This was closer to 3.5 stars for me, but rounding up because it deserves more than just 3…

I liked our MC Dani but I LOVED Rex. I wish there was more of him.

The story felt like it was lacking in dialogue for me, it’s more told than experienced. And the premise it’s kind of weird. It’s a story built upon lies, but everything is suppose to work out? Meh…

Cute, but nothing to write home about.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found this to be so poorly written that I could not get interested in the story of the characters. I usually enjoy Christmas fiction, but I could not enjoy this book.

First, to clarify: "Single All the Way" is a full-length novel that MacIntosh expanded from a novella she published a few years ago on her website, called "Home Alone on Hope Island." I haven't read the novella, so this review only deals with the novel version coming out later in August. This is a classic MacIntosh story with a plucky but somewhat clueless heroine who undervalues her worth but manages to find true love in the end. Dani has been dumped by her boyfriend, who unfortunately is also her boss at the magazine she works for. Tom is a real tool, having cheated on Dani and then informing her that he is demoting her as well. I would have liked Dani to show a little more spine, but she eventually gets around to finding her way and standing up for herself. Dani ends up fake-dating the office playboy, an American journalist, for really inane reasons, but they get along really well and Dani quickly develops real feelings. When Dani heads north for Christmas to surprise her parents, she is the one surprised instead to find them out of town and the house cold and empty. To avoid public humiliation, Dani ends up letting people think she came home to throw a party at her parents' house while they are away. But really, does the plot matter all that much? We all know what the final result will be. Formulaic, yes. Sheer fun, yes as well. Dani is not my favorite of MacIntosh's leading ladies, but I still enjoyed this rom-com. Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for a digital review copy.

Rex is the man in the office who Dani has noticed but believes they have nothing in common. Until a chance encounter which leads to them both helping each other out. Full of chemistry. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

The mark of a good novella is that it transports you so completely into its world, you don’t even notice how fast paced it is. Single All the Way is such a great example of this. I loved the way the MCs were given time to reveal their character and, especially for Lexi, to grow. All in all, this was an absolutely adorable, Christmas-y, sweet romance.

Dani is invisible. At least that's how she feels. I have literally been her, from being in her own department at work, no one remembering her name, to being late for work but no one actually noticing.

I loved all the Pop culture references, Everything from friends (could I be wearing anymore clothes?) to home alone. The book started off by giving a she's all that kind of vibe (Freddie Prince jnr and Rachel Leigh Cook movie) and moved into Fake dating, half enemies to lovers, a small town, snow and Christmas! At first Rex had me rolling my eyes so hard I nearly saw my brain, but I learned never to judge a book by it's cover.
I adored the drama, the laugh out loud moments the missed signals, miss communication with just a tiny bit of spice. Moments that made me go ahhhhhh.
She realises her value and finds her place.
I truly loved this heartwarming book! It's my favourite Christmas book of the year.

When Dani gets dumped and demoted, she thinks her life is spinning out of control, but when Rex steps in and enrolls her as a fake girlfriend, everything starts to change.

Single All the Way is a fun Christmas romance and pretty much exactly what you would expect from a Christmas romance. I was a quick read with fun characters and the Christmas feels. Overall this was an enjoyable holiday read that put me in the Christmas mood. It was a good read with a fun story and worth the time. I would recommend this to any romance fan looking for some holiday fun!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

When I see a new Portia MacIntosh, I don't even read the pitch, I just grab it.
And like always, Portia MacIntosh delivers ;)

This time again, I didn't read the pitch and was quite startled : could Rex really be the main male character of this story ? He is sooo obnoxious !

Dani is a sweet while diffident girl. She doesn't even look like the hero of her own story, her own life. She dreamed about being a journalist but let it slip to literaly give it to her boyfriend. He cheated on her and dumped her and now he's taking her job from her to demote her.

Dani needs a change : a change of jobs but first and mostly a change of scenery for the holidays.

This book is soooo funny (not if you're a stickler for truth though... she lies so much!).

