I was actually surprised by this romance novel. I had picked it up because the summary sounded cute and I was interested in a female/female romance centred around Christmas. But this book really surprised me with how well put together it was.

This book is about Grace after she breaks up with her girlfriend, Christina, because the latter didn't want to commit to Grace. Bridget is Christina's new assistant and is asked to plan Christina's proposal to her new girlfriend for her. So Grace and Bridget collide in Grace's hometown and they both fall in love, but also have to deal with their pasts both in love and otherwise.

I really loved the progression of Grace and Bridget's relationship. They had great chemistry together but they also had fun together, I could see them working as a couple and I was rooting for them throughout the book. I also love how they had character arcs which weren't related solely to romance since Grace had tragedy in her past, while Bridget had struggled with her childhood and the lessons it had taught her throughout her life. They both help each other to move past the things that are stopping them for falling all in to the relationship.

Regarding the side characters and the setting. I really want to visit Mistletoe Mountain, it sounds lovely but the story also addresses the problems with it and why Grace has been so reluctant to go back. The side characters were done really well that they were there and had their own lives but they didn't overpower the main couple and their stories. What I really love is how the book didn't make Christina this evil incarnate ex. Yes, she cheated on Grace and she didn't fully listen to Bridget at first, but it's obvious that she truly loves the woman she is with now and she listens to Bridget when it counts. I was so prepared for her to steal Bridget's work or something awful but she absolutely didn't and I was so pleased that we got such a well-rounded ex in a romance novel.

The writing style was really easy to get along with. I kept meaning to read a chapter or two before bed and then I would fly through a third of the book easily. The only thing I would say is that it took a little while for me to get into the book. Otherwise I would definitely recommend it!

4.5 stars!

All of the cheesy Christmas romance feels without the actual cheesiness? That's this book, A Christmas Proposal. It is completely full of all of the things a typical reader goes for in a cozy Christmas romance: pulls on the heartstrings, makes you believe in fairy tales, warms the spirit and the soul, makes you crave a cup of hot cocoa and a Christmas cookie. But this book manages to instill all of those feelings into the reader without falling into the classic cringey cheeseball trap. On top of that, this book celebrates LGBT+ love and gives a much needed holiday cheer spin on a woman-loving-woman romance. Highly recommend.

This was a lovely festive read, perfect for the cold weather! Lots of fun, festive romance in mistletoe mountain (also the cutest mountain name ever). A romantic and heartwarming story.

This was a great read in the build up to Christmas. If your a fan of festive novels you definitely need to add this to your list. It had all the feels

A really fun and cute Christmas book. The two women were sweet and I liked how it wasn't all fluff. As much as I love Christmas, I don't think I would like it everyday of the year, though, but in this setting it works perfectly to give the story the right vibes. It was a fast read, cute and enjoyable.

I received a copy of the book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

This book promises a sweet Christmas lesbian romance, and it delivers it! I enjoyed this book a lot, and I read it in one sitting. It was a very cute holiday rom-com so if that's something you're interested in, this is your book.

We follow Grace and Bridget, on their way to plan a Christmas proposal. Grace works in a company that does proposal planning, and Bridget is tasked with planning her boss's proposal. Feeling out of her depths, she hires Grace's company. What they don't realize from the start, is that Bridget's boss Christina is actually also Grace's ex-girlfriend. They work together on this proposal, but they end up getting closer and having to work through some personal issues from the past. All set in the town that does Christmas all year round - Mistletoe Mountain, where Grace grew up.

I thought Grace and Bridget were great characters, with interesting backstories, and I enjoyed reading about them. Throughout the book, they build a very cute romance and help each other grow and get through some tough feelings. I loved Grace's family, they seemed lovely - I just wish we got a little bit more about them. The town is also really cute, and I loved reading about it. I liked seeing that the two main characters, especially Grace, take accountability for their lives, and are actively trying to get better. I don't mean this in a way to imply that Grace is a bad person, she isn't. She mentions going to therapy to try and work out her issues from the past, and I feel like that isn't very common in romance novels - so I really appreciated it.

Some minor issues that I had - I felt that writing was a bit on-the-nose sometimes, and doing more telling than showing. Sometimes the descriptions of other people's appearances seemed a bit cringy. Also at one point a character asks Bridget about her nationality - "because of her striking looks", which I assume was about her ethnicity but I also found it weird. And I thought that the topic of Bridget's trauma from being in the foster system was glossed over a little bit, though I like that it was mentioned and acknowledged.

