REVIEW: The Night Before Christmas by Nicola Knight
Felicity Brooks is a bit of a Scrooge—but when she meets a man dressed as a giant penguin on Christmas Eve, could it spell a change of heart?
The ridiculous music. The excessive presents. The stupid Christmas sweaters. Felicity wants nothing more than to escape it all, and she pounces on the chance to work shifts over the holiday season at an animal rescue center. After all, it’s the only place that brings her true happiness.
But one day, her evening is disturbed by a stranger named James—dressed as a penguin and cradling a weak kitten. As Felicity and James work together to nurse the sick feline back to health, it gives them the perfect excuse to bond over their mutual dislike of all things festive. And soon, sparks fly.
However, their attraction is interrupted when Felicity’s ex-boyfriend Adam returns to declare his undying love. And when she’s let down by both men, Felicity decides to return to her childhood home for some peace. While there, she uncovers an array of family secrets, and even more about herself—which may just help her to make a choice between the penguin and the ex . . .
Dear Ms. Knight,
I let myself be swept away by the darling cover with the penguin plus the fact that the heroine works in an animal rescue center and the hero appears out of the dark of night with a newborn kitten who needs rescuing. I didn’t realize that the rest of the book would take a darker turn and end up dealing with some serious issues.
Both Felicity (aka Crazy Cat Lady) and James (aka Penguin Man) loathe Christmas. And not for silly reasons either, I’ll give them both that. Both have suffered heartbreak while it ’twas the Season. When James appears at the rescue center door, with a cold newborn kitten, and then he and Felicity head back out into the damp night to rescue the mother cat, I was smitten. Then they bond over shared M&S treats and watching “Die Hard” (which is a Christmas movie). This is adorable! I thought. Sparks are flying, and heart emoji eyes aren’t far behind. But this is only chapter three – or was it four? Anyway what else is going to happen to fill out the rest of the book?
Well, there’s a lot that comes after the adorable start. Much of it is darker than I was expecting. Just when James is about ready to make his move (which both of them want), someone from Felicity’s past appears. This person and Felicity have a long and convoluted history with a terrible breakup that has haunted Felicity for Reasons due to her family past. Felicity is astonished when Adam shows up, can’t see why he would come back into her life, and dismayed that Adam appears ready to repeat a past event where he came between Felicity and someone she was interested in. But at one time Felicity loved Adam and she can’t seem to stop listening to his reasons and excuses.
Felicity also has a family past that turns out to be something you’d write to an Agony Aunt for advice about as well as something that would – and in Felicity’s case has – traumatized the way she views relationships and her own worth. Luckily Felicity seeks and appears to be in the process of being helped by therapy.
It’s not that I dislike the fact that the book ends up allowing Felicity to dig into her past, come to some terms with this, and understand why she thinks that she doesn’t deserve happiness and that there’s always something around the corner just waiting to wreck her joy. She has enough emotional skeletons in her closet that she needs time to deal with them. What ends up annoying and frustrating me is just how many times both Felicity and James get yo-yo’d back and forth. It’s mostly Felicity but James has someone, actually two someones, who jerk him around, too. Right when I think, they’ve got it worked out BAM! something else happens to derail the relationship and cast doubt on it. After a while, I thought “What the heck else is going to come along to disrupt things??” It got old.
So yay for a chance to see that mental health therapy can work but damn, with the heroine’s toxic family/ex boyfriend relationships, this was not quite what I was expecting. B-
~Jayne
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