Getting into these stories was roooough. I wasn't enthralled with the writing, and I felt confused a lot of the time, which should be impossible when it's just a short story. The romance felt insta-lovey to me, and I couldn't see a lot of character development (which I understand is difficult in this short story format). Overall, these were just super boring to me. I did really love the Starbucks Iced Sugar Cookie latte quite a bit though, so I'll give it that.

I love a good holiday romance so I was intrigued by this one - five holiday romances?! How awesome!

However…these stories fell flat for me. I don’t read many novellas, so maybe that’s why I did not like them? The insta-love in every story was not my favorite, either. I didn’t feel chemistry between the characters in any of the novellas. It wasn’t the worst collection of holiday romances I’ve read, but it wasn’t the best.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Half -Baked Holidays is a cute collection of five short stories for the holidays. All five tales are romance stories set at Christmas time.

Understandably, we don't have time to really dive into the characters of these short stories since we're focused on the love interests, not the characters' personalities. The characters are all quirky (in a good way!), and the head-over-heels feelings are immediate in each story.

I didn't like the author's frequent use of half-sentences, which should be reserved for making an emphatic point.
Sparingly and with intention.
In my opinion.
Not too often.

There is something endearing about each story in this collection. It would be great for gifting to the romantic in your life. Merry Christmas!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this collection in exchange for my honest review.

A very Christmassy collection! I will say, however, that this book was not my favorite. All of them are quick insta-loves and I didn’t feel much connection to the characters. My least favorite part though would have to be the writing style. It was so focused on descriptions and details about the surroundings, that I got lost and felt disconnected. In addition to this the writing style felt a little choppy and awkward. But, if you’re looking for some Christmassy vibes then this is it.
@kitsbookcorner

The premise here is great - holiday themed meet cute short stories. But a short story is meant to be a snippet of life. It doesn't mean that you have to cram the entire falling in love and planning a future together into the first five minutes they meet! The insta love in these was way too much for me.

The good:
- light easy reads
- all very varied and creative settings

The less good:
- extreme insta love
- what the heck was with that rainbow family thing, and the couple getting married AND having a baby within ONE YEAR?? These people need to calm down.
- choppy, staccato writing style with nary a complete sentence to be found. Why was every sentence chopped into about 5 grammatically incomplete sentences?

It was definitely a low brain power kind of easy read, but the speed at which the relationships moved and the strange writing style mean I wouldn't recommend this one.

Overall, not a huge fan of the love at first sight trope I’ve leaned. The stories, while listed as “short stories”, were all very rushed and I didn’t like everything happening so instantaneously wit the whole “love at first sight” deal - I’m more a believer of “lust at first sight”. I feel all the stories could have benefitted from more backstory or at least a bit more interaction before falling in love with kisses and grand gestures. It just felt like too much to me.
On a more positive note, I think it would be cute to see these stories as a holiday movie kind of like in a Love Actually/Hallmark style

So NOT a Silent Night - didn’t like it. Felt rushed and weird and didn’t really explain the details. Then the epilogue was the following year with a lot happening in that year that didn’t feel/seem realistic.

Enticing Wrapper Number 9 - cute little story of a holiday crush turned more. I liked the setting and even though it’s a short story, it felt rushed/aspects were missing (like the flirty lead up) but it was a more believable relationship, I just wanted more.

Give Me A Christmas Break - not a fan… she goes off on an adventure day with a guy she just met an hour before without telling anyone while on vacation far from home… not my jam. The whole thing just felt too phoney and there was no real lead up to the first kiss or any relationship building.

Half-Baked Holiday - cute and funny. I liked
the cat-bugler angle that turned into a sweet story.

Billionaire Bash New Years Crash - i liked this one. I wanted more from it and feel like it would have been good as a more expanded story and can totally see this as a Hallmark-esq movie.

While the stories were all fun and light, this writing style was not for me. Too many details were vaguely mentioned without bringing them around full circle with enough detail for my liking. It was a fun and light read, but not sure the stories were my style.

