On Strike for Christmas (Christmas Fiction)

by Sheila Roberts

[Leah]

When Joy despairs with her husband ‘Bob Humbug’s’ attitude to the festive season and the lack of appreciation he shows for all of the effort she puts in to making the festive season special, she decides that this year HE can be in charge of Christmas.
The idea spreads amongst members of her Stitch N Bitch Knitting Club as the wives decide that they are fed up of running Christmas each year and it’s about time their husbands started contributing their fair share towards the holiday season.
Before you know it the whole town is getting swept up in the idea as the underappreciated and over worked ladies go on strike for Christmas...

I loved the synopsis for On Strike for Christmas; it sounded like an extremely festive, fun-filled read and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
I wasn’t sure about the whole ‘battle of the sexes’ theme as it’s something which has been done so many times, but I found it wasn’t as much of an issue as I had anticipated. I won’t go into the whole stereotypical gender roles in this story, that’s way too deep, after all this is just meant to be a light hearted, amusing Christmas novel and I found it to be exactly that.
This is the first novel I’ve read by Sheila Roberts but it certainly won’t be the last. Her style of writing is really fun and almost conversational, making it a pleasure to read. She brings her characters to life through witty dialogue and humour. (‘Bob Humbug’ made me laugh...numerous times, in fact.) The scenes where the husbands attempt to ‘do’ Christmas are also very funny when even the seemingly normal tasks prove difficult. I liked the pace of the story; it held my attention and had just the right blend of humour, action and festivities whilst actually being quite a thought provoking story.
Its underlying message of compromise and the idea that people like different things...but that’s ok...makes for a really good theme for the story.
I loved the festive touches to this story too; the town was called Holly (can I live there, please!?) and then there’s Joy...and Carol. Hey, if you’re going to write a Christmas novel then you might as well go all out!
Talking characters with non-Christmassy names I really liked Glen, but really disliked his wife Laura (Jeez, give the guy a break!) In fact I did *whispers* feel sorry for some of the men at times. Don’t get me wrong, I completely saw where the women were coming from but they didn’t seem to care about how the rest of their families would feel if Christmas was left down to the men and turned out to be just a little bit rubbish...
However I felt that there’s a really strong array of characters in On Strike for Christmas who you’ll bond with, laugh along with, and of course, sympathise with.
This is the perfect novel to get into the festive spirit with. It’s light, sparkly and extremely heart-warming. It reminded me of one those addictive (yet slightly cheesy) Christmas films that start appearing on the TV around about now that you can’t help but become engrossed in.
On Strike of Christmas is the perfect way to spend a wintery afternoon by the fire and it’ll also get you thinking as it focuses on the importance of family, love and appreciating everything that you have. After all, what would Christmas be without the people that we love to spend it with?



 This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read