How to Lose a Guy Before Christmas - A.J. Pine

Title: How to Lose a Guy Before Christmas
Author: A.J. Pine
Genre: Christmas, Chick-lit
Rating: 3/5
# pages: Audiobook ~5hrs
Date read: December 2024

After a snowstorm grounds her flight, Lucy makes a last-ditch effort to get home for Christmas using a rideshare app. She thinks she’ll be taking a road trip with a stranger...but the guy who shows up is someone she knows all too well. He’s the hookup she ghosted a few months ago, and now she’ll be stuck in a car with him for the most awkward road trip of her life.

Making matters worse, he’s even more gorgeous than she remembers—too bad things between them are frostier than the North Pole. Will the long ride home allow them to get to know each other in surprising new ways? And more importantly, will the season warm things up and send sparks flying yet again? Whatever happens, one thing is clear: It’s going to take a whole lot of Christmas magic to unlock their guarded hearts.


Pros:
* Cute couple.
* Loved Tinsel!
* Realistic resolution of the 3rd act breakup.

Cons:
* Not enough Christmas by a long shot!
* Tinsel was completely unrealistic! (Yes, I know I loved it - those two facts aren't mutually exclusive).
* Heartbreaking 3rd act breakup.

Christmas Carols and a Cornish Cream Tea - Cressida McLaughlin

Title: Christmas Carols and a Cornish Cream Tea
Author: Cressida McLaughlin
Genre: Christmas, chick-lit
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~10hrs
Date read: December, 2024

All Meredith Verren has ever wanted is to escape the holiday season without having to wear a Christmas jumper. Her new job at the cosy gift shop in a picturesque Cornish tourist spot is making it impossible for her to maintain her scrooge-like manner.

With their seasonal hampers on everyone’s wish list, Meredith must paste on a smile and fake some holiday cheer. Then she meets handsome new arrival, Finn, who wishes it could be Christmas every day and wants her to feel the same way too.

Can she embrace the holly and the ivy before the decorations are packed away for another year?


Despite apparently being the 5th book in a series, it can easily be read as a standalone novel - I certainly didn't feel like I was missing out on anything, so I think it's more a case of them being companion novels than an actual series.

It ended up being a very enjoyable Christmas romance - and for once pretty 50/50 on the "Christmas" and the "romance" part. The romance was believable, and the conflict not as much of a nuisance as it could have been. Meredith and Finn actually communicated most of the time, which made for a refreshing change!