I really enjoyed how the short stories were all different, but the writing style just was not for me. I like a lot of detail and tend to write in run on sentences so shorter sentences are my kryptonite. The fragmentation and length just took me out of the story and made it very difficult to visualize, but I will be trying more from this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

After dealing with this terrible pandemic, plus the traffic and long lines of last minute Christmas shopping, this book is the perfect getaway. An anthology of light, feel-good, romantic holiday short stories. Put away the wrapping paper, climb into your favorite reading spot, and enjoy this book of happy endings.

Half-Baked Holidays by Kat Bastion is a literary Christmas gift for your holiday season! The stories are delightful quick reads sprinkled with blossoming love, baking and holiday spirit. I will be reading more of her work for sure! Thank you to Ms. Bastion and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this advanced copy.

Súper Cute book, it has the perfect amount of Christmas, I enjoyed so much the stories. My favorite was definitely "Half-baked Holiday" but I also enjoy "Give me a Christmas Break" thanks for sending me this book.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. It's a fun collection and helped get me into the Christmas spirit. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

These short storylines are hilarious and perfect for the holidays!
I loved how the author created the characters, they are so funny and loveable.

Enjoyed reading this collection of holiday stories though I didn't love them. But it was something different.

This book contained 5 mini stories and as someone who got the book via Netgalley as an ARC (thank you!), and didn’t read what it was about before diving in…. I was so confused.

I finally figured it out after a couple chapters into the second story when I realized book #1 characters were not going to come back. The entire time I expected all the stories to merge into one, but they were truly stand alone stories.

The writing was quite choppy and I thought the pacing of each story was odd. The characters went from 0 to 100 real quick and it didn’t make sense to me … wasn’t realistic.

Basically, I didn’t love this one. Maybe as more detailed separate books they would’ve been better, but as it stands right now, this book was not for me.

3.5 ⭐

"Being brave. Changing our lives."

  A quick and fun holiday romance read filled with holiday cheer and baking. Five different love stories but I like the Give Me A Christmas Break, and Billionaire Bash New Year's Crash the most. Since it's a novella all five were Insta love stories. Each being short had cheesy moments and 😮 you guys are getting to comfortable too fast  scenes (it was still clean romance). This book will be perfect when you just want a quick break from the holiday preparation stress. It's not complicated, and the cheesy moments will either make you shake your head or giggle.

This one just didn’t work for me. I ended up DNF’ing after two of the five stories. The writing was choppy, the characters and stories were very underdeveloped, and the attractions were way too instant to be realistic. Additionally, as a biracial reader, I try to prioritize diverse and/or multicultural stories but sadly this lacked the depth I was hoping for in a book that was marketed as multicultural.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Half Baked Holidays is an aptly named book of holiday romcom short stories. Each story was a quick read but long enough to allow for sufficient character development to be interesting. It was cute way to get a snapshot into a holiday romantic comedy without all of the backstory and build up. Basically cutting to the chase with some instalove whirlwind holiday romances. You need to suspend reality (and your judgyness at how fast these people fall in love) and get lost in the fast pace, intense and quick holiday romances.

So here's the thing: short-stories are always a bit hit-and-miss with me, and that was the case for this collection as well. The romance made for a good balance with any elements I liked slightly less, though, even throughout some of the more far-fetched scenarios. Now, I know you shouldn't judge any story on its vraisemblance, especially if it starts with "Why, Trey Holloway. As I live and breathe." or the equivalent of the plot of some of the less great fanfictions I've read, but still. At times, I did find myself needing at least a bit more of that. Or, you know - of anything. I can't really pinpoint what it was, exactly, but from time to time I just found myself missing some "spark".

Now, don't get me wrong - these short stories were all quite enjoyable, and they were very digestible, exactly because of their length, but still... Sometimes I just needed a bit more power to them... Nonetheless: quite a fun read for a slow holiday weekend day!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of Half-Baked Holidays by Kat Bastion.

Fun, Christmas themed, romance short stories. This book takes whirlwind romance to the next level with five romantic Christmas stories that involve meeting and falling in love within pages.

These are fun easy to ready stories and while there is not much depth there is a lot of fun. I think my only issue with this is the fact that two of the stories involved the women in the stories making choices that could possibly ruin their lives for only very superficial reasons. Otherwise I enjoyed reading these stories with their whirlwind romances and super quick epilogues that at least allowed a modicum of follow up on the relationships.