Where to start with Season of Love by Helena Greer? For one, I thought this was going to be a light and fluffy romcom based on the cover, and while it did have a lot of Hallmark Christmas movie qualities, it definitely brings weighty subjects as well. There is a content guidance page at the beginning of the book, and if you are a sensitive reader with triggers, I highly suggest checking that out before starting. The romance between Miriam and Noelle is super sweet and a little messy, just like love is IRL, and the characters and their issues were both very relatable and realistic. I actually just watched a Hallmark movie with Jewish rep while in the middle of Season of Love, and though I am not Jewish myself, I love seeing it in books and movies. And what a better setting than a Christmas tree farm?! This is also a debut novel, and I would never have been able to tell had it not been mentioned in the letter from the author at the end.

The romance and banter between the characters (especially Miriam and Noelle) were fantastic, and I loved the humor that Greer provided as well. PLUS, there is an enormous tortie (tortoiseshell cat for you dog people) that was described in such detail that I wanted to be there so I could hug it. Season of Love is incredible on audio as well, and having Barrie Kreinik & Emily Lawrence narrate was the icing on the cake. They voiced Miriam and Noelle so well that they made them feel like living people that I could reach out and touch if I wanted to, and who doesn't love that. The romance in the book is pretty closed-door, which is actually what I prefer, so I was really happy with how that played out. I loved the storyline and basically all of the characters as well and was incredibly satisfied with how it closed out. Also, the sober old ladies!! They were the best and provided some lovely comic relief as well as sage advice. In other words, if you want to get into the Christmas mood but want some meat to your story as well, Season of Love is for you! Looks like Greer’s next book will be based on 2 of the characters that are in this story, and I already can’t wait to read it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Season of Love by Helena Greer is a beautiful and lovely holiday romance. I really enjoyed the obstacles the main character has to overcome and deal with in order to find their own happy ending. The side characters are what truly make this story SHINE. I love Hannah, Blue, and the friend groups that cheer these two on. Give this one a read. You'll want to spend a holiday at Carrigan's, too.

Miriam Blum is an artist who takes discarded antiques and decoupages them back to life. She has a huge following and is engaged to a society lawyer in Charleston who she may not be in love with but is a useful relationship for both women. Miriam’s world is turned upside down with the death of her beloved Aunt-Cass, the owner of Carrigan’s Christmas Tree Farm. When Miriam goes to sit Shiva she finds out she is now part-owner of Carrigan’s with her cousin Hannah, the caretaker Noelle, and her childhood partner in crime, Blue. Miriam has to decide if she can face her past, reconnect with her Carrigan’s family, and maybe allow herself to fall into the wild, life altering love her Aunt wished for her.

This was the perfect book to start my holiday-binge reading, it begins just before Thanksgiving and ends at Passover. There’s family drama and childhood trauma (be mindful if parental emotional abuse may be triggering for you, especially around the holidays) that is deftly written and seeing the characters grow and work to overcome their past is done really well. The romance is just what I want for the holidays (although it’s closed door so don’t read this for spice) and I loved all the characters. Miriam’s story is wrapped up nicely in this book but I need another one for Hannah and Blue.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and the author Helena Greer for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

A Jewish, queer, holiday romance that takes place on a Christmas tree farm!! This included heavier topics such as abuse, addiction recovery and grief. Suspend a bit of belief for a Jewish family living in a town called Advent and running a Christmas tree farm because you won’t be disappointed by this closed door romance with substance.

Season of Love would make a great movie! I loved the dynamic between Miriam and Noelle, the side characters were great, and I couldn't put the book down until I learned the future of Carrigan's. The characters were all so well written, flawed yet lovable. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for early access.

this book is the biggest of sapphic wintery hugs :) told in alternating POVs, "season of love" by helena greer follows miriam, an eccentric artist, and noelle, a fat butch who grows christmas trees. said christmas trees just so happen to be at the miriam's aunt's hotel / christmas destination. when her aunt dies at the beginning of the novel, miriam returns to Carrigan's Christmas for the first time in about a decade. romance ensues when she and noelle meet! also, while it centers a christmas destination, miriam and her family are jewish, which is central to their lives.

