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: ★★★/5
CHARACTERS: ★★★/5
HUMOUR: ★★/5
ORIGINALITY: ★★★★/5
What did I just read?
For my final story of the collection, I was so excited to be really be in the Christmas mood. Tonight is my family's big Christmas celebration and I want to feel that cheer.
Instead I got something confusing. I don't really know what happened in this story nor what it really had to do with Christmas (besides the fact that it took place in December).
The main character Neve lives on an island as a poor girl. It is a tradition that on the first day of December male suitors put something on the porch of the girl they like. That girl can accept his offer, which means he'll keep leaving things until the 24th of December when they are really together, or she can put a dried rose on her porch so the guy knows she's not interested. The mean island pastor puts something on Neve's porch and even though she tries to deny it, he refuses to listen. Then Neve gets some spiritual help.
Look, I'm not big into the spiritual flowy stories. I like my stories to be semi-realistic and don't believe in "earth forces" coming in and changing the arc of a character. It's unrealistic and just annoying. Neve was in a tricky situation and I would have loved to have seen how she would have escaped that. Instead, Laini Taylor used a Deus ex-machina to create a happy ending.
The writing was good, it read pretty quick, but I just knew from the first paragraph that this story wasn't for me. It was the only short story that felt like a chore to read and I hate that I have to end the collection on this note.
Review aside - I want to wish everyone great holidays. I'll be offline until after Christmas and then I have some more reviews lined up for you guys! Enjoy Christmas and hopefully you'll get lots of books!