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A review by amym84
All I Want for Christmas Is You: Two Full Books for the Price of One by Miranda Liasson
4.0
Please note: This review is only for All I Want for Christmas Is You and does not include a review on the bonus novel.
Kaitlyn Barnes has harbored a crush on her best friends' brother, Rafe Langdon, for years. She knows a terrible loss in Rafe's past keeps him from forming lasting relationships, so she knows her crush goes no further than where it currently sits. That is, until spending time together at a wedding results in them spending the night together, which then results in Kaitlyn finding out she's pregnant.
Finding out about the baby throws Rafe back to when he lost everything once before. He's determined not to lose again, but how can he be everything Kaitlyn and the baby need if he's still broken inside? One thing is for certain: their lives are both irrevocably changed as their once close friendship shifts to something more.
Anyone who has been reading this series knows that the Rafe and Kaitlyn relationship has been building up in the background since the beginning. It's these relationships, and eventual books, that I love the most because of all the anticipation. Sometimes that anticipation works in the book's favor and sometimes not as expectations aren't met.
I'd say All I Want for Christmas is You falls somewhere in the middle. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I ultimately felt like the book didn't necessarily head in the direction I thought it would.
I think that Miranda Liasson really plays well with the idea of people's lives and their relationships changing at the drop of a hat. There's a definitely divide between the Rafe and Kaitlyn we saw in the first two books, to the Rafe and Kaitlyn we see here. It's all understandable because for one they altered their platonic relationship into something very not platonic, and of course, there's going to be a baby. I guess for me, I missed the way they interacted in the first two books, but as I said the transition from where they were then to where they're going is deftly felt and, honestly, a very true to life feeling. Things can't go back to the way they were. There's no way. Their relationship has changed and what we, as readers, now experience in this book is seeing if Kaitlyn and Rafe can change with that or if they drift apart.
It's a little bittersweet, I think, mourning what is lost, but this is also in line with Rafe still mourning his fiancee whom died years ago. Rafe still sees himself as that young man who lost his path, basically lost the future he planned for. Kaitlyn's pregnancy brings up this loss, but it is intrinsically linked to Rafe's present. So it's new and different, but still somewhat mirrors his past.
All I Want for Christmas really highlights the changes, the transitions that life takes whether they're natural or unexpected, and then shows us what we do with that those changes.
It's the first really full Christmas story I've read this year (with not just hints of the holiday but taking place during the holidays) and it really fits with the whole rebirth and new years vibe that this time of year brings.
I'd say you can read this without having read the other books in the series, but I always think it's more beneficial to know where a story and its characters are coming from.
Kaitlyn Barnes has harbored a crush on her best friends' brother, Rafe Langdon, for years. She knows a terrible loss in Rafe's past keeps him from forming lasting relationships, so she knows her crush goes no further than where it currently sits. That is, until spending time together at a wedding results in them spending the night together, which then results in Kaitlyn finding out she's pregnant.
Finding out about the baby throws Rafe back to when he lost everything once before. He's determined not to lose again, but how can he be everything Kaitlyn and the baby need if he's still broken inside? One thing is for certain: their lives are both irrevocably changed as their once close friendship shifts to something more.
Anyone who has been reading this series knows that the Rafe and Kaitlyn relationship has been building up in the background since the beginning. It's these relationships, and eventual books, that I love the most because of all the anticipation. Sometimes that anticipation works in the book's favor and sometimes not as expectations aren't met.
I'd say All I Want for Christmas is You falls somewhere in the middle. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I ultimately felt like the book didn't necessarily head in the direction I thought it would.
I think that Miranda Liasson really plays well with the idea of people's lives and their relationships changing at the drop of a hat. There's a definitely divide between the Rafe and Kaitlyn we saw in the first two books, to the Rafe and Kaitlyn we see here. It's all understandable because for one they altered their platonic relationship into something very not platonic, and of course, there's going to be a baby. I guess for me, I missed the way they interacted in the first two books, but as I said the transition from where they were then to where they're going is deftly felt and, honestly, a very true to life feeling. Things can't go back to the way they were. There's no way. Their relationship has changed and what we, as readers, now experience in this book is seeing if Kaitlyn and Rafe can change with that or if they drift apart.
It's a little bittersweet, I think, mourning what is lost, but this is also in line with Rafe still mourning his fiancee whom died years ago. Rafe still sees himself as that young man who lost his path, basically lost the future he planned for. Kaitlyn's pregnancy brings up this loss, but it is intrinsically linked to Rafe's present. So it's new and different, but still somewhat mirrors his past.
All I Want for Christmas really highlights the changes, the transitions that life takes whether they're natural or unexpected, and then shows us what we do with that those changes.
It's the first really full Christmas story I've read this year (with not just hints of the holiday but taking place during the holidays) and it really fits with the whole rebirth and new years vibe that this time of year brings.
I'd say you can read this without having read the other books in the series, but I always think it's more beneficial to know where a story and its characters are coming from.