A Christmas Caroline

by Kyle Smith

Caroline is a perfect size 0 with the best blond hair money can buy, a wit as sharp as her stilettos, and a job at the center of the fashion universe: she's the accessories editor for a shopping magazine. Every day Gucci and Hermès send her their latest items, free, begging her to try them. Which is why Christmas, to Caroline, is such a bore: not only does she keep getting accosted by creepy sidewalk Santas and bombarded by kitschy holiday tunes, but it's the one day when everyone else gets presents.

This Christmas Eve, she's stuck in Manhattan, embarrassingly boyfriendless, while her fabulous designer mother jets off to a mysterious place called Branson. But things are about to get even worse, thanks to a hideous pair of furry boots, a conniving redheaded assistant named Ursula Heep, and a totally random visit from the ghost of her ex-roommate, Carly. Carly's ghost warns that three more spirits are on the way. If Caroline doesn't make things right with all the people she's sneered at on her way to the top, she could wind up facing a fate worse than an outfit from the Salvation Army.

The Devil Wears Prada meets Charles Dickens in this holiday treat—a hilariously hip, delightfully irreverent take on a classic tale.

Genres: Christmas, Chick Lit, Holiday, Fiction, Romance

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2006

Reviews

[☯~☽~•Patricia Mainard•~☾~☯ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot!

[Gayle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author Kyle Smith, who is a guy, writes this chick lit homage to Charles Dickens. A send-up of A Christmas Carol, this story stars Caroline, a misanthropic fashionista in New York City. Her supporting cast, sporting such names as Ursula Heep and Nic Nickleby, do their own bits to help the story along, but on the whole, I found it inadequate and tedious.

Caroline is plenty self-centered, and her Christmas Eve is wholly disastrous, but more for herself than anyone else. Her three ghostly visitors appear right on schedule, but became dull in no time at all. Caroline manages to reform without getting a clue, and the would-be climax, which includes a surprising appearance by Miss Havisham, is lackluster at best. Even the ending, which should have been satisfying, was not-quite-resolved, which I found unsettling.

So if you, like me, found the premise intriguing, don't waste your time. The original is superior in every way to this pallid wannabe.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two words: vapid drivel. Three more words: Waste of time.

[Simona Semėnienė · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Karolinos Kalėdos" - šelmiška knyga, kurioje rafinuotas "Ir velnias dėvi Prada" niurzglumas persipynęs su amžinąja "Kalėdų giesmės" dvasia.

Tiesą sakant, jeigu kalbėtume apie tai, kas šioje knygoje man nepatiko, tai pagrindiniu erzinančiu elementu įvardinčiau būtent anotacijoje įvardintą rafinuotą niurzglumą. Jeigu jį apskritai galima pavadinti rafinuotu... Sunku įsivaizduoti labiau Kalėdų nekenčiantį asmenį už pagrindinę knygos heroję Karoliną Hevišem.

Susidaro įspūdis, kad į ją įsikūnijo paties Čarlzo Dikenso sukurto šykštuolio "Kalėdų giesmės" personažo Ebenezerio Skrudžo dvasia.

Kai nuolat skubantis miestas apsigaubia stebuklo laukimu ir atranda laiko kone kas žingsnį vienas kitam linkėti linksmų švenčių, ši poniutė euforijai nepasiduoda ir, siekdama nustumti mintis apie nekenčiamą šventę, per Kūčias keliauja į darbą. Ji dirba prestižinio madų žurnalo redaktore, tačiau... yra iš jo atleidžiama. Kaip tik Kalėdų išvakarėse. Ir tikrai ne be kaltės...

Karolina, o siaube (!) įžeidžia stambią žurnalo partnerę, vis per savo neaprėpiamą cinizmą aplinkinių atžvilgiu.

Kaip ir galėjote nujausti, atleistos iš darbo ir sugniuždytos herojės laukia dar vienas išbandymas. Išties susijęs su garsiuoju Dikenso kūriniu. Kūčių naktį ją aplanko keturios dvasios, atskleisiančios tai, kas slėpta ar tyčia nepastebėta. Padėsiančios suvokti savo klaidas, susimąstyti apie tikrąją Kalėdų prasmę ir tai, kodėl Karolina jų taip neapkenčia. Na ir, be abejo, priversiančios heroję rinktis - pasikeisti arba tapti mažiausiai laukiama savo galimos ateities versija.

