It was a sweet and short novella.  . It had some tender moments. Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this e arc in exchange for an honest opinion

I’ve been trying to read this for over 2 weeks now but I just don’t understand how something only 80 pages long can be so unbearably boring? Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC

Simple and quick holiday read! The storyline is sweet, if shallow. But what bothered me was the major inconsistencies in the descriptions of Chicago. The author's bio states that she is a native Chicagoan, but a lot of the descriptions don't add up. As someone who has lived here for years, no one calls the Macy's Christmas display Marshalls anymore, Wicker Park is on the north side/West town not north Chicago, and there hasn't been ice-skating on State street in 20 years. I could understand if this book was set far in the past, but from everything I could find, including cell phone use etc, it's a present or near present-day book. So if you're not from the area, you'll probably enjoy this book and I do enjoy LGBTQ+ romance. But if you're from Chicago or lazy research on locations by authors really bothers you, I would skip this book.

a cute and quick read! it wasn't super festive but that's okay because it IS called "monica adams SKIPS christmas" after all ahahaha i enjoyed it and quickly loved the characters, i only wish it could have been longer as i was becoming invested! i would recommend if you're looking for a short and easy read to get you in the winter mood, or maybe just to help you hit that end of the year reading goal ;)

4,5⭐
Monica Adams Skips Christmas is a short Novella where Monica is coming back to her spends Christmas in her hometown with her family and boyfriend. But as soon as she arrives she gets a call from her  now ex boyfriend. Devastated she thinks about not celebrating Christmas this year but than a reunion with an old "friend" can bring feelings she didn't know existed.

I personally love this Novella its a pity that is so short. I understand some of the notes that people gave about this book; somethings happens too fast. But again this is a short novella, just to fell some cozyness in this time of the year

I really like to thanks the publisher and NetGalley for providing a Arc in exchange for an honest review. ♥️♥️♥️

I loved this little novella. It was such a fast read and it was sooooo cute. Perfect to get into a little bit of a festive spirit and just to feel warm inside. 

I’m not much for shorter stories, give me a 800 page high fantasy book any day of the year but this was such a perfect little palette cleanser. I may have been short and therefore fast paced but I really didn’t mind it. I showed both the ups and downs of coming home for the holidays and how fast things in one's life can change. How scary those changes can be but also great. 

I will say I would have LOVED it if this would have been a full length novel as well, I would have just devoured it and I think all the elements for a great rom-com were there. 

Would recommend it to EVERYONE.

This is a short and sweet story, I enjoy how things were not drawn out and the characterization was well done for not having a ton of space, A nice read for the holiday season!

Representation: Bi, lesbian, inmigrant family
Tw: Biphobia, decesed family members (grandmother)

This story is about Monica, an engineering student who  comes home for Christmas hoping to have a good holiday with her family and her boyfriend, but when she gets home her parents are never around for work and her boyfriend suddenly dumps her. While she makes the decision that year not to celebrate Christmas and to pass on everyone, she begins to get along better and better with her neighbor Paige.

I'm a little sad about this book. I loved the story, it has very good characters, and a lot of potential, but I feel that it has fallen very short. It is a story that could have developed much more and given us more moments of romance, family, Christmas... I feel that everything has happened quickly and superficially. In any case, it is a very beautiful story and knowing that it is a short story more than a novela, I recommend it.

I really loved the relationship between Monica and Paige, and I loved the themes explored in this novella - family dynamics, bisexuality, being an immigrant in Chicago, figuring things out for yourself, etc. I agree with the other reviews, though, that I would love it if it was longer. It had so much packed into around 80 pages. There is a lot of potential for something more, and if there is a full length novel written about them in future I would love to read it!

A short and sweet story for anyone looking for a quick holiday read.

Monica Adams has always loved Christmas but when she’s dumped by her boyfriend and her family barely has time to see her, she decides maybe she’ll skip Christmas this year. That is until she starts to spend some time with her neighbor, Paige. 

This novella tries to pack a lot in with several big subplots. Unfortunately, this meant that they didn’t all get enough attention. The interactions between Monica and Paige were cute but could have benefited from a little more of the time that was spent on the subplots. I did really like the storyline around Monica’s grandfather which was probably the most developed subplot.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Monica Adams skips Christmas is a sweet sapphic novella that tells the story of Monica, a 19-year-old girl who returns from college to spend Christmas with her family.

Right at the beginning we see how much unresolved issues there are between Monica and her parents. While Monica tries to figure out what she really wants for her future, which is not engineerin (as her mom wants), she meets Paige, her neighbor and high school classmate.

The plot was a little rushed but because the novel has only 9 chapters but you still enjoy it.
Overall, it was a cute story of self discovery, family and Christmas, of course.

This is a fun sapphic romance set at Christmas. The story is like a hallmark movie, with the plus that it is about a relationship between two girls. The characters are likeable, the narrative is quite entertaining, and it's generally easy to read. I finished this story in three hours.
The two protagonists make a nice couple, and also mentions some interesting problems such as biphobia or family issues.
The novel, in addition to having a consistent narrative, is also very short, just nine chapters, so conflicts are resolved quickly.
The only reason its rating isn't higher is the plot. This is a simple story, without many surprises and therefore I did not have a deep impression of the book. The characters are a bit simple, so it's hard to connect with them, plus we don't have much time to get to know them. The most interesting thing was to see the interactions between the two protagonists.
“Monica Adams skips chrismans” is a nice book, but it could have been better, I still enjoyed reading it.

