It was ... not bad? I really disliked the constant explanations of "industry" talk. We aren't idiots, I swear we can pick up context clues. The other is ALLLLLLLL THE comments about how the pandemic had stopped handshakes and hurt businesses. Seriously. Say it once. Again. Not an idiot. The rest of it was cute, very light, just brain candy. Some of the characters seemed disingenuous. I liked Griffin a lot. Can we have a book about Griffin?

Ivy, the screenwriter for a movie based on her life returns to her hometown where the movie is going to be filmed. It’s the first time since she’s been back in years. Her ex-boyfriend and high school sweetheart, Nick, has never left.

I listened to this rom-com and expected something more. It was an easy listen, but at times words or phrases were overexplained. I figured it would be Hallmark-ish but realized that wasn’t the case when love scenes were explained in detail or expletives were used. I did, however, enjoy the narrator.

I received a complimentary audio version of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to listen to this novel. #NetGalley #DreamscapeMedia #TheSummerofChristmas

This was a fun read! It did indeed have When Harry Met Sally vibes and also One Fine Day vibes. I loved the back and forth between the film set and real life and the Nick vs Rick vs Drew was an interesting twist on the typical rom-com love triangle. The characters had a lot of backstory, and some of it was more than you would expect for a romantic novel, but the Giglios did a good job of spreading the facts with the story. I would highly recommend as a fun rom-com, and would consider this a fantastic audiobook to enjoy as well!

It's a cute light romance about an LA screenwriter who goes back to her hometown in New York to shoot her first successful film only to come face to face with her first love. Her film is about their love story, so when her ex gets involved in the production and the star playing her basically starts deep method acting, drama ensues on and off set. This one's a great Christmas in July read because it has some of the feel of Christmas mixed in with the vibes of summer. It errs on the side of a romantic comedy with a flame rating of about one or two.

Ivy Green is getting her first big break as a screenwriter. Her screenplay “When Joseph Met Mary” was written after a very unexpected break up with her long time love Nick Shepherd. It is “loosely” based on their entire relationship beginning to end except of course she kills “Rick” off at the end. Ivy is ecstatic to start filming but quickly gets knocked down a notch when she find outs they are going to be filming in her hometown. She’s hasn’t been back I’m almost 5 years and is hoping she won’t have to see Nick.

Ok so first off I needed more Christmas. This is a story of a Christmas movie being filmed in July but I felt that everything “Christmas” was forced.

Second (and the reason I rated this low) the writing was so hard to follow. I listened to this audiobook and I was getting whiplash of whose point of view we were in. Usually you see duel POV in a romance but in this story we would all of a sudden get thoughts from so many other side characters. Half the time the side characters had other things going on that didn’t really give anything to the main romance of the story. And who the heck was the romance supposed to be about??? I thought Ivy and Nick but majority of the book they were “dating” other people. Y’all, I just don’t know. This was such a disappointment to me.

Don’t go in this thinking it’s a sweet Christmas romance because it’s not. It’s a romance but not one I can recommend. I can’t recommend the audiobook-not because of the narrator because I thought they did a great job!- the write style is so choppy it is so hard to figure out who’s talking and who’s POV you’re in unless you have the book in front of you.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to listen to an early recording of this audiobook.

As always, all opinions are my own.

Ivy is a movie writer who finally gets her big break after writing a romance movie about herself and her childhood best friend turned boyfriend. Nick broke up with Ivy in real life so she killed him off in the movie.
Filming for the movie ends up being in her hometown where she has to face her ex-boyfriend (who she says she is over) while dating the producer of the movie, Drew. Ivy has to navigate her feelings for Drew, jealously seeing Nick with the female lead and figure out what she really wants.
This was an easy listen and moved quickly. I really wanted to like this book, but it missed the mark for me. I listened all the way through my found myself getting bored or confused about which POV I was listening to. There were a lot of characters that had different storylines going on, but not fully developed. the ending was weird for me with the dreams and realizing they were supposed to be together, then the boating in the storm and all the sudden showing up at the last minute to be able to change the scene.

Ivy Green is returning home after five years, but only because Hollywood has decided to film her Christmas screenplay in her hometown, and in the middle of summer!. Also coming along for the ride is her boyfriend and future live-in Drew, who is the producer. What Ivy doesn't count on is that her ex-boyfriend Nick, who she killed off in the screenplay, will be involved in the movie too. Not only are some of the scenes being filmed in Nick's vineyard, but the lead actress seems to have a crush on him.

This sounded like a fun listen--Christmas in the Summer--but there are some annoying parts I must mention. The main character is 30 years old, but the dialogue and the narrator make her sound as if she's in high school. The sex scenes are cringeworthy and could have been left out. The point of view changing to some of the lesser characters was sometimes off-putting. The romance between Nick's mother and the movie set caterer is cute, but when Nick wishes it was just a one-night stand instead of love, that puzzled me. No son wants that for his mother. I felt the whole thing went on a bit long, with the same things happening over and over. The characterization of the movie as a "career-maker" and a blockbuster did not match the description of the movie itself, which sounded more like a tv movie or Hallmark movie. I did think the ending was stronger than the rest of the book.

The narration was adequate. As I mentioned before I felt like Ivy's voice was more high school than adult. The narration of the rest of the characters was fine. Overall, it's an average rom-com with a decent ending and a lot of awkward and unnecessary moments in between.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from Dreamscape Media via Netgalley. My review is voluntary.

