This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by TheoLibrarian. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romance Novella category.
The summary:
Baby, it’s cold outside . . .
‘Tis the night before Christmas Eve and Holly wishes she hadn’t volunteered to work the night shift. The weather is frightful and getting worse by the minute, and the same old annoying carols are blasting from the bookstore’s speakers. But Holly’s holiday spirit returns when the store’s sexy new assistant manager arrives to keep her company. He has muscled arms, baby blue eyes, and a sweet pair of lips she wouldn’t mind meeting under the mistletoe.
Sam is glad the snow is keeping away customers-it gives him a chance to get close to his favorite employee. Holly has always been a mystery to Sam, like a beautiful present he’d love to unwrap. When they’re trapped by a full-blown blizzard, Holly breaks into the Christmas cookie display. Sam busts out a bottle of vodka from the boss’s office. Soon the two are trading heated kisses-as well as secrets neither has ever felt safe enough to tell before. What started out as one naughty night together turns into something so much more.
Here is TheoLibrarian's review:
How we ended up here
I picked this book because I love a good forced proximity via snow romance. There’s nothing better than a good snow day when you’re all stocked up on food and books and you’re probably not going to lose power. I’d hoped for a novella with good character development pushed along by forced proximity. But this book? It did not do it for me.
The okay things
Holly and Sam end up snowed in together at the bookstore where they both work due to a late shift, an unexpected snowstorm, and neither of them paying attention to the weather outside. It did require some suspension of disbelief because I know that when the weather is predicted to be bad where I work, I, along with everyone else, spend the day waiting and watching for said bad weather to start. Otherwise, I thought their unexpectedly snowed in situation was handled pretty well. For example once they realize their predicament, Holly and Sam have to scrounge around the bookstore for food, drinks, and something to keep them warm. Obviously they don’t have all of the best provisions just as they wouldn’t in real life. That realistic situation made the story feel a little more grounded.
Unfortunately, I thought this novella had an abundance of problems.
The problems
Misleading sub-genre: It is difficult to tell from the description, but this novella is more of a new adult story than a typical contemporary novella. Holly and Sam are both about twenty-one and are just figuring out what they want from their lives. I don’t mind New Adult books but I’d prefer to know that’s what I’m getting into when I purchase the book. Also, I thought their maturity levels were a little low for twenty-one. That gets us into the problems with the characters.
Characters: I recognize that it can be difficult to write fully realized characters in the short span of a novella. However, I’ve seen it done before and I choose to hold other novellas to that standard. I did not think Holly and Sam were complete characters. They came across as the stereotypical nerd girl and the stereotypical sports boy who both had some issues with their families. Holly’s issues were serious while Sam’s were conquered fairly easily. Holly and Sam even managed to talk through and solve most of Sam’s family issues in a short period of time. As novella characters, they were fine but I expect more from a RITA nominated story.
Conflict: Holly and Sam work out their tensions and hesitations pretty quickly only for the final conflict to come out of nowhere. It felt forced as though the author needed that last conflict push to make it to the finish line. After a few pages, the conflict was resolved almost as suddenly as it appeared.
Lady bashing: This was my biggest issue with this novella. The first page of the story introduces Rebecca, the bookstore owner’s daughter. Rebecca seems to exist to give Holly someone to put down. Right from the beginning, Holly is focusing on how she doesn’t think Rebecca is as intelligent as she is and how Rebecca must be going after Sam who Holly has a crush on. Holly and Sam have no relationship but Holly goes as far as to lash out mentally after watching Rebecca speak to Sam:
…Rebecca had stopped to talk to Sam. The little hussy was toeing at the ground and fiddling with her hair and touching her neck and everything. Holly bristled. Laying it on a big thick, much?
Siiiiiiigh. Being annoyed by a coworker is one thing. Thinking of her as stupid and as a hussy because she talks to some guy you like? That’s going too far. Sam doesn’t do much better. Later, he repeatedly refers to Rebecca as an “airhead” in order to help Holly overcome her insecurities. I’m sick of reading romances that justify insulting other women. It’s that type of thing that can only end in me wanting to throw my Kindle against the wall.
I had high hopes for this novella. Unfortunately, the characters were flat, the conflict felt forced, and the characters were down with lady bashing. The highest grade I can give it is a D.
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Thanks for taking the hit and coming back swinging!
Snowed in at a bookstore sounds one hundred per cent like my kind of catnip, but I can’t stick heroines who put down other women. Shame.
Thank you for highlighting the putting down of other women in this book. There’s nothing that gets me to a DNF faster than one woman insulting another (unless the woman in question is murderous or evil or about to drown a kitten). It always makes me feel that the author has a low opinion of herself, a low opinion of her readership, and generally a sad outlook on gender dynamics.
Also, women are awesome. I can’t count the number of times in my life I’ve been picked up off the ground–literally and figuratively–by women, from my best friend to a stranger on a train in a foreign country. Can you imagine how lovely the world would be if we all just went around boosting each other up instead of looking for ways to cut one another down?
Sorry for the hot-button rant. Off the soapbox I get.
Ugh, the stuff about the other woman is just… So on the one hand, I think that kind of reaction is (alas for the world) a pretty human one, especially for a younger person, BUT BUT BUT a Reasonable Person who has that reaction should be fully aware that they’re being petty and unfair and that the other person is not in fact wronging them by also having an interest in someone neither person is involved with. That self-awareness is crucial. And if a character doesn’t start there, they damn well better finish there.
Oh dear, this book sounded right up my alley until the putting down other women bit. I can’t stand that in a book (I also can’t stand romances with the ex being the most evil person on the planet – so tired and dated).
I’m annoyed that such offensive characters get to be snowed in in a bookstore while many other fine fictional people will never have that opportunity! That’s a travesty. What a waste of a plot.
I love this comment!
“However, I’ve seen it done before and I choose to hold other novellas to that standard.”
Yes!! That!! Good novellas, please!
Sigh, and I hoped the character development could be rooted in a discussion of their favurite books/genres, with each arguing the merits of their favourites and convincing the other to give the books a try. Cue some peaceful reading cuddled together (because of the cold of course!), perhaps with each quoting passages they liked or that confirmed their prejudices about the book and so getting to know each other through their likes and dislikes.
I don’t mind a little jealousy in stories to move along the attraction thing but ugghh stop putting down other women.
Also – does “hussy” seem a bit too outdated for a woman in her early 20s to be using in a recently published contemporary?