3.5ish

Season of Love was an entertaining read. It definitely has all the makings of a Hallmark-y type movie, with all the best tropes-small town, grumpy/sunshine love interests, prodigal daughter returns "home", must save the family business.

Miriam's return to Carrigan's doesn't go quite the way she hoped, after finding out her beloved aunt left her part ownership in the business. Planning on making her escape after sitting shiva, she now has to pretty much rethink her life's plan- does she stick around and give up everything she was working towards? Or does she say good-bye once again to the people who were most important to her, the ones she left a decade ago and never looked back?

I have to say, I was very happy with her choice. I really never understood why she closed herself off from her cousin/best friend and the rest of the crew at Carrigan's. I know it had to do with her father, who was a complete piece of shit. I just wish we had gotten a clearer picture of the way everything went down with him- things were alluded to, and we did get some details, but I still felt like there was something missing there, like why he was such a jerk about her art. Maybe it's just me, but for him to be the reason she stayed away, I didn't feel like there was closure to that part of the story.

The romance with Noelle was the epitome of a slow burn. These two did not get off on the right foot- Noelle has some preconceived ideas about Miriam, without ever having met her. But you could tell right from the start they were intrigued with each other. There was a lot of back and forth with these two, and I wish we had just gotten a little more on page interaction of them together. I did enjoy their banter, and how things worked out in the end for them, and for Carrigan's!

I have not been able to stop thinking about Season of Love by Helena Greer since I finished it last week. This is my third queer holiday romance read of the year and I truly cannot get enough of them.

Miriam Blum is a free spirit with a traumatic past. She’s a talented artist with a large and supportive online community, the sweetest golden retriever of a best friend, and a fiancée that she has built a carefully curated life with. On the cusp of fulfilling a lifelong dream of opening up a shop for her art, she finds out that her beloved great-aunt Cass has passed away and she must return home to Carrigan’s, Cass’s Jewish-run Christmas tree farm, for the first time in a decade to sit shiva and face her family again.

Noelle Northwood is the manager of Carrigan’s, who— despite being around for years— has never met the infamous Miriam. Miriam ,whose long, continued absence broke the heart of her best friend, and Miriam’s cousin, Hannah. She’s a recovering alcoholic who found a tremendous amount of solace and a home at Carrigan’s with Cass and Hannah and feels immensely protective over the farm and everyone in it. Because of these circumstances, Noelle is immediately resentful of Miriam’s presence and makes a lot of unfair judgements upon their first meeting.

On what should be the last day of Miriam’s trip home, the three of them find out that Cass has left a quarter of the farm to each of them along with Hannah’s long lost ex Levi. Despite having a life she is eager to return to, Miriam feels called to stay at Carrigan’s with Hannah and Noelle to make a plan for the failing farm. At this point, Noelle has realized her initial judgement of Miriam was wildly unfair and inaccurate, and is nursing a very big crush on her. At one point she’s discussing it with Hannah and it made me LOL: “I don’t want her to stay, because I’ll want to date her and I can’t. I do want her to stay and be single and make out with my face.”

The love story that unfolds between Noelle and Miriam is so beautiful and I kept a few lines that I really loved of each of them describing how the other made them feel:

Noelle: “Noelle watched Miriam first get excited and then even out her face, like she was trying not to seem too enthusiastic. Noelle was almost glad for the respite because Miriam geeking out was so luminous, she could hardly look.”

Miriam: “Being around Noelle felt like pulling on a new pair of jeans that unexpectedly fit perfectly.”

And some other lines that really just stuck out to me:

“It was strange, how well Miriam understood things that Noelle had never even articulated to herself.”

“That familiar ritual, done without thought, opened a door inside Miriam she’d even forgotten existed in the past decade.”

I highly recommend this grumpy/sunshine, femme/butch, sapphic holiday romance. If Carrigan’s were a real place, I would move there in a heartbeat and if Cole were a real person, I would unapologetically beg him to be my best friend. I’m finding words especially difficult right now, but I hope some of these lines I’ve shared from the book are enough to convince you to pick up a copy. Thanks so much to forever for this gifted copy! I cannot wait to return to it again and again. Out now!

