#BookReview : New Year’s Kiss by Lee Matthews #NewYearsKiss @PRHGlobal #partner @GetUnderlined / / Sweet, entertaining, uplifting YA Romance

Synopsis

A fun and upbeat paperback original romance about a girl who has a New Year’s resolution to make the coming year epic in every way—and is willing to put herself out there for love.

Tess and her opinionated older sister Lauren are spending the week after Christmas at the snowy Evergreen Lodge in Vermont and they aren’t happy about it. Their stern grandmother, who owns the holiday resort, is not known for her warmth and good humor. But when shy, straight-laced Tess meets Christopher in the lobby, things are suddenly looking up. And when she decides to get out of her comfort zone and create a bucket list of things to accomplish before the New Year-like singing in public and skiing a black-diamond slope-Christopher is happy to help, even as he keeps a secret that could turn everything upside down. When the ball drops, will Tess and Christopher share a magical kiss-or will Tess start the new year off alone?

*** Note: I received e-copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to PRHGlobal for free copy. ***

Review

New Year’s Kiss was fun and uplifting New Year themed YA romance that revolved around Tess’ ten bucket list to accomplish before New Year. It was about getting out of comfort zone, trying new things, and enjoying life for yourself once in a while, family, friendship and love.

Writing was gripping, entertaining and fast paced. It was first person narrative from Tess’ perspective set in Tess’ family resort Evergreen Lodge, in Vermont . The resort, all the activities for guests in resort, skiing slopes, and the town around the lodge made the book atmospheric.

It started with Tess and her elder sister, Lauren, forced to spend a week right after Christmas at their family resort- Evergreen Lodge, so their parents could settle things at final stage of divorce. Their very stylish, sophisticated, and stern grandmother- Loretta- who now run resort, had put them both in same room with a mandatory schedule of activities they had to attend while they were staying there. Tess wasn’t happy about it as she and Lauren could hardly live in a peace sharing same space, there was nothing common between them and Lauren was always rude and mean to Tess. But when she met Christopher with cast leg in lobby, things started to change. They decided to make bucket list of ten things to accomplish before New Year that can help Tess prove her sister wrong, not living her holidays alone copped up in her room, and live out a little for herself. It was fun to read how Tess was going to accomplish her bucket list and how that was going to change her life.

Christopher was cute. I liked him for supporting Tess, helping her with her bucket list. It was not just Tess’ bucket list, he too was part of it until a guy because of whom he was in cast leg started talking with Tess. His reaction was natural but I also felt for Tess and her dilemma. I was a bit disappointed when he disappeared in third half but even after everything, he was lovely him.

I wasn’t sure if I liked any secondary characters at first as Lauren was rude and mean, she said unpleasant things to Tess and didn’t look out for her like elder sisters should but as we know her more we see most of the squabble was because of their contrasting nature and she wasn’t good at expressing her feeling. She preferred to live out and find distraction than talk about it. Loretta was stern, formidable and a bit controlling, always busy with some meeting at resort, making both girls do stuff they weren’t interested or happy about and half the time she wasn’t present for those activities. She didn’t make effort in knowing or understand them or asked what they really wanted. But we can also see, her mind was somewhere else and there was serious legal matter going on at resort. I was glad to see changes in both of them, how they developed and were panned out at the end.

Romance was cute. I was surprised and at the same time enjoyed reading how Tess and Christopher became friends, started having feelings, managed to fight, derailed and made up in just four days. But never I felt it was too short time. Author filled this duration with flying paper plane, skiing a black diamond slope, meeting famous star, singing in public, lots of drama, fun, and entertainment.

Twist and turns were predictable, I could see things a mile away and still I enjoyed everything. End was just perfectly magical and I loved epilogue with another bucket list. Out of all holiday themed book I have read recently, I enjoyed this most. I don’t know why this has average and some low rating, I agree this will be more for younger population and predictable, but I don’t care. It was really fun for me and it did cheer me up so I’m not taking away a star for predictability.

Overall, New Year’s Kiss was sweet and entertaining holiday themed YA romance. If you want uplifting quick read, you should try this.

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Thank you for reading! Let’s chat…

What do you think about the book and review? What is you still need to accomplish before New Year? Are you going to make bucket list for 2021? If so, what’s on the top of the list?

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