Christmas in Vermont- Anita Hughes

Publication Date: October 15, 2019
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Holiday/Fiction/Romance
Pages: 304
Dates Read: October 13-14, 2019
Format: eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley

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My Goodreads Review

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

“Emma can’t believe her luck when she finds an open pawn shop on Christmas Eve in Manhattan. She’s there to sell the beautiful bracelet her ex-boyfriend gave her when a familiar looking watch catches her eye. It’s the same engraved watch she gave her college boyfriend, Fletcher, years ago. On a whim, she trades the bracelet for the watch and wonders at the timing.

Practical Emma thinks it’s just a coincidence, but her best friend Bronwyn believes it’s the magic of synchronicity that caused Emma to find the watch. Fletcher was the one that got away, and somehow Emma never quite moved on.

When Bronwyn finds out that Fletcher is in snowy Vermont at a romantic inn for the week, she can’t help but give synchronicity a push. She signs Emma up to help the inn keeper as the children’s activity coordinator. Emma agrees that a week filled with quaint shops and maple syrup would do her good… and maybe Fate really does have a Christmas gift in store for her. That is until she sees Fletcher with his daughter and fiancée.

Suddenly, the fairytale trip seems doomed to fail… much like the innkeeper’s dwindling cashflow. It will take a miracle to save her heart and the inn. And that just might be what Fate has in mind.

Christmas in Vermont is a delightful and charming love story about the magic of second chances during the most festive time of year.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️
3 STARS

Before I can describe the book, you need to have this definition:

synchronicity
n. the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.

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Emma, a copyrighter in New York, is in the habit of ending relationships before they hit the one year mark. This story begins with a very recently single Emma, who is questioning her relationship habits, and believing that she will never find ‘The One’. When she goes to pawn off the jewelry said ex just gave her, she discovers a watch that she had given to Fletcher, “the one that got away” in college, and begins to wonder what would have been.

Bronwyn, Emma’s best friend and a big believer in ‘synchronicity’, sends Emma on a trip to a quaint inn in Snowberry, VT where she had discovered Fletcher is staying for the holidays. What comes next is interesting…

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My very favorite part about the book was that I could literally feel the Holiday spirit. The author captured the essence of Christmas so well through descriptions of the town, and activities. The town came alive for me as Emma explored shops and participated in a variety of things while on vacation.

The characters were, in truth, unbelievable but did provide some entertaining moments. The biggest reason this didn’t get more stars from me was that I didn’t fall in love with our MC’s Emma or Fletcher. I really love a book where I can connect with the characters, or feel emotion, and I just didn’t get that. They felt pretty one dimensional. I also am not a huge “instant love” person, and this felt much too convenient. (Especially if it really only takes place in about a week)

The writing style is light and fun though and is extremely easy to read. It was slightly confusing that the book was broken up by “X days until Christmas’ and ‘X days until New Years’ when the story moved in chronological order. I felt this was unnecessary and just confused me. (I do have an uncorrected galley copy, so this may be different in the final book)

I did not like this plot point of synchronicity. I found it to be much too overstated and it began to become tedious to continue reading about it over and over.

Overall, I found Christmas in Vermont to be a fun and lighthearted Christmas read. I did feel like the storyline was too easy, and came together too perfectly. I also wasn’t too attached to the MC’s. That said, I enjoyed the read and loved the scenery and descriptions of the Holiday season.

Special thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Anita Hughes for the early review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.