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A review by serenityofbooks
The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett
3.0
Full disclosure before I write my review for The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallet;
1. I picked this festive solely based on the cover – it’s hardcover & gorgeous! I firmly stand by this decision.
2. If I had of done some research, I would have realised this is a follow up to 2021’s The Appeal & not intended as a standalone read.
3. And finally, if I had of read The Appeal, I would of known it is solely told through the use of emails, text, whatsapp messages etc. This is my least favourite means of storytelling, so I won’t have picked up.
Ok with all that said, this cute festive whodunnit is set against a Christmas pantomime raising money for a new church roof. But when a dead body turns up on stage, everyone in the amateur drama group becomes a suspect. I spent most of my time reading this completely confused for the reasons noted above. There are A LOT of characters that I struggled to get my head and due to the format, I found myself not really getting to know any of the characters well and therefore losing interest in the storyline.
As all my issues with this book are purely self-inflicted, I think it’s only fair I give it a 3-star rating as I think you need to check out and decide for yourself with this one. But I would highly recommend reading The Appeal before getting festive with these characters. Either way, it’s still a gorgeous cover design and makes me feel all the happy Christmassy vibes when I look at it, so I’ll take that as a win!
1. I picked this festive solely based on the cover – it’s hardcover & gorgeous! I firmly stand by this decision.
2. If I had of done some research, I would have realised this is a follow up to 2021’s The Appeal & not intended as a standalone read.
3. And finally, if I had of read The Appeal, I would of known it is solely told through the use of emails, text, whatsapp messages etc. This is my least favourite means of storytelling, so I won’t have picked up.
Ok with all that said, this cute festive whodunnit is set against a Christmas pantomime raising money for a new church roof. But when a dead body turns up on stage, everyone in the amateur drama group becomes a suspect. I spent most of my time reading this completely confused for the reasons noted above. There are A LOT of characters that I struggled to get my head and due to the format, I found myself not really getting to know any of the characters well and therefore losing interest in the storyline.
As all my issues with this book are purely self-inflicted, I think it’s only fair I give it a 3-star rating as I think you need to check out and decide for yourself with this one. But I would highly recommend reading The Appeal before getting festive with these characters. Either way, it’s still a gorgeous cover design and makes me feel all the happy Christmassy vibes when I look at it, so I’ll take that as a win!