Book Review: I Owe You One

Something comes over me when fall starts to transition to winter and there's that noticeable anticipation of Christmas. For the rest of the year, I tend to be pretty snooty when it comes to movies. I love a captivating story with strong character development, more often a drama than a comedy. However, there is something about the genre of holiday movies that has me throwing all discernment to the wind. They are formulaic as all get out, I mock them mercilessly, and yet I keep coming back for more.

I found myself reflecting on this tendency I have to recognize how these stories are far from great and are the opposite of surprising, and yet for a couple weeks every year, I seek them out. There's a comfort in knowing all will end up well and nothing truly horrible will happen; any losses or shortcomings will be redeemed by the end.

I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella has some of those similarities for me. Fixie is our protagonist. She's clever at solving problems and has a close relationship with her widowed mother as they run the family store. However, when her mom goes abroad and entrusts the store to Fixie and her siblings, tension arises. There's the brother with aspirations of greatness, who wants to take the comfortable store and the ordinary customers they have and transform them into something flashy, in hopes of catering to a new crowd, expenses and relationships be damned. There's the glamorous sister who is self-absorbed and all about projecting the right image. And then there's Fixie, whose weakness is her inability to stand up for herself since she feels inferior to her siblings. She lets an infatuation from her childhood steer her off course. Then there's a chance coffee-shop meeting, where Fixie, doing what she does best, earns an IOU from a stranger.

I couldn't help but get annoyed by specific plot points and anxious about business decisions. I Owe You One is predictable, it's not great literature, and the characters could accurately be called caricatures. Readers will easily spot the relationships that are strong and for the mismatched ones, readers will be quick to know the right pairings (and don't get me started on how frustrated I get when there's this clear longing and yet they stay with the miserable partner until circumstances change and there's no grieving the loss as they jump, without pause, into a new relationship). I have to suspend disbelief that some of the characters make the marked changes that they do. However, there was something delightful about turning off my brain and just going along for the ride as Fixie wrestles with what it means to put "Family First," both in who falls into the family classification, as well as what it truly means to sacrifice for them. I'd give this read 3.5 stars; pick this up if you want the equivalent of a story that won't stretch you but will resolve well in the end. Given the right mood, I can see myself seeking out another Kinsella title when I need a comfortable read.

(I received a digital ARC from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for my honest review. I've used Amazon Affiliate links here; should you purchase through these links, I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you.)