Thursday, November 19, 2015

The Christmas Bridge - Blog Tour Review + Giveaway

The Christmas Bridge by Elyse Douglas
Rating: 3 Stars
Source: Blog Tour

Description:  A First Love,  A Second Chance.  A young widow travels to New York on business a few days before Christmas.  She has reluctantly made a date with a lover she hasn't seen in 20 years, and she is nervous and apprehensive.  Twenty years before, she made a difficult decision that has both troubled and haunted her ever since.  She knows she's about to come face to face with her past and she's hoping for some redemption and resolution.  She also wonders if she can somehow pick up where she left off 20 years ago and start again.  An exciting chance encounter changes everything.  Now, not only will she face the past with hope to rekindle an old romance but there is the possibility that this chance meeting will bring her love and happiness she never thought possible.  Once again, she will  have to choose.  She will have to make the right decision.  She will have to believe that Christmas miracles can still happen (from Goodreads)

Genre: Romance - Contemporary

Why I Picked This Book:  I was intrigued by the 2nd chance after 20 years and the cover grabbed me!

My Impression:  Have you ever read a book where the way you think and the way the characters think is so fundamentally different it's hard to connect with them?  That's kind of where I was with this book.  I liked Olivia well enough.  She's a nice person, she's intelligent, and her struggles through grief felt real but she wasn't really someone I felt like I'd be friends with or really even understood.  Her hangup on her "mistake" of ending a relationship with someone that resulted in her having a happy life and child with someone didn't make sense to me.  I didn't dislike her I just never felt like I connected with her.

I did enjoy her interest in her art, her relationship with her daughter and father-in-law and I was pleasantly surprised with the direction the book ended up going.  I liked the new possibilities that came into her life.   I also enjoyed how readable the book was.  Sometimes when I don't connect with characters in a romance I lose interest in the book and find it hard to read but this zipped by and I was interested to see what happened next.

While not for me, I am curious to see what else this author has to offer.


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7 comments:

  1. I love second chance romances and it sounds cute. I totally get how if you don't really connect with the characters it can take you out the story though. Sorry this one wasn't better for you. Great review!

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  2. The premise and cover would've grabbed me too. Sorry you didn't like it more.

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  3. Hmm seems like it has pluses to it and a major minus! It seems odd to be hung up when the relationship and child she did have was so happy.

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  4. Ah, it's rough when you can't connect with the character. I'm not a big fan of second chance romances so I'll skip this one.

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  5. Oh it is hard when you're at odds with a character like that. You do have me curious though :D

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  6. That has happened to me with books too, where I just don't connect or understand a character as much as I feel I should. It can hurt my enjoyment of a book, unfortunately. This does sound interesting though. I am not sure I would understand a regret like that when you were happy. Maybe something to do with that "what if" syndrome? Still, it sounds more made up for the sake of the story than realistic.

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