Christmas by Candlelight
by
Karen Swan
Snowed in for the holidays ....
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication date: 17th October 2023
Genre:Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 416
Source: Own purchase
Review: Christmas by Candlelight
I'm a great fan of Karen Swan and I especially look forward to her Christmas themed book each year.
Christmas by Candlelight is a dual timeline narration, alternating between 2014 and 2023.
2014 - features a group of six, 21 year-old, house-share uni students. There is lots of drinking, partying and hooking up. There is unrequited love within the group and a tragic event for one of the girls. The main character Libby is not so much a party girl. She is more into studying and takes her degree seriously.
2023 - Libby finally agrees to a Christmas dinner party with the group after avoiding them for the previous nine years and old frictions within the group resurface.
I found it very hard to connect with the characters for the first half of the book. They all felt a bit bland and the story was very slow going. By the second half I had more of a feel for the dynamics and the tension ramped up as the group were snowed in, cut off from the outside world, with no power.
There were a couple of twists toward the end that I didn't see coming but overall this was just an okay read for me. I found the story was geared toward a younger 'than me' age group with influencers, drunken parties and hook-ups. Even though I was a little disappointed I am still eagerly looking forward to Karen Swan's next Christmas novel.
my rating 3 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐
Other Karen Swan Christmas novels I've reviewed:
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