I have been in the mood to read Christmas books since about October and after managing to hold off until November (mostly), I am now reading all of the Christmas books I can find. A few of the Christmas books I have picked up recently have been new releases, a couple of which I was lucky enough to receive eARCs of through Netgalley (marked with *). There seem to be so many Christmas books out there, and it seems like quite a lot being released this year, so I wanted to share my thoughts on three of the ones I have read.
(Published on 12th Nov 2020 by Pan MacMillan)
The Twelve Dates Of Christmas follows Kate, a single 34 year old from a quiet little English town who's best friend signs her up for a dating event promising her twelve dates for twelve chances to find love before Christmas.
As you can probably guess from the premise, this was a really fun Christmas read. We have a genuine and loveable main character in Kate, who is perfectly happy with her life, her great job, and her two best friends. It was nice to read about a single woman who is satisfied with her life as it is and sees a relationship as something that could be a nice addition rather than a main goal. I loved reading about her small town life and the relationships she has with the people in the town, in particular her relationship with her father. It was all just very wholesome and heart-warming. I enjoyed the friendships Kate has, although found the 'big secret' from the past and the conflicts that created to be a bit blown out of proportion, I expected what happened in the past to be something more for the outcome it had.
The twelve dates aspect of the story was the most fun part for me. It was really enjoyable to read about some of the disastrous dates as well as the more successful ones. I did feel, though, that some of them were just kind of skimmed over and could have been more developed.
I did really enjoy this book for the most part, even thought it was quite predictable at times. However, I struggled with some of the decisions Kate makes at points and felt that some things could have been handled differently. I would also have liked the relationship to have been more developed, it was a sweet romance and I enjoyed it but it could have been done better.
Rating: 3/5
(Published on 6th Oct 2020 by Gallery Books)
I discovered this author duo this year so was very excited to discover they were releasing a Christmas novel. This is a romance with a bit of a sci-fi twist, following a woman whose family are spending Christmas at their cabin for the last time, but after getting into a car accident on the way home she wakes up on the plane on the way there all over again. She then relives the days over Christmas until she can find what makes her happy. This also features a friends to lovers romance with her childhood crush.
I really enjoyed this book! The Groundhog Day/time travel element was an interesting addition but it didn't overshadow the romance. It only happened a few times, which I appreciated as I think it would have taken me out of the story too much had it been done more. I really loved the snowy cabin setting and all of the traditions the families had over the Christmas period. I felt so festive reading about all of their fun activities. There were a lot of characters introduced in this book as three different families are staying at the cabin. This was a little confusing to start with but once I worked out who everyone was I began to really love the dynamic. Most of the characters were well-developed and had a unique personality by the half way point, although there were a couple I would have liked to have gotten to know a bit better.
The romance was, as is to be expected from a Christina Lauren book, the real highlight of the story. I love a friends to lovers romance, and this one was incredibly sweet. The relationship was adorable and developed really nicely throughout the story, though maybe a little too quickly, and I was constantly swooning.
While I really enjoyed this, the conflict annoyed me a little as it felt like a bit of an overreaction and I could have done without the epilogue. I also didn't like the way Mae was perceived to have lead Theo on just by being friendly, as I feel like it really plays into the idea that people of the opposite sex can't just be friends.
Rating: 4/5
(Published on 29th Oct 2020 by Quercus)
This was my surprised standout of the Christmas books I have read so far this year. It follows Nick who becomes Santa at a local shopping mall after both losing his job and being dumped by his girlfriend. When a young boy tells him his Christmas wish for his mother to be happy again, Nick decides to arrange a date between the boys mother, Sarah, and his best friend. However, when things begin to get more serious between the couple, Nick realises he might have feelings for Sarah himself.
I'm still not over how adorable this was! It's the love triangle trope handled incredibly well and a storyline with quite sad undertones made a lot of fun. Nick is a really great main character. He is going through a really tough time and coping with it through self-depreciating humour, which I both related to and found very entertaining. He is very loveable from the outset but grows so much throughout the book. He really is just a great guy who is willing to put his the happiness of his friend about his own.
The friendships within this book were great. Nick's friendships with both Matt and Sarah were just lovely. Nick and Matt's friendship really highlighted the importance of talking about the serious stuff within male friendships and the fact that it is good to talk about your feelings, as it is mentioned that the two have helped each other through the toughest times of their lives. The friendship between Nick and Sarah was also really sweet, even before Nick realised there were any feelings there. It was just lovely to have very genuine friendships that weren't completely ruined by stupid conflicts. However, the importance and strength of these friendships are what makes the love triangle aspect of the story so difficult. I was worried about how the love triangle would be handled but it was written so well.
There were so many things I really loved about this book, Sarah's son Alfie was a particular highlight, but the ending just didn't live up to my expectations. Things wrapped up a bit too conveniently for my liking and then the last few chapters felt like a bit of a whirlwind. Other than that, this was a really great read.
Rating: 4/5
Three quick reviews of three very enjoyable reads. I would definitely recommend giving any of these books a go if they sound interesting, I have fun reading all of them. I have so many more Christmas books I want to get to and not enough time to read them in, but hopefully I can fit in a few more in the next few days.
Sophie :)
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