Overall, this was a cute holiday lesbian romance that I read one sitting and very much enjoyed. So if you are looking for a cute and fluffy to read fast, I would recommend this!

The Christmas Proposal was exactly what I was looking for at the right time: fluffy, sweet romance in the vein of Hallmark movies...but with lesbians. Was it good? Eh. It fit the bill, it scratched an itch. It's not a story I would necessarily like if it weren't for the holiday element. After watching too many Hallmark Christmas movies, I just needed some sapphic love. I would recommend it for that exact purpose.

I ended up DNFing this one. I got incredibly bored thought there was nothing outright wrong with it. I just felt like I had to kind of slog through a good portion of the writing, and I couldn't keep it up.

Also this book felt was a little odd in a few places in that some of the quotes were a little too far into the realm of mspec and bi erasure for my own (a bi person's) comfort.

This was a really fun and light lesbian holiday rom com. Over the top, silly, with a very sapphic ending, the perfect winter slug read. 👩‍❤️‍👩

This was a perfectly delightful holiday read. This year was a hard one for me to get into the holiday spirit and if you are feeling the same please I beg of you pick up this book!

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to have access to an eARC for this book in return for an honest review.

This was a great Christmas story and I loved reading this over the Christmas period, this gave me Christmassy feels and got me in the winter mood. Loved this overall and love to read more from the author.

Super cute! It's a Hallmark Christmas movie in a novel with a WLW couple, has a meet cute and a curmudgeon meets sunshine pairing.

Grace was dating Christina, until she found out she was sneaking around on her with Beryl. They break up and on the way out of the office, Grace meets Bridgett, who will become significant later on.

Bridgett is hired as Christina's personal assistant, although that's not the job she's wanting, she's a game creator and is told that after a while they will revisit that position.

Grace gets a job creating the most amazing proposals for people getting engaged. She's really good at her job and could possibly earn a promotion in Maui.

Bridgett comes into the office needing help with a proposal, Grace is tasked with helping her. They feel like they know each other but don't remember where from.

Grace takes Bridgett to Mistletoe Mountain, where she is from, to set up the proposal for Bridgett's boss. Grace doesn't know that it's Christina, although they've talked about their personal lives.

They get caught in an avalanche, which is a memory jerker as the last time Grace was caught in one, her girlfriend and figure skater partner died.

They spend some time at Grace's sisters inn, while working on the proposal, they get closer. Grace and Bridgett start a relationship but it halts when Bridgett tells her that Christina is her boss. Can she continue to work on project?

She tries to get out of it, her boss won't allow it. She finishes the job and heads back home, realizing that she didn't get that promotion. But then, the front winner pulls out and the promotion is hers.

I have never read anything by the author prior to this and that changes now! I really enjoyed this feel good romance.

I just reviewed The Christmas Proposal by Lisa Moreau. #TheChristmasProposal #NetGalley

Bridget and Grace have things to overcome but when they met for the second time they both had to rely on each other and 💯 percent trust each other. Through the time being stranded they learned what they really wanted in life and not to cut yourself short. As I was reading this book sadly I Related to Bridget a lot.

A quick and easy holiday read.

There were many things I enjoyed about this book (I like that it was an easy read that I was able to relax with during a break between exams, I liked Bridget and her backstory was interesting although to be fair some of her reactions were a little too severe for the reality of what was going on, I liked the fictional town Mistletoe Mountain, I thought it was an interesting place and I even looked it up if it really exists, it doesn’t), unfortunately there were many things that I found a bit too much (even the town itself, some of the places described seemed almost gaudy and cheap, Grace’s and her family’s expectation that everyone must love Christmas unless they have religious reasons not to was a little strange, the over the top aspects to Grace’s backstory were more than a little unbelievable and I wish some of it were toned down to be more realistic and thus would have satisfied me more as a reader, also the exclamation Grace repeatedly used ”holy dooley” is apparently Australian, I looked it up, so why would she use this expression? That made no sense and sort of always took me out of the story.)

Overall this was a book that I read in one day, with likable enough characters and as I just needed something to take my mind off my upcoming software architecture exam, I enjoyed it.

