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ladythana's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Infidelity
Minor: Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Racism, Gun violence, Suicide, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, and Car accident
novi's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
This is a very cozy and jolly book. The whole story literally revolves around an old english christmas with the whole traditions (there's also some recipes and games instructions that are traditions in an old english christmas at the end of the book). The mystery wasn't really feel prominent until around 60% of the book, so just enjoy all the coziness while you can. I honestly didn't really care about the mystery and I already kinda guessed it from the beginning. But that's not why I read this book, I read it for the coziness and for the romance because I love Georgie and Darcy. Btw Darcy is really not shown as the badass smart bad boy here, we're just told that maybe he's kind of a spy that does all kinds of dangerous jobs in "exotic" countries but it's all tell tales. I don't really see him as that person here, possibly because the author wants Georgie to be the center of the action, which, understandable and that's the point of the book but I also want to see them to be this power couple and we just didn't see that in this book.
This book is not perfect at all, there are things that I wish would go the other way in the investigation of the mystery, and this book is problematic, it's still very much royalty minded/sided without challenging any of the conservative notions in it, there are characters dressing up as gypsies and doing blackface, and it also didn't handle the topic of sexual assault very well. So. Yeah. Ugh.
This book is not perfect at all, there are things that I wish would go the other way in the investigation of the mystery, and this book is problematic, it's still very much royalty minded/sided without challenging any of the conservative notions in it, there are characters dressing up as gypsies and doing blackface, and it also didn't handle the topic of sexual assault very well. So. Yeah. Ugh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Racism
Minor: Racial slurs, Sexism, Vomit, and Xenophobia
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