Review: Tangled Up In Christmas

Tangled Up In Christmas by Lisa Renee Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit that at first, I was a bit frustrated with "Tangled Up in Christmas" by Lisa Renee Jones, though I ended up really liking this book in the end. While I found the main characters to be likeable and well-developed, the pace of the story felt rushed to me in the early chapters. For example, I couldn't believe how quickly the friendship between Hannah, the main character of this book, and Jessica, the main character of the first book in the series, developed. Yes, Hannah grew up with Jessica's husband, Jason, but I still found it strange that it only took about five minutes during a media event for Jessica to decide not only that she and Hannah were going to be good friends, but also that Hannah was the perfect person to hire to plan a Christmas festival for Jason's baseball camp. A lot had happened since Hannah left Texas, and it was unrealistic to assume that she was still the same trustworthy person that Jason remembered. (Of course, she was trustworthy, but that's beside the point.) In addition, later that same night, Hannah was already treating Jessica as a confidante. Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine spilling personal information to a near-stranger so quickly after meeting, even if she was married to a childhood friend of mine.

Hannah's relationship with her love interest, Roarke, also developed incredibly quickly. Again, yes, they did have a previous relationship when they were younger, but they basically just jumped right in where they left off instead of taking the time to get to know each other again. It really bothered me that they acted like their breakup was a week earlier, not six years earlier. I can't imagine that neither of them changed or grew up at all in the intervening years. The one thing that was clear is that there were a lot of mistakes made on both sides, and I wouldn't say that either one of them handled things the right way back then.

All of that said, as the timeline stretched out and the characters had more of a chance to interact on the page, the story really started to click for me. Hannah and Roarke were both wonderful, likeable characters, and I wanted so much for them to be happy. They both learned some very important things about themselves and their relationship, which allowed them to overcome the baggage of their past and finally move forward together. Their HEA felt very well-deserved, and the book's epilogue practically had me in tears.

I also appreciated that this story answered some of the questions I had after reading the first book in this series, especially about Jason's parents. However, it is still a standalone novel, and it is not necessary to read the previous book to enjoy this one. I do recommend Jessica and Jason's story ("The Truth about Cowboys") based on its own merits, though!

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

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