I was really excited about reading a fun summer Christmas themed romance, but this one just wasn’t 100% for me. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be for someone else! This book was fast read, lots of drama, and was a childhood friends to lovers. Ivy is a screen writer and finally gets her chance, but the film is going to shot in her hometown. Nick is acting in the film and Ivy’s past. They both are all over the place with their feelings which makes me feel like they are immature and it doesn’t sit well with me as far as a romance goes. I just wish it was more I guess!

The Summer of Christmas was an entertaining romance with lots of twists and misconceptions. The main character has written a screen play based on her own life and the producers decide it needs to be filmed in her home town in the middle of winter. There are misunderstandings surrounding the original story between the screen writer and her former boyfriend and the actors and actresses in the movie plus the writer's family drive the story to a happy ending. This is a pleasant and quick read for a lazy summer day.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

I really loved the concept of this book. However, the conflicts and character actions felt very childish and it made it hard to read. It was also hard to read because the sentences were odd and the POV seemed all over the place.

DNF

Y'all know I can't turn down the opportunity to read a fun Christmas romance, so when I saw this cover I immediately requested an ARC. Sadly I only got through a couple of chapters before I decided to call it quits. After finding out that the authors of this book are screenwriters it all made sense. This book was more of a tell me book than a show me book and I just couldn't bring myself to keep going. I would gladly watch a movie this team was involved in though.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley for voluntary review

Rating : 3 out of 5
Blurbs :
A hopeful LA screenwriter behind the scenes of her first exciting successful filmA dramatic face-to-face with her first love—who broke up with her five years ago at Christmastime (the jerk!)The magic, mystery, and hijinks of making a Christmas movie—in the middle of summer!A second chance for everyone to get things right, finally
Up-and-coming LA screenwriter Ivy Green is about to have her life turned upside down. Her movie, based on her and her high school sweetheart, Nick Shepherd, is being filmed in her hometown. In the middle of summer, during the month of July, the production crew creates a winter wonderland Christmas.

Nick is less than thrilled to see Ivy after all this time. Especially because in her movie version of their relationship, she kills his character off. To complicate matters, Ivy isn't sure of her relationship with the producer, the town is overflowing with movie stars and adoring fans, and worst of all—the actress playing Ivy develops a crush on the real Nick! Now, with renewed and confusing feelings about Nick, Ivy is determined to see if there is anything left between them, but in the end, Ivy will need to re-write her life script to finally get everything she ever wanted.

Thoughts : I think this book is going to be either hit or miss for everyone. Can't say that I'm surprised about that and it's fine, I guess. It's a Christmas rom-com so if you want to try, just try reading this book. You're going to either hate this book (probably dnf) or you'll gonna like this book. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This novel would make a great Hallmark movie, or Netflix movie because there’s more kissing then a Hallmark movie. It’s not surprising that the authors are a screenwriting duo that have worked on Christmas movies. I could definitely see the story playing out on the screen. It was a cute, fun second chance romance that didn’t wow me. I think I would preferred to have seen it as a movie.

I made 2022 the year of DNF'ing more because I don't want to waste life on books I don't like. I knew I hated this book at about 1 chapter in. However, I didn't DNF because the premise sounded a lot of fun to me and I was really hoping the book would pick up. However, as the book continued that didn't happen and for some reason I still didn't DNF. Now I hate myself for not DNF'ing. This book just wasn't good. The writing was very inpersonal and factforward. It wasn't fun to read at all. The writing was also very simple. Things were WAY overexplained and this book felt very repetitive. There was also an abundance of movie references. Typically I enjoy something like that when it's something the character is passionate about but it just felt WAY too much in this book and really unnececary as well. Especially because every single reference was overexplained as towards what the reference meant. It was just a bore to read. The characters were also incredibly insufferable. They were super immature and childish. A literal todler is more mature than these characters. They were also overly dramatic and literally overreacted on EVERYTHING. Sometimes things were said as well that just made me doubt if these authors had ever interacted with other human beings as it didn't sound like anything anyone would ever say. The plot was also all over the place and messy. Truly, it was hard to follow. Especially because the transitions between scenes felt so abrupt and were terribly done. The romances were also poorly developed. I don't understand why any of these people are together. But in the main romance there definitely wasn't any chemistry and things just came out of nowhere. Yeah, I hated every single part of this book and I truly regret not DNF'ing it, just for my own sanity.

