Loved the settings (Milwaukee, Nashville and Banff)...such a nice change from the settings usually in books.
The content felt like a very tame Hallmark movie. The cover felt like contemporary fiction. So (to me) there is a disconnect.
And the book felt extremely long.

1.5 stars

When I read the synopsis for Maggie Knox's sophomore novel, I thought that a enemies-to-lovers story about two country singers forced to fake a relationship for a singing competition holiday special sounded absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed how much Christmas Knox had infused into her first novel about twin sisters having to switch places at the holiday season and I was looking forward to another book full of Christmas feels.

Welp.

This book really did not work for me at all. Structuring the book around three separate Christmas does not necessarily allow for the authors to plum the depths of the characters' emotional arc and it forced the pacing to become incredibly erratic. I honestly thought that we were missing scenes in this copy because of how much we were skipping around. In addition, I did not believe in the main couple's relationship whatsoever. It felt like I was being told that they were falling for each other rather than being shown and I got increasingly annoyed by the not one, not two, but six major miscommunications that occur to provide conflict in their relationship. I could have forgiven some of these issues if we had gotten some great Christmas moments; however, we barely get any holiday cheer outside of a few references to red and green and several scenes set in Canada.

All in all, I think that there was a lot of potential in this novel that just never had the chance to be fully realized. I would consider reading another Knox novel to see if this was just a fluke, but I might go into it with a little wariness.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

🎄✨ all i want for christmas review ✨🎄

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❤️✨ SYNOPSIS ✨❤️

after their duet for the reality singing show, starmaker, breaks the internet, sadie & max find themselves in a fake relationship until their final performance in the starmaker holiday special. the only problem? they can’t stand each other. but with their dreams just within reach, they agree to the ruse. will their fake relationship be exposed before they can win? or might their phony connection turn real by the christmas finale?

🎄✨ MY THOUGHTS ✨🎄

⚠️ CW: DEATH OF A LOVED ONE, GRIEF, & SEXUAL HARASSMENT ⚠️

if you love dual povs, country music, american idol, fake dating, christmas hallmark movies, and cute doggos this book might be for you!!

alexa play christmases when you were mine by taylor swift 🎶

🌟 RATING: ★★★★☆
🌶️🥵 RATING: ★★☆☆☆

RELEASE DATE: October 2022 ✨🎄

christmas in july? sign me up!! as many of you know, christmas is my favorite holiday. so was very excited to receive this arc!! thank you @netgalley and @putnambooks ❤️🎄

max & sadie had amazing chemistry. the tension was just *chef's kiss* i'm a sucker for anything that remotely resembles a hallmark holiday movie so this was amazing. i could've done without the miscommunication & sleezy producer. but, i had a fun time reading this book so if you're a fan of fake dating romantic comedies with lots of feels and swoon worthy moments mark your calendar for this read!! 🥰❤️🎄

#sarcasticbrunettereads #christmasinjuly #arcreview
#alliwantforchristmas #maggieknox #bookstagram

I enjoyed The Holiday Swap and was excited to give Maggie Knox's latest pub a read!
All I Want for Christmas is a perfectly cozy holiday read- light, sweet, and full of charm. I enjoyed both of the MCs and the plot was refreshing. Bonus points for a book set in Nashville!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

After devouring Maggie Knox's "The Holiday Swap," I was automatically intrigued by what their latest novel would be out and was very pleasantly surprised to learn it'd be about two enemy musician/reality TV contestants forced to fake date and set around the holly, jolly holidays. Told from dual points of view across multiple timelines during the holiday season, this book features cute and compelling language that just drew me in and read quite quickly. All in all, it's light and fun and indulgent to create a truly sweet holiday romantic comedy.

Trigger Warning: Assault

Christmas, country music and enemies to lovers…. 3 of my favorite things.

This was cute but, where was the Christmas? It hinted at Christmas but, was. I picturing a full Hallmark Christmas setting, nope. Also, I really didn’t enjoy Max or Sadie. I was frustrated with them both throughout the entire book which really made them unlikeable.