This novella is sweet, but it packed a lot into a small package. It felt like a full length novel with all of the extended details cut out, which made the whole thing feel rushed. There was just too much going on between the family plots, Monica trying to figure out she doesn’t want to go back to school, and the budding romance between Monica and Paige. In one way this felt true to how WLW relationships progress in real life (things can move pretty quickly), but here it felt amateurish. Several of the conflicts and miscommunications were weak and very transparently placed to progress the plot without being how people would actually respond in certain situations.

Overall it was cute and a holiday-y read with some interesting Polish family dynamics, but it’s not something I would pay for or recommend. It feels more like it could be a freebie bonus novella to flesh out a romance between side characters in a longer novel.

That being said, I do think there is potential here if the author wanted to develop this story into a full length novel. That’s what this really needs to be.

This book is like a warm mug of hot chocolate. It’s a quick read and a fast way to get into the holiday spirit. A sweet romance that makes you want to go to a Christmas tree lighting.

If you're looking for a quick Christmas romance, this novella checks a lot of the boxes. There's snow, talk of carriage rides, family baking, and a brief stint at a work Christmas party. There is even a nice deeper storyline about a college student standing up to their parents to become the person they want to be. But overall, I felt this book was just okay because too much of the romantic plot depended on poor communication between the main characters and fear of exes who did nothing more than exist.

This was such a great novella. I loved the way it tackled the issues of lesbians being homophobic towards bi and pan people, and talking about how straight people think they’re too gay and gay people think they’re too straight. It was a really sweet romance, and I was always rooting for Monica and Paige.

Thank you Xpresso Book Tours for this ARC in exchange for a review!!

Being honest, being promised ‘grumpy vs sunshine’, ‘sweet, feel good Holiday Nostalgia’, ‘sapphic romance’ my head went into a completely different trajectory than this book and plot went, unfortunately.

•𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝:
- Paige (what a cutie pie, she carried to nuvella imo)
- Monica standing up for herself and not accepting the gaslighting her family throws her way.

Paige was the highlight of this nuvella for me!! She was so sweet, hardworking and caring for Monica’s grandpa when she didn’t even have to be. She was just so soft and lovely.

Monica was also alright. I think compared to the other female characters in the family, she is quite alright. She doesn’t blindly accept the things and principles the people around her are trying to push onto her, which is very nice to see. Especially when she’s going through a rough patch of life rn, with Bryce leaving her and all.

•𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞:
- Monica’s entire family (her mom and sister especially)
- Bryce
- The way the characters are written.

Sylvia (Monica’s sister) was immature, dismissive and wishy washy. In a chapter she snaps at Monica for saying she wants to find herself and her passions instead of graduating in engineering, saying that their parents didn’t immigrate for her to ‘find herself’. Afterwards, 10 pages later she reveals to their parents (at the Christmas table, might i add) that Mon is leaving engineering college, despite Monica loudly saying she doesn’t want to talk about the situation. Followed by 2 pages later Sylvia coming to Monica and being like ‘I did this for your benefit. Now find yourself and live as you want.’
… What…

It made no sense to me.

Her parents are just as bad, dismissive and entirely wrapped up in work and their business. Which is kinda understandable for parents that immigrated to US from Poland and had to build a life to sustain the whole family, but they haven’t even properly greeted Monica after she came home from college. Like no balance, both are at work 24/7 no matter the circumstances. Not even gonna talk about the rude and snappy way the mom replies to Monica each and every time they talk.

The way the characters are written. It’s all surface level.
It is a nuvella and it’s a little less than 70 pages, so not a whole lot of things can happen. But there is not much character depth, they are all just mean and dismissive lol
Monica and Paige’s way of talking made me constantly think i’m reading about a couple of 14 years olds. Not 18 and 19 years olds, with Monica being in college. I think they just sounded shallow and childish at times, in my opinion.

Overall, there was barely any Christmas magic and mostly family drama. And even less so sapphic romance. I didn’t really feel any chemistry between Paige and Monica.
Some good points, some not so good points. I would have liked it SO much better if most of the characters weren’t so bad at communicating and dismissive of Monica.

I really really liked this! But there was just way too much going on for such a short story. It needed to either be a full book, or to have a few less topics.

Monica comes home from university for Christmas and is immediately being stood up by her boyfriend at the train station. Not only is she not getting picked up, no, her boyfriend brakes up with her over the phone and just leaves her stranded.
In this way her whole day continues until she is so fed up with everything, she just decides to fully skip Christmas altogether.
I loved the idea of this, and I also really loved the premise that her neighbour Paige is making her excited for Christmas again.

But in the end this story wasn’t too christmassy at all, it involved a lot of drama with her ex, her grandpas declining mental state, Paige’s ex and a fight with her parents because of school.
It was simply too much for such a short story. I was very surprised when Monica kissed Paige, it just moved too quickly after she just got dumbed and then a lot of love drama followed too. I would have liked this story more if all the love drama would have just been left out and they’d just have kissed in the end after knowing each other several days already.

This story had a lot of good ideas, I liked the style of writing and the characters a lot. It just didn’t work at all in this format.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest rating and review. 

To start off, this novella was way too short. This means that I was interested in the characters and I really enjoyed all of the diverse representation. However there were too many things squished into such a small page count.  It felt like problems just sort of popped up out of nowhere and then were immediately resolved.  There was a lot of missed potential for further development, but overall a cute, fast read.

This novel is cute, but characters feel underdeveloped. A super quick, holiday read! Definitely all the cozy vibes.