Christmas Cookies on a Cruise Ship (The Perfect Pairing Series Book 1) by Parker Fairchild – Review by Wendy Wary

Christmas Cookies on a Cruise Ship by Parker Fairchild
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you love Hallmark Christmas movies with Elf-style magic, this is probably the book for you. While the story was written well, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Off to a good start, Olivia is an easy character to relate to; she decides a cruise is a better way to spend the holidays after her former love interest gets engaged to her twin sister, the sexy supermodel. Her first day aboard Serendipity, she seems relaxed and ready to enjoy her holiday, but also sad and lonely as she notices all the families and couples aboard the ship.

Everything kind of just takes an unrealistic/unrelatable turn from there. Santa and Mrs. Claus end up dining with her, but they’re the real Clauses who share a whole backstory about being from Christmas, Michigan, and running an organic Christmas tree farm; they also spend the off-season in a retirement community in Florida and “play” Santa and Mrs. Claus aboard the Serendipity cruise.

After a few too many drinks at dinner, Olivia is basically transported into a make-believe sounding world of Christmas spirit and cheer, where she instantly falls in love with a man who just so happens to have the same name as the hero in the romance story she’s writing. As if that isn’t a tall order to fill, the real-life man is an American hero Navy SEAL, Jace, who happens to have dated Olivia’s sister and turned HER down after a few dates, which of course, boosts Olivia’s flailing self-esteem and confidence in her own romantic prowess. Jace’s friends are aboard the cruise, as well, and instantly welcome Olivia into their tight-nit circle as though she’s been there all along, completely accepting that the two lovebirds really did fall in love overnight. By the end of the week-long cruise, filled with gingerbread house building and wrapping gifts for orphans, everyone’s ready for happily ever after. The book continues beyond that point to give readers a glance at what that looks like for the couple.

It really is a sickly sweet romance story without any sordid love scenes (perfectly PG). It is nice to see Olivia transform from insecure to self-assured, and the other character’s supporting roles in that transformation. The older passengers she dined with the first night of the cruise added some humor and sass throughout the story.

Aside from feeling completely unrealistic and a super fast timeline for two people to just fall in love, it was a cute story. I could see my mom, who lives for Hallmark Christmas movies, totally enjoying this book.

View all my reviews