The Book:
The Summer of Christmas by Juliet Giglio
Published July 5, 2022 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Date read: July 8, 2022
The Characters:
Ivy
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Experience a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Christmas movie in July in this charming romantic comedy by writing duo Juliet Giglio and Keith Giglio!
Ivy Green, an up-and-coming screenwriter, can only watch as her life is turned upside down. Her script, based on her love story with her high school sweetheart, Nick Shepherd—who broke up with her days before Christmas five years ago—is being filmed in her hometown! In the middle of summer, during the month of July, the production crew creates a winter wonderland Christmas.
Now back home, Ivy is forced to face Nick for the first time, which he isn’t too happy about. To complicate matters, Ivy isn’t sure of her relationship with the producer, the town is overflowing with movie stars and adoring fans, and worst of all—the actress playing Ivy develops a crush on the real Nick! Now, with renewed and confusing feelings about Nick, Ivy is determined to see if there is anything left between them, but in the end, Ivy will need to re-write her life script to get back everything she thought she lost.
The Review:
Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for this complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
I received The Summer of Christmas just in time for a Christmas in July reading spree! All of the Christmas ARCs are starting to roll in, and I can’t wait to read them. This cover had me absolutely hooked!
The premise of The Summer Of Christmas was great. I read it shortly after reading Nora Goes Off Script, and both are about screenwriters that write a movie script based on their own life. In this book, Ivy wrote her screenplay in a fit of rage after getting dumped by her childhood boyfriend. When the movie rights were sold, the director decided to film it in Ivy’s hometown…where said boyfriend still lived.
I loved the setting: a combination of a movie set and a Christmas-loving small town.
My favorite character was Griffin, the actor hired to play Nick’s character in Ivy’s movie. I would love to see a book about him! Unfortunately, I didn’t feel any particular connection to either of the main characters, Ivy and Nick.
The prose was a little jarring at times. Some sentences were choppy, short, and just described each action instead of “showing” the reader the scene. The POV would inexplicably skip from one character’s feelings to another in the same paragraph. The authors would just go around the room telling each character’s reaction to the situation, which didn’t make for a smooth reading experience. Some of the dialogue also felt somewhat unnatural.
Overall, this was a fun story, but the writing style wasn’t for me.
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