A Heart for Christmas

by Sophie Jomain

Review

I really wanted A Heart for Christmas to sweep me up in cozy holiday magic, especially with its advent-style setup where you unseal a chapter every day—such a fun and nostalgic concept. But while the format was adorable and honestly kept me turning pages, the story itself didn’t land quite right for me. This was marketed as YA, yet the themes didn’t match that label: off-screen attempted suicide, sex off-page, and a good amount of intimate touching and petting that felt more adult than advertised. Meanwhile, the characters themselves were firmly rooted in YA territory—just not always in the best way. April, our main character, came across as overly sheltered and self-focused, and although she had a few moments of solid common sense when talking with her parents, those flashes felt like exceptions instead of growth. Her relationships—with friends and especially with her love interest, Augustin—leaned heavily into immaturity, and that really tested my patience while reading.

There were pieces I enjoyed, though: opening each sealed chapter was genuinely exciting, and discussing each day with my book club made the experience more engaging than the story itself. I just wish the book had leaned into cozy Hallmark-style charm and emotional arcs instead of tossing in drama that didn’t actually move the plot forward. A late-book injury felt like tension for tension’s sake, and the final chapter—while exactly the kind of ending I expected—didn’t land with the emotional weight or detail I wanted. Overall, I wouldn’t call it great, but I wouldn’t call it terrible either. It’s cute in concept—with a lot of missed potential—and I’m absolutely planning to seek out more books with this sealed-chapter style because that format made the whole thing worth reading in a way the plot didn’t.