I missed the deadline on the 15th of January first TBR for the year, not because of busy-ness but because I had yet to read a book in 2025 by that date (let alone a book that aligned with the January topic of New Year, Who Dis? But then on Monday, I started reading a book in the morning and I finished it by night time because it was fun and lovely. And I can’t remember when I last did that with a full-length novel.

Reading Note 84:

Christmas Is All Around by Martha Waters

The blurb…
A former child star learns that holiday magic can come from a change in perspective in this charming and hilarious holiday rom-com, perfect for fans of Love, Actually and The Holiday
A little holiday magic can change everything . . .
Charlotte hates the holidays. As a former child actress, she starred in a Christmas movie, whose fans won’t let her move on. When a piece revealing that her reluctance nixed plans for a reboot, she flees to London to spend the festive season with her sister.
But the ghosts of Christmas past follow her when she visits Eden Priory, one of the filming locations. When she’s accidentally left behind, she’s forced to accept a ride back to London from Graham, the son of the owners. Their family business – and the funds to keep their historic house running – relies on holiday cheer, and Graham knows seasons greetings from a certain star would bring in more visitors.

Now an illustrator, Charlotte accepts a commission illustrating iconic holiday movie scenes in London and its environs for Eden Priory, with Graham offering to escort her. But as Charlotte’s chaotic family holiday goes awry, she begins spending more time with Graham. Charlotte may not love a Christmas romance . . . but what if she has one of her own?

As the blurb states, Charlotte Lane is a former child star who has chosen a non-acting career as an adult, much to the dismay of her parents and lots of fans. Her one and only acting gig became a cult hit Christmas movie tritely called Christmas, Truly (that seems to have overundertones of Love, Actually). Charlotte hated the experience and is a crochety and utter bah-humbug over the whole Christmas commodification and love/romance celebration. She hates the Christmas movies, she can’t stand her own popular-culture status that perpetuates the love, she certainly has mum-and-dad-didn’t-love-each-other issues around this date. So, in general, she just hates Christmas revelry and joy.

When Charlotte gets accosted by an angry fan in Central Park in NY, USA, she packs her bags, and heads over to London, England to hide out with her older sister, desperate to avoid anything festive. Hiding out, in London where Christmas joy and love and markets and festive events reach a whole other level of revelry. In the first few days of hiding out, Charlotte’s sister coercestakes her to a “turning the lights on” event at a country manor, which inevitably is one of the locations where Charlotte’s Christmas movie was filmed. And, inevitably, this is where she has her ridiculous meet-cute with the hero of the story, Graham, who is also one of the members of the family who owns the ye-olde-English-lordly Christmas estate.

As can be expected, Charlotte fights being in her own Christmas rom-com the whole way through the book, hitting meta insights, and emotional maturity in coming to terms with everything that life has given her while standing by her own life decisions. Charlotte and Graham traipse around picturesque England countryside, going to twee English towns and pubs, meeting twee English people and animals, all in the course of finding forging an artistic work relationship. In the course of these travels, Charlotte falls in love with the bespeckled, swoony Graham (an absolute cinnamon roll of a man) whose loyalty to his family is both his charm and his myopathy in managing his grief over his father’s death. It is this family loyalty that ultimately causes both Charlotte and Graham issues that they need time away from each other to process and overcome serious problems as to who they are and what their expectations of themselves, their lives and their most intimate relationships should be.

This may all sound trite and that is because it is trite. The story deliberately aims for those notes – the way it plays on the trite-ness is the charm of the story. Martha Waters managed to take the formulaic Christmas rom-com, use all the expected tropes, comments on all the expected tropes, and delivered a delightfully fun and thoughtful novel.

As for its connection to the January TBR challenge –

LOOK

AWAY

IF

YOU

DON’T

WANT

SPOILERS!!!

(one more warning)

In the final chapter, after Charlotte and Graham had spent close to a week apart grappling with some serious issues to overcome, there is a masked ball on New Year’s Eve. So, in my own trite way, I felt that their cross-the-room-magic-recognition-despite-elaborate-masks moment was on point for a New Year, Who Dis theme.

:: takes a bow at this most apt connection ::

::: accepts applause :::