Always, in December by Emily Stone

Listen the holidays are here and I am beyond excited! Last year I wanted to review a few holiday reads and I didn’t get to actually. So this year, I am making up for it! I mostly read holiday books the months of November and December. It really adds to the festive mood and I make a point to read different ones each year. Always, in December was definitely on my to read list and I finally made it happen!

Every December, Josie posts a letter from her home in London to her parents that passed away on Christmas years ago. Each year, she writes the same words : Missing you, always. But this year her annual trip to the postbox is thrown off course by a stranger. A stranger who will change the course of her life. Josie always thought she was the only one who avoids the Christmas season but Max unexpectedly joins her this year. This leads to them spending Christmas together and making holiday memories. Josie believes this could be the start of something new but then Max leaves without a word. Over the course of the next year, Max and Josie are brought together in the most unexpected places. But Max had every reason to leave and every reason to stay. Fate has some very unexpected things in store for Max and Josie as Christmas time approaches again.

I hesitated to read this only because I saw so many mixed reviews online. So many people said how much they didn’t enjoy it and the same amount loved it. I have never been one to shy away from any book just because of a bad review and I wasn’t going to start now! The first few chapters I struggled to really enjoy it and get in the flow of reading. But once Max was presented, I was a tad bit more interested in the storyline and where everything was going. Josie was a very understandable and relatable character. After experiencing the untimely death of her parents on Christmas, she struggles to enjoy the Christmas season. It’s racked with pain, sadness, and the realization of never seeing her parents again. I found her pain understandable and how she dealt with it.

So I’m going to be honest and admit I didn’t love this book. The main plot line is centered on two characters not effectively communicating. Y’all know how I feel about the trope of bad communication. It does not work for me at all. This is a book that just resolves around that and unspoken things between two people. I constantly found myself looking at how much longer I had in the book because it was just unbelievable. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief that long that a whole year would go by and each time y’all see each other you wouldn’t just…talk? Actually have conversations and ask the questions you need answers to? Could not be me. Don’t even get me started on the lack of character development with Max. I liked him enough but he’s plain. By the end of the book, I felt like the reader doesn’t have a true full picture of him and what makes him tick. Maybe that was the author’s plan but I didn’t love that. By the time I read the “heartbreaking” ending, I rolled my eyes and complained to Michael. Don’t give me a sad and shocking ending just for the fun of it. Give me an ending that makes sense to the book and adds to it. That ending wasn’t that at all.

I didn’t hate Always, in December at all. I just didn’t love it and I definitely saw why it has such mixed reviews. I went in expecting one book and read a completely different one. I love a good cheesy holiday read but this wasn’t that. It left me wanting more and definitely having some questions. I would rate this a 2 out of 5 stars. Always, in December had a lot of potential but ultimately let me down.