As mentioned on the cover, this is a sequel to Anyone But Her and is set in the same
environment (viz. the Miller home with homophobic parents) as the previous
book.
At the end of Anyone
But Her, Charlie (Charlotte) Miller and Reagan Cooper had a melodramatic
scene in the Miller family homestead and had got together despite the parents. On
the timeline, about eighteen months have passed since then, and the Miller
kids, Jamie (Charlie’s twin gay brother), Charlie and Reagan are back with the
Millers for Christmas. Reagan intends proposing to Charlie in the same spot
that they’d shared their first kiss on Christmas Eve/day. But before that, they
still have to navigate through endlessly long days with the homophobic parents.
We like Charlie very much in this one. Reagan was mostly
okay. There are some nice moments between the two, but really noting to go
ga-ga over.
Clearly, Lee’s success with the previous book made her
repeat the environment, but it doesn’t work as well this time around. Maybe it
would’ve been more interesting to change the setting to the super-supporting
Cooper house and maybe get the funnies through well-meaning but interfering
parents trying to make the personal proposal into a public one?
This one is (generously) strictly okay.
⭐⭐☆
