The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘christmas challenge’

Release: November 27, 2007

As much as I loved Ex-Mas, it set the bar REALLY high for the other holiday books I have on my shelf.

Ashleigh Snow is embarking on a new journey with her mom. They’re running away from the life they used to know. Ashleigh’s dad is getting remarried so they decide to start fresh. They move to the Great Lakes and buy a B&B. Ashleigh doesn’t realize until they get there how different it is. There are only 5 or 6 kids in each grade at her new school, in Texas there were over a thousand. It snows so much, for a couple of months, they have to close down the road to the mainland. One thing this town is not missing out on is the hotties. Within the first day, Ashleigh meets two. One she up a date with, the other makes her her pitter-patter. But, he’s not exactly available. Ashleigh tries to deal with this crush while making friends, fitting in and staying warm. In the end though, will she choose a new girlfriend instead of the hottie or risk her reputation for a couple dates? Because really, she never goes on more than 3.

When I started this book, I was in love! I could picture the town and I immediately wanted to move there. It sounded so quaint and beautiful and SNOWY! I mean when you don’t have to drive anywhere, who doesn’t love snow? By the way, there are no vehicles allowed on the island. How cool is that?

Well, after a great, promising start, the book didn’t really deliver. It was cute and VERY tweeny, but I have a hard time liking a book that says it’s ok to cheat. Yes, in Ex-Mas, cheating was also a topic, but that cheater was giving a bad name and a black eye. In this book, they said “Oh no, we’re bad” , but it still seemed like it wasn’t a big deal. I just don’t think that’s a great thing to ok when you’re gearing this book at teens who most likely will go through crushes on friend’s boyfriends.

I thought this book had great potential, and there’s really nothing I could think of to spice it up, it just didn’t do it for me. I will be dreaming of this town for the rest of my life though. But, I can only give it two bookmarks.

This is part of my Christmas Reading Challenge.
1. Ex-Mas