The main reason for the stars off of this review is that there was too much trauma in this book for my taste. I expected a holiday romance to be more of a fires and cocoa and eye gazing thing than a heal two people's traumatic pasts in two weeks kind of thing.

However, if the goal is holiday, you can not get a more Christmasy setting than The Christmas Proposal. The entire town is all Christmas all the time. I thought that made for a fun setting.

Another christmas romance which i loved. Anyone else find that romances are just such quick happy reads? I love them! This book was honestly so christmassy. Properly got me in the christmas spirit! So much talk of mistletoe, candycanes, snow, ice skating, all your christmas traditions included in one book. I was WILLING for a romance to happen between the two main characters as theyre so likeable. A feel good book that I would definitely recommend.

Grace Dawson works for a proposal planning company, Tie the Knot, all while hoping to find love for herself. Bridget Cartwright not only dislikes Christmas but also long-term relationships. Making Bridget the perfect person to plan her boss's Christmas proposal. Knowing that she is out of her depth with a promotion on the line she seeks out the help of Grace who just so happens to be her boss's ex.

The Christmas Proposal is one of the best sapphic Christmas novels giving readers that perfect holiday romance. While the main story is the relationship between Grace and Bridget. Moreau also gives readers some nice family moments as well as moments where the two must brave their pasts to move forward in their personal and professional lives.

Overall a great Christmas read!

This was a cute, festive read. Nothing to deep or engrossing, just a nice on-the-surface read.

The book didn't "wow" me and it wasn't a page-turner, but if you're looking for a Christmas-themed Hallmark-type romance to get you through a cold winter's night - this is a nice choice.

This book definitely has "wholesome Hallmark movie but make it sapphic" vibes. There's so many sappy holiday tropes: returning to your small, super-Christmassy hometown, forced proximity (help, we're snowed in!), abandonment issues make new intimacy hard, grief and learning to move on, insta-love/attraction, workaholics who deserve better... I could probably go on.

I didn't dislike many things in the plot, but the chapters do often read like plot summaries or sketches and not finished, polished character arcs. Quite a few times, we'll see one of the main characters have an internal monologue to the effect of, "Wow, it's really difficult to open up because of Big Unresolved Early Childhood Trauma/Bad Breakup/Fear of Getting Hurt Again." And then one page later, that character is telling their love interest about it directly, in sentences that almost no one actually says aloud, especially not to someone they met three days ago and have beef with.

This was made more frustrating by rather inconsistent characterization for both Grace and Bridget, but especially Grace. Grace vacillates from "I can never forgive Bridget for lying to me about planning a proposal for my crappy ex-girlfriend" to "Christina doesn't matter, planning a proposal doesn't matter, Bridget is the only important thing!" so quickly. The information about Megan and her past skating career comes surprisingly late and throws her character off even more. And the ending? Why drive the plot along with Grace's desire for a promotion and genuine love of proposal planning, and have that be the reason she makes so many uncomfortable decisions, just to have her randomly quit and start coaching skating at the end? Give her a different primary motivation for the earlier story then! Or have her work remotely or otherwise resolve the ending well! This was such a letdown for what I had come to believe about the characters and their lives.

Finally, the only main thing I did dislike—the way that the one sex scene was incorporated in. Bridget and Grace have a conversation about taking their relationship slow on both emotional and physical levels, which makes sense because they just met three days ago and didn't like each other for most of that. But immediately (like maybe a few hours later), they sleep together. And both of them verbally acknowledge how they had wanted to take their relationship slowly, then just eschew boundaries because they're so attracted to each other. Grace makes an offhanded remark the next morning about how she was worried that Bridget regretted sleeping together, and it's like, well, why did you do that then? You had a full conversation about boundaries, ignored it, and sure enough, there are consequences! I feel like this could've been handled so much better—their pre-conversation aligned with how attracted they were to each other, they properly and fully renegotiated boundaries before having sex, or they had a really full after-conversation about what had changed, for example. But instead on both sides this scene was an unfortunate display of unhealthy boundary-breaking and it wasn't really dealt with as such (i.e. the real flaws humans have). It was passed over so quickly, like Lisa Moreau just wanted to add a sex scene in and be done with it, even if it was actively against what her characters and plot needed for consistency.

I didn't hate this—parts were light and nice—but I don't think I'll seek out a Lisa Moreau book again, at least not for the far foreseeable future.

This book will be included in my January Reading Wrap-Up video on YouTube.