Until Christmas, I will be reviewing the short stories from My True Love Gave To Me. There will be a review every other day. These will be shorter than the usual reviews and will always include the same criteria on which they will be graded.
Find it on bookdepository here.
CHRISTMAS FEELS: ★★★/5
ROMANCE FEELS: ★★★★★
CHARACTERS: ★★★★/5
HUMOUR: ★★★★/5
ORIGINALITY: ★★★★★
Are these reviews just getting shorter and shorter? As Christmas is approaching, I'm spending more time wrapping presents and reading then actually writing, but I guess that's what Christmas is about.
But Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter is a great story to actually write about, because it was so unexpected. And the most random plot ever.
Lydia is ready to board her plane to New York when she sees a girl who desperately wants to exchange her ticket to NYC. She decided to help the girl out and switch tickets, though she has no clue where she is going, for how long and who the girl was (What?). Lydia ends up in Oklahoma, where she is confused for Hulda - an Icelandic exchange student. Everyone believes the identity switch, except for Ethan, who was the boyfriend of Hulda. And then at the end, there is a huge secret revealed about Lydia.
So what I loved about this story is how complicated the plot is and how it somehow still just works. I don't think any person would just switch their ticket, especially right before Christmas and to an unknown location, but when you are reading the book, you believe it. Ally Carter writes it in such a believable way that you are just sucked into the story.
But it wasn't very Christmassy - the story ends on Christmas Eve so we don't really get the Christmas experience. This was on the one hand a let down, because I would have loved to have known how these characters spend Christmas day. On the other hand, it worked because they are living through the exact same days as I am right now, which means we share the anticipation of Christmas, the present buying,... It helps to relate to the story.
The one thing I adored about this story was the romance. I'm not going to say who is going to fall in love with who (though you can probably guess), but I love their relationship. They don't instantly fall in love or move crazy fast, but have a realistic relationship that takes both of them by surprise.
So overall this was a good story, with a great plot twist in the end, but it just wasn't as memorable as some of the other short story in My True Love Gave to Me, so it's in the middle of my ranking right now.