Book Nerds Across America: holiday romance

Showing posts with label holiday romance. Show all posts

Monday, October 23, 2023

Book Review: Snowed In by Catherine Walsh

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

Megan is dreading going home for the holidays. She’s the village pariah, the she-devil who left local golden boy Isaac at the altar four years ago and ran away to the big city. She could really do without the drama. Particularly as he’s engaged again, and she’s just been dumped for the fourth time this year.

Christian’s fed up of being on his own every Christmas. He doesn’t mind being alone, but he hates his family’s sad eyes and soft tones as they sit around coupled up. Because he’s actually, totally, fine.

So when Megan literally bumps into Christian in a Dublin pub, they come up with a pact to see them through the holiday season. They’re going to be the very best fake dates for each other, ever.

Rules are drawn up, and a contract is signed on a wine-stained napkin. They will sit through each other’s family gatherings and be outrageously in love until freed from their annual obligations. After all, it’s only for a few weeks.

But with everyone home for the holidays, and two big families to deal with alongside old friends, old flames, and old feelings, things are bound to get messy. And when a snowed-in cabin and a little Christmas magic are added to the mix, anything could happen…

TEE'S REVIEW:

Joy to the book world!!! A new holiday romance is hitting the store shelves or on your Kindle, and it's a fake dating trope...one of my favorites!

In Snowed In by Catherine Walsh, main character Megan last saw Christian out side the church that she was running out of on her way to becoming a runaway bride. Fast forward five years and they run into each other- literally - at a bar. While talking they realize that they both are having to go home for the holidays, and are dreading it, so they devise a plan to go together as a fake couple.

I could end this quickly by telling you I am a very slow reader and tore through this in two days...so I loved it! It was so cute and heartwarming, just like a holiday romance should be.

I loved both Megan and Christian as characters, and when I read Megans POV I found myself always smiling, she was just so filled with positivity all the way through the book.

I also had no idea this was in a series of books, infact I didn't find out until after I read it, so no worries if like me, you haven't read Holiday Romance, you don't need to read it...but you certainly will want to.

The thing I REALLY liked about this book, well....besides it being set during the holidays, and the whole fake dating thing, and the snuggly cozy feeling of the entire book, was that Christian had his own POV. It is always refreshing to get the male side of a love story.

I am calling it now...Snowed In is my favorite holiday romance of 2023, so pick it up and lets talk!

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Book Review: Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

A pasture of dead trees. A hostile takeover of the Santa barn by a family of raccoons. And shipments that have mysteriously gone missing. Lovelight Farms is not the magical winter wonderland of Stella Bloom’s dreams.

In an effort to save the Christmas tree farm she’s loved since she was a kid, she enters a contest with instafamous influencer Evelyn St. James. With the added publicity and the $100,000 cash prize, she might just be able to save the farm from its financial woes. There’s just one problem. To make the farm seem like a romantic destination for the holidays, she lied on the application and said she owns Lovelight Farms with her boyfriend. Only … there is no boyfriend.

Enter best friend Luka Peters. He just came home for some hot chocolate, and somehow got a farm and a serious girlfriend in the process.

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

Bring on the holiday reads!

This book had several pluses telling me to read it...

* Christmas Story

I love Christmas stories, it doesn't matter the genre...Thriller/Murder...make it happen on Christmas....Romance... want snow, hot cocoa and a

Hallmark movie feel

* Friends to Lovers

One of my favorite tropes and my own marriage is proof that it can happen

* Fake Dating

The only thing I like better than friends hooking up is people faking it...I love the bits of tension it can add to the story

B.K. Borison didn't fail me on any of the above with Lovelight Farms.

Stella Bloom has a struggling Christmas tree farm that she is trying to save by entering a contest. She wants her farm to appear romantic so she enlists Luka Peters, her long-time best friend to pose as her long-time boyfriend and business partner.

I really enjoyed Stella and Luca, both were enjoyable to read about and so darn cute together. Stella's long-time ( I feel like I am using this word ALOT ) crush on Luca, makes some cute and funny reading.

