A Tale of Two Christmases

by Rosemary Whittaker

Annie never comes home for Christmas. There's too much chance of running into Alex. He broke her heart, and she never wants to speak to him again.

Alex always comes home for Christmas. He's desperate to talk to Annie about what went wrong between them.

Faced with a family crisis, Annie reluctantly agrees to spend the holidays with her parents. It shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid Alex for just one week.

But she didn’t expect to arrive in the middle of the wedding of the year. The entire village will be there, and no one will be able to avoid anyone else.

It’s a battle of two Christmases, and only one can win.

Snuggle up in front of a roaring fire with a mug of hot chocolate and enjoy this sparkling Christmas romance.

Genres: Christmas, Romance, Contemporary, Holiday, Chick Lit, Second Chance, Rom Com

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 9, 2022

Reviews

[BethanyKate · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started out cute. Annie and her "BFF" Suzy are painting a church hall and meet a cute boy, Alex. Suzy throws herself at him, but he actually likes Annie. They go on two dates, apparently fall in love, though neither admit it. Annie can't go to Alex's NYE party. Suzy is at the party texting her, claiming she and Alex are making out and blah, blah. Rather than confront Alex, Annie just runs back to her life in London while avoiding Alex for two years.
Two years later, Annie returns home for Christmas only to find her parents are now best friends with Alex's parents, who, by the way, are renewing their vows. At the vow renewal, she is still avoiding Alex, who is desperately trying to talk to her. She pretends that she is in a relationship with her gay best friend. Suzy shows up and drags Alex to the dance floor. Annie is devastated, yet STILL HASN'T TOLD HIM WHY SHE'S MAD AT HIM. Alex shows up at her house the next day and forces her to talk. She mentions the whole Suzy thing, which was a LIE! They kiss and make up, admit they're in love, and then figure out that Alex's parents' vow renewal was all an extravagant attempt to get Annie and Alex back together.
That was the condensed version. All of the female characters were awful! Suzy, the WORST friend ever, and we don't even know of Annie ever confronts her. Annie, an emotionally immature wimp! You don't ask the guy that you're in love with WTF he was doing with your best friend?! Then when he's trying to talk to you, you act like a cold bitch and make up a lie?! Ugh. Annie's mother was also incredibly annoying for a million reasons.

[Shai on_shais_shelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. It was okay.

Remained me of Bridget Jones Diary with the interaction of the parents and the parties.

It says it’s a romantic comedy but for such a small book there was hardly any one on one time with the MCs together.

Maybe it’ll be a nice, quick holiday read.

[audree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I wouldn't recommend it for the Christmas spirit but the romance was so cute! Alex was really adorable and Annie's mother made me laugh a whole lot because of her protective and disorganized personality.

[Stephanie Lester · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute little book. Not too long or detailed, but it was a cute read.

[greenapplemojito · Rating 3 out of 5]

A second chance, Christmas romance with family meddling and I must say apart from the fact that miscommunication led fallout isn't my favorite, I also felt like the threads weren't wrapped up cleanly and were rushed towards the fag end after the entire book was in a very slow pace. I also felt frustrated that despite the evident stuff that Suzy was doing, the FMC led on with her being her friend and also didn't trust Alex knowing what her friend was doing all along when the three were hanging out. I also felt that towards the end they never discussed anything properly and were suddenly fine and back to normal. I just wished there were more communication, more groveling or more work that these MCs put to resolve stuff and trust and then get back together.

Maybe, just maybe this book could have at least been a bit better if we had a dual POV so that we have a bit more of the emotional connect with the characters and also get to see Alex's side of things.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t want to bash this book completely….the story itself was cute….but….

The writing was pretty awful and dialogue sounded very juvenile to me. And I spotted so many typos and grammatical errors throughout. The characters were not likable, and the miscommunication trope was wayyyy overdone. The ending was extremely rushed and left me underwhelmed. And the whole idea of the parents planning an elaborate (and expensive) vow renewal for the sole purpose of getting their kids together? Really?? That’s a stretch for me…

And what about the awful “best friend” who lied and caused the whole drama in the first place?? I kept waiting for her to get told off in the end and NOTHING happened! Such a letdown.

Overall, not one I’d recommend BUT I did enjoy it for the purposes of a holiday book club pick. You’ll definitely have things to talk about!