there's a lot to love about this novel!! love of all kinds is explored throughout. miriam has a deep friendship with the lively cole and she works through family dynamics that range from cousins who were close as children to abusive parents to alternate parental figures. in terms of noelle, she relies on a group of old women at her Alcoholics Anonymous group for support, which is a beautiful part of the novel as well. i appreciated that love beyond romance was valued by these characters even in the end :) another cool thing is how miriam processes her emotions through art! i loved reading about her creative decisions.

i waaaaaaaaaas deeply irritated by noelle a lot of the time. one of the issues in this novel is that both women have deeeeeep relationship trauma that needs processing,,, BUT noelle is always invalidating miriam's (and other people's!!!!!) deicions/trauma without even talking to them first. she is very immediately accusatory. while in the end she does grovel (they both do), i was so irritated during the extended conversations where noelle was just an angry brick wall that it affected my reading experience.

also! there is no steam in this book, which for me is sad :( they would make innuendos and then the scene would END like queen PLEASE WHY (but i'm not having this affect my rating much b/c i understand that it isn't a quality/objective thing!).

overall, i loved reading this although noelle sometimes annoyed me! i am definitely going to reread this in future winters when i want a sweet holiday romance:) highly recommend checking it out if this sounds like your type of book!!

(thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review).

"Carrigan's isn't just a Christmas experience. It's a place to heal, to find yourself, to become."
The holiday reading has officially begun!
Season Of Love successfully combines Christmas and Hanukkah in Helena Greer's seasonal rom-com.
Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for the eARC for review!
Miriam Blum moved from her hometown a decade ago, leaving behind damaging family drama. After her beloved great-aunt Cass unexpectedly dies, Miriam returns home where Cass ran Carrigan's Christmasland tree farm.
It is there she turns her attraction away from fiancée Tara, to Noelle, one of Cass's loyal employees.
Season Of Love features an appealing cast of characters, a melding of traditions, closed-door LGBTQ+ romance, all alongside grief, sobriety, friendship and family dynamics.
Recommended!
Released on Oct. 11.

This is a very very cute book with a very very cute cover. I love the pace and the characters so much. It was such a joyful read for a joyful season. This is a highly highly recommended read.

This holiday romance wasn’t just fluff and at times it dealt with heavy trauma from both characters. There were some funny moments as well to balance out the heaviness at times. Noelle & Miriam are such opposites, but it works and I enjoyed how their relationship progressed. I’m really hoping we get Hannah and Levi’s story soon. I just know the angst is going to be next level!

She brushed her fingers over the mezuzah for strength.
Next year at Carrigan’s.

Do you want a sapphic love story set at a Christmas tree farm with a healthy dose of Jewish chutzpah? Season of Love will make your holiday wishes come true.

Miriam Blum is a kitchy artist with a huge cult following. She’s not met an antique she couldn’t glitter glue or modpodge into a masterpiece. With her business booming, she find out that her favorite Aunt has passed. She goes back to her aunt’s Christmas tree farm, Carrington to sit shiva (the Jewish tradition of mourning). While listening to Cass Carrington’s will, Miriam finds out that she is gifted a portion of the farm with her cousins Hannah & Levi and the farms’ arborist Noelle.

The writing is superb. Thank you for making this Jewish girl see herself in a book.

Thank you Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

DNF at 50%

I have been eagerly anticipating this sapphic holiday romance since I first read the blurb. I mean, come on! A Jewish artist unexpectedly inheriting what amounts to a Christmas theme park and falling in love with the butch farm manager? It's Hallmark, but more representative!

