Please don’t come home for Christmas…

Julie Parker’s kids are her greatest gift. Still, she’s not exactly heartbroken when they ask to skip a big Christmas. Her son, Nick, is taking a belated honeymoon with his bride, Blair, while her daughter, Dana, will purge every reminder of the guy who dumped her. Again. Julie feels practically giddy for one-on-one holiday time with Heath, the (much) younger man she’s secretly dating.

But her plans go from cozy to chaotic when Nick and Dana plead for Christmas at the family cabin in memory of their late father, Julie’s ex. She can’t refuse, even though she dreads their reactions to her new man when they realize she’s been hiding him for months.

As the guest list grows in surprising ways, from Blair’s estranged mom to Heath’s precocious children, Julie’s secret is one of many to be unwrapped. Over this delightfully complicated and very funny Christmas, she’ll discover that more really is merrier, and that a big, happy family can become bigger and happier, if they let go of old hurts and open their hearts to love.

There’s nothing quite like an awkward family Christmas, and that is precisely what this book has in spades. It’s a fun read, but while I found it mostly enjoyable, I wasn’t entirely (or even slightly) blown away by it.

The novel focuses on the Parker family. Julie, the family matriarch, owns a towing company that she inherited from her father. Business is great, but now that she is in her 50s, Julie is thinking about the next chapter in her life and is eager to start training her son to do more of the business side of things. One thing Julie is looking forward to is spending several days alone at her cabin with her younger boyfriend, Heath. It will be just the two of them – or so she thinks. Her plans are turned upside down when her children, Nick and Dana, ask for a family Christmas at the cabin. Their father recently passed away, and they’re not quite ready to let go of the family tradition. Julie will do anything for her kids, so she agrees. Now, she needs to break the news to them that not only is she dating someone, but he’s younger than her by 12 years, which is something she fears her kids won’t understand.

But that is the least of Julie’s problems. Before she knows it, Nick’s wife, Blair, invites her mother to the cabin, and Heath learns that his ex-wife is going out of town with her new boyfriend, and he needs to bring his two young children along with them. Then, two of Julie’s employees have nowhere to go, so she invites them as well. Julie’s quiet Christmas has now turned into anything but. By the end of the week, the family will either be closer than ever or never want to see each other again.

The writing in the novel isn’t bad, and the story flows well, but it holds very few surprises. I also thought the author made some interesting choices for some of the characters. I am all about authenticity and visibility and appreciated Julie’s concerns about aging, as well as Dana’s body image issues. What was weird for me was the choice to give Blair (Nick’s wife) IBS. Again, I appreciate visibility, and I know that IBS can be awful (I have a family member who has it), but it felt really random in this story.

As far as characters go, I really liked them for the most part, and they felt authentic, but, honestly, Blair’s mom was probably the most complex character and the only one who had much depth. Julie was almost too nice, and while her journey to accepting her new relationship and navigating the complexities of family dynamics was entertaining, it also felt like it was missing any real conflict – it was all very surface-level. Dana and Nick were great characters, and honestly, I enjoyed their story arcs more than Julie’s.

Overall, this was a fun family story, but I wish there had been a little more depth and maybe a few less characters. If you like a basic holiday story with few surprises and a lot of chaos, this might be the book for you. For me, it was enjoyable, but it didn’t rise above any of the other holiday books I’ve read.