A New York Winter by Isla Gordon

Book Review Nov 23, 2023

My review

4/5 stars

This was a lovely cosy festive read to kick off the Christmas season.

Ashling was endearing and engaging from start to finish. I felt invested in her journey to rediscover herself more than I expected to and enjoyed watching her find a new direction. She was in a very vulnerable place emotionally, but still managed to be funny and confident - it was lovely that the author didn't play into the stereotype of having vulnerability be a weakness.

River was a great juxtaposition to Ashling's character, while also matching her in terms of vulnerability. Their chemistry was lovely to read, but at no point over-powered the self-discovery journey that they were both on. They complimented each other well and made for easy reading.

The cosiness of this book, for me, came from how New York was described. Having been to New York, I was able to picture all of the places that Ashling explored vividly in my mind, and the author did a wonderful job of adding a festive vivality to the whole thing by talking about things like ice skating in famous parks and taking part in the Thankgiving Parade, and of course, no book about New York at Christmas is complete without the ball dropping!

Very easy read, recommend for some festive escapism this Christmas!

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.