However, for me, the execution of this was just not living up to the premise. While there are content warnings in the beginning of the book, I felt like they did not adequately prepare me for just how heavy this book was going to be. The author also demonstrated a tendency to skip over plot points that were fairly relevant to the story's progression with just a few sentences in order to hammer certain emotional beats over and over again. On top of that, there is surprisingly not a lot of holiday feels to be found in a book that covers several Jewish holidays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I think that there is a lot of promise in Greer and the representation in this book is handled incredibly well, but this is just not what I want to be reading during the festive season.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Honestly all the stars in the world to this queer, Jewish, holiday romcom which is an absolutely stunning debut from Helena Greer. When her aunt Cass dies right before opening season of the Christmas Tree Farm & Inn she runs, Miriam heads to New York to sit shiva and confront family and feelings that she has avoided for over a decade. When Cass’s will is full of surprises, several lives change course and sooooo many hijinks ensue. I loved this book, I got so invested in every single one of the character’s storylines, and was rooting for them to save the farm and find love. Also, all the representations? Fat rep, queer rep (in many forms), Jewish rep, people of color, and I’m probably missing more. It was wonderful. Also, the front of the book has content guidance was so nice to see and I included that on slide 2 of this post! This is such an excellent book and I really really truly recommend! I sometimes get teased that I give out five stars pretty freely but take my word on this one and read this book.

I really enjoyed this book! I went into it thinking it would be a rom-comish light and romantic book, and while there is romance it was a lot heavier than i expected it to be! The cover is perfection but it gives different vibes than the book did, in my opinion. With that, while the book did deal with heavier topics - alcoholism, mental and psychological abuse, and grief it didn’t feel depressing.

I really enjoyed the character development that our MC, Miriam had throughout the book. She went from emotionally turned off to letting it all in and dealing with those traumatic past experiences.

I did feel some parts of this novel were pretty repetitive and made certain sections of the book seem slow or that they were dragging, but overall this was a quick, enjoyable read.

You’ll find:
-F/F Main Characters
-Enemies to Lovers
-Found Family
-Setting: Christmas Tree Farm

Thank you Netgalley & the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to like this so much but it unfortunately fell flat for me. The synopsis promised comedy but the majority of the book felt a lot more like a drama which I didn't love. I also thought that the main relationship of the book wasn't as well developed as I hoped.

A funny romance, a found family love story, a great holiday read! Love that this covers Christmas, Hanukkah, sobriety, family issues, and love so well.

What I Liked: Despite featuring two characters with deep, emotional trauma, this book still managed to be light and hopeful. I loved that Greer decided to write a faithful Jewish character and that Christmas, while always in the background, wasn’t the main focus. I loved that Noelle was a proud Butch character, something not seen often in romances, and that everyone else wasn’t a cookie-cutter romance character. The mutual respect Miriam and Noelle have for each other was a delight to read and the theme of generational trauma was well-written and thoughtful.

What I Didn’t Like: I don’t like it when authors over explain things because I feel it takes the reader away from the world the author is trying to create, but in the case of this book, I think some more information would have been beneficial. There were times when I thought I had missed something or that this book was part of a series because characters were mentioned that weren’t in the book and moments that happened in the past I felt needed some context. There was also a bit of a repetitive nature to the story, especially towards the middle, with scenes of Miriam and Noelle seemingly having the same conversations over and over. There were just too many scenes of them weighing the pros and cons of getting together that when they finally do, I was almost over it. I also had trouble buying their relationship in the end because there isn’t much build up to the romance and their getting together felt rushed.

Who Should Read It: Those looking for a no-traditional Christmas romance will want to pick this one up, as well as fans of romances that aren’t afraid to deal with heavy topics

Review Wrap Up: Not all holiday-themed romanced need to be about Christmas, nor do they need to be light and fluffy and this book proves that you can have a holiday story that deals with heavy topics while still managing to bring the festive cheer. This won’t be for everyone-the trauma may be too much for some-but if you want to take a chance on something different this season, you should give this book a try.


Favorite Quote: “She realized she’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone who had been with you for all of your past, who understood who you’d been at every point of your life.”

“You have a deeply strange soul, and it’s pretty incredible.”

“Sometimes we’re too ashamed of our secrets to tell them to the people we most want to love us.”

