Review: All I Want for Christmas is the Girl Who Can’t Love by Chelsea Bobulski

*We received this book in exchange for an honest review.*

College freshman Savannah Mason doesn’t believe in love. After watching her grandmother and mother enter countless disastrous relationships, Savannah is convinced love is nothing more than a chemical imbalance tricking you.

Enter Jordan Merrick: a college junior who meets Savannah when she’s moving into her dorm. Jordan’s been burned before, but he’s open to love. After Jordan and Savannah have an instant connection, leading to a friendship, Jordan hopes for something more.

Too bad that Savannah can’t help but push Jordan away the close she gets to him. She doesn’t know what to do. One minute she wants to spend every second with him, another she hides away, too afraid of getting hurt.

When a mystery pops about a series of love letters written during the Revolutionary War between a William and Bex, Savannah starts to questions her beliefs. Will she able to get her own love story or will he family’s past keep her from living her life.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect when reading All I Want for Christmas is the Girl Who Can’t Love. We figured it took place over a small period of time during the holiday season, but it actually starts on college move in day and ends on Christmas Eve.

The best part of this book was the historical aspects. Savannah and Jordan volunteer at an excavation site in Williamsburg, Virginia and get to find a lot of cool things. This is how they start reading the letters written by William and Bex during the Revolutionary War. Williamsburg was the perfect setting for this book and we love that Savannah and Jordan were William and Mary students.

Now, the characters. Overall, we did like Savannah…even if she could get on our nerves. Sometimes we wanted to shout at her to start living her life. We did feel bad because her mom was extremely emotionally abusive. To top it all, she also shows how difficult it can be to navigate college when having dyslexia.

Jordan won us over from the beginning. We love that he was a history nerd and actually gave historical tours in Williamsburg. He was so patient and understanding with Savannah, even when she didn’t treat him the best. He also did what he could to help her see that her worldview wasn’t healthy and she had to let people in.

The romance happened slowly, which did feel realistic for the characters. They had some super adorable moments, especially on Halloween and Christmas Eve. We patiently waited for Savannah to realize her feelings throughout the book.

Overall, if you’re looking for an upper YA book and enjoy contemporary romance and history, this one is for you.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