Review: condescending and annoying
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 12 16, 2012
There are spoilers below:This book was suggested to me by Amazon as a romance, but I don't think it is one.First of all, there's not even an inkling of romance with the mega-star mentioned in the summary - he's actually barely in the story.  There is, however, an extremely handsome, perfect (you get the drift) bartender who saves Holly's butt with his knowledge of the city's vendors when she realizes she's bitten off more than she can chew.  If money was no object, why would it matter where she could get cheap flowers?Onward - what really irritated me about this book was the number of times the author mentions how much better a traditional English Christmas is, especially compared to those tacky nouveau holidays every American prefers.  I didn't check the word count, but it didn't take more than an hour to read and that was mentioned often enough to feel condescending and obnoxious - okay, we get it, you don't like colorful lights!  (I was kind of surprised Dean & Holly didn't commiserate about how dreadful the colonies are.)  Sure it was funny to see her take the snotty PA down a peg when she tries to insist on a modern party, but it seemed too easy and thrown in specifically for that "hahaha take that, evildoer" delight.Then there's the way that not being with your family at Christmas is treated as an unforgivable sin.  Holly is wracked with guilt because she knows she's ruining her parents' favorite holiday (and her birthday!) by trying to boost her career.  Even the sexy bartender gives her the brushoff when he realizes what a rotten person she must be to act like that.Don't worry, though - she realizes family is more important than anything and rushes home to be with her mom and dad in their tiny little village and be glad she isn't one of those horrible people after all.Not (really) a romance.  Condescending about holidays.  Irritating cast.  Perhaps if it had been fleshed out into something longer, with some character development - Dean's temper could have been interesting, as well as Alex's career - maybe it would have worked better.I won't make reading this a Christmas tradition.