On Friday afternoon I stepped into the security line at the airport to look down at a message that just arrived on my phone, my flight had been delayed by an hour. Now facing three hours at the airport instead of two, I went to the nearest store selling books. While pondering what to get, I started putting titles and authors into Cannonball Read to see what others had to say. Thus far no one has reviewed, So This is Christmas. However, both Emmalita and Malin had positive things to say about a previous Jenny Holiday book, Duke, Actually. Feeling in the mood for holiday romance tropes, So This is Christmas followed me out of the store. Due to another delay at the connecting flight, I was able to finish before getting home!
Cara Delaney is self-described as married to her job. Determined, driven, and damn good at what she does. Cara’s 35 and pushing to make partner in her firm CZT an analysis firm for manufacturing companies. Her mom consistently pushes her about dating but Cara doesn’t have time for a relationship. She has travelled 200 days out of the previous year. At the last minute, a few days before Thanksgiving, she is being sent to Eldovia to take over the Morneau account. The only industry in the tiny alpine country of Eldovia is to make high end watches for the Morneau company but that market is collapsing and dragging down the GDP. Cara is brought on to investigate the business and make recommendations for improvement. She is not there to site-see and be charmed by the cute alpine villages amidst the country’s devotion to the Christmas season.
Matteo Benz is devoted to his job of being equerry to the King of Eldovia and by extension to his home country of Eldovia. He is focused, dependable, and intent on uplifting his country and its people. Matteo sees Cara as a potential threat, firing employees that he has personally helped find positions in the company. The two instantly bump heads and resort to calling each other formally Ms. Delaney and Mr. Benz. However, It doesn’t take long for the two to find they have a geeky love of Star Wars and Star Trek. As Cara digs through financials and interviews everyone across the company, she begins to get suspicions that not everything is adding up. Cara and Matteo’s values align as they work together to get to the bottom of what is happening at Morneau.
There is much I enjoyed on this trope filled, holiday romp. The characters are aware of said tropes and make comparisons to Hallmark movies. However, I have never felt so seen by a book as I am by Cara’s opinion on The Last Jedi being the superior Star Wars movie to The Rise of Skywalker. She uses the exact same arguments that I use when describing why TLJ is better than TRoS. I also found it cute how Cara related things to Star Trek and had a quote by Spock as a motivational reminder.