As someone who absolutely loves Christmas books this was another great read! I know a lot of reviews have said things about really needing to know about movies and tv, I didn't find this was the case. Yes there were a lot of references but I found it didn't take away from the plot at all. In fact I think it added to it, as the main character is currently filming the movie of her life I would say. I would call this a second chance romance book. I love how I could see both characters grow over the span of time. It had all the classic things I love from a hallmark Christmas movie, but with the twist of it actually being filmed rather than lived out. A great read!

The Summer of Christmas had an incredibly cute premise. The making of a christmas movie! And what kind of rom-com lover doesn't love a Christmas movie? Unfortunately the book just didn't hold up for me. The writing wasn't my style, and while that's not the fault of the author unfortunately it was a DNF for me at around 15%.

2/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received The Summer of Christmas just in time for a Christmas in July reading spree! All of the Christmas ARCs are starting to roll in, and I can't wait to read them. This cover had me absolutely hooked!

The premise of The Summer Of Christmas was great. I read it shortly after reading Nora Goes Off Script, and both are about screenwriters that write a movie script based on their own life. In this book, Ivy wrote her screenplay in a fit of rage after getting dumped by her childhood boyfriend. When the movie rights were sold, the director decided to film it in Ivy's hometown...where said boyfriend still lived.

I loved the setting: a combination of a movie set and a Christmas-loving small town.

My favorite character was Griffin, the actor hired to play Nick's character in Ivy's movie. I would love to see a book about him! Unfortunately, I didn't feel any particular connection to either of the main characters, Ivy and Nick.

The prose was a little jarring at times. Some sentences were choppy, short, and just described each action instead of "showing" the reader the scene. The POV would inexplicably skip from one character's feelings to another in the same paragraph. The authors would just go around the room telling each character's reaction to the situation, which didn't make for a smooth reading experience. Some of the dialogue also felt somewhat unnatural.

Overall, this was a fun story, but the writing style wasn't for me.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

Sorry to say that I'm not a fan of this author's writing. It felt immature and there was no flow in it. It was tell and no-show with this one and I put it down after a few chapters.

DNF at 15%

When you think about a book, I mean really think about it, it is just a bunch of sentences strung together. There is something almost magical, however, in the way that those sentences come together to create a story and a world.

The Summer of Christmas does not have that magic.

On top of the characters being one-dimensional and the plot moving chronologically when it really should have time jumps, this book reads like a bunch of sentences. There is really nothing tangible to turn these sentences from words into a story. For a book that is supposed to give you all the feels, there are none to be found in these pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Great holiday romance novel - and a quick beach read if you’re looking for something fun!!

Read this book if you’re missing Christmas and LOVE lifetime movies!!

The cute cover and the promise of a Christmas romance instantly drew me to this book. While I fully expected a fluffy romance, I was surprised by the lack of depth in these characters and the disjointed writing style. The authors randomly jumped forward in time, and major developments just casually happened. We were often just told what these characters were feeling, rather than shown. For that reason, it was hard to connect with any characters or feel invested in their lives. The authors are screenwriters, so it’s possible this would have worked better as a Hallmark movie than a novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was bad. I’m really disappointed because this book has such a cute cover and I had such high hopes.

I’m not really interested in reading books about characters in their early 20’s. I’m too cranky and old to read about children.

The writing was…I have no words. It was bad.

Ivy Green left her small upstate New York town and her high school boyfriend Nick Shepherd to go to film school in Los Angeles. She dreamed of being a screenwriter, and she wasn’t going to let anything stand in her way. Her last year of school, Nick came out to L.A. to visit her for Christmas. And while she was sharing with him the joys of a California Christmas, he was thinking about his future. Ivy was talking about finding a place to live in L.A. and trying to find her way into the film business. He wanted to go back to New York and work in his family’s winery.

Ivy thought she and Nick would be together forever. Instead, Nick broke her heart and went back to New York alone.