Viską susumavus, knyga - nuostabus Kalėdų skaitinys, "Kalėdų giesmė", įvilkta į naujojo tūkstantmečio Niujorko visuomenės rūbą. Daug kur verčianti juoktis iki ašarų, o kai kur priverčianti ir tikrą ašarą nubraukti. Pabaiga gal kiek per daug "happyendinė", bet, kam tai rūpi, juk šventės! Kas nenori linksmų Kalėdų?!

[Shining Star · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pirmi puslapiai buvo šiek tiek nuobodūs, vėliau istorijos eiga pradėjo dominti vis labiau ir labiau, bet visgi ties kažkuria vieta visas susidomėjimas baigėsi. Skaityti lyg ir norėjosi, bet viduje, atrodo, kažkas sakė, kad nerasiu nieko įdomaus. Vienaip ar kitaip, tai buvo lengvas ir minčių neperkraunantis skaitalas. ☺

Knyga sukosi apie Karolinos gyvenimą, kurios mama La buvo vestuvinių suknelių parduotuvės savininkė. Nuo mažens Karolina buvo mokoma nevalgyti kaloringo maisto ir į visus žiūrėti tarsi iš aukšto, tačiau gyvenimas jai buvo paruošęs staigmenų – atskleisti tikrąjį jos gyvenimą ir išmokyti pamoką.

Vertinčiau 3,5/5 🌟.

[Vismantė · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mėgstamiausia knygos citata:

„Ji suprato, kad mokytis galima iš visko, jei tik viską pastebi. Ji jautė, kad žmogus, esantis čia, greta, gali čia ir nebūti, o žmogus, nesantis greta, gali savaip čia ir būti. Ji supratom kodėl esanti vieniša. Bet visa tai tik patvirtina, kad paaiškinimas nėra pasiteisinimas. Savęs supratimas nėra nei ramentas, nei ginklas. Jis gali būti naudingas tik tada, jei tu iš tikrųjų būsi nusiteikusi tapti truputį geresne.“

[Kari Gibbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyday seems like Christmas to Caroline. She’s a beautiful, young, editor at a shopping magazine. Write what you know, right? And although Caroline has may seem to have it all, including the latest from all the top designers, she’s missing quite a bit. She is constantly fighting with her mom, her love life is extinct, minus the dimwitted football player who is fawning over her, she never knew her dad and she still can’t get over the death of her best friend.

But time may be running out for Caroline, along with her luck. The only way she can change her fate is by changing her life and her attitude. And she only has until Christmas night to make this change. In the meantime, she will be visited by three ghosts, one from the past, one from the present and one from the future.

Yes, this is a spin on the classic Christmas Carol, with a hint of Chanel, all wrapped pretty Tiffany Blue box. I have heard and seen this story several different ways since I saw the original with good ole’ Scrooge. It never fails though that I absolutely detest the main character until they go through their transformation. They are always such despicable humans, so selfish and sad. I always try to be open to people’s problems and be open to their lifestyle, but there are some characters I just hate. And in this book, Caroline was one…through most of the book!

But they always go through that amazing transformation and become characters that I can respect and love. And it did help that in this book, there were a lot of designer goodies dispersed throughout.

I am always interested reading books about women, written by men. I like seeing how men perceive women. In this book, I hated the perception of the woman, but I do know that there are women out there like Caroline. Luckily, I hope that I am nothing like her…well not the bad her at least. I wouldn’t mind being the good her

The one thing I do like about a man writing women’s books is that although they may not know a woman like a woman does, they do know men and normally have good, likeable men characters. There were several in this book that made me laugh and made me “awww”.

I listened to this on audio book and one thing I noticed when listening is that when I listen, I do a lot more chatting to myself than when I am reading a book. I’ll have a lot more on this revelation coming up in my next post about an audio book, because I could hardly listen I was talking so much!

I give A Christmas Caroline 3 bookmarks.

[Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, the majority of the reviews for this book are quite harsh. I feel like there must be something wrong with me for liking this story especially since I would throw it another half star for such cynical quotes as this gem:

Don't even get me started on the red and green Christmas card with the adorable photos of gap-toothed toddlers. Am I supposed to congratulate people because they reproduced? How much skill does that take? People should send out photos of themselves hooking up digital cable. Then I'd be impressed.

Which I find very, very TRUE.

Maybe people don't like this because it is written by a man and they do not agree with how he thinks a woman like Caroline would actually be. Well, I'm from New York and I know people like Caroline, hell, I'm even friends with people like Caroline and I'm shocked because people like Caroline wouldn't be friends with geeks like me. But you know what? People like Caroline, as self-centered and sarcastic as they are, make up a huge portion of the Upper East Side. And the Upper East Side would be so boring without pretentious a-holes like Caroline. I like her and her sass. I find her quite entertaining. Caroline, though sometimes a little mean, knows how to work the social aspect of her backstabbing business (trust me, publishing isn't always glamorous) and she knows what she wants and how to get it. Go her.

Though the ending is ridiculous and Carly's stupid black box conversation made my brains leak out of my ears, I enjoyed this modern day Christmas Carol.

[Sadie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awful. The writing was strange, the characters were the most unlikable characters ever, which I suppose was the point, but I think the author went to far especially with the mother character La. The take on the Christmas carol was a good effort but it didn't fully work and many of the story lines were just random. Like the roommate story on the black box huh was that suppose to be funny? Seriously, it was just bad. I wanted to give up but since I read fast it was really only a waste of a few hours so I just finished. Not worth the time to read it though.

[Britt · Rating 4 out of 5]

updated scrooge story with minalos. very cute and fast read.

[caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilariously awesome!! i recommend it to anyone (: its great xxD i liike romantic comedies a loot <3

[Jet · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was actually really hard to get through. Like, the main character made me want to throw her out the window of the top floor of the tallest building in NYC! Like DMNNN, I’m sitting in my car like WTF CAROLINE! But, I guess she redeems herself. It was very cute at the end and made me kinda sad for how she was brought up. I guess I can say is that it was NOT her fault how she was as an adult but DMN! At least she found her heart thanks to Christmas Magic. Yes, it is told very much like A Christmas Carol, just modern and female Scrooge. I recommend but you gotta be get through that beginning. That was hard.

[Darcy Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caroline as a 2006 over entitled young woman Scrooge had many comedically bad moments-which became tiring after so many of them- I was ready for redemption earlier. So, an edit would have helped the pacing and enjoyment of the book. It would have been improved with more on the backstory of the father- or any of the characters that had hints of better character. Also, as a Scrooge character, Caroline is set up to be unlikeable-I mentioned the 2006 date, as the politically incorrect comments do not age well between what is PC in 2006 vs 2023.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh...it was okay 2 maybe 2.5 stars...

I thought Caroline was super shallow which is the whole premise of the story but it was so redundant that it became annoying as all get out! I hated her....her friendenemies...etc. after the 3 ghosts visited her she became better like Ebenezer Scrooge. Maybe I just didn’t like the author’s writing style? I did not love this story. It almost was a waste of my time!

[Sheila Cronin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who can improve on Charles Dickens? Still, imitation is a form of flattery. And if the imitation has more than a soupcon of originality, I'm in. Add a girl who needs an urgent attitude adjustment and a boy who adores her from grade (not grad) school forward, set in New York City? I'm all in. This was not a book I had trouble putting down, yet I looked forward to reading more each time I picked it up again.

[grace roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth the read really, slow and confusing and honestly just hard to read for most of the book. The ending sort of redeemed it but just kind of seemed a bit shallow. Not loving that this was written by a man either.

It was clever that the mom was “Ms.Havisham” - a nice nod to Dickens that made sense in the story

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much brand name dropping. The mother was horrible. Not enough insight to the present and future (and her parts in them), other than the dreadfulness of living in the midwest. God forbid anyone live anywhere than New York. I was hoping her "redemption" would be better.

[Mie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A complete waste of time

[Candy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read - though I struggled a few parts

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

review on blog @ https://scifisstrs.blogspot.com/2019/...

