Review By Kayleigh
The Christmas Cure has a delightful premise and swoon-worthy characters, all wrapped up in the perfect holiday festivities bow.
Favourite Quote:
If I knew a potbellied pig named Mary Piggins would soon change my life forever, I would not have ordered extra bacon on my breakfast sandwich this morning. But I’ve yet to meet Miss Piggins, I’m starving, and I have only fifteen minutes before my break ends.
Book Synopsis:
When Libby Munro returns to her hometown of Harmony Hills—a holiday-obsessed village that feels like stepping into a Christmas card—she’s longing for an escape. A respite from her hectic job as a big-city emergency room doctor, and a change of scenery after a painful break-up. Maybe Harmony Hills’s festive charm will help her rediscover the holiday spirit.
What she doesn’t expect is Liam the dreamy, green-eyed owner of the local bakery, whose smile rivals the glow of the town’s legendary Christmas tree. Or a run-in with Liam’s excitable pot-bellied pig, Mary Piggins, at the rumoured-to-be-magical tree-lighting ceremony. Libby’s knocked unconscious in the chaos and wakes up to find herself thrust into the specifically, to Christmastime, one year ago.
As she relives last Christmas, Libby begins to wonder if this is a second chance to change her life. With every snowflake-filled moment, the undeniable spark between her and Liam grows brighter. But if she’s going to rewrite her future, she’ll need to figure out what changes the past is asking her to make—and whether she’s ready to embrace the pull of home, and the promise of true love.
Review:
The Christmas Cure is the perfect feel good holiday read that blends favourite Christmas tropes with a fresh storyline. We meet Libby, a high powered ER doctor who is seemingly living her dream life: handsome doctor boyfriend, challenging and fulfilling job and a big city home. There’s a nagging feeling that she’s not living the life she really wants though, even though it looks great on paper. After her relationship crumbles, she heads back home to her small town where her family still lives. After a freak accident involving an adorable pot-bellied pig, Libby wakes up one year earlier. The Christmas Cure asks Libby to visit the past year of her life with the hindsight of what she knows now. And Libby, to her surprise, has to decide if she wants to get back to her current life, or if she likes the path that’s open to her right now.
I loved watching Libby have to decide what she wants out of her life. She’s an “older” main character in the romance world at the ripe old age of 40, and I liked that she has age and experience on her side. She knows her worth and is realizing that now is the time to go after what she wants her life to be like. Liam, throws her life off course in more ways than one. He is the utter sunshine, golden retriever cinnamon role to Libby’s black cat grumpy energy. I adore Liam. He is sweetness without being saccharine, and is exactly the type of man we should all look for. He is the paper form of “if he wanted to, he would” meme. Libby, for a variety of reasons that I won’t get into in this review for spoiler reasons, is conflicted over her feelings for Liam, and because of the weird back-in-time experience that she’s having, she can’t just tell him because who would believe her? Fun fact: the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life can trace its inspiration back to A Christmas Carol, which is of course, the see-your-life-at-different-stages Christmas story. Libby’s story is also coloured by the poignant wistfulness that I love in both A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life and is what grounds this story in its heart.
Watching Liam and Libby navigate their relationship while Libby is also trying to come to terms with her life’s path, is both wholesome and also magically realistic. Nothing happens overnight or perfectly for Libby, and Liam has his own past that he’s been doing the work to move on from. There are a lot of engaging characters to meet here, including Libby’s family, her ex Austin, and the town people that have known Libby since she was a kid. I really loved getting glimpses into Libby’s psyche when she interacts in the past, present and “mixed up time” with characters. It really shows just how much she grows during her time change experience. There is one fantastic side character who does help bring Libby and Liam closer together, and that is the delightful pot-bellied pig, Mary Piggins, that Liam has adopted. She is a character and a half (did you know pigs have a sweet tooth?) and she loves Libby. She is a screwball character that brings levity while still moving the plot forward.
The Christmas Cure is the perfect holiday read, best read by an open fire with a steaming cup of hot cocoa in hand.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
