Merry Bingham is not okay, and frankly, neither is her family, the ghost of Charles Dickens, or the haunted Airbnb they all emotionally combust inside. If you’re looking for a cozy little gingerbread-scented holiday romp, this is not that. This is what happens when your mom has one mental breakdown, one haunted literary heirloom, and one suitcase packed with delusional Christmas optimism and drags you across the Atlantic to fix your unresolved trauma using British tourism and aggressive caroling.

And listen. I wanted to root for Merry. She’s fifty-five, she’s spiraling, she’s got a mysterious lung nodule and a death grip on a signed edition of “A Christmas Carol” that she’s ready to turn into cash because her three adult children all reject it like it’s a cursed monkey paw. Relatable. Tragic. Unhinged. She decides that if no one values the family legacy, she’ll use it to fund an epic Dickens-themed Christmas in London, the kind of move that screams “matriarchal last stand” but with twinkle lights and emotional landmines.

What unfolds is part Dickensian fever dream, part holiday hostage situation. The kids are awful (Bessie is out here giving entitled older millennial vibes, Nick disappears emotionally like he’s on a witness protection program, and Song Lee is spiraling into HR-violating chaos). Her husband Sully is...there. Emotionally present like a houseplant. And poor Merry is trying to brute-force cheer into this group like it’s a hostage negotiation led by a choir of ghosts.

Oh right, the ghosts. Specifically, Charles Dickens. Who starts haunting her. Like, full-on “I’m mad you sold my book” hauntings, as if that’s the most pressing injustice in the 21st century. Every time he appeared I couldn’t tell if we were leaning into magical realism or if Merry was one bad day away from entering her Sylvia Plath bathtub arc. It’s weird. But it’s also kind of brilliant? The man’s not subtle. He’s like a moral compass with sideburns.

Here’s the thing: I don’t think this book knew what it wanted to be. It’s not cozy, but it’s not quite dark. It’s chaotic, but not in the fun way, more in the “mom is emotionally unraveling in front of the London Eye and the kids are yelling about who ruined whose childhood” kind of way. And while some moments are surprisingly heartfelt (there are beautiful, devastating moments), others feel wildly tone-deaf. Like, we’ve got talking dogs, petty family drama, and ghost apparitions back-to-back with end-of-life anxiety and generations of repressed resentment.

This was like watching a Hallmark movie that suddenly turns into an indie drama halfway through, but you’re too far in to back out so you’re just emotionally held hostage with your eggnog, hoping it all wraps up before someone throws a snow globe.

Three stars because the concept was bonkers in the best way, and Merry herself is a kind of chaos goblin I lowkey respect. But the tonal whiplash is real. I came for holiday healing and left wondering if Charles Dickens was about to file an emotional restraining order.

Merry Mayhem Prize: For Successfully Weaponizing Dickensian Nostalgia in a Family Meltdown Scenario

Huge thanks to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the ARC and for enabling this festive descent into literary madness. I didn’t know I needed a ghostly Dickens intervention in my life, but now I’m side-eyeing every antique book in my house.

A Christmas story and Charles Dickens should be a perfect book. However, I wanted to like this book much more than I did. I found the main characters not very likeable and often very over much. The Dickens sightings seemed untimely and didn't really make sense to me.

In Merry, I like that this Christmas-themed book was more than a light and fun plot. I also enjoyed the homage to Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol, one of my favorite Christmas traditions and stories. However, for me, the book tried to do too much. It seemed that every relationship had many layers to be revealed and work through in a way that didn't feel natural to me. Some plot developments felt abrupt while others felt too drawn out.

Merry Bingham used to love Christmas, but after receiving some medical news, she decides to give up her autographed copy of A Christmas Carol. When none of her kids want the book, Merry sells it and uses the money to take her family to London for her dream of a magical Christmas. Despite her best intentions, her plans quickly unravel due to family tensions and less-than-ideal accommodations. Then Merry begins to see the ghost of Charles Dickens, who is very displeased to say the least.

