The Christmas Appeal is a sequel novella to the uniquely popular book, The Appeal. In the novella, the cast of characters from the original novel once again find themselves in the midst of an investigation when their holiday season play doesn’t go exactly as planned. This is definitely a novella that needs the context of the original book to make sense, but it was great to jump back into the world of the Fairway Players.
The cast of characters that make up the Fairway Players never fail to disappoint. They are interesting and well developed, despite the fact that the only way to get to know them is through their emails and texts to one another. It was fun to see the drama unfold and try to figure out who was trustworthy, and who was double crossing everyone. The back and forth of the characters would have much less of an impact and would make little sense without a firm understand of everything that occurred in The Appeal.
As a novella, there was little time to fully develop a solid mystery, and that was apparent from the beginning. There was quite a bit of time leading up to the case itself, so that once it happened, it felt lackluster and rushed. This mystery was clearly more about the characters than the investigation. The unique presentation of the facts made it difficult to decide what was actually important and what was just being used to fill the blank spaces in the story. Despite the lackluster presentation of the actual mystery, it concluded itself in a manner that was satisfying enough, if not thrilling.
This novella is definitely worth a quick read for any reader who read the first book and wanted to see how the characters survived after the upset of the original.
⅘ stars
Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.
The Novel Llama 