lou hides from her family, who she loves, thinking they won't accept her for who she is. If you didn't already guess, Lou is a
Spoiler
lesbian.Why is everything aimed at the American audience? At one point, Beth is told to change her book for the American audience despite living in the U.K. Not everything needs to revolve around the Americans. This is just a quick rant, hah.
I was intrigued by if this was an accurate reflection of teenagers. The teenagers found it funny that Grandad was having an affair at his age. It’s a bit of a weird thing to find amusing. Then, throughout, everybody often says that he should stay with his wife and that finding new love in his 70s isn’t the done thing.
Spoiler
It annoyed me When Fred goes back to Mary, acting like he had ended his thing with Lilian to make everybody else happy despite his happiness. Nobody should ever feel like their happiness comes second to other people’s happiness.Beth was a massive hypocrite. She wasn't the most pleasant about her dad, acting all holier-than-thou, believing a bit of light flirting wouldn't hurt, with an old boyfriend. I'm sure her dad thought similarly, ex aside when he met Lilian. And then Beth nearly did the same thing. The kicker was that she even had the nerve to blame it on her husband. She was the most annoying character in the book, followed closely by her mother, who insisted on emphasising her failed marriage because of how many years they were married. I don't agree with just breaking up/divorcing for trivial reasons, but neither of them was happy.
The ending with the version of Beth’s finished book was a nice touch. You get snippets of it throughout at the start of each section, where she discusses it with Vanessa, but the finished version combines those snippets.
However, if you're looking for a light-hearted Christmas read, this may not be for you. Christmas isn't the book's central theme, and I didn't find it a particularly light-hearted, easy read. At times, reading felt more like a chore than reading for enjoyment.
Enjoyed to begin with but then it started getting really repetitive!
I was never going to be able to resist a book called It's A Wonderful Life. The film of the same name is not just my favourite Christmas film but my favourite film ever! In the film, George Bailey, played by James Stewart, gets the chance to see what the world would have been like had he never existed. In this book, it's not exactly like that but the theme of being discontent with life and wondering 'what if' is explored, particularly through one of the main characters Beth King.
Beth is an author and illustrator of children's picture books and is currently working on a Christmas book, The Littlest Angel. She got married to Daniel when she was quite young and they have a happy marriage. He is just about to start a new, stressful job as a head teacher at a local school and they don't seem to have much time to spend together. They have two teenage children, Sam and Megan, who are testing their parents patience as only teenagers can. The story begins at Christmas when the family are going, as always, to Beth's parents. Daniel does not have a good relationship with his own father and loves the whole big noisy family thing. Beth's sister Lou is trying to work out how to explain to everyone that her partner Jo is not in fact a man as she has let them believe. So there is already a lot of stress in that situation when Beth's parents drop a bombshell. It is no wonder that a few weeks later, when she bumps into her old flame, Jack, and discovers they will be working together, that she muses about what would have happened had they stayed together. And begins to wonder if getting together is a possibility now....
I really enjoyed this book, which is the first of Julia Williams' novels I have read. She fills her story with warmth and with characters and situations which I think everyone will be able to identify with to some extent. It has a beautiful Christmassy cover but don't let that fool you. The story begins at Christmas and ends the following Christmas but there is a whole year of family life in-between. Telling the story from three different points of view - Beth's, Lou's and Daniel's - gave a rounded picture of what was happening in the family throughout the year and the opportunity to really get inside the heads of the characters.
This a book about taking chances, giving second chances, appreciating what you have, and doing what is right for you to make you happy. Just like George Bailey in the film, Beth comes to realise what she has really is a wonderful life and all that she wanted. A gorgeous heart-warming read which is perfect for Christmas but not just for Christmas. A lovely book to read at any time of the year.
Thanks to the publishers Avon Books for my review copy.
Beth is an author and illustrator of children's picture books and is currently working on a Christmas book, The Littlest Angel. She got married to Daniel when she was quite young and they have a happy marriage. He is just about to start a new, stressful job as a head teacher at a local school and they don't seem to have much time to spend together. They have two teenage children, Sam and Megan, who are testing their parents patience as only teenagers can. The story begins at Christmas when the family are going, as always, to Beth's parents. Daniel does not have a good relationship with his own father and loves the whole big noisy family thing. Beth's sister Lou is trying to work out how to explain to everyone that her partner Jo is not in fact a man as she has let them believe. So there is already a lot of stress in that situation when Beth's parents drop a bombshell. It is no wonder that a few weeks later, when she bumps into her old flame, Jack, and discovers they will be working together, that she muses about what would have happened had they stayed together. And begins to wonder if getting together is a possibility now....
I really enjoyed this book, which is the first of Julia Williams' novels I have read. She fills her story with warmth and with characters and situations which I think everyone will be able to identify with to some extent. It has a beautiful Christmassy cover but don't let that fool you. The story begins at Christmas and ends the following Christmas but there is a whole year of family life in-between. Telling the story from three different points of view - Beth's, Lou's and Daniel's - gave a rounded picture of what was happening in the family throughout the year and the opportunity to really get inside the heads of the characters.
This a book about taking chances, giving second chances, appreciating what you have, and doing what is right for you to make you happy. Just like George Bailey in the film, Beth comes to realise what she has really is a wonderful life and all that she wanted. A gorgeous heart-warming read which is perfect for Christmas but not just for Christmas. A lovely book to read at any time of the year.
Thanks to the publishers Avon Books for my review copy.
i really loved this book, gets you into the Christmas mood
I really liked each of these family members, and each of their drama rang true. It was a fun, easy read!
A lovely read but Christmas is only a small part of the story.