A review by beckyyreadss
Baby It's Cold Outside by Emily Bell

emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Thank you, Michael Joseph Penguin Publishing, for sending this book in a welcome pack in exchange for an honest review. 

This book is based on Norah Jones she is alone again for Christmas and whilst she is trying to get through the busy high streets of London, she hears the first notes of a busker’s song that transports her back to the most romantic week of her life. She was laughing under an Italian sky, knowing she had to leave her Irish lover, Andrew. Who made her a promise if they are both single on Christmas Eve in ten years' time, they will meet under the clock on Grafton Street, Dublin. Norah has no idea if Andrew will remember, but she has nothing to lose. So that’s where she decides to go. To Dublin. To that clock, hoping for a Christmas miracle with Andrew. 
 
I liked Norah as a character, and I think this book is a really good read with her personal journey of grief and how it feels to lose a parent and how it can be even more difficult at Christmas. I wished it was just her personal journey. Ngl, I was getting weird vibes from Andrew from the beginning. Joe is the definition of if he wants to, he will sort of lad, where Andrew just kept her on a string I wanted to snap. For this being a festive novel, there wasn’t a lot of festiveness in it. I wanted more, I wanted to feel like I was in cold Dublin, but I just felt it was lacking. I know the whole book was based on Norah and Andrew’s relationship, but I would have loved for that to end in the middle of the book and have more of Joe and a slow burn, friends to lovers and it just wasn’t there.  

Overall, this book was a nice read, will I remember about it next year? Probably not, but it was an easy read.  
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