The thing I enjoyed most about Season of Love was how it managed to be both festive and still very grounded. Miriam’s and Noelle’s relationship to Carrigan’s was more about having a sense of “home” because of the company they keep there and their connection to Cass (the deceased previous owner), and not because of the “magic” of the holiday. Having a Jewish character who grew up working around Christmas trees infused the story with matter of fact-ness was that was refreshing. I also appreciate that all the characters had real problems and real emotions to work through, dealing with past trauma and more recent grief. There were no easy answers for anyone, which I appreciated. That being said, I do think the book was perhaps a bit too ambitious in scope, and by trying to devote enough time to properly flesh out all of the characters and plot lines, the overall story and pace may have suffered a bit under that weight. For example, the book devoted significant time to Miriam working through relationship issues with 3 different people (her mother, her cousin, and her fiancé) not to mention her trauma from her father’s abuse, and navigating her budding relationship with Noelle. As much as I enjoyed both Hannah and Tara as characters, their roles could have been cut down and still been impactful. There were also several side characters competing for time and attention. I’m not sure if we got to know Noelle as well as we did Miriam as a consequence. I’m also not sure if the romance changed the characters as much as being at Carrigan’s did. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just also points to the fact that other characters (Carrigan’s included) took up more space in the story than the central relationship did. Perhaps that is why I ultimately had trouble at times staying fully invested in their relationship? I’m not sure, I’m still trying to pinpoint. Overall it was a good debut, and I look forward to more from this author. We chose this book as a selection for our December book club. I look forward to getting other’s thoughts about this book!

Clearly I read a different book to everyone else

- no character depth / development

- every main event has a bunch of buildup and then it fizzles out after 1 page

- literally no chemistry between the two protagonists

- far too many characters who mostly felt interchangeable

- it took forever to read and virtually nothing happened. Just a whole bunch of words on pages

- the dialogue was not how people talk. half the time it felt like the characters were spouting lines from a therapist??

- it just sucked all over. the only thing I liked was the bi woman x lesbian rep but I didn't even like them! I didn't care about their relationship and tbh they were better off apart!

MIRIAM AND NOELLE HAVE MY ENTIRE HEART

I was promised sapphic love and a hallmark movie in book form and it DELIVERED holy cow!!!! Miriam is an artist who left her aunt’s farm 10 years ago and never looked back…until her aunt passes away unexpectedly and she decides to go home. Luckily for Miriam, her dad remains absent but unluckily, her eccentric aunt left her Jewish great-niece a fourth of a share of her christmas tree farm and inn. Sharing the inheritance is her cousin Hannah, her childhood best friend Levi (who is absent still), and Noelle the tree lady. Noelle resents Miriam for leaving her wonderful family, abandoning them when they needed her most- until Miriam arrives and Noelle can’t resist falling more and more for her. They have a lot to deal with including impending bankruptcy, Miriam’s fear of her father, getting the cousins on board with their plan for Carrigan’s, Hannah’s devastation over Levi breaking her heart, not to mention their grief about losing their North Star, Cass. It was chaotic and full of holiday goodness and healing and falling in messy love and I loved every single second. And the COVER! So festive!

Especially enthralling to me were the side characters and the found family aspect of this story. The Matthews family are the best surrogate parents, the Green family are adorable, and Cole is the best friend we all want and need. The DEPTH. The LOVE. I couldn’t have found a better story to read going into the holiday season!

Season of Love is s novel written by someone named Helena that is about a Jewish woman who inherits a Christmas Tree Farm. This had my name written all over it. (Both literally and figuratively).

First off, let me say that I loved that the book was broken into sections by timeline of Jewish holidays. As someone who works in a synagogue, this is totally how my brain works, and it made me smile. There were mentions of Hanukkah and Miriam's synagogue peppered through the novel, but there wasn't much Jewish content in the novel. I was surprised at how little of the novel actually centered around the Christmas season and how Hanukkah didn't get more focus.

The reader gets a beautiful sense of the found (and some blood) family present at Carrigan's. It's clear that Cass created a warm environment that attracted people. However, the platonic love between Miriam and her friends Cole and Hannah (who is also her cousin) almost overshadow the romance that Hannah has with Noelle. I rooted for Miriam and Noelle all the way, but I found Miriam's other relationships more compelling.

There is something so satisfying about a romance novel about a Jewish-owned Christmas tree farm. I enjoyed reading Seasons of Love, and I hope that the team at Carrigan's gets a sequel. (I mean, the end of the epilogue is a cliffhanger...)