The real star of the show here, Gran.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishing team for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a great Christmas story to read year-round! Like a Hallmark movie - with a happily ever after ending - in book form. I really enjoyed the setup of All I Want for Christmas, as well as the characters

Max and Sadie are competing in a reality TV singing competition in Nashville, and through some production finagling, are convinced to pose as a couple in order to go farther in the competition. Max is son of Nashville country music royalty, but Sadie is a unknown gem from Milwaukee, WI with an amazing voice.

Being a Wisconsin girl myself, the author did a great job of including accurate WI details to Sadie's backstory (including drinking Old Fashioneds and eating Kringle pastry!!). Max is more than what he seems too, and I loved the "knitting as his stress relief" thread.

The dual POV gives readers glimpses into both main characters motivations and thoughts, which is always good for romance books, especially when the story and plot are primarily based on miscommunication or misunderstandings.

The character of Cruz, the sleazy predatory music producer was fairly predictable, but every story needs a good villain.

I would definitely recommend this to any reader who enjoys contemporary romance, fake dating, holiday stories, and reality TV.

This book made me laugh, and it made me cry. I frequently wanted to slap the main characters so they would see what was in front of them. It’s a nice, lighthearted read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Let me start by saying I loved The Holiday Swap and was so excited for this book. However this was a real miss for me. There was no flow to this book. It felt very random and jumped around way to much to believe Max and Sadie had any sort of feelings for one another. You never get a chance to see Sadie and Max growing together. For the thirst half of the book every time they are near each other the chapter ends and jumps several days ahead and you have no idea why they would start having feelings for each other when all they do is argue and fail to communicate with one another. And then with barely any character or relationship development, the book jumps a year! The relationship between these two wasn’t even remotely believable because you never get a chance to see it. Most of the time this book felt like a bunch of random thoughts.
My next issue is the cringey dialog. The southern accents were a bit much in this one and was borderline distracting.
Anyway, the book gets two stars because of Patsy Canine and Max’s knitting skills. I was really looking forward to this one and was super bummed if felt so disjointed.

This was a light hearted, quick read, that was filled with wonderful details and events! All I Want For Christmas follows Sadie and Max, two country singers on a reality tv shows whose fake onscreen chemistry turns into something real the more they get to know each other!

Thank you NetGalley, Maggie Knox, and Penguin Group Putnam for my copy of All I Want for Christmas.

In this Christmas entitled book, truth be told, it has very little to do with Christmas except that the events revolve around December 25th. This is the story of two wannabe country singers who are contestants on a reality TV singing show. Max is the son of a well-known country singer and considered Nashville royalty. Sadie is a small-town Minnesota girl who has given up everything to pursue the dream. Together they can win it all, but to do so, they need to fake being in love but they can’t stand each other. Together they form #Saxie, whom the audience love for their romantic vibes as they sing. Perhaps they protest too much! While a romance seems to blossom, there are some obstacles and lack of communication that seem to hamper whether they will find a happy ending.
In this fast-paced contemporary fiction story, the story is very light. The characters are really not complex and are highly predictable as is the ending. It’s also a story that could be set at any time of the year and the magic of Christmas played not a part in the plot of the story which I found to be disappointing. It lacked the holiday spirit even as they sought to find true love. I agree with others who have commented that when you read a Christmas romance, you want it to be about the magic of Christmas! So, while this is still a fun romance story worthy of a read, read this any time of the year, don’t save it for a holiday read. I rate it a 3.5 but know that I have to round it to a 4.

Many thanks to #netgalley #alliwantforchristmas #maggieknox for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really wanted to like this one. It's cute and I liked the characters and their chemistry, but I wanted more. I especially wanted more Christmas with this title.
I know many will like this one as a light read for Christmas.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox
Romance
352 Pages
Pub Date: October 4, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I had to read a Christmas book during Christmas in July! I always watch the Hallmark movies in July. This year however I am trying to read a couple Christmas books. And this one was the perfect match!

This story is about Sadie and Max, two country singers. Sadie has given up everything to come to Nashville for her dream. Max is the son of one of the most famous country singers. They end up meeting on a reality singing competition where they get pushed together.

This ensues a fake dating situation and a whole lot of ups and downs for the duo. Will they end up making their fake relationship work, will it become real or will it all end in catastrophe.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend if you love a good romance book! This hits the country music scene, fake dating, reality shows and the gossip behind the scenes.