[Ilona Vitkauskaite · Rating 1 out of 5]

Klišių kupinas, nemokšiškas, visus pigius romanus lenkiantis grafomanijos "šedevras" „Kalėdų giesmės" motyvais.

[Amber Ridgeway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny!

[Sandym24 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 cute comic take on A Christmas Carol. Fun, easy read.

[Jackie]

DNF.

[Jane Lump · Rating 1 out of 5]

Insultingly stupid.

[Jennifer Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, with all retakes of the original "Christmas Carol" I knew what this book was going to do.. a person with bad/non thoughtful actions who hates Christmas gets visited by a ghost who is an old friend who is just like them and is now suffering for all eternity because of their actions. BUT, of course, the main character has a chance at redemption and will be visited by three ghosts- past, present, and future- and of course that will teach her the error of her ways and make her like Christmas as well. So predictability is not something I can say negatively about this book even though it is because that is the whole point. I thought the author's idea of making the main character a rich, snobby, stuck up, fabulous looking New Yorker in present day was going to make for a fun read but wow, I have NEVER been so disappointed in a book before. The sad news is that it was not about the failed potential of the book but the complete lack of trying it seemed from the author's part to make this book into something enjoyable. She did an amazing job in making the main character dislikeable and that lasted the whole book, u could not stand her. Also, the visits of the ghosts seemed to have no relevant reasons behind where they went and why unlike th e original book which was to show what went wrong and how they changed. They were just shots of the past with nothing to them and even the main character did not seem to feel anything in any of the visits except the last and that was just dread and panic. I am still confused on how the book ended up with her supposedly resolving to be a better person and liking Christmas. Oh and what make me really disgusted with the book to the point if I could give this a zero and reach in my head and shove the whole book out of my mind? ¤¤¤SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!!!!! The one thing she wanted and got, her dad back in the craziest way possible and it turned out he had loved her so much and was always watching over her? (which really was horrible and weird but whatever since the book was already bad but this is supposed to be such a huge sensitive moment since she thought he was dead when in reality her mom had forced him out of her life, so since he loved her so much he pretended to be a homeless man and everything under the sun to be with her at all times in her life) her next questions were because he was so busy watching her, that meant he couldn't get a real job so how is he going to support her with no money and he needs to have a lot. Yes, that really was pretty much what it said. So with that spoiler in my review you can see why to Mr this book was garbage

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always want to read a Christmas book when the Christmas season comes, and this was the most interesting one that I could find. As the jacket says 'It's The Devil Wears Prada meets A Christmas Carol', which discribes it perfectly. Its about a stuck up snobby girl who is the modern day Scrooge, and she gets visited by 3 ghosts who make her realize that she needs to start thinking about others and doing good deeds. The ending was cheesey, but it's a good book to read when you feel like you've been a bad friend or horrible person to others, because no one is as selfish as Caroline is. Made me feel like a better person.

[Briansmom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun, fluffy, and totally snarky book about a b**ch named Caroline, who basically can't stand anyone but herself. In true Scrooge form, she hates on cripples, foreigners, servants, the lower classes and those who aren't as well-dressed as herself (pretty much everyone.) She is visited by the ghost of a former roommate, the ill-fated Carly Jacobs (get it??) and then the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. While learning more about herself, she also learns about her mom, her dad, and others she thought she knew. And yes, there is a Tiny Tim, but he's not what you would expect. But in keeping with this quirky and funny book.

[Stephanie Kline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a really slow book. An interesting blend of the stories "The Devil Wears Prada" and " A Christmas Carol," I suppose, but it was really dry to me. The 'humor' that the author used wasn't really humorous, and none of the characters were the least bit likeable to me. The ending picked the story up a little bit and gave it that 'Christmas inspirational' quality, but that was its only redeeming quality, in my opinion.

[Sarah Gibbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had its moments. The first few chapters are great and hilarious and hook you in expecting a great, hilarious fashionista read. Which you do get partially, but it slides slightly downhill from there and the ending is pretty horrible.

Still a nice read for Christmas and fashion lovers alike if you have extra time on your hands. Like, sitting in an airport on Christmas Eve with a delayed flight, or no date on New Year's.