“Liz had always believed she’d mapped out her own heart, understood its design. But new architecture was being revealed.”
Georgia Clark’s first holiday romance – Most Wonderful is utter perfection.
It’s the most romantic time of the year.
The holidays are fast approaching, and the Belvedere siblings are a mess. Liz, a Hollywood showrunner and responsible eldest, has no idea how to follow up her hit show’s first season, or how to deal with her giant crush on its star, Violet Grace. Birdie turned her chronic middle child syndrome into a career as a stand-up comic, but since she spends more time wooing women than working on new material, she’s facing one-hit wonder status, especially once she gets axed by her manager. And Rafi, sensitive romantic and the baby golden boy, proposes to his coworker girlfriend in front of his entire company, only to be turned down by the woman he thought was the love of his life.
Born to three different fathers, the three adult children share one mother: famed actress and singer Babs Belvedere. Seeking direction and holiday cheer, all three siblings head up to their mother’s house in the Catskills, determined to swear off love and focus on themselves and their work. But the spirit of the season seems to have different plans for them, and their best intentions are quickly derailed in the most delightful and festive of ways.
Just when I think Georgia Clark’s writing is her best yet, she proves me a liar. I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but this truly IS her best book yet. This story has everything – incredible characters, laugh-out-loud moments, and touching ones too. She once again totally nails multiple main characters in complicated relationships both with each other, and with their love interests.
This time we’re focused on the Belvedere family. Three siblings born to the same famous actress mom – Babs, so let’s start there. Babs is capital F Fabulous. Funny and over-the-top dramatic, she loves her career, and loves her kids even more. Her house in the Catskills – Belvedere Inn sounds like a wonderful place. One of my favourite details in the book is all the great descriptions of the house and the hilarious details of how Babs renovated it. As in, “Babs had renovated the basement-level home theatre after landing a Japanese endorsement deal for caffeinated chewing gum.”
The story follows each of the adult children in alternating chapters. Liz is the responsible and sensible one. She’s the showrunner on a teen drama that just finished season one, based on the Sweet Valley High books. She’s trying to write her pitch for season two but is wildly distracted by a mega crush on the star of her show Violet.
Birdie is a stand-up comic in New York. Birdie might be one of my favourite characters of all time. She made me laugh so much my cheeks were hurting at parts. Birdie is a bit of a hot mess. She loses her manager when she misses her set time while hooking up in the bar’s bathroom – again.
Rafi is the sweet, heart-on-his-sleeve baby of the family. He gets his heart broken again when he proposes to his girlfriend in front of all their coworkers at the annual holiday party and she says no.
All three siblings retreat to the Fabulous Belvedere Inn for the holidays early to lick their wounds and to try and get some work done, away from their everyday lives. Each of the characters is so superbly crafted. I loved each of them for different reasons. I loved them together as well. Although they have complicated relationships with each other, it felt very real and reminded me a bit of my own family in ways. I also have two siblings and we’re close. We each have our roles we’re (sort of) relegated to, but at the end of the day, we have each other’s backs. And that’s what the Belvedere’s are like.
This wouldn’t be a rom-com if there wasn’t any romance, and each of the three Belvedere’s find their own love interest. I won’t spoil it for you, but each of them are different and perfect. There is a lot packed into this book but it all feels right.
One of my favourite things about this book is the character growth. All the Belvederes experience tremendous change throughout the narrative, and I found myself feeling very inspired by their growth, perhaps because I cared about all the characters so much. There were even a few moments that I teared up – a rarity for me, and I’m not mad about it.
Okay, one last thing I loved, and then I promise to let you get back to your day. I loved how gay this book is. Like super queer. In her notes at the end of the book, Georgia talks about how at first Rafi’s character was straight and how it just wasn’t working. I’m so glad she followed her gut and put him on the rainbow. Is it realistic that all three siblings would be queer? Who cares? Not this reader. I loved every moment.
Make your yuletide gayer this year and read Most Wonderful. Just trust me.
Thank you, The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.