Thank you to netgalley for the arc. All opinions are my own. Season of Love is an extremely heart felt romance about facing your fears head on, and those what if you took that leap of faith moments. I hesitate to use the word rom com to describe this book, as it had such serious and emotional undertones to everything. Miriam and Noelle have a lot of trauma, and a lot of the book is about them working on themselves and their trauma. Therefore I would say that this is a romance book for sure, but not a rom com. It’s not fluffy like that. Sure it had moments, but more often than not it was a more serious tone. I absolutely loved the relationship between Miriam and Noelle, they complimented each other perfectly and their romance was sweet. The character development as well throughout this book was excellent.
I loved that while this book was set at Christmas, it was 100% a Jewish book, featuring Jewish holidays and so much more. It was lovely to read.
My favourite part was the author’s very clear intentions to make this book a Loving and Appreciating Butch Lesbians book. Noelle is a fat butch lesbian, and Miriam finds her attractive not in-spite of those things, but because of them. Miriam adores that Noelle is a fat butch, and frankly it was about damn time butches had some love and appreciation in romances.
I have one problem with this book. There’s a single line that upset me, left a bad taste and almost had me DNF the book. Miriam says she’s never decorated a Christmas tree, and when Noelle expresses shock at that Miriam replies: “I’m Jewish! And don’t give me that ‘they’re a secular symbol that comes from paganism’ line,” warned her. “No one believes that.” As a practising pagan who quite literally puts up a Yule tree, this line was extremely upsetting. For once I’d like authors to actually research paganism before saying something about a religion they know nothing about. Christianity stole the symbol of the tree and reappropriated it to be a Christian symbol. Plain and simple. No one believes that??? Wrong. Many people do, because it’s fact. That whole part should never have been written.
Other than that I very much enjoyed it.
4/5 stars.

A true "holiday" romance, this read features all major Christian, secular, and Jewish holidays from October through the new year! When artist Miriam Blum learns her beloved aunt has passed away from cancer, she returns to her Christmas tree farm to sit Shiva. But while there, she learns she has inherited part of the farm, along with her cousin and former best friend, her former friend who's dropped off the grid, and the farm's distractedly attractive new forewoman. With Miriam having left the farm suddenly due to her father's abuse ten years prior, tension exist between the heirs, but they're all determined to save the farm from financial ruin. When each starts opening up about their past and present feelings, wounds begin to heal and love begins to blossom.

I loved this book so much. It was packed full of holiday cheer, pining, tough decisions, and emotional trauma. There are loads of trigger warnings, so I'd recommend reading the author's note to check them out, but the book was not overall a downer. It really was a heartwarming story of regrowth and love.

While Hannah and Levi are clearly book number two (hello, dramatic return of the prodigal son in the epilogue), I swear if Miriam's BFF Cole and Miriam's ex-fiance Tara don't get their own books I will scream. Tara ended up being one of my favorite and most compelling characters--a lesbian debutante criminal lawyer with a wild past and sham relationship? How could it get more interesting than that? And then there's Cole, a trust fund baby who's somehow broke, white hat hacker, and wild dresser who has fled to New Zealand? Maybe there is a character more interesting than Tara... either way, I want both of them to get the love (and story) they deserve, so Forever Pub, you better sign on for three more books! I also want to see Miriam's dad get what's coming to him in future books...

Thanks to Forever for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 9/10

Season of Love is a heartwarming story of love, loss, and the family you make. Helena Greer’s debut novel manages to give off a good amount of holiday sparkle while having its characters deal with grief.

After the death of her great-aunt, Miriam Blum returns to Carrigan’s (her aunt’s Jewish-run Christmas tree farm) to sit shiva and come to terms with her loss. It’s been ten years since she left Carrigan’s and though her beloved cousin now runs the place, there’s also a new face: Noelle Northwood, the farm’s manager who clearly doesn’t want her there. Noelle can’t understand why Miriam would ever have turned her back on Carrigan’s, nor why she cut herself off from her aunt and cousin. Carrigan’s is Noelle’s home and some fancy artist flying in to reopen old wounds for her beloved made family is not something she wants to put up with. But Miriam isn’t at all what she expected and her reasons for staying away come from a place of trauma. When the will is read and Miriam is named one of the new owners of Carrigan’s, she and Noelle have to find a way to work together.

Noelle is big, butch, and loyal to her loved ones. She’s a recovering alcoholic who has put dating on hold while she tries to protect all that she holds dear. Carrigan’s is in danger of going under and that has to be her top priority, not some gorgeous artist who is a flight risk. Miriam grew up with an abusive father who nearly broke her. She separated herself from her past and has built a life in Charleston that is safe. She doesn’t want to deal with her trauma, but her aunt’s death has forced her to come to terms with the past. Miriam is bright, talented, and smart. She’s determined to save Carrigan’s and that means she has to go toe-to-toe sometimes with her cousin, Hannah, and Noelle. Miriam and Noelle both have lessons to learn and it was great seeing them come into their own. Noelle is slow to trust and wary of being hurt. Miriam has to come into her own and stop hiding from the parts of her that need to heal.

