‘Christmas Under the Stars’ by Karen Swan

I was disappointed with this book although it was a convenient mindless read during the holiday season. According to the reviews in Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, what I thought was going to be a delicious Canadian Christmas romance with plenty of twists and turns, turned out to be flat and predictable and very little about Christmas after all. Though the setting of Banff was charming as the place itself, the novel was slow and depressing and way too long.

British author Karen Swan has written many Christmas themed books as well as summer ones. This one was a shout out to a country that she loves and wanted to thank her readers in. It’s about a tragic event in the Canadian Rockies during a blinding snowstorm that connects Meg, who is desperately trying to radio for help, with an astronaut who from his perspective in space, can see what she cannot. Relationships and secrets are not what they seem and there is only one person who understands what it is to be truly alone.