Rescuing You for Christmas by Judy Leslie, was published on September 2nd. I finished reading it earlier today. I’ve seen it labeled as a “novella,” but at 150 pages, it feels more like a short novel. The story takes place in and around Leavenworth, Washington.
Quick Plot Introduction
Paige is a single mom from Seattle. She wants her five-year-old daughter, Sarah, to have a great Christmas, so she plans a trip to Leavenworth, which is about 2-2 1/2 hours from Seattle. Between her car going off the road into a snowbank and her housing accommodations being far different than she’d planned, her trip does not go as planned. Matt, a Leavenworth local, comes to her rescue, and a romance quickly begins to develop.
Not as Leavenworth as I Wanted
I loved the idea of this book. My family lived about 4 hours away from Leavenworth for several years. While I never visited Leavenworth myself, I know people who did. My family also lived in Germany for several years.
Because of these two things, I was excited to read this book and feel the Bavarian Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity with this book. That spirit really wasn’t portrayed. For the most part, this story could have taken place in just about any small town. I didn’t feel the Bavarian Christmas spirit as I read the book.
Not Loving the Characters
My biggest issue with this book is that neither main character was likable. Matt was likable at first. He’s portrayed as that good guy who really doesn’t want to leave anyone in a bad situation, so he’ll sacrifice for family, friends, and even strangers. He’s been hurt, so he’s a little reluctant to let anyone in, but that’s 100% understandable. I liked him for about the first 65% of the book.
Then there’s Paige. She’s your stereotypical “big city” girl, with the too fancy clothes and obsession with looking good. She’s a little too into social media. For the first probably 50% of the book, I wondered why Matt liked her. Then she started to grow on me. For about one or two chapters, I was starting to like them both.
Unfortunately, they both then became jerks. I won’t ruin the book in case anyone wants to read it, but both of them were rude to each other at this point. Matt also toyed with another woman’s feelings and basically used her to make Paige jealous. I’m not okay with that. Ultimately, I struggled to root for Matt and Paige’s relationship to work out.
Reader Warnings
This book has some swearing it in. As far as I remember, there are only the milder swear words, with probably about a dozen swear words total in the book. For a good portion of the book, there are some milder sexual innuendos, but nothing too scandalous. In the second half of the book, there’s one sex scene. I’m not sure how graphic it got. When I realized what was coming, I skipped ahead. It was fairly short, so I assume it didn’t go into too much detail. There was no violence in the book, which was great.
My Final Thoughts
Despite Paige being a little unlikable in the first half of the book, I did enjoy the first half. I get that Matt was hurt toward the end of the book, but I wish that he could have been hurt and still likable at that point. If the second half of the book had been more like the first half of the book, this would have been a 4-4.5-star book for me.
