Tips for Tuesday - Books: Holly Jolly July & Christmas People; Movie: Unseen Enemy

We may have been given complimentary copies and/or access for review purposes to any books, products, and/or any other visual or audio media mentioned below. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

Books: Holly Jolly July & Christmas People

Me - Holly Jolly July by Lindsay Maple is a quintessential Christmas romance, despite taking place during the summertime. It follows Ellie and Mariah, who are working on the set of a Christmas movie filming over the course of a couple of weeks in July. Ellie has been acting in side roles for years and can't seem to break into leading roles, either in her career or in her life. Meanwhile, Mariah is a makeup artist who aspires to do costume makeup on more serious films but instead can't seem to move beyond weddings and low-budget holiday movies.

The characters fall into typical Christmas movie archetypes. Ellie is super positive, perky, bubbly, and Christmas-obsessed, while Mariah is a grumpy, pessimistic Christmas hater. That said, they do have some depth, especially in terms of their career goals and Mariah's history of difficulty with her parents and not fitting in with her peers. My main issue with them was that they felt immature for their ages. Oftentimes, I felt like I was reading about teenagers when they were supposed to be in their late 20s or early 30s. This was especially true when it came to their reactions to Jax/Matt, which I'll get more into momentarily.

Their romance begins when they discover they've been hooking up with the same guy– known by Ellie as Matt and by Mariah as Jax. They decide to take revenge on him through a series of pranks. This set-up is interesting, but it falls a bit flat considering each of them has only been seeing this guy for a few days. Mariah knew him in high school when she'd had a crush on him and he'd been a jerk. As soon as she sees him, those feelings reignite, even though he does nothing to prove he's not still a jerk. She also doesn't even seem to have a strong desire to have anything more with him than sex, so, while I understand her being angry when she finds out he lied about the fact that he's seeing other people at the same time as her, it doesn't make sense for her to have cared as much as she did. As for Ellie, she convinced herself she and Matt were soulmates after going on only one date, which was so ridiculous I couldn't take it seriously. Between the way they both went crazy over him based on absolutely nothing, to the way they reacted like he'd betrayed them and broken their hearts when neither of them was actually in a relationship with him, it was just very immature.

That said, the actual romance between Ellie and Mariah was cute. Some of their dialogue -and the book's dialogue in general– was a bit awkward or stilted, but they had decent chemistry and their personalities matched nicely. Their relationship was more surface-level than I prefer, but it was very on par with the typical Christmas romance recipe, so I can't fault the book too much for it.

The book also included little snippets from the script of the movie Ellie and Mariah were working on, which was nice because it made the book feel slightly quicker to get through.

Overall, this was fun for what it was. I don't personally love Christmas romances, and if I had known how heavily this one would fall into that category, I probably wouldn't have picked it up, so it's safe to say it wasn't for me. However, if you love Christmas romances, and especially if you pick this up during the summertime when you're yearning for your own Christmas in July, you might really love it.

Mom - Today, we are talking about Christmas People by Ivy-Marie Palmer. Christmas isn't the best time for Jill Jacobs. Three years ago, on Christmas, her hometown boyfriend, Grant, broke up with her. Now her agent is encouraging her to take a meeting regarding writing one of those sappy Heartfelt Christmas movies to salvage her dying career. Reluctantly, she returns to her hometown for the holidays, but when she wakes up, she finds herself in the middle of one of those movies, torn between her high school crush and her ex. 

While the premise of this story is interesting, the execution is mixed. On the one hand, the perfection of the place comes across a little too strongly as if they are all living in some kind of Stepford world. This is most evident in the descriptions of the setting and the way some characters have changed from the real world to the movie world.  On the other hand, it comes across as not perfect enough for the movie world, and some characters have hardly changed at all.

The love triangle seems forced. It is clear from the beginning that this is Grant and Jill's story. Cory is a little too perfect in either world. Grant and Jill make a nice couple, though, at least when she learns to grow up, face reality, and take responsibility for her own actions. Before that, she can be insufferable at times. 

A story like this might work better as an actual movie. That way, the difference between the real world and the film world would be clearer. It wouldn't be something you would have to hold in your mind; you would just see it.

Movie: Unseen Enemy

Today, we are discussing Unseen Enemy. This film is quite confusing, and the plot is never fully explained.  Thus, it is impossible to try to describe coherently. Nevertheless, this is another one of those films that's light on plot and character development but heavy on action with plenty of blood and gore. If you like that, you should enjoy it. Otherwise not. 

Holly Jolly July was published in June. Christmas People publishes today. Unseen Enemy is available on DVD today. 

Tune in tomorrow for Where-To-Go Wednesday.

All images except film images used in this post are our own.  Film images have been sent to us from publicists, artists, and/or  PR firms. Address any concerns regarding image usage here.