Book Review: One New York Christmas by Mandy Baggot #BookReview #OneNewYorkChristmas #Christmas #Chicklit

Title: One New York Christmas

Author: Mandy Baggot

Publisher: Ebury, Penguin Random House UK

Date: November 15th, 2018

Pages: 432

Format: eARC

Source: from Publisherr for a review

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Will this Christmas romance be just for the holidays?

A fun, festive romantic comedy to curl up with this winter. If you love Josie Silver’s One Day in December, you’ll love Mandy Baggot’s heart-warming festive romance.

Lara Weeks is heading to New York with best friend Susie for the Christmas trip of a lifetime.

A festive break in the snowy Big Apple visiting the tourist hotspots, not to mention the shopping, seems like the perfect way for Lara to get over her ex-boyfriend. Or maybe make him so jealous he begs for a second chance.

Enlisting the help of gorgeous actor, Seth Hunt, doesn’t quite go to plan, but there’s something about him that has Lara wishing for a different kind of happy ever after…

Review:

One New York Christmas is the second christmassy book written by Mandy Baggot that I have read, and I can officially say that her festive novels are must have during winter.
I loved the previous one (One Christmas in Paris) and I adored this one too.

The story follows Lara who spends her holidays in New York, trying to heal her broken heart.
On the other side there is Seth, a good looking actor with a kind heart, who tries his best to succeed in the acting career, and make his parents proud of him.

At first, I thought this will be a romantic, funny story, and it was, but it was also so much more.
The story explores some complex topics like adoption and unknownness of one’s own origin.
Then, it also talks about being homeless and how there are more then few reasons how one can end up on the streets, even when he’s trying to do something with his life.

The story also talks about family, friendships and human relationships, and it well inquires those aspects.

But at the same time, while talking about such serious subjects, it manages to entertain readers, make them laugh, relax then and put them into Christmas Spirit.

I liked almost all the characters, Seth and Lara, their best friends and their family members. There are only few “unlikeable” characters, which were ment to be “bad guys” of the story, but I didn’t mind them.

However, I have to stress out that one character I admired the most was New York itself.
Yes, you’ve read it right! Mandy Baggot described that city and it’s atmosphere during December so well, that it got his own role in the story, and I as a reader couldn’t forget that we were in New York.
That, my friends, is what I call amazing writing ability!

I loved almost everything about this story, but there is one (probably not that important) thing that made me feel a bit uncomfortable, and I will tell you what it is, because I’m always honest in my reviews. However, I think most people wouldn’t even notice that thing.
I didn’t like how Lara called her brother Aldo, who is adopted, her “almost-brother”. It happened 12 times in the story, and it made me feel like she was trying to separate herself from him, like stressing out that he was not her brother by blood was so important, she had to call him almost-brother instead just calling him brother instead?
I don’t know, we have one adopted family member (my father’s cousin) and I can imagine if his sister was calling him almost-brother it would hurt his feelings. It would make him feel like he wasn’t genuine part of the family, and it would be wrong.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading One New York Christmas and I would recommend it to everyone who enjoys festive chick lits and Christmas stories.

I can’t wait to see what other books Mandy Bagott has written/will write because this author is definitely on my tbr!