No-one Ever Has Sex on Christmas Day by Tracy Bloom
Published: October 24, 2017
Genre: Romance, Holiday
Don’t you always plan the perfect Christmas?
Don’t you always think it will be the best one ever?
And doesn’t something – usually one of your loved ones – always come along and screw it up?
Katy’s been spending too much time in the office and not enough time with her family so she wants it all: snow (fake or real), the Michael Bublé Christmas album, whatever it takes.
There’s only one thing missing as far as her husband Ben is concerned: another baby to complete their family. Katy isn’t so sure…
Ben may be playing the role of Master Elf in the pre-school nativity but he is struggling to master his own family life. With romantically-challenged friends, an ex who refuses to go away and Katy's mum's 64-year-old toy boy thrown into the mix, Christmas looks like it could be going off the rails… Never mind family planning, can Katy and Ben even plan to make it to the end of Christmas Day?
4 Stars
ARC provided
The third novel in No-one Ever Has Sex series from Tracy Bloom, No-one Ever Has Sex on Christmas Day is a laugh out loud book about a small circle of adults and the odd way life brings people together. Though it is from a series, I felt it could be read as a standalone as I have not read the other books in the series previously. We follow Katy and Ben as they navigate their first holiday season settled in a new home with the pressure of family, work, and the future piling on them. Their friend Braindead brings the constant laughs, and some well-timed insight, as the two struggle with the decisions ahead of them. There's also Matthew and Alison, preparing for their next child, dealing with Alison's demands as a perfectionist, and helping, or hurting, Matthew's friend Ian in his quest for love.
"I mean, it's so not sexy. Kids up at the crack of dawn, hands up turkey's backside before breakfast, stomachs bloated by too much food and alcohol, exhaustion from weeks of celebrating."
I really enjoyed No-one Ever Has Sex on Christmas Day for one big reason, the characters are all realistic. They are flawed, they are curious, then are navigating a world that, like real life, comes with bumps, changes, and incredible opportunities. We get annoyed with our parents and our spouses, we miss some of our kid's moments and we constantly strive to be better in everything. Katy, Ben, Braindead, Matthew, Alison, and Ian all live in the same town, but they're acquaintances at best, their pasts having brought them together once that left things a bit on the awkward side. The book itself switches from character to character, never focusing on a single household for long, not until their lives start to bring them together again.
"This was turning out to be maybe not the most cosmopolitan but certainly the best Christmas he ever had."
I love just how much humor was in this book, Tracy Bloom writes with so much spirit and she knows how to make you laugh. It's lighthearted all while proving that a book doesn't have to follow the standard familial layout of career, children, and friendship. It is funny, it has moments of shock, and it even has a stay-at-home dad with an overworked wife. I appreciated that it was stereotypical, that friendship, romance, and sex carried this story forward, bringing some depth to the humor and sharing with readers a message about love and the people in your life. No-one Ever Has Sex on Christmas Day is a fun, lighthearted read that's perfect for the holidays, or anytime really.
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