The Gift That Keeps on Taking

This is a rather cute novel about two young men consistently dragged together by the friendship their parents share as well as the beach house both families co-own. Following 6 years of Christmas vacation and some of the stretches between, we see both Liam and Christian grow from high-schoolers to adults and beyond, and how the relationship between them evolves as well.

I do want to preface the rest of the review by saying I did actually like this book, and do recommend readers who enjoy light-hearted romances between seeming frenemies to give it a look. There are some moments between the two main characters that are so beautifully written I might have let out an actual audible sigh of happiness. But there are also many aspects that made it hard to connect to and enjoy the story at times.

Coming from a background of helping critique many of my friends' works, there have been so many discussions on whether a main character has to be likable for a reader to enjoy it. While I was more on the fence than most of the group, I did feel strongly that this becomes more important if the character is also the lens through which the reader sees the world a writer creates. And I'll be honest... I really didn't like the pov character, Liam, through most of this story. There just doesn't seem to be enough of a reason, at least to me, for why he acts the way he does toward Christian. It ultimately made him feel both petty and childish in quite a few scenes. If there had been more of a justification for the behavior, I think I would have received it quite differently.

From a stylistic stance, I was also pulled out of the story by relatively frequent jumps in time. Months could pass in a few lines that are pushed seamlessly between other paragraphs in the middle of chapters. Maybe I've become a lazy reader and have gotten used to more definitive ways, but I largely had to reread each of these time skips to make sure I understood exactly. Part of this confusion though is the jumps into the future that we get, small asides from Liam that push us past the scope of the actual story. Happening more frequently in the latter half than the first, I didn't really understand the addition of them, particularly when the novel itself isn't written like old Liam describing events to us.

A few minor things also kept me from staying hooked into the story. Though they are much better fleshed out later, both Liam's and Christian's mothers personalities seem to be just wine at the beginning. There are also lines that involve quite a bit of contradiction in their execution such as patiently waiting while simultaneously knocking on doors or calling a person so calculating that they don't realize it.

Despite what I've described above though, I do want to reiterate that I'm still happy I picked up and read a copy of this book. It is definitely one of those novels that largely smooths out the further you dive into it. And there is enough of a payoff that I do think fans of the genre will still enjoy the story as well.