Book Review | Return of the Magi

I had a bit of a break in December but I decided I would try to read a book that featured Christmas during the holiday and I had this on my TBR.

Return of the Magi
P.J. Tracy

Warm your heart this Christmas with this wonderful festive tale from bestselling author P.J. Tracy – perfect for fans of It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street

Emil Rice’s heart is in the right place – it’s just his hands that always seem to end up in someone else’s wallet. Facing yet another Christmas behind bars, he’s surprised when he’s offered a way out – community service at a mental health facility. Emil thinks it will be a piece of cake – but he hasn’t reckoned on two elderly inmates, who need Emil for a very special plan…

Warm and wise, funny and festive, this wonderful Christmas tale from Sunday Times bestselling author P.J. Tracy is perfect for the cold winter nights!

Amazon | Goodreads

I quite liked that this story didn’t seem like a typical Christmas story, something a little different because I’m not always keen on a festive read but I thought that this sounded like it would be fun. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what I expected, I felt like it should be a light-hearted easy read with a dose of antics but it didn’t hit the mark for me.

Considering how short this story is it was quite slow going and I felt that there was a lot of extraneous detail that wasn’t necessary to the story which really slowed things up for me. I also found it quite difficult to connect to the characters which meant that its heartwarming tagline didn’t come to fruition for me.

What kept me going was the middle of the story where Emil meets sisters Edith and Gloria under unusual circumstances and then unwittingly helps them with their special mission that they have been waiting a long time to complete. I wish there could have been more time spent with the sisters as they were the most interesting characters in the book, quirky and single-minded, and I like that they did bring out a different side in Emil and showed that he could be more than a conman.

It wasn’t a bad story, a bit clichéd here and there, and there was a nice outcome at the end which I liked, but I didn’t feel invested enough to get excited about the story the way I expected to.