DNF. Usually love romance but this was predictable and felt unoriginal. I don’t think it has enough umph for my high school readers. Maybe more middle grade?

The perfect holiday read, it would make a great hallmark movie! I loved the bucket list concept and the dynamic between the different characters.

This is a sweet read, which is mostly very innocent and reads like a PG Christmassy movie. I would say it's more aimed at pre-teens, as opposed to YA. It's a very gentle tale about a girl coming out of her shell and finding her feet outside the safety of her books.

The characters were all likeable, and whilst it's fairly predictable, it was lovely just to sink into something wholesome. It made me want to escape to a lodge full of Christmas trees and drink gallons of hot chocolate!

Thank you to Random House Children's and #NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an advance digital copy of New Year's Kiss by Lee Matthews. This YA contemporary romance novel will be published on December 1, 2020. All opinions are my own.

Tess and her sister, Lauren, are banished to their grandmother's boutique resort for the week after Christmas while their parents finalize their divorce and her father moves out. The girls have a rocky and somewhat distant relationship with their grandmother. Upon arriving at the resort, Tess meets Christopher. The two develop a friendship and Christopher helps Tess develop a bucket list of items to complete before the year ends. The list challenges Tess to step outside of her comfort zone. As the two start working through the list and growing closer, Christopher is keeping a secret that may tear them apart.

This was a fun, upbeat, and cute holiday themed novel. It would be the perfect winter break read. Tess is interesting, likeable, and relatable. I found that her story, for the most part, was believable. It is definitely a book where you kind of know exactly how it is going to end, but at the same time it didn't bug me for one second that it was predictable because I was having too much fun following Tess and her bucket list shenanigans. If you're a fan of Hallmark holiday movies you should definitely check this book out.

I wish I enjoy this more. It was like an overly sweet cup of hot chocolate with the cheap ingredients. It felt like a bad book version of a Hallmark movie. Sadly I will not be buying this for the library.

This was a cute holiday read. It was a little predictable, but I didn't care because the characters were fun to follow. Almost all of the characters grew in some way and learned from their mistakes.
This would be a good recommendation to a young teen or tween who wants to read a romance. It was all very clean.

I unfortunately had to DNF this at 15% into the book. I wasn't a fan at all of the tone of the book and if it weren't for the casual mention of having to do English homework, I wouldn't have thought this was a YA book. The writing felt adult and super derogatory while it was supposed to be (in my opinion) cute and cheery! So, unfortunately this wasn't for me..

It was cute, if a little pedestrian. The sister relationship was very realistic, the romance was predictable, I liked the rock star daughter friend that she met.

This is one of the better holiday season books that I've read. Think Dirty Dancing setting, bucket list, timeline between Christmas and New Year's- I enjoyed it! The sister and friend relationship is sweet. I check out a lot of teen romance because my 7th grade students love the Hallmark holiday cheesiness, but this one I'd actually recommend.

This was a cute book perfect for middle school readers. Sween romance about growing up and growing into your own.

Adored this story! This is a perfect holiday heartfelt romcom! This book made us both laugh and cry.

You know, Hallmark movies have a pretty specific recipe they all follow. Well, this book is like a YA copycat recipe.
With that being said, people eat this stuff up. It comes out right before Christmas when people will be looking for a cozy Christmas Break read and this novel will fit the bill. Recommend this book to fans of Kasie West, Sarah Dessen, and Jen Bennett.

A cute little romance middle school/teen novel. Reminds me a bit of a Hallmark holiday movie, perfect for tweens and teens that want romance!