I love how so many things happened in the book. I could not keep myself from the book because it was so good

All I Want for Christmas is the second book by Maggie Knox, the pen name for writing duo Marissa Stapley and Karma Brown. On this book, we follow our main characters, Sadie and Max, as they make their way through a country singing competition. When sparks fly during a duet between them, their agents decide that they should fake a relationship in order to get further in the competition.

After reading and enjoying The Holiday Swap by this author duo last year, I was excited to see what they would come out with next and I am so disappointed. This book was such a letdown. This book primarily takes place in Nashville so, being someone who lives relatively close to the city, I was excited about it. And this book does feel like a love letter to Nashville, but not Christmas at all. I think this book could have taken place at anytime during the year and it wouldn’t have changed the story at all. Nashville is beautiful at Christmas and the characters literally visit a hotel in December that is known for going all out with its Christmas decorations but that is never mentioned. I read this to have those warm and cozy feelings I experience around the holiday season but this book failed to deliver. I think the book this author duo put out last year just worked better because it took place in a small, quaint town that just felt like a hallmark destination.

And then just the book itself was not enjoyable for me. The characters didn’t have a lot of depth and a lot of the personality traits they had were given to them just for the sake of having drama to work though. The miscommunication trope is something that is very common in romance books and though I do get annoyed by it, I can usually look past it. This book took the miscommunication trope and dialed it to 11. Every single issue in this book was caused because the main characters didn’t talk to each other. The relationship was super unbelievable. This book tries to deal with grief but it is in a way that is so absurd, I couldn’t even feel bad for the characters.

I could probably write a much longer review but I don’t want to spoil the book for those who are interested. This just wasn’t for me at all.

3.5 stars

All I Want For Christmas follows Sadie and Max, two country singers on a reality tv shows whose fake onscreen chemistry turns into something real the more they get to know each other! Their relationship was a bit rocky for me—the way they communicated (or didn’t) was very immature at times, but that gets chalked up to them both being very guarded people and their inability to open up because of that. Other than the issues with their slow relationship development, I really enjoyed the book. It’s cutesy, atmospheric, and a super quick read that’ll put you in the holiday spirit!

Big thanks to netgalley and Putnam for this arc!

3.5 stars. I really wanted to love this book. It started out great. And I was excited to see where it was going. Then it got to be a little too much for me. The two main characters went so back and forth with their feelings and emotions and it got annoying for me more than anything. I almost didn’t buy what they were trying to sell in the book. But the ending just brought everything back together for me and I really liked the ending.
I also had an issue with it being a Christmas book. I understand why it was called “All I Want for Christmas”, but this book could have been written during any time of the year without really changing too much. When I read a Christmas book, I want it to be a CHRISTMAS BOOK. Not a book that happens to take place in December and Christmas lights are mentioned a handful of times to justify it being a Christmas book.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest, and critical (which I hate doing) opinion.

Sometimes you just want a quick and fun story set during Christmas time and that is exactly what All I Want For Christmas is. Set over the span of two christmases (three if you count the epilogue), we get to follow the journey of Max and Sadie. I loved the musical chemistry that these two had but outside of that, I couldn't tell how they fell for each other once the music stopped.

These two also communicated like fifteen year olds. They would continually just walk out on each other instead of at least trying to have a conversation about what was happening at the time. They also both were extremely guarded and never let the other in until probably 75-80% through the book so that was also frustrating.

Despite all the shortcomings of this story, it was still almost a four star for me because it did a wonderful job of making you feel the Christmas setting and was still an overall cute story.

I recommend this a quick and easy December read!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for my copy of All I Want for Christmas.
Country music reality tv show. Were the only two things I needed to know so that I can be read this amazing book. As an avid fan of both, it really made this read even more enjoyable. We follow Sadie and Max both trying to make it in the world of country music and find themselves on the show to make their dream happen. They both have their own personal struggles colliding in on them. Sadie is convinced this is her last shot to make it big and Max is trying to get out of his dad’s(famous country music star) shadow.. When on duets week they are paired together the chemistry is undeniable and they find themselves wondering if this spark is just a spark. I really enjoyed their story and had a fun time reading this.

Predictable but very cute story based on the faking-a-relationship-trope. The music contest setting was a good backdrop for these characters, and I enjoyed the ending.