Surprise! "Christmas Cliche" by Tara Sivec is here!

Christmas came early for me this week because one of my absolute favorite authors, Tara Sivec, surprised us with her brand-new rom-com release, "Christmas Cliche." Needless to say, I wasted no time in purchasing, downloading, and devouring this hilarious and heartwarming holiday story.  The people around me were ignored for hours and household chores went unfinished as I laughed hysterically at the antics of Allie Parker, her best friend Millie, her "mountain man" love interest Jason, and the rest of the gang. I've included my full review at the end of this post, but in short, I loved this book so incredibly much!  Without a doubt, it is going to end up on my "favorite books of 2019" list.  I haven't laughed this hard in quite some time, so thank you, Tara Sivec, because I really needed the stress relief.

About "Christmas Cliche"

‘Twas the week before Christmas
and all through L.A.,
Allie Parker’s famous twin sisters
were driving her cray.
She fled to the mountains
with a hostage in tow,
hoping to sleep through the holidays,
which were a shit-show.
A crash in a blizzard,
and a hot mountain man,
definitely wasn’t part
of her evacuation plan.
Santas, and stockings,
and creepy nutcrackers too,
everywhere she looks,
it’s a crazy Christmas zoo.
But there are hugs, and smiles,
and a beautiful view,
kisses and laughter,
and no time to be blue.
Maybe this family,
with their hot mountain man,
will make this a Christmas
Allie can actually stand.

My Review 

I loved "Christmas Cliche" so much. I haven't laughed so hard while reading a book in ages!  The characters were wildly entertaining and tremendously likeable, the romance was sweet, and the over-the-top Christmas theme was a lot of fun. 

The book's main character, Allie Parker, was wonderfully snarky but kind, friendly, and down to Earth at the same time. It's hard to imagine how Allie and her younger sisters grew up in the same family but turned out so differently. I guess Allie was lucky to be several years older than the twins, Tori and Zoey, and have extra time under her father's influence before he passed away.  

Allie's love interest, Jason, seemed like a great guy and perfect match for Allie.  He was a hard worker who really loved his job, but also loved his family even when they were driving him crazy.  And they were very good at driving him crazy!  His parents delighted in trying to "help" him win Allie's affections, even going so far as to tell Allie that Jason had "no game" and begging her to go out with him anyway.  It seemed to me like Jason was doing just fine on his own in pursuing Allie, but his family's antics were very amusing, and it was sweet how quickly they embraced Allie and made her feel at home.

The secondary characters in this book, especially Allie's best friend, Millie, added a tremendous amount of depth to the narrative. Millie was so out of touch with reality, and it should have been sad or annoying or offensive or something, but instead, it was incredibly endearing. Millie was so sweet and supportive of Allie, not to mention spot on in both her assessment of the twins and Allie's need to get a life of her own.  One of my favorite parts of this book was Millie's (scarily accurate) mishmash of various Hallmark Channel Christmas movie plots. I also loved when she turned Jason's dad into Fashion Santa. I laughed so hard I was crying just imagining his outfit!

Finally, I have to note that, as far as I'm concerned, small children swearing will never NOT be funny, so I found Jen's daughter Maddy, with her "new and improved" name for nutcrackers and her names for the cats, to be completely hilarous.  Maddy reminded me a bit of young Gavin in Sivec's earlier book (hopefully soon to be a Passionflix movie!), "Seduction and Snacks."

Overall, I really can't recommend this book highly enough.  It is both hilarious and heartwarming, and will certainly put readers in the Christmas spirit.  

(P.S. My opinion? "Die Hard" is totally a Christmas movie. I realize that this is a controversial statement, but I'm going with it.)