The Summer of Christmas is a Hallmark-esq rom-com that focuses on Ivy, the writer of a semi-autobiographical script, who is jolted back to her hometown and is faced with either getting over her first love Nick or falling into a second-chance romance with him.

I really enjoyed the narration for this book. I don’t think the story itself is super unpredictable but it was enjoyable and gave a nice jolt of “holiday” spirit. My favorite part of The Summer of Christmas was Ivy’s family though. While they are very involved in the story, I kind of wished they were even more of a focus since their dynamic was very delightful. Overall, this plays out like a holiday rom-com that I would find myself watching on TV this December and I appreciated that.

3 ⭐out of 5
The plot of the book sounded promising but ended up a bit boring.
I expected somehow more emotions between characters especially one break up with another. However, those two have emotional level of a lizard.
Luckily for me I was able to complete it. Not sure that I will remember something about this book in a while except really vivid cover.

This was an ok rom com, but not something that I would recommend. It was a fairly quick read, but I found that I was already struggling and wanting to DNF it before reaching the 50% mark.

I was not a fan of the main character, despite her initial boss move of writing her heart break into a script that was apparently the highlight of her young career. The characters seemed rather forced and one note until all of a sudden they somehow... weren't? But then you realize it was still one note, just an octave higher.

As someone who was dying to read a holiday story to get me in the spirit, this unfortunately missed the mark. It wasn't BAD. It just wasn't great...

I want to thank Netgalley and the author's for gifting me the audio version. I was so excited to read this book. The cover is super cut. But wow of wow. It took two authors to write this? I didn't like one character in the book. Zip...nada. It is very unrealistic and extremely cheesy. Most of the scenes made me cringe. They all act like they are teenagers when they are suppose to be in their early 30's? Late 20's? Hard pass for me.

I had high hopes for this book. The cover was so cute!! This book fell flat for me. This didn't have the feels that I expect from a rom-com. At times I thought things in the beginning were very rushed. There was no build up to the relationship between Drew and Ivy. I got whiplash from all of the emotions and reactions from Ivy. I ultimately didn't really love any of the characters. I've read worse books, but it just wasn't all that great. I would rate it 2.5 stars.

#TheSummerOfChristmas:⁣
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“Whoever said love wasn’t authentic? It’s the most real thing there is. But maybe we’ve all become too broken by so many things, that we forget all about love”. ⁣
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Just like Bruce, I was writing that quote down ASAP. The Summer of Christmas is such a fun romcom that is 100% Mellie Claus approved. ⁣
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I really enjoyed how the movie being produced and the history of what it was actually based off of (Ivy & Nick’s relationship) correlated with each other. We got the backstory and then the Hollywood version. I also really enjoyed meeting all of Ivy’s family and friends in the story. ⁣
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I did a reading/listening combo thanks to @dreamscape_media and the audio was just as wonderful as the physical copy. Elizabeth Cottle was so fun. I enjoyed being able to cry in the hot GA heat thinking of hot cocoa and winter nights. She hit the pitch of Ivy and Amari quite well. ⁣
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Overall, this is a fun one. I really liked most of the characters and the plot line. The ✨movie magic✨ is definitely exposed, so it was a fun fake. This does have your Hallmark type HEA, which you know I ate up. Thank you so much @sourcebookscasa and @dreamscape_media for the gifted copies! The Summer of Christmas just came out 7/5 and is perfect for your holiday TBR! 🤶🏼

Ivy returns to her hometown to help with shooting for her autobiographical screen play about the breakup with the love of her life, Nick. Once she and Nick meet again, Ivy’s true feelings surface. This was a feel good romance, but will it have a happy ending? Read it to find out!

I really didn't enjoy this one, I'm sorry. I love a good rom-com but this was just cheesy and the narrator didn't help at all. She sounded like she was ready from a script. So mechanical.
Thank you NetGalley and publisher for allowing me the chance to listen.

Mentioned Covid and lockdown, and no more handshaking, and how Covid has affect everything way too damn much. Awkward sex scenes, abusive boyfriend (thou I use that term loosely), and a random side story about the love interest's mom, which was not needed imo. The narrator did a decent enough job, I just rather they use 2 narrators when they have a female and male POV.

This was a cute story. A little cheesy, yes, but it’s not claiming to be anything else. It was a cute hallmark style second chance romance story, and I appreciate that miscommunication wasn’t over-relied on to push plot points along.

I definitely felt like I was reading a hallmark style book, but I appreciated the movie production twist with literal Christmas in July. Very cute!

This is such a charming novel! I love the tropes here and how could you not love Ivy?! Going to her hometown for the movie shoot was such a fun touch.
The book cover doesn't exactly match the wholesome nature of the book. The book cover says 'fun and flirty' but there's nothing flirty about Ivy's character.

This book was a big flop for me! I absolutely fell in love with the bright, cheery Christmas themed cover and that is why I *mostly* requested it. But this story read like a script and not like a novel. It was all over the place! Some parts were hard to understand because one minute the story is in the present and the next sentence was in the future. Too chaotic for me. I had to fast forward parts because it was hard to get through.

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this ARC.

This one was just not for me. The writing fell very short and it just seemed to not have any real plan or direction. I ultimately DNF