alainasanders's reviews
150 reviews

I don't know how I really feel about this book. I liked it, but it wasn't anything mindblowing. It's kind of about how friendships can be when you're young and still super moldable. The gaslighting, manipulation, and friends just not being great friends to each other, that can happen when you don't yet know your own worth. It was a little hard to read because one of the characters is just soooo manipulative it made me angry.

Thank you to netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I loved this book! It was the perfect blend of christmas cheer, and realistic family dynamics. Even though it was magical (the whole Christmas spirit granting wishes thing) it felt very real and grounded, like it was written about a real family.
The magic rules in this felt so open-ended and a little random, which I loved. It felt like this was only a piece of the spirits and magic that this book world had, and the possibilities could be endless.

In this book Bettie comes from a very wealthy and famous family. (kardashian esque -but not really- although I could totally see Athena as a kardashian) And after blowing all her money, and having people wreck her online image, she’s now living in a broken down house in an as cold as it can get city. (🎶livin’ la vida broka🎶) She’s also lying to her family and the internet, who thinks she still has money. When in her low of lows she plays a record player backwards and summons an attractive christmas spirit ‘Hall’ to her house, she is overwhelmed with the possibilities. She can get back at anyone who has ever wronged her, show up at her family’s Christmas with fancy and expensive gifts for all her family members, prove to her family that she’s doing well in life, get a new house, get another new house, own a yacht, and the list goes on. But when Hall can’t grant the wishes in the way she wanted, and she starts opening up her heart, she starts to wonder if expensive things, and upstaging her family is really what she wants for Christmas.

TROPES: Spoilers ahead (these are just some I remember, don’t come for me if I forget some)

-fake dating/engagement

-Rich/wealthy characters 

-forced proximity

-holiday/christmas 

-opposites attract

-slight sunshine x grumpy 

-magic

Thank you to Netgalley and penguin random house publishing for an e-arc of this book in exchange for a fair review.