The romance between Miriam and Noelle is often fun and flirty. The attraction is delightful and their interactions when they’re flirting are charming. There is a lot of push-pull for reasons I’ll leave readers to find out. Greer made every bump in the road worth it, however, for a happily ever after that is sweet.

There’s a lot to love about Season of Love. It made me smile that a Jewish family ran a Christmas tree farm and I loved that Greer authentically incorporated Judaism into this story. The supporting cast is also well worth talking about. Everyone at Carrigan’s is interesting and well-drawn, endearing and flawed at the same time. The only downside of this story is that it does move rather slowly, especially the first half of it. The pacing did make it easy for me to put this book down but aside from that I really enjoyed Miriam and Noelle’s story. The ending of Season of Love is warm and satisfying and I’m very much looking forward to Hannah and Blue’s book.

I’m immediately drawn to any holiday romance that recognizes Jewish holidays (and the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas) so I couldn’t wait to pick up Season of Love. I enjoyed this one but I could have done without the Christmas tree farm as a major component. I’ll definitely still pick up more from Greer in the future.

3.5 stars

I really struggled with this one. Noelle was incredibly off putting and judgemental and just hard to like. How she treated Miriam was unacceptable. Eventually I understood why she treated her the way she did but it was just hard to get past at first.

I loved Miriam and loved her journey to loving herself. I hope that Hannah gets her own story!!

*4.5 Stars*

Miriam Blum hasn't seen her family in years. Ten years to be exact. She couldn't stand her father's abuse anymore and she cut ties with everyone because of it.
But when she learns of her beloved great-aunt's passing, she doesn't think twice. She jumps into the first plane to go to Carrigan's, Cass's Christmas Tree farm where she used to go to every holiday season.
Noelle Northwood has been living at Carrigan's for years. She cares about it like it's her own and she cared a lot about Cass too. Also, Hannah, Miriam's cousin, is Noelle's best friend and both her and Cass having been abandoned by Miriam makes Noelle Not a fan. Who cares that she's attracted to her? This attraction is nothing, especially since Miriam is engaged and what do you mean she's staying since Cass left a fourth of Carrigan's to her???

This was pretty damn great. I loved the Christmas farm setting, and I think that was made better by the fact that the family running it was jewish. I really enjoyed the romance, I found it well paced and jus fun to read. I also really enjoyed all the talk of family and the issues that come with it and the talks of grief and guilt for not being there. Basically, I loved all that was brought up.
The characters were also so very layered and interesting and I loved the double pov. It truly felt essentiel to this story. I also really loved the side characters, they were all pretty damn layered and I enjoyed them immensely. I honestly would love to read spin-offs with them as MCs.
I also didn't know this was a closed door romance when I was reading it and that was a nice surprise for me, I was not looking forward to sex scenes... (mostly because my mom's name is Myriam)
Honestly, the only reason why I didn't rate this 5 stars is that I didn't cry or feel things very deeply. But this was very good, a great time, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for more from Helena Greer.

This book was an adorable and heartwarming read. I always enjoy books that allow characters to believe and find true love while struggling with their own demons. Noelle’s being her sobriety and always putting others before herself and Miriam dealing with her constant abusive past. And the other side characters get their chance to deal with their own problems too. The dual perspectives add another layer to this as well. I also like in the beginning how Noelle and Miriam have every right to be upset and not like one another but also be wrong at the same time. Noelle slowly learns to not pass judgement without the full story and Miriam learns how her 10 year absence from her family affected other people.

The reindeer scene where Miriam talks to them was so cute, I loved how she was talking to them like people! Also I love Cole and Hannah. End of story.

Overall, I highly recommend this book!

3.25⭐
PG for some hot kisses and fade to black romance

Alexa, play Christmas Tree Farm by Taylor Swift. ...but make it Jewish!

This book held so much promise for me. I loved the premise of two queer women teaming up to save a family Christmas tree farm and inn while falling in love at the same time. I loved all the representation of queer, Jewish, fat, sober and mental health identities and experiences. I'm glad books like this exist because I think it allows so many people to see themselves in print. Overall, Miriam and Noelle were these beautiful complex characters that I enjoyed reading about.

However, for me, this book fell a bit short. Miriam is engaged at the beginning of the book and breaks it off then falls in love two seconds later and that really made it hard to feel the chemistry from Miriam and Noelle. On top of that, Miriam's one dimensional bad guy dad felt like such a flat villain. He was important for Miriam's growth and recovery from abuse, but I just wanted more depth from the conflicts in this book. Honestly I might have enjoyed this book more with a little more editing to condense the second and third act conflicts and create more momentum in the story.

