Review: "The Christmas Fayre on Holly Field" by Lilac Mills

The Christmas Fayre on Holly Field by Lilac Mills
Published August 2023 via Canelo
★★

This had its moments—I like the unconventional setup of a hero who is living in a well-converted van rather than being the town's richest and most eligible bachelor—but my gosh, I cannot get behind a hero whose MO is to stalk a woman, infiltrate himself into her life so that he can secretly take notes and pictures, and then publish all that to his very well-trafficked blog so that he can profit off her. I guess the upside is that if he had been a murderer he'd be easy enough to identify...? Maybe it would be a little better if he were struggling to make ends meet and desperately needed a hit series on his blog (I'm not convinced that this would be better, but let's run with it for a minute)...but even then, he notes even as he starts stalking following Harriet that any number of his followers would be thrilled to take on the 'challenge' that he sets for Harriet and be the willing, consensual, informed subject of his stalking blog series. He just...he has no excuse.

I also cannot get behind side characters whose reactions are 'but he's not a murderer, right?' There is a whole lot of space between 'murderer' and 'person you want to be in a relationship with and trust with your kids', folks.

The 'focus on buying used rather than new' angle is one that I appreciate—I am a dedicated secondhand shopper, and at this point I can safely say that at least 75% of my wardrobe (excluding things like socks and underwear) was purchased secondhand. I am currently dressed in a secondhand jumpsuit that has earned the approval of my s.o.'s conservative, hyper-conscious-of-other-people's-opinions parents. (Did not tell them it was secondhand and might well be from the 90s. Some things are better left unsaid.) But...Harriet takes Owen's challenge to buy used instead of new to mean that, instead of being very careful about the new things she buys, she should buy 'loads' of secondhand things every few days. She's saving money, but I don't think it ever really truly registers to her that that's only part of the point.

I could get past Harriet's loose interpretation of the challenge, but jeepers creepers I cannot sign off on Owen. Please, please, if your loverboy has been stalking you, lying to you, and gaslighting you, all for his personal profit...cut him loose, and consider reporting him to the authorities. You can do better.