I previously read Michele Gorman's, Single in the City (Single in the City series) and Misfortune Cookie and liked both books. There were some things that needed to be worked on in both novels but ultimately I did enjoy reading about ex-pat Hannah living and working in London (Single in the City) and then moving to live and work in Hong Kong (Misfortune Cookie).

Her newest and last novella starring Hannah, is "The Twelve Days to Christmas". I would recommend that readers read both books in order to not be spoiled by this review. In "Misfortune Cookie" we find Hannah single again after breaking up with Sam though the novel ends on such a note that you wonder if they get back together since she starts thinking about forgiveness. Now in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" we have Hannah getting ready for her return back to the States to visit her parents for the holiday with Sam.

There was so much that ultimately did not work for me with this novella that I marked it down to two stars.

First, the character of Hannah I always loved since she tried so hard and tended to babble. However, in this newest novella you have her doing a 180 pretending that she can't commit to Sam not because he doesn't ultimately know the real her. It made absolutely no sense since ultimately there are plenty of reasons that Hannah wouldn't want to commit to him, after what happened in Misfortune Cookie. I wish that both Hannah and Sam had more time to discuss what was going on in there relationship rather in just 12 days for them to figure it out. Also many of the other characters such as Stacy, the twins, and her boss just felt flat to me. There was no time to sit back and enjoy anyone.

Next, I think that very few authors out there can write short stories or novellas these days. The reason why is that you have to be in my opinion a deft storyteller in order to impact the reader in a shorter time frame. I felt as if Gorman missed this by spades. The whole novella felt rushed to me and we were handed information on what has been going on in Hannah's life fast and furious. The resolution when it came didn't feel earned.

I also think that due to the novella Ms. Gorman was not able to write Hong Kong as well as she did in "Misfortune Cookie". She seriously made me want to eat the food and go and visit Hong Kong due to her descriptions. I ultimately felt as if this novel could have taken place anywhere in the world.

Last, the epilogue was really awful and I wish that Gorman had just left that part out and left it to the readers imagination on what happened next with Hannah and her life. Or even wrote another novella down the road to pick up her story. To have it end as she did felt very cheap.

I would only recommend to fans who want to find out what happens with Hannah and her relationship with Sam.

I received this novel for free in the Amazon Kindle Lending Library. ( )

This review was originally posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on October 13, 2012
*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*


A few months ago, Michele contacted me to review the previous novel in this series, Misfortune Cookie. (You can read that review here) So when she contacted me about The Twelve Days to Christmas I was happy to say yes because I wondered what had happened to them.

I have to admit that I wasn't all that thrilled by the ending of Misfortune Cookie only because I had hoped that Hannah would stick to her guns and not get back together with Sam because it seemed like he didn't care about her enough. But at the end of the book you could already tell that she was considering letting him back in. In this book. it's very obvious that he cares for her a lot. It seems as if they've flipped roles a little in that regard because Hannah doesn't seem quite as needy as she was before (this is a very good thing).

But, as she starts to suspect (and worry) that Sam is going to propose to her, she starts to plan Operation Proposal to ensure that he does, even though it's clear that she's having second thoughts about the whole idea. I was a bit disappointed about this, more on a personal level than one with the book itself. Hannah knowing that Sam is going to propose just takes all the fun out of it. In terms of the story though, it's perfect because it's reason to throw Hannah into a frenzy and get her all worked up which is typical of her character.

It's a bit fun to watch her go to the length to ensure that Sam proposes, but I did feel kind of bad about the fact that she had her own secrets to keep from him in this book. It's almost like payback for the secret he kept from her in Misfortune Cookie.

One thing that I want to note that was really fun about the structure is that at the beginning of each chapter there's a set of lines that's repeated and grows with each chapter, that's very similar to The Twelve Days of Christmas song. That was a cute touch to the story.

If you're worried about the fact that this is a series, don't be. Each of these work well as standalone books too. I didn't get a chance to read Single in the City before I read Misfortune Cookie and I didn't really feel like anything major was missing. I don't think anyone who reads just this story will feel that way either.

I do have to say that I was slightly disappointed by the ending. To me, it just felt a tiny bit cliche, I was hoping for something more. There was also an issue with the names of characters at the end (I won't say what this is because I don't want to spoil it) but I felt it was slightly unoriginal.

Those are really personal issues though, nothing to do with the book itself, which was excellent. This is a wonderfully sweet story that's perfect for the Christmas season.
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A wonderfully delightful novella with a great cast of characters! I enjoyed being on the journey with Hannah while she discovered what she really wanted and how sometimes life works out just the way it was meant to! Pick up this Christmas novella and enjoy a quick, fun read! 4.5 stars!
*note this book is part of a series ( )