August 1, 2023
In Farmer's (Calling the Shots) delightful queer retelling of the classic Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life, Bailey George has finally found someone else to run Winter Wonderfest this year and plans to escape her small hometown of Lanford Falls in Upstate New York for a vacation to New York City. But when the new volunteer needs emergency surgery, Bailey has to cancel those plans to save the celebration. She's beginning to feel trapped and resentful, as she's given up all her dreams for this town and stayed to save her father's real estate business from greedy Felicity Potter after he died. Then Bailey's high school crush Maria Hatcher moves back to town to run the library, but Maria's timing couldn't be worse, as Bailey's beginning to think about leaving Lanford Falls forever. Just in time, magical drag queen Clara Angel arrives to rekindle Bailey's love of Christmas and show her just how much she has impacted the town and everyone in her life. VERDICT This is a tender romance and an excellent, feel-good holiday story with a touch of magic.--Melissa DeWild
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 15, 2023
A Sapphic romance remake of It's a Wonderful Life. After years of deferring her dream of living in the big city, Bailey George is tired of managing her small town's Christmas fest, not to mention shouldering her family's realty business. Just as she's on the verge of escaping, the festival's new planner has an emergency and Bailey must step up again. One person who seems delighted that she's there is Maria Hatcher, Bailey's teen crush who has just moved back to become the town librarian. Though their attraction reignites, Bailey is determined to leave. Meanwhile, a trio of drag queens is watching, with Clara Angel determined to spin some (real) Christmas magic and remind Bailey of what she loves about her town and community. Her mission is also in service of earning the wings for her drag costume. The author updates the classic Capra movie for a modern audience, with a female/female second-chance Christmas romance and several queer characters who have supportive allies. Assorted cutesy elements abound: goofy dogs, descriptions of holiday traditions and local dynamics, a Grinch-like villain who comes around at the end. The frame of the original story is not comfortable, however, with Bailey's sacrifices and discontent taking up most of the narrative. Its echoes linger in the reader's mind even after the happy resolution, when Clara forces Bailey to remember her love for their hometown. For fans of chaste Christmas romances and narratives that glorify small-town America.
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August 28, 2023
Farmer (Out on the Ice) pays tribute toIt’s a Wonderful Life with this satisfying if predictable queer contemporary retelling, complete with a sapphic romance and a drag queen guardian angel. Bailey George longs to leave her hometown, Lanford Falls, for an adventure, but obligations to the community and memories of her late father keep her tied down. Things aren’t all bad, however: her teenage crush, Maria Hatcher, has just moved back to town and the two are steadily growing closer. Over the course of the week leading up to the town’s annual Winter Wonderfest, Bailey grows more and more frustrated with small-town life, until consecutive disasters on the day of the festival lead her to believe the town would be better off if she’d never been born—a wish that magical drag queen Clara happily grants, thereby revealing all the ways in which Lanford Falls and Bailey need each other. It’s a goodie bag of romance tropes: edenic small town, childhood sweethearts reunited, and Christmas magic, to name just a few. The result is easy reading rounded out by a sweet but chaste love story. It might not stick long in readers’ minds, but it’s a solid festive option for fans of the original. Agent: Eva Scalzo, Speilburg Literary.