Book Review - Let It Snow

Let It Snow
Author: Maureen Johnson, John Green, Lauren Myracle
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 6th October 2010
Publishers: Speak
No. Pages: 352
Source: Gifted
Rating: 
Buy From: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes and Noble | Waterstones

An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train and sets off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives.

Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House ( and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barista.

Let It Snow is most definitely one of those books that is not for people who feel sick at the thought, sight or sound of cheesy, romantic stories, and must be kept way in reach for people who expect a lot of story for your money, because that is exactly what Let It Snow is. It's a book of three stories, each one written by a different, well known YA author, all full of teenage romance, all intertwined with one another, all taking place in a small town, full of snowed in residents and travellers. Sound like your cup of tea? Well then dears, take a seat, get a hot chocolate, and prepare to be wowed.

The Jubilee Express

The first story was written by Maureen Johnson and was actually the first Johnson book I'd read which it both shocking and brilliant at the same time. I think if I had read another Johnson book previously, I may not have enjoyed The Jubilee Express as much I did, but thankfully, I adored it. I especially enjoyed Jubilee's character development in such a short amount of time, and I really saw a large amount of myself within Jubilee through her personality and her prejudging of people, so that made her extremely relatable. While I don't pride myself on prejudging people, I could understand Jubilee's attitudes towards cheerleaders; whether that makes me a terrible person, or makes Jubilee even more relatable, who knows, but either way, I seriously seriously loved her and how she grew to be confident in herself. I even liked how quick and abrupt the relationship came along and while I'm not always impressed by this, I most definitely aww'd to myself for around a hour at how pretty darn cute it was. When it came down to the other characters and the plot within Jubilee's story, I thought it was brilliant. I think Johnson did a great job of introducing the crisis that ran through all three of the stories, as well as creating her own love story within very few pages, which still somehow surprised me to this day. Once again, three authors have managed to wow me with just how much story they can fit into 120 pages, and I could not love it any more.

A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle

The second story was written by John Green, and for the second time this year, I was both amazingly pleased and amazingly in love with John's character's and writing style and plot and I just felt myself edging close to totally in love with Green as a whole. He once again created such a beautiful relationship between the group of friends, generated an adventurous plot and produced a wonderful progression of love between two friends, and these are all the features I love in a story. There wasn't a part in the story that wasn't full of emotion or adventure and I was glued to reading about the race to the Waffle House, no matter how absurd that sounds, and I was entirely invested in the budding relationship between Tobin and the Duke, even though I felt it showed a few similarities to that of Hazel and Gus from The Fault in our Stars. Unlike the other two stories in Let It Snow, A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle was in a males perspective, and it's still extremely rare to find a YA book in the perspective of a male, and I loved Green for this. However, unlike the first, I felt one of the other characters was the star of the show, and that was JP. I felt he brought a lot of humour to their adventure, and I felt he was the most engaging and relatable character throughout the story, alongside Angie, the Duke. I thoroughly loved the links from The Jubilee Express, especially that of Jeb's emergency phone call, which I found myself making up scenarios, and hoping and praying his trying wasn't in vain. I felt that A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle was one big cheese fest, and it had me smiling and laughing and was sweet and pretty darn adorable the whole way through. I loved Green's story so much more than Johnson's, and it was possibly my favourite of all three.

The Patron Saint of Pigs

The third and final story in Let It Snow was written by Lauren Myracle, and much like with Johnson's, it was the first by this author that I had read, and while reading it, I seriously fear it would be my last as I struggled to take to our leading lady Addie. I felt as a character she was extremely self-absorbed and self-centred, and although I understand that was one of the main concepts of the plot, I just couldn't take how absurd and pathetic her whimpering was. However, once she started her shift, I felt a change of direction in her attitudes. I began to warm to her, I began to appreciate her sense of humour and I was highly impressed with just how much her character came to grow. I also feel that her best friend Dorrie was exactly what Addie needed. I felt that Dorrie was the voice of reason whenever Addie needed it, and gave her a harsh smack of reality when it was required. I did eventually come to like Addie and her story, and I was actually quietly pleased at her ending. I was also insanely happy to finally know what Jeb's story was, and although I probably would have prefered a story in his perspective, I was just happy to see him happy. I was also extremely pleased to see how the other stories all finalised within Starbucks and how there were so many happy endings, if maybe too many, but hey, who doesn't love a cute, happy ending?

All three of the stories in Let It Snow were wonderful to read and I plan to read it once again before Christmas, one, because I don't have enough Christmas/Winter themed books, and two, because it's most definitely not a read once only kind of book.