I liked this book a lot because it was both funny and heartwarming. What mother hasn’t wanted the perfect Christmas for her family? This had a lot more emotional depth than I thought it would. I loved how the author showed that you can find happiness in unexpected places. The characters were real and relatable, especially Merry. I didn’t like her children’s behaviour very much, but I can see it happening in real life. The pacing was balanced, allowing me to fully enjoy what was happening in the moment. It is very character-driven with lots of charm. The book left me feeling hopeful, with a smile on my face and an appreciation for my boys.

If you enjoy holiday stories that aren’t focused on romance and that blend humour, heartache, and hope, this one is for you. It’s a delightful story about the joy of connection, family, and life’s small but meaningful moments.

Because of the other reviews and all the sadness I DNF this book.

When I read a holiday book I want it to be heartwarming and happy. This one was sad.

Thank you NetGalley & Alcove Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Merry by Susan Breen
I thought this would be a light hearted book about a family going on vacation during Christmas and of course the drama that can occur when they are all together. This was not a “feel good” book by any means. Merry learns that she might have medical issues that will change the trajectory of her life so she decides that she will sell her family heirloom which is an autographed book of A Christmas Carol so that she can pay for her family to go on a trip to London for Christmas.
The trip is not what Merry was expecting as her adult children come off as selfish and ungrateful. Of all the characters, Merry was the most likeable but even her expectations of her family seemed to be too much.
The story does bring some whimsical, magical moments which give the story a bit of a lightness throughout the book but the overall theme of unhappiness was carried through most of the story. The ending was finally the happiness that I was expecting which was a great way to end the story.
Thank you Netgalley and Alcove Press. All opinions are my own.

I was drawn into the book by the great Christmas cover but it was definitely not a happy Christmas read for me.
Merry is preparing for Christmas when she falls off the roof putting up decorations only for the Dr to a lump on her x-ray, as she's a great fan of Charles Dickens she decides to take all her family to London over Christmas and to do things connected to Charles Dickens.
This is when it lost it for me, with her talking to her dog and replying and often meeting the ghost of Charles Dickens and they have conversations.
It was a very slow repetitive story that I found it hard to get through and not one of the characters was likeable all whiny.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review

Title: Merry
Author: Susan Breen
Publisher: Alcove Press
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pub Date: September 23, 2025
My Rating: 4.2 Stars
Pages: 320

Meredith aka Merry Bingham is fifty-five years old married to Sully and they have three adult children Nick, Bessie and Song Lee. She is also a rare book dealer and with a name like Merry goes overboard with decorating for Christmas. This year she is on a roof of her Victoria home decorating but it is a bit too winds and she loses her balance and falls. Luckily she fell into bushes but sent to the hospital for X-Rays. Doctor assures her the bruises will heal by Christmas. However, Dr. Fiedler calls later that the X-ray found something else -a nodule on her lungs and more tests are needs. She immediately fears cancer. Her doctor tries to tell her she needs to wait for the test results.

Merry now comes up with a great idea for the best Christmas and wants to take her family to London for an old fashion Dickens Christmas! (She decided to sell her family’s beloved copy of “A Christmas Carol” to fund this trip as it may be their last Christmas together. She also remember a quote by Samuel E. Jackson ~ I don’t mind dying, I just don’t want to go out like a punk,)

London turns out very interesting!!!!

This story has been on my TBR list since early March. I thought I would check reviews before starting. I read several that were not positive and I got discouraged thinking I made a mistake.
I did not make a mistake – I liked this story.
I too goa bit over board decorating for Christmas only was decorating is all indoors. I have a Dicken’s Village that I love arranging. I have many pieces including Dickens characters that my daughter gave me... Only I don’t want the ghosts to be’ in’ my village scene. However, I know it would disappoint my daughter. So every year I hide them somewhere in my other decorations for on the bookshelf someplace not obvious and the children need to find them. It is now a Christmas custom...
This was my first Susan Breen and I look forward to reading another,
About the Author Susan Breen - She is the award-winning author of The Fiction Class and the Maggie Dove mystery series. She is the 2024 winner of the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition. She is especially honored to have won the Westchester Library Association's Washington Irving Award for "readability, literary quality, and wide general appeal."

