Review: The Christmas Village

After Christmas 2020 I told myself I would do Much Better when it came to reviewing Christmas 2021 books. I would be on top of it and get the reviews up in a timely manner. Reader, that did not happen. No, I simply couldn’t keep up with full time work and full time school and reading and reviewing All of the Books. So, here we are, over a month after the Big Day and I am still reviewing Christmas romances. Woohoo! The Christmas Village by Annie Rains was a sweet romance read that was, unfortunately, completely forgettable. Seriously. I couldn’t remember a thing about it when I sat down to write this review. *cringes*

Here’s the book’s description (which did, thankfully, remind me what the book was about):

Lucy Hannigan has inherited her mother's bulldog, Bella, and her childhood home, the only pink house on Gingerbread Lane. With the holidays coming up, the pressure is on to decorate the house for the annual lights competition and maintain her parent's winning streak. But Lucy already has her hands full as a midwife and a new landlord-to her ex-fiance.
When Miles Bruno is suddenly asked to move out of his rental home, he's grateful to Lucy for taking him on as a tenant. But their broken-off engagement doesn't make it easy to live next door. Sparks still fly between them, and he'd give anything to get back in Lucy's good graces. But to do that will take much more than just tree trimming and house decorating and contest winning. Will one wildly grand romantic gesture on Christmas Eve finally soften her heart?

Once again, the small town + second chance got me. With a bonus Christmas storyline! How could I turn it down? I didn’t and maybe I should have. I’m finding I’m totally over the whole “we were so in love but were torn apart by Circumstances and now we’ve been thrown back together and we remember why we were in love and we’ll live happily ever after” storylines when they were So In Love when they were, like, children (or, you know, eighteen). I love romances. I love the predictability and warmth and loveliness of the stories. I don’t love when I don’t care one iota for either of the leads and have a hard time understanding why they broke up in the first place. And don’t seem to actually work through the “issue” in the end anyway. That’s what happened with Lucy and *checks description again* ah yes, Miles. The reason they broke up was valid enough but there was SO much happening with it that just got brushed aside when they really should have had more conversations about it. It blew my mind a little, to be honest. You can’t just start over, friends!

I also admit I wasn’t expecting such a chaste storyline. I’m fine with all sorts of steam levels but considering what had happened in the couple’s past, I kind of expected more than just handholding (I think there were kisses too but please see: “Kaley doesn’t remember anything about this book” as discussed above). And, for some reason, it irked me a lot and my poor little romance reading mind was a bit boggled.

Now, the Christmas element was lovely. There’s Christmas in the title and there’s Christmas in the story. Most notably, the light decorating competition. I LOVE Christmas lights so it was really fun to read as the pair decorated the house. Christmas spirit was also found in the storyline about family and how sometimes your found family is just as important as your blood relatives.

So…no. I didn’t like The Christmas Village. I’m sure there are fans of Annie Rains out there and I do really wish I had become one of them but I will never again think of this novel once I press publish on this post. I know you can’t win ‘em all but it really does make me sad!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Forever, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*