It Happened at Christmas by Christen Krumm Review

Hello Friends :)

I hope you're all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.

Are you someone who reads different stories for each season? Or are you someone like me who can read any story at any time of the year? I've always been the type of reader that has no problem reading summer stories in the middle of January, or picking up Christmas stories in the heat of the summer.

Of course, there are certain stories I enjoy more at certain times of the year, but that would never stop me from reading them all year round.

This long winded intro is simply my manner of explaining why exactly I'm reviewing a Christmas novel in February. 

I actually ended up reading this one and typing up this review back in May. Then everything ended up happening, and it never actually got posted.

 

It's such a great book though, and I knew I still wanted to share it with you all so that's what I'm going to be doing today. 

It Happened at Christmas by Christen Krumm:

Source: Bought for Myself

Publication Date: October 20th, 2019

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Synopsis:

In this enchanting YA spin on While You Were Sleeping, Christen Krumm delivers laughter and Christmas sparkle through a swoon-worthy story of first love and belonging.

Life at Iverson Preparatory Boarding School isn’t easy when you’re basically the maid. Murphy Cain spends her days cleaning up after her upper class peers in exchange for tuition while dodging their cutting remarks. All of that changes when she rescues her crush, the popular and hunky Tripp Harrington, after a near-fatal accident and is mistaken as his girlfriend.

Murphy finds herself struggling with the choice to reveal the truth or play along. As Tripp’s girl, his wealthy family will offer Murphy something she's been craving her whole life—a chance to be one of the “in” crowd. A chance to belong. Without it, she’ll be right back where she started.

It only gets worse as Tripp’s brother Hank enters the picture. He’s handsome, down to earth, and seems to understand Murphy better than anyone else. The only problem? She’s supposed to be dating his brother.

As Christmas break draws to a close, Murphy must decide if telling the truth is worth losing it all or if the risk will bring a greater reward in the end. 

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

When I first heard about this one, I knew I needed it in my life. While You Were Sleeping has always been one of my all time favorite movies, and I couldn't wait to read this young adult retelling of it. This is such an adorable story, and I loved the characters, the boarding school setting, and the fact that it leaves every reader with a big case of the warm fuzzies after finishing it.

Murphy was a pretty likable protagonist, and I enjoyed the fact that despite all the odds stacked against her, she's determined to overcome her current situation. She also has such a big heart for everyone, and even with how the popular crowd has treated her throughout her years at Iverson, she doesn't even hesitate to jump right in and help Tripp. Likewise, Hank is a total riot, and I adored every one of his scenes throughout the story. He's a really great friend to Murphy, an actually pretty awesome big brother, and isn't the slightest bit self centered, despite his family's wealth.

I've been saying for years that we need more holiday themed young adult reads, and I'm so happy that another amazing one is now available in this market. It Happened at Christmas is a truly delightful, and clean holiday themed read that I know I'll be reading and rereading for Christmases to come.

I only ended up having a few small issues with it, but overall I really ended up loving it.

Firstly, I personally wasn't a fan of the Cinderella trope running throughout. I don't think it was done badly or anything, I'm just not usually a fan of this trope as I feel it's overdone, and I think I personally would have enjoyed the story a bit more without it.

Secondly, I thought there were a few bits and pieces of the ending that really didn't make any sense, and didn't really seem plausible. I was happy with the way everything wrapped up, I just didn't think it made a lot of sense as to how it got there.

Third, while I thought the writing style was amazing, and definitely kept me glued to the page, I have to mention that there were quite a few grammatical errors scattered throughout, and I found them a little distracting from the main story.

All in all, I think this is a great holiday story, and I will be highly recommending it. It's definitely one of the best young adult Christmas stories I've ever read, and I'm sure fans of sweet, Christmas romances are going to love this. Definitely go ahead and pick this one up, especially if you're a fan of While You Were Sleeping.

Final Rating: 4/5.

Thanks so much for reading guys! I hope you have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.