[Casually.Flipping.Pages · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cute little love story was a light-hearted easy read. It reminded me of the Christmas Hallmark movies so it was perfect to read around this time of the year.

I liked the main character (Annie) and the plot, though it wasn't too complex. I felt like the story could have built up to a confrontation which would have been perfect and expected but it didn't end up happening. The characters didn't communicate well which led to misunderstandings that I didn't feel were realistic.

I think this book was great as a Christmas-themed quick read. If you're a fan of Christmas movies, you might want to give this one a go.

[Lisa Boring · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like this book struggled with plot building. It felt like characters weren’t built with enough depth and relationships were jumped into with shallow explanation. Characters were all the sudden in love when they seemingly just met, etc. The storyline felt disjointed to me. I am also not a fan of any storyline that is built from the majority of lack of communication, making assumptions and just a general misunderstanding.

[Peace☺︎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐️
wow took me basically 2 months to finish a book that is less than 200 pages i feel like that itself is enough explanation😭. boring, villainies women. lack of communication, childish. i didnt enjoy this book at all😃🫶🏾. felt like a farce wasnt realistic at all. how are these lot supposed to be in their 20s.?? yeah ok thats enough i dont wanna be too negative❣️. i guess i could understand how some "ppl" could like this book. read it if you want
adios ✌🏾🦎

[Renee (BookLoveWithRenee) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sweet, quirky holiday story. The author lives in Austrailia, so the writing style took a bit of getting used to. Nevertheless, I still found myself invested in these characters and the outcome of their story. The parents in this book were quite the hoot. I would love to see more about these characters. Definitely the perfect, light holiday read!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

Firstly, yet again, a woman is the villain. It’s getting very tiresome seeing romance novels where women are pitted against each other.

Secondly, since Annie doesn’t seem to trust Alex in the slightest or really bother to ask him to explain everything, I don’t hold our much hope for their budding romance.

[mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75⭐️ this book definitely put me in the christmas mood but wasn’t really my type of book. i didn’t like the writing style and how annie didn’t ask for any reasoning. alex also just annoyed me a bit. however it does have a good plot line it was jsut too fast paced for me. deffo a quick and easy christmas read tho for sure.

[Julie Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice story

I enjoyed this story about Annie and Alex who felt a romantic connection from the beginning, but through a jealous friend they broke up. Two years down the line and they finally meet again.

[Gwen|| Bookish Blondie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty unpleasant read from top to bottom. It wasn't sweet or comedic in any sense of the word. The entire premise of this second chance romance is built on the fact that Annie and Alex met, had a few kisses and then the misunderstanding happened and it was so dumb and any sane person would have immediately thought to clear it up but not Annie, our heroine. She chose the most immature, dumbest option available and then continued the worst possible choices from there on out.

[Gabby Bochenek · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book struggled with plot - there were a lot of misunderstandings that just didn’t seem realistic. Also, I wasn’t really a fan of any of the characters…Suzy is the worst friend ever, Annie’s mom drove me crazy and even the main character Annie herself was immature.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute Christmas novel but tbh it was annoying how Annie just cut someone off based on a questionable friend’s pictures. Then it was annoying how she refused to speak to Alex and kept blocking him. But this is not my usual type of novel.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loves this story! 6 stars

[Amelia Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good christmas story a tale two christmases and love story of Alex and annie

[Luz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a humorous second chance romance but I didn’t find it here

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was short, cute and simple. It was an easy read but i felt there was a lack of depth to the plot and characters.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of this book, but the miscommunication troupe is my ultimate worse troupe! And then there wasn't even a confrontation with susie?!?!

[Erika McK · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf at 20% plot didn’t really build

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 💗

[Sydney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually couldn’t finish this (very rare for me) because the writing was so bad. The dialogue was so short and I felt like I was reading conversations developed by a first grader.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teenager mentality leads to an unnecessary breakup and difficult reunion. Alex seemed likable, Suzy not at all, and Annie - not too bright. This is a light Christmas romance.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing style wasn’t for me. I couldn’t get into it at all and the characters were either not fleshed out or too cartoony villain like for my taste

[Tracie Cohee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute fast read. Take me to the English countryside. Sweet read

[Nic2416 · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. New adult that could have been shorter with the miscommunication trope. So obvious what happened and can’t believe they wouldn’t just talk.

[Miss Lorraine Draper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book

These books are really lovely to read once I start on these books I find it hard to put them down.