My favorite character by far was Hannah and I really hope Helena writes a companion novel about Hannah and Levi reuniting because I will eat that up. While this book didn't quite work for me, I'm really excited to check out future books from Helena because I loved her characters.

I love this one so much. It centers on Cass’s Jewish family who take over the running of her Christmas tree farm and holiday destination spot.
Sapphic romance.
Jewish representation.
Christmas charm.
Complex relationships and dynamics.
Tasty food and cocoa making me crave the holidays.
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This is the perfect holiday book, I love its originality. I love that I had to look up Jewish words (thank you kindle) to best understand their meaning. Season of Love showcases differences and similarities, which is crucial right now (especially if you saw Twitter and what went down this week). Antisemitism is real. Do your part. Learn more. Be better.
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I would love this as a Netflix movie because they can dig a lot deeper than Hallmark. Out today, grab this one. The hugest of thanks to @readforeverpub and @netgalley
For the e-arc.

This was such a cute and addictive read! I ended up listening to the audiobook and the narrators fantastic! Miriam and Noelle meet when Miriam’s aunt Cass passes away and Miriam arrives for the funeral. Cass was an amazing character and I wish we’d gotten to meet her! I loved how Miriam, Noelle, and Miriam’s cousin Hannah join in to save Cass’ tree farm. Cass and Miriam’s affection was a little fast to me and I’d like to have seen more of it instead hearing of it, but otherwise I adored this whole book.
There were so many sweet moments between Miriam and Noelle, but they still seemed to challenge and really work on communicating with each other. The ending was so sweet and I kept hoping there will be another book in this world!

This book was cute but also came with a lot of deep emotions. This one reminded me a little of Satisfaction Guaranteed except set at a Christmas tree farm, so people who are fans of that one might also be a fan of this one.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters in this one and the Jewish representation. I did feel like most of the romance aspects of this one were a little rushed. Then I also felt like the book could’ve ended about 3 chapters earlier than it did.

I still would recommend this one as it was a nice holiday romance that I think a lot of people would enjoy.

I had just lamented that I had not read an F/F romance that could compare in excellence to M/M or M/F romances that I have read, and then I read this book and it was the unicorn I’ve been looking for! If you want a sweet F/F romance with found and blood family dynamics, a great story and cast of characters, holiday themed, Jewish rep, that handles the themes of grief, emotional abuse and trauma with sensitivity and care, this is the book!

I’m not going to recap the book or characters, you can discover that in the book’s synopsis, I’m going to wax poetic on the great things about this book and why it’s a unicorn. This book also does a lot of heavy lifting with grief and trauma, so I recommend reading the content warnings, but I think it’s all handled and portrayed with nuanced sensitivity. It’s also closed door for those who need to know this.

The main characters and secondary characters are quickly and expertly revealed and developed. Within moments of meeting them and with a few brilliant descriptors/dialogue, you know so much about them from the jump. There is authenticity in the emotional arcs of the characters and as a reader you just get to ride-along, feeling invested yet safe.

This is a tightly woven story, with moments of grief, moments of pure joy, and all the gray in-between, like real life. I particularly loved the difficult conversations the characters have with one another rather than an excess of internal dialogue or exposition which I am seeing more and more in romance these days and I don’t care for it.

The story includes one of the best breakups I’ve ever read (and I’ve read A LOT of romance) and the romance of the reconciliation gets an A+! I also loved that after the MC’s reconcile, there is more to the story of what happens afterwards and then we get an epilogue which is more of a set-up for the next book. These few extra chapters felt very satisfying after spending so much time getting to know them and rooting for them.

You may crave Jewish pastries and challah while reading this book, have them on hand if you have access.

I savored reading this book once I realized how skilled the author was and how engaging the story was and recommend it highly. Truly, I loved it and look forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

#SeasonOfLove #HelenaGreer #QueerRomance #ReadForeverPub #NetGalley #Romance #Bookstagram #ReadingRomance

Thank you so much to Helena Greer, Forever Pub and NetGalley for an advance copy of this!

"How turned on could you get talking about glitter, after all?”

Season of Love is a queer, Jewish romance that focuses on Miriam Blum learning the death of her beloved great aunt and having to come back to her hometown that she left behind. Miriam leaves Charleston, her business, her "fiancée" and heads up north. She is reunited with her cousin whom she missed and then also met with Noelle who works at her great aunt's business. There is tension from the start as Noelle has heard stories about Miriam and doesn't understand how she could just leave everyone. Miriam had no intention to stay in Advent but after she is inherited the farm along with her cousin, Noelle and family friend Levi, she now has second thoughts. Between trying to get the tree farm up and running for the holiday season and deciding what she wants to do, there are these bubbling feelings for Noelle.

