You Make It Feel Like Christmas
My Rating: 4.25
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Holiday
Format: eARC*
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
Author: Louise Marley
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You Make It Feel Like Christmas Blurb
The only thing preventing Beth’s perfect family Christmas? Her family!
Television presenter Agatha Holly has built her career on telling viewers how to have the perfect Christmas. A Holly Jolly Christmas has been screened every December for twenty years and her entire family are involved, including her daughter Beth—the unwilling star of a thousand memes and gifs. But Beth has finally had enough of public ridicule. All she’s ever wanted is a traditional family Christmas away from the television cameras. If she can’t persuade her family to change, should she consider celebrating Christmas without them?
You Make It Feel Like Christmas Review
As a quick reminder, here is my rating structure:
- 1 star: Did not finish
- 2 Stars: Finished but I do not recommend
- 3 Stars: Liked but could use some improvements
- 4 Stars: Loved this book!
- 5 Stars: Rare. The unput-down-able, binge read obsession.
My star ratings are also based also genre based. I compare all books with books of the same genre. While I would love to believe that my love of books in general transcends all bias, there are genres I prefer over others.
I’m human.
Example: If I read a mystery novel and think it deserves a 5-star rating, then I have compared it to other mystery books, and determined it to be one of my absolute favorites. The unputdownable mystery.
This will hopefully keep me from comparing Outlander, a personal obsession of mine, with the experience of reading The Hate You Give. Both 5 star books for me, but completely and totally different. I couldn’t even try to rate them against each other, so I don’t. Makes my life easier. 🙂
My Thoughts
This was an adorable, holiday romantic comedy that would be perfect for a Hallmark movie. Almost tailor made for it Hallmark in fact.
There was no misunderstandings between the two love interests, so that made me really happy. My pet peeve with roms coms are the forced obstacles that could easily be cleared up in an instant but aren’t. In YMIFLC, there are purposeful lies which create a lot of drama but also some intrigue.
The idea of wondering a medieval village on Christmas really appeals to me, so getting to do that in my imagination with a really cute story was great.
Though I felt it was a little long, almost 450 pages, the story exactly what you expect from a Christmas contemporary romance, in a good way. Got me in the Holly Jolly mood and I’m almost ready for Christmas.
~About the Author~
Louise Marley writes murder mysteries and romantic comedies. She is lucky enough to live in a village where there is a famous library and TWO ruined castles. (Her husband still thinks they moved there by accident).
Her first published novel was Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, which was a finalist in Poolbeg’s ‘Write a Bestseller’ competition. She has also written articles for the Irish press and short stories for women’s magazines such as Take a Break and My Weekly. Previously, Louise worked as a civilian administrative officer for the police.
Louise’s books have spent a total of 7 months in the Amazon Top 100 (UK). Three of her books have been #1 bestsellers in Romantic Suspense and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was #1 in Romance.
*Special thanks to Louise Marley and Rachel’s Random Resources providing a copy of You Make It Feel Like Christmas in exchange for an honest review.
Lovely review. This sounds like a cute book, and I totally agree on you with romcoms and forced obstacles that could get cleared instantly but never do. So annoying. Especially when they happen near the end when the characters are finally together. JUST TALK. GAH. 😛
There are times in my life when I didn’t say what I wanted to, but not when everything I’ve ever wanted depended on it. lol