Last Stop on the Winter Wonderland Express is another entry in the "Sure, it was perfectly fine" Christmas romance genre.
After being left at the altar by Miles, Aubrey goes on their planned honeymoon, a Christmas-themed train trip through northern Europe, stopping at cities with Christmas markets and finishing up in igloos in Lapland, watching the northern lights. She immediately falls in with a bunch of other singles and is smitten with Jasper. Aubrey's job is planning luxury trips for couples; Jasper is a travel journalist.
The travel side of the book was excellent. The characters stop in Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen, and other spots, and Raisin does a good job of giving the vibes of the cities without sounding like a travel guide. They all kind of blur together, but I loved the look into the different foods and highlights of the markets. Doing a tour of European Christmas markets is very much on my bucket list, so this was perfect for me.
I also appreciated the growth in the characters. When Aubrey meets the other singletons, they discuss what's gone wrong in their relationships and readers can immediately see the issues (one immediately rejects dates over minor issues on the first date, one smothers objects of their affection, and so on), even if Aubrey doesn't. But everyone learns the error of their ways and sees how they were self-sabotaging, and Aubrey realizes that her life with Miles would involve having to make compromises.
Aubrey was immediately drawn to Jasper, but didn't jump into anything immediately; I thought her time spent trying to figure out her feelings and handling the fallout from being left at the altar made sense.
Upon boarding the train, Aubrey blurted out that her husband was dead (mostly so everyone wouldn't think of her as being jilted). To her credit, she does pretty much immediately try to say that no, he's not dead--but a running gag in the book is that nobody will accept it, assuming she means that he's still with her in spirit. It's actually pretty amusing because she does actually try. Except, of course, at the moment where Jasper gives her a perfect opportunity and she doesn't take it. Naturally this has negative consequences.
So why only 3 stars? Aubrey and Jasper were almost too perfect for each other, and even though I get annoyed in this genre when people get upset about being lied to, I felt like Jasper very much had the right to be annoyed at Aubrey letting him think Miles was dead--he was far too forgiving too quickly, in my opinion.Like, yay that they found each other but maybe it would've been good for Aubrey to realize that all relationships involve some level of compromise?
Also, I think I was supposed to find Princess (another of the passengers, who's convinced that her three husbands died because she was cursed) more charming than I did; same with the on-board attendant whose name I can't be bothered to look up. Plus, the book was too padded; I reached what felt like the climax of the book and realized it still had another 50 pages to go. It did also get a bit repetitive; ultimately, it feels like it could've been tightened up a bit
Still, I'm not mad at it. Perfect for this time of year.
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