"I’m ready to ruin myself if I get to do it with you.”

I am conflicted on how I feel about Noelle and Miriam. I understand that Miriam was in a relationship of convenience with someone so there wasn't any feelings there but once her relationship ended suddenly it was game on. I thought there would be a little more time to develop. Granted I know this isn't real life and a book and we have to keep things moving. I love how passionate Noelle was for protecting those in her life. She didn't want anything to change her perfect bubble. I did have a small issue towards the end when she was really going hard on Miriam for leaving when they only had known each other a short while.

Don't let this beautiful whimsical cover fool you. This book definitely deals with some heavy topics compared to other holiday books. It was refreshing to see topics that normally aren't presented in books such as financial abuse, alcoholism and even having a character who is considered butch, fat no less. I really enjoyed the Jewish culture woven into the text and how the conversation also briefly describe what it was so I wouldn't need to google it. I just really enjoyed all the representation presented in this book.

I am very anxious to see where Hannah and Levi's story takes us. And hope to see characters from this book make it into the second.

I LOVE HOLIDAY ROMANCES WITH REP!! This book is everything of the sort and the holiday romance we all need this szn!!!! Major shout out to the author for writing such a compelling story.

"You take care of what she built. You make a wild, hooligan, joyous life that breaks the rules in her honor."
I'd like to give this book all the stars. What a special, amazing book. I loved it so much. I really wish I could know Cass and go to Carrigans Tree farm in New York. This is such a perfect LGBTQ Christmas/Jewish holiday romance.

This was such a fun, FEEL-GOOD, dual POV, closed door holiday romance featuring Miriam, a femme, bisexual Jewish MC who ironically inherits a quarter of her family Christmas tree farm and has to figure out how to work with Noelle, the grumpy Butch Lesbian farm manager in order to save it from bankruptcy.

The story deals with a lot of past family trauma but on the whole was incredibly well written and gave me all the small-town, queer romance feels I was looking for.

Highly recommended for fans of books like In the event of love by Courtney Rae or the Lovelight farm series!

Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review! I listened to this on audio and really enjoyed the narration by Barrie Kreinik and Emily Lawrence!

⚠️CW: toxic parental relationships, homophobia, anti-Semitism, death of loved ones, alcoholism

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC! This review is my honest opinion.

Minor plot spoilers below.

Season of Love is a holiday romance story with butch/femme and Jewish representation. Miriam Blum must return to face her past when her great-aunt leaves her a Christmas tree farm, Carrigan's, that must be saved from financial ruin. The current manager of the farm, Noelle, isn't too happy that someone who had abandoned Carrigan's 10 years prior is back and getting involved in the business.

This is not what I would consider a typical romantic comedy considering some of the more serious issues that the characters deal with like mental/verbal abuse, alcoholism, and grief.

I really wanted to love this! Sapphic holiday vibes sounded amazing! However, I only thought this was fine.

The physical attraction was immediate, but I didn't really feel the chemistry or spark until over halfway through. Because of that, I struggled understanding why they so strongly believed that the other was their forever person. For how much the characters mentioned how hot the other was and the dirty things they wanted to do, this book was surprisingly lacking in spicy scenes.

I was glad the characters acknowledged how messed up they were and that they desperately needed therapy. I also really loved their relationships with friends and their community. These relationships continued and were still considered very important past the two leads getting together. That was a breath of fresh air ❤️ There was a charm to Carrigan's where I could see why everyone was so fond of it!

The writing confused me at some points where something would happen and I'd have to backtrack to see if I missed a scene change or the introduction of an element of the scene, like, for example, a wooden duck that was suddenly commented upon in the middle of a serious conversation.

Overall, although Season of Love didn't completely work for me as a love story, I really think this will appeal to those looking for a sapphic holiday romance that has a bit of a darker edge.

2.5 Stars. When she learns that her aunt has died, Miriam returns home to her aunt’s Christmas tree farm. At the farm she meets Noelle who manages the farm. When the aunt’s will is read Miriam, Noelle, Miriam’s cousin Hannah, and their friend Levi learn that they have inherited the tree farm together. They then learn the farm is in serious debt and must figure out how to make it solvent.

The highlight of this book for me was everyone’s relationship with the Jewish faith and the traditions they kept. Judaism is a religion that I’m not overly familiar with so it was really interesting to read about it in a Christmas book. My biggest struggle was the rest of the book. I felt like nothing happened. It got to the point that I would read a chapter then skim a few then read another and then skim some more, yet I never felt like I missed anything. I wanted to love this book but I found myself feeling like i was reading it out of obligation rather than because I wanted to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.