Home Again For Christmas | Emily Stone
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
Lexie spends her life on the move, seeking new people and new adventures. The only constant in her life is a “wish jar” from her childhood that she takes everywhere. But that wish jar is a link with her estranged father and when Lexie learns he’s died, it might just become all the more important.
Home Again For Christmas: book review & synopsis
Oh goodness. If you’re going to read Home Again for Christmas, you’d better stock up on tissues! It made me cry with sadness, with relief and with happiness so that I finished this lovely story a bit of an emotional wreck. I loved it.
Of course there’s a wonderful romance at the heart of the narrative, with a brilliant enemies-to-lovers trope that feels perfect for Christmas reading, especially as the story starts and ends with the festive season, but this is a tale that embodies so much more. Emily Stone illustrates how memory is filtered through the perspective of time and, often, misconception.
Lexie is an intriguing character and I confess I didn’t always like her at times. She’s impetuous, hasty in her decisions, and quick to judge others before knowing all the facts. And that makes her perfect! She’s perfect because of her flaws.
Through Lexie we see the impact of our childhood on who we become as adults. We see the way people behave as a means to protect themselves from hurt. And we see someone who needs love and support so that, whilst Lexie may frustrate and infuriate, she also engenders such sympathy from readers that it is impossible not to love her too.
There are relatively few characters in the story, creating a feeling of intimacy and ensuring each is distinct and, except perhaps for Mike and Jody, appealing. Theo is a wonderful hero and the perfect complement to Lexie. It’s impossible not to fall in love with him and feel his frustrations as he tries to navigate a relationship with Lexie.
Exploring home and belonging…
However, the most affecting aspect of Home Again for Christmas is not the brilliantly depicted settings, nor the fizzing romance, but rather the sensitive exploration of home and belonging, and the gradual understanding Lexie has that being flawed and making mistakes is actually to be human.
Totally absorbing, wonderfully entertaining and achingly emotional, Home Again for Christmas, helps the reader understand that forgiving others, and ourselves, might just bring us to the sense of peace and home we crave. What better Christmas message could there be?
Home Again For Christmas by Emily Stone is out now (Headline Review, PB, £10.99) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including The Christmas Cottage by Sarah Morgan, A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorcroft, Foster’s Mill by Val Wood, All I Want For Christmas by Karen Swan, City of Silk by Glennis Virgo, Things We Lose In Waves by Lucy Ayrton and Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings.