Ivy was heartbroken, but she took that pain and transformed it into a script, When Mary Met Joseph. It took her five years of making the rounds with producers and studios, but she finally found a producer who believed in Ivy and her script. He found a couple of stars for the roles of Ilsa and Rick, a director, and the financing, and suddenly all of Ivy’s Hollywood dreams were coming true.

She got special permission to be on the set for filming, but she wondered if that was a good idea when she learned where the filming was going to take place. Instead of finding some local exteriors to shoot, finishing the interiors on a set in L.A., they were taking the shoot on location. And the location they chose was the small New York town where Ivy had grown up. Where Ivy had first fallen in love with Nick. They even pick Shepherd’s Winery as one of the locations for the shoot

But as the days of the shoot go by, complications arise. Ivy and the producer Drew try to keep their relationship under wraps, but that means she doesn’t get to spend much time with him. The actor playing Nick is stalked by his fans and can get no privacy. The actress playing Ilsa starts flirting with Nick and posts photos of them together all over her social media. And most distracting of all, Ivy finds herself in places that remind her of all those happy years that she and Nick had together. And while the ending of her movie has Rick get killed, Ivy is starting to wonder if she shouldn’t rewrite the ending of her own relationship with Nick Shepherd.

The Summer of Christmas is a light-hearted Christmas rom com in the spirit of those Hallmark holiday movies that are so popular, written by a couple of screenwriters who have scripted a few of those movies themselves. Juliet Giglio and Keith Giglio have brought a Hollywood Christmas to New York in July and written a story of love, regret, heartbreak, and redemption in a gift-wrapped package.

I really wanted to love this book. I am interested in the behind-the-scenes of a movie set, and I thought that was interesting. The love story was cute, if a little obvious. But I thought that it as a little overwritten. The writers worked hard to explain a lot of things about movie making that I think most readers already know (for example, I didn’t need to be told what IMDB is). But it is still a fun story, a bit effervescent but with some interesting surprises. I would suggest reading an excerpt and see what you think, and if you like the writing, then make yourself a hot chocolate and dive right in.

Egalleys for The Summer of Christmas were provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca through NetGalley, with many thanks.

This was a pretty fun second chance at love, small town romance with a unique twist. Christmas in July but make it a behind the scenes Hallmark movie.

This story features Ivy, a debut screenwriter who has returned to her hometown where they're filming her Christmas movie that she based on her first love and high school sweetheart Nick - aka the guy who dumped her on Christmas and who she hasn't seen in years.

The plot of this one was a little convoluted but I enjoyed it. Ivy is in a relationship with her movie producer but seeing Nick again is bringing up all kinds of unwanted feelings. Add in a heaping dose of jealousy when he starts hanging out with the actress playing Ivy and things really get interesting.

This was a solid debut I'd recommend to fans of Nora goes off script by Annabelle Monaghan or super predictable Hallmark holiday romcoms. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copies!

The Summer of Christmas by Juliet Giglio was adorable! While this book is about Ivy Green writing a new Christmas movie which is roughly about her life and then going to her hometown to film it, really could be a great Christmas movie! I laughed out loud during many parts of this book. I enjoyed this author and book and look forward to reading more!

I enjoyed reading The Summer of Christmas. There are two parts in the book that are very familiar. I'm not sure why I've read it. I would love to read more of this author and hope their new books will live up to this! *Thank you to Sourcebooks via Netgalley for the ARC.

Lights, Camera, Action! Cue the Fake Snow!

The Summer of Christmas left me with mixed feelings. The writing is omniscient, which nearly caused me to DNF this novel a couple of times. Although the plot held my interest and kept me reading. After 25% into the novel, I settled into the writing enough to continue reading The Summer of Christmas until the last page.

Going solely by the cover, I was under the impression there would be a spicy scene or two. Yet, that is not the case. The Summer of Christmas is close to a Hallmark movie, TV-PG to TV-PG-13 with suggested scenes or drinking.

Honestly, this book would be a better movie. This book has everything I love in a heartwarming rom-com: high school sweethearts and a second chance romance in a Gilmore Girlesque small town.

So, if you are looking for a light read in this heavy heat, The Summer of Christmas is the perfect book to read this July.