The main character of The Chalet Girl, 19-year-old Millie Braythorpe, is a chalet hostess at an Alpine ski resort. Her job basically requires her to cook and clean and handle basic needs of guests at her assigned chalet. It’s a pretty good gig for Millie, and much-needed since her father, a bishop notorious for his strict and severe outlook, kicked her out of the house for getting pregnant. Millie’s best friend, the wealthy Freya, supported her through her abortion and has helped her get on her feet. But she’s now determined to pay back Freya and eke out a living on her own.

Of course, this being a romance, there has to be a man involved, and in this case it’s a devastatingly handsome gossip columnist named Luke, a guest at the chalet during the last week of the season. He and Millie are immediately taken with each other, although, in true romance fashion, it takes them a while to figure it out. They woo each other over music, snowboarding, and hot cocoa and all seems to be going well until, of course, there’s a misunderstanding that pushes the two apart.

Overall, I found this to be a pleasant, but flawed book. I thought Millie, particularly in the first half of the book, was a little too perfect. Most of her flaws are “faux flaws,” such as an inability to believe in herself and a stubbornly independent streak, the kinds of flaws that make her more, not less, unbelievably perfect. It’s not until later in the book that Millie’s insecurity—which has a legitimate cause—starts to manifest itself in a more serious tendency to overreact and mistrust everyone who tries to help her. It’s at these moments that Millie seemed like a real person, and more of that raw honesty early on would have been helpful.

The love story itself is nice enough. It’s incredibly predictable, not just in the sense that I knew from the get-go that these two would get together (it’s that kind of a book) but because I could see most of the complications and resolutions to those complications coming before they arrived. But the characters are likable and seem suited for each other, so I was happy to join them on the journey. What I particularly liked about the romance is that it’s not really the most important part of the book. Yes, it’s central to the plot, but by the end of the book, it’s clear that Millie’s relationship with her mother is the real love story here. Luke is just a bonus. Millie would have gotten along fine without him. I love that.

Mostly, this book gave me the kinds of things I like in a romance. It’s not perfect by any means. It’s not especially deep—religious faith in particular is treated superficially—but it does have some emotional resonance. The characters are generally likable, although a few of the less likable characters are depicted as nothing more than caricatures. There’s a tendency to overexplain some characters’ feelings and motivations. But I still liked it for the pleasant diversion that it was: a nice book about nice people finding love.

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