Lilly Bartlett

I previously read Michele Gorman's, Single in the City (Single in the City series) and Misfortune Cookie and liked both books. There were some things that needed to be worked on in both novels but ultimately I did enjoy reading about ex-pat Hannah living and working in London (Single in the City) and then moving to live and work in Hong Kong (Misfortune Cookie).

Her newest and last novella starring Hannah, is "The Twelve Days to Christmas". I would recommend that readers read both books in order to not be spoiled by this review. In "Misfortune Cookie" we find Hannah single again after breaking up with Sam though the novel ends on such a note that you wonder if they get back together since she starts thinking about forgiveness. Now in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" we have Hannah getting ready for her return back to the States to visit her parents for the holiday with Sam.

There was so much that ultimately did not work for me with this novella that I marked it down to two stars.

First, the character of Hannah I always loved since she tried so hard and tended to babble. However, in this newest novella you have her doing a 180 pretending that she can't commit to Sam not because he doesn't ultimately know the real her. It made absolutely no sense since ultimately there are plenty of reasons that Hannah wouldn't want to commit to him, after what happened in Misfortune Cookie. I wish that both Hannah and Sam had more time to discuss what was going on in there relationship rather in just 12 days for them to figure it out. Also many of the other characters such as Stacy, the twins, and her boss just felt flat to me. There was no time to sit back and enjoy anyone.

Next, I think that very few authors out there can write short stories or novellas these days. The reason why is that you have to be in my opinion a deft storyteller in order to impact the reader in a shorter time frame. I felt as if Gorman missed this by spades. The whole novella felt rushed to me and we were handed information on what has been going on in Hannah's life fast and furious. The resolution when it came didn't feel earned.

I also think that due to the novella Ms. Gorman was not able to write Hong Kong as well as she did in "Misfortune Cookie". She seriously made me want to eat the food and go and visit Hong Kong due to her descriptions. I ultimately felt as if this novel could have taken place anywhere in the world.

Last, the epilogue was really awful and I wish that Gorman had just left that part out and left it to the readers imagination on what happened next with Hannah and her life. Or even wrote another novella down the road to pick up her story. To have it end as she did felt very cheap.

I would only recommend to fans who want to find out what happens with Hannah and her relationship with Sam.

I received this novel for free in the Amazon Kindle Lending Library.… (lisätietoja)