Melissa Ferguson | The Christmas Yes List

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The Plot (from Goodreads):

Chronic people-pleaser Chloe Hollis is determined to finally learn how to get over her fear of rejection. Her unconventional solution? She must collect ten “nos” before Christmas Day by asking strangers for the most ridiculous favors she can dream up. But her plan goes hilariously off-track when she meets James Dutton.

James, a rule-following workaholic, has decided to do the exact opposite of he’s saying “yes” to every opportunity that comes his way in hopes of finally embracing life–and maybe a little Christmas spirit.

As they continue to get tangled up in each other’s wild experiment, Chloe and James find themselves in a whirlwind of festive, awkward, and delightful situations. But no one is more surprised than they are to realize they’re falling in love.

My Review:

Thank you to @libro.fm for this gifted ALC!

THE CHRISTMAS YES LIST wasn’t quite up my alley, but I still enjoyed the opportunity to listen. I absolutely adore Karissa Vacker, and she breathes life into everything she narrates. How does she do such a good man voice??

First of all, Chloe needs a therapist, not social media. I know she’s unemployed, but therapists offer sliding payment scales! She’s 25 and probably still on her parents’ insurance!

Personally, I wasn’t feeling the chemistry between Chloe and James. While I liked the premise of Chloe seeking rejections and James saying yes to everything (the beginning felt like How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, and I liked the setup!), the author lost me after the second “reveal”. The plot moved too quickly to make me feel the insta-love between these two. Admittedly, insta-love and miscommunication tropes just doesn’t often work for me. Did they even kiss, though?

The makeup was so rushed, and the epilogue was so disjointedly quick – (SPOILERS, but like we all know there’s an HEA…) married and moved to Maple Falls just a year later? At 26? Our exceptionally immature MC has married this dude within one year of meeting him? Nah. All they had to do was make the epilogue title “five years later” instead. Jeanie has twins that have personalities already? Even if she was pregnant during the Christmas Eve scenes (the wording implies she got pregnant after she and Peter got married, though), her babies would only be 3 months old in the epilogue and would not yet have personalities.

Jeanie was so annoying – but begrudging props to Vacker for the grating sound of her voice. Did she even like Chloe? She repeatedly called her a weak person that men pick on.

Finally, there were some extremely weird subtle Christian lines in there–I knew this was a clean romance set at Christmas, but I wasn’t aware this was a Christian author with a ~message~. The “I already have a savior” line from James about Chloe gave me the ick, and I almost DNF’d then. But also, make up your mind? If you’re Christian enough to “already have a savior”, why are you running around a farm on Christmas Eve instead of at mass? Are you not celebrating your “savior’s” birthday? I’m a Hallmark/Santa Christmas gal, not a churchy one, but that line felt way out of place when the characters hadn’t done anything to celebrate Christmas religiously. And if Chloe is religious enough to not think that was a weird line, why isn’t she praying about her mental health crisis instead of consulting social media? And why are these good Christian people not immediately shutting down Dom’s attempts to cheat on his wife (please read my sarcasm)? It felt like the author wrote the book and then the editor made her shoehorn in some awkward Christianness to meet some kind of Jesus quota, but not in the natural way. James and Chloe making eyes at each other at a candlelight service would have made way more sense.

I’ve enjoyed books by this author in the past and will likely give her another shot, but this wasn’t a fave.

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