SO, THIS IS CHRISTMAS

A teen returns home for the holidays.

After flaming out at her fancy Connecticut boarding school, Finley Brown returns to her hometown of Christmas, Oklahoma, and is shocked to see things aren’t the way she left them. Her hometown BFF is dating her ex–BF, her mom has skipped town for some me time, and her bitter rival is working at her grandmother’s inn. The biggest surprise is that her haughty/hotty classmate, Arthur, has followed her home with his Christmas-obsessed aunt in tow, lured under false pretenses to celebrate in a town that’s supposed to be dripping with holiday cheer. With a little elbow grease and a Christmas miracle, Finley might just be able to salvage things and give everyone the greatest gift of all: love. Finley juggles expectations against reality, trying to make the best of a bunch of crummy situations, and the round robin of plotlines is slowly fleshed out. The opening chapters are the novel’s weakest: Finley’s self-absorption renders the secondary characters as cartoonish and painted in broad strokes, particularly Arthur. Fortunately, he and the rest get rounded out by the ending, which boasts enough shading to set the novel apart from the Christmas movie allusions that come up at every other turn. The end result is a pleasant romance set against a solid character piece. Finley is presumed White, and British Arthur is biracial (Indian/White).

A quaint romance that succeeds after an opening stumble.