Why can’t I remember that I hate the amnesia trope? It’s like the amnesia trope gives me amnesia… it always sounds so great in the synopsis but then I inevitably have a bad time actually reading it 🤦🏻‍♀️

But I think this book solidified why I dislike it (and maybe that will help me remember?): I don’t like the way that the remembering person approaches the love story so hesitantly, even half-heartedly? I want it to feel angsty but instead it feels tepid.

But I can’t just give this book one star for having my most hated trope. 

Because Sweden. This Yuletide Sweden setting was everything. 

It was like this:

Person: before this novella began, the heroine was saved by her fated mate in space, fell in love with him, yet decided to have her memories erased and get sent back to earth instead

Me: that makes no sense

Person: she was from Sweden

Me: okay, that makes complete sense

Not believing in fate (but kinda sorta believing in gnomes), being obsessed with equality (she couldn’t be certain of their relationship unless they were on equal footing), being frustratingly passive (going back to earth with no memories and no plan of how to find each other again)—this premise only makes sense in Sweden.

And it almost hurt me with how nostalgic it made me feel (have I mentioned that I used to live in Sweden?). Plus, no one does Yuletide, aka the darkest day of the year, like a remote northern Swedish cottage (med en sauna, naturligtvis).

This author definitely knows how to do world building. And it’s strange because the alien culture she’s created makes me a bit uncomfy? I’ve only read novellas in this universe so far, and I feel like I need to try a full length novel next.