The Plight Before Christmas by Kate Stewart
pages: 374
released: Dec 2021
publisher: KLS Press LLC
cover love: ♥♥♥♥♥

Clark Griswold was onto something, at least with his annual holiday meltdown. And since the last three weeks of my life have been riddled with humbug—another breakup, a broken toe, an office promotion I deserved and didn’t get—I’m not at all in the mood to celebrate nor have the happ, happ, happiest Christmas EVER.When Mom insisted that we all gather at my Grandparent’s ancient cabin for an old school family Christmas, I fully intended to get into the holiday spirit with the help of the three wise men, Johnnie Walker, Jack Daniels, and Jim Beam. But those boys did absolutely nothing to offset the shock or temper the sting of seeing my EX on our doorstep the first day of our holiday soiree.Apparently, Santa missed the memo, and this elf is pissed.Stuck for a week with the man who obliterated my heart nearly two decades ago, I did the only thing I could do and put on my game face, thankful for the home advantage.I knew better than to drink that last cup of eggnog.I knew better than to get tongue tangled beneath the mistletoe with the only man to ever break my heart.I knew better than to sleep with Satan’s wingman on the eve of the Lord’s birthday.I could blame the nog. I could blame the deceitful light blue eyes, thick, angelic hair, and panty evaporating smirk…but mostly, I blame Eli because he always knew exactly which of my buttons to push.I foolishly thought a family Christmas filled with nostalgia was going to turn my inner Scrooge around, but this year’s festivities went up in flames. Leave it to the ghost of my Christmas past to be the one to light the match.Fa la la la la la, FML.(from goodreads)

Clark Griswold was onto something, at least with his annual holiday meltdown.

THE PLIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Review:

I don’t know what possessed me to read this book. A Christmas book after the holidays…not a good idea. I wasn’t really in the jolliest of moods anymore. And the season of giving was over…but I guess I felt compelled to finish it because I started it right in the middle of December.

I’m going to skip over a synopsis as the one above is super long from Goodreads, but in a nutshell: Whitney goes back home to visit her family and realizes her brother invited his co-worker, Eli, to stay with them over the holiday. And Eli is her ex-boyfriend from college.

Fa la la la la la FML!

Whitney – tpbc

Honestly, I was on the fence as to what I should rate this book. Because it really hit middle ground. It equally had its cons and pros.

So let’s look at the pros:

The story is told from dual perspectives. Trust me, once you read the first few chapters from Whitney’s POV, you’re going to be more than happy to read from Eli’s POV for awhile.

Both sugar and spice was delivered. Yes, this book had the wholesome, sentimental, homemade family holiday crap you find on the Hallmark channel. But then it also had a little naughty side with explicit sex scenes and language. Having both kinda gave me a little whiplash but was much appreciated. It definitely helped peak my interest after spending way too much time with Whitney’s family. This book teeters between being both naughty and nice.

Plot Twist. Yes, yes…it caught me. Early on, I had my mind made up about how I felt about this book and then dammit, here comes Eli’s confession…well played Miss Stewart.

Now for the cons:

Whitney…Whitney is not funny (and she has zero comebacks). In fact, none of these characters are funny. The humor wasn’t coming through.
Whitney and her family say GAH all the time…not sure why…?
Wayyyyyyy too many f-bombs. This is not an exaggeration…it was overkill.
The way the story incorporated the entire Collins family. Six other adults and about 4 kids. They were all sewed into the plot in some way, in almost every chapter. But I feel like this aspect of the story got on my nerves mainly because of the kids. They were annoying and whiny, another overkill. I wasn’t loving the two page conversations going on between a two year old and a grown man.

All-in-all, I split my rating right down the middle. The Plight Before Christmas wasn’t terrible and it was slightly better than being “Meh” (and I’m also being sort of a grinch).

2.5