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Ein Weihnachtswunder Zum Verlieben (2012)

by Ali Harris(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

3404167805 (ISBN13: 9783404167807)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Bastei Lübbe

series

Evie Taylor

review 1: I've given this book 2 stars on the basis that I loved the setting for this story. Hardy's sounds like somewhere I would go. It reminds me of my favourite department store from when I was in single figures.I didn't really like the rest of the book, however. Now, because I don't tend to read much chick-lit because every book I've read of this genre is pretty much the same, I've kept this out of my review because that isn't the fault of the book.The main issue with this book, for me, was the protagonist, Evie. I went off her in the opening chapters when she revealed herself as totally selfish, in that she stole somebody's job. As I read I imagined a parallel story of a poor girl who turned up for her first day at work only to be turned away because the job had already b... moreeen taken. It that happened to me I wouldn't have just gone home, I would have fought for my job. Gaping plot hole? From that point on I knew this story would be far-fetched and that Evie and I would never get on.So she's in a stolen job for two years and is perfectly happy for nobody to respect her, or even know her name. The person before her was well known, so it wasn't a general lack of respect for the person running the stockroom. We have an invisible character, who spends lots of time moaning and winging about being invisible, but not doing anything about it. So she deceives the people she works with by going under someone else's name, deceives the man she starts dating by assuming someone else's personality ... this is not a person I would want to associate with. The other staff at Hardy's were an interesting bunch of people, highly sterotypical and bordering on cringeworthy. I liked Lily, she brought the sparkle to the story. The foreign cleaning team irritated me no end and I found the way they were portrayed quite insulting. Carly had no sense whatsoever, and clearly didn't respect Evie, but Evie saw her as a good friend for some unfathomable reason. Felix and Sam were nice. Delilah used Evie, which was also ok. I didn't like Joel. Another cringeworthy moment: when he was trying to win Evie back and told her she reminded him of his ex-girlfriend. Good grief ...The idea of the secret makeovers (more anonymity) was fun, although it got highly repetitive in the story. The imagery was good. I was grateful that the book wasn't written on the assumption that every reader knows London intimately, so that was a plus-point.The writing style was ok, it worked with the story, although the book was terribly overlong. If all the descriptions of every single thing every single character was wearing were omitted, the book would be quie skinny. There were also some hideous typos /grammatical errors in the book (not the fault of the author).To end, I wouldn't recommend this book. It just didn't work for me.
review 2: You know when someone says "that's nice", what they mean is "I don't hate it, but I don't really love it either." This pretty much sums up my view of this book. Don't worry I will get more in to detail than just saying "it was nice."Miracle On Regent Street is a chick lit book all the way. It all starts with a 20-something woman, who has become stuck in some dead end job, gave up on social and a possible love life. Evie has gone so far in the background people don't remember her, take her for granted and they don't even know her real name, all calling her Sarah. Which to me just blows my mind, that your self confidence is so low or that you have become so shy, you can't even correct people on your name.So to me the heroine of this book is too bland. Don't get me wrong, she's nice and sweet, but so passive it's borderline boring to read about. The thing that mostly kept me going through this book were the other characters in this book, mostly Lily and Felix. They have been at Hardy's so long, they've almost become part of the decor. Evie bonds with them, because like her they are kind of invisible and have been taken for granted.Now it can't be a romance if there isn't some guy involved. Actually there are two guys, but Evie only sees one. Joel is an American financial adviser, Hardy's has hired to help them. When Evie literally runs into him at the store and he asks her out, who is she to say no, right? It has been so long she could use a little romance. Unfortunately I don't feel the connection/attraction between those two. They go out, it's fun and all that. But once again it's just nice.Then there is this other guy, Sam. He is the delivery guy and from the beginning of the book you know he's got the hots for Evie. Only, of course, she's oblivious to his interest in her. Here you could really see the sparks vibrating with anticipation between them and girl goes totally the other way around. She isn't out to hurt him, she just doesn't realise, not even after two years. It's stuff like that, which frustrates me to no end.All in all, Miracle On Regent Street is very well written, fun characters and has a vintage chic feel to it, even though it is a bit too long. It was my first Christmas book this year, so it has gotten me a bit in the mood for the holiday season. And like I said, it was nice. less

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