The story is a bit of a slow-burn romance, mostly because neither Stella nor Luca seems to think the other isn't capable of actually liking the other, along with the fact that each of them might be a bit worried about how this will affect their friendship.

But OH BOY is there chemistry between these two. I guess each had years of it building that tension up. The author gives us some pretty steamy " fake " makeout sessions, that might make some of you blush.

I also really enjoyed the secondary characters of Layla and Beckett, especially Beckett with his grumpiness. Since Lovelight Farms is the first in a new series, I am hoping Borison will focus the next book on the two of them, they definitely have an interesting story.

Seriously y'all, Lovelight Farms is cute, funny, heartwarming, and sexy, so if you are a fan of Christmas Romances this one will have you smiling.

Friday, December 3, 2021

Book Review: If Only In My Dreams by Carrie Aarons

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

'Tis the season to … be freshly divorced at twenty-six and moving back into your parents' house?

Because that’s my reality this Christmas. As if it isn’t bad enough that my entire hometown is buzzing with the news of my failed marriage, who is the first person I bump into at the grocery store? The guy who treated me like his personal booty call in high school just happens to be looking at spices while I’m trying to pick up cinnamon for my mother.

And get this; Porter Kelly, the broody, mysterious recluse who exposed his own secrets to the world by writing a book about his family years ago, is the one who acts like I wronged him. His rude remarks on aisle nine are the final straw as my exhausted unhappiness breaks, and I’m officially calling off the most wonderful time of the year.

Too bad it’s literally impossible for the woman whose parents own a railroad that specializes in Christmas train rides to ignore the holiday season. Because I’m back under their roof, it’s mandatory to work in the middle of the red and green merriment, Santa himself, and wait for it …

Porter serenading us with the greatest festive hits of all time. That’s right, apparently, my teenage heartthrob turned nemesis not only works for my parents but can strum a guitar like he’s trying to get every soccer mom on board pregnant. As we’re forced to spend more time together than ever, his past baggage and my marital rejection make their way to the surface, bonding us in ways neither of us knew possible.

I thought I was heartbroken about my ex-husband wanting to end our marriage, but that pain is nothing compared to what Porter could inflict. He seems like a changed man, one on the precipice of a new chapter, which is exactly where I find myself. Would it be crazy to think we could turn the page together?

Returning home was the only option I had. But as I come dangerously close to counting on the first man who broke my heart, I wonder if all of my future dreams are too good to be true

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

Carrie Aarons has outdone herself with her new book If Only In My Dreams. This book has everything I love, between two beautifully decorated covers ( I mean seriously that cover is everything ) It has my favorite trope enemies to lovers, second chance romance, a sexy musician, an idyllic small town, and of course Christmas.

Madison goes back to her mall hometown after the breakup of her marriage, a bit embarrassed by the fact that her perfect marriage was now in shambles. Finally getting out of the house to run to the grocery the first person she runs into is Porter Kelly, the boy she gave her heart and more to in high school, only to be treated like a toy by him. If seeing him isn’t bad enough, she finds out he is working for her parents.

Aarons did a great job with the enemies to lover trope I love so much, though I had no doubt she would, as I have read a few of her books and she is good at it. The amount of dislike, frustration, and animosity she gives her characters and makes you feel is over the top.

The main characters were written realistically, with valid feelings, and I think we can all agree that Porter Kelly is a J. E. R. K. especially at the beginning of the book. But as the book moves on, you get a different perspective of him and he grows on you. Also, the book is written in dual POVs from both Madison and Porter, which I felt helped hash out the story a bit better. I love the banter between Madison and Porter, and their chemistry was undeniable, and once they realized their attraction..oh my the steam came on full force.

The enemies to lovers trope quickly moves into a second chance at love theme, and to me, that is when it began to feel like a Christmas romance even though it had been in the background from the beginning it never seemed so Christmasy.

If Only In My Dreams, which I thought was the perfect title for a story about people coming home for Christmas ( IYKYK ), is a great book, it is a quick read, the perfect book for the holidays without feeling so much like a Hallmark Christmas movie… it's a bit too spicy for that! Def put it on your holiday reading list.

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