Her new novel, MERRY, is about Charles Dickens, dogs, family, London, vacations gone wrong, love, guilt and books. Not in that order.

Susan teaches novel-writing at Gotham Writers in New York City. You can read more about her, and download many wonderful things, at www.susanbreenauthor.com
Want to thank NetGalley and Alcove Press for granting me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 23, 2025.

I really struggled to connect with this book. When I picked it up, I was hoping it would be a dynamic family holiday book with a fun connection to Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol. For the first little bit of the book, I felt for Merry and her struggle with scary health news. I was also intrigued by the history of her family heirloom copy of A Christmas Carol. But once I got to know Merry and the other characters more, I struggled to connect with any of them. The writing felt repetitive in many ways. Family drama and characters’ struggles are brought up repeatedly without any real progress toward any of the relationships growing or changing. The family goes from spitting mean and petty insults at one another in one moment, to laughing and acting like nothing is wrong the next moment, and then back again. It doesn’t seem like anyone in this book has a healthy relationship with anyone else and there is no character development that gives hope towards these relationships improving. There are also too many side stories to keep track of throughout the book, which cause the focus to be lost on the main storyline.
Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun holiday romance that is relatable! I did find some of it to be lower but did enjoy this one!

This was a cute holiday read with some funny moments (Dickens’ ghost was a nice touch) and a lot of Christmas spirit. That said, the story felt a bit slow at times and I didn’t connect with all the family drama. Still, it’s a cozy book for December if you’re in the mood for something light and festive.

Merry is such a relatable character—her love for Christmas and Dickens made me smile, but her constant worry about family and life added a lot of depth. The story was funny, heartwarming, and sometimes chaotic in the best way. I loved seeing how her determination to create a perfect holiday collided with reality, and the ghostly appearances of Dickens added a fun, quirky twist. It’s a story about family, tradition, and trying to hold on to joy even when life gets messy, and I found it really engaging and hard to put down.

A nice and original take on the Dickens classic. I really enjoyed it and think I might need to read it again closer to Christmas.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book will make you think about mortality, time, family, the holiday season and what all of it means. It is well written, with multi-dimensional characters-though not your traditional Christmas novel, it is well worth the read.

Charles Dickens weaved into a modern-day story. The family drama was a bit much at times, but this was an interesting take on a classic and a fun holiday story.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

This was an interesting read.....a different take on a classic Christmas tale. I enjoyed it.....it did take me a bit to get into the book, but once the story got going, it was interesting to follow. I do relate with Merry--trying to make everything perfect for everyone and having one thing after the other go wrong. I did enjoy how the end came together! This is a great holiday feel-good read.

(I received a complimentary ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Thank you Netgalley, Alcove Press and Susan Breen.

I was intrigued by the description and beautiful cover of the book Merry by Susan Breen, and was initially drawn in by the main character, her history, and her relationship troubles. But as the book continued, I found her to be unrelatable, her grown children to whiny and selfish, and her husband to be bland.
The book, in the end, did not resonate with me at all. It was definitely not the holiday celebration that I expected it to be.
However, I do appreciate the ARC of #Merry from #NetGalley.

Merry used to be a Christmas fanatic. Her favorite moments are from reading Dicken's, A Christmas Carol from the rare, 1st edition that has been in her family for generations. Now she wants to hand it down to one of her children but none of them want it. She decides to sell it and is now haunted by Charles Dicken's ghost. Merry surely has some problems and hopefully the family will stop fighting long enough to have a family Christmas.

This book started out slow... Really slow... Super slow. I nearly dropped it. But by the end I was crying so the storytelling definitely got there in the end. If one sticks with it, the pay off is worth it in the end

What a way to bring charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol into a story of today. I really enjoyed this book. It has a variety to feelings throughout and dives into some heavy topics. A nice ready for July. Thanks for the advanced copy to NetGalley and the publisher.