Lots of nice secondary characters and an unexpected ending for this sweet Christmas romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for providing an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

Dani has had an ill-advised affair with her boss and after they broke up, has been demoted. Newcomer Rex arrives and asks her to be his fake girlfriend to make another woman jealous. Well, a series of events occur including Dani returning to her childhood home and pretending to arrange a Christmas Eve party.
Portia Macintosh just has an ability to make me smile on every page that she writes. I find myself nodding along to her observations and I was so invested in the cast of characters that I was starting to hope I’d get an invite to their party next year. This is such a well written book, it zips along and makes you feel good and most importantly, makes you smile.
Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for providing me with an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

It’s only July but I’ve already read the best Christmas book of the year! I love Portia Macintosh’s first person style that grabs you and connects you to the character immediately and I truly loved Dani. Despite having a pretty miserable life at the start she still had the guts to stand up to Rex to get what she wanted. She made huge mistakes and got herself into a difficult situation but was still determined to style it out. Her relationship with Rex was awesome and the storyline would make a fabulous Hallmark Christmas movie- imagine the cul-de-sac with all the lights. Absolutely loved it!

Dani feels invisible at work, but that changes when Rex claims that they are dating. She offers to keep up the ruse if he can help her get a job at a different office closer to her hometown. When Dani heads home for Christmas, she finds herself alone with her parents on a trip. When she runs into old friends, she claims she is throwing a Christmas party, so now she has to figure out how to pull that off, all whole dealing with her feelings for Rex and trying to get the new job.

I connected with Dani's character right away. She was written in such a realistic way. Rex quickly had my vote, although Ben definitely is in the running for dreamiest in the book. I loved the war of the lights between the neighbors and Dani's prank was hilarious! There were just so many aspects that were relatable and yet, what I loved about it was that it could easily be made into a Hallmark movie.

This is my second book by this author and I have loved both. She is going on my list of go-to authors!

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this advance copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

This was a sweet romance. Dani starts off seeming like a real loser. She has been in a romance with her boss who forced her to keep it private and then he dumped her for a younger, prettier woman and had the gall to demote her at work. So she’s in a job she hates with workers she doesn’t like and no hope of becoming the social writer she aspires to be.

And the playboy golden boy in the office, Rex, suddenly announces that she’s his girlfriend, basically so that he can get it on with another worker who had turned him down. What a humiliation! And he’s the one guy at work who could help her get a promotion closer to her family in the north of England. So they make a deal to help each other out.

I like that Rex turned out to be a much nicer guy than he first seemed. And Dani turned out to be less of a loser, door-mat sort of woman than she seemed in the beginning.

I never bought that she could be a magazine writer. We never saw any evidence of her as a writer or that she could cover society stories. It seemed an odd ambition for the character she is shown to be. I would have much more easily bought if she was going to write about food or crafts or something like that.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

It's not that I couldn't put this book down, it's that I didn't want to! I could not wait to find out what would happen next at the end of each chapter that I just kept reading. I loved Dani right the beginning because she wasn't perfect. She made some big mistakes where Tom was concerned but she recognized that. I was so glad that she wasn't sitting around moping about him and was actually over him. Seeing her then go after what she wanted with the job opportunity was so great - I loved that she took Rex a little by surprise by telling him she would only help him if he considered her for the open position at the other office. I like Dani, was initially put off by Rex's behavior (especially since he wanted to get a woman interested in him by making her think he had a girlfriend), but as I got to know him more (along with Dani) I could understand why she would change his mind about him. It's clear once their fake dating started Rex fell hard for Dani. The reveal that he was in the village the whole time was very amusing. I also really liked the conversation between Dani and Rex when they admitted they really liked one another. It was just honest and simple and so sweet. I'm not sure what Ben's motivations were - was he at all interested in Dani or did he just feel bad for her? The supporting characters are a lot of fun. I wish there had been a little more Christmas decoration sabotage because Dani's were so funny. It also would have been nice if there had been more of a conversation between Rex and Dani after she provided her writing samples just to make it clear he pushed for her to get the job based on her talent rather than his romantic interest in her. My pettiness also made me want something bad to happen to Tom - he was so awful to Dani that I really wanted him to get his comeuppance.

I loved this book from the beginning. Well written and made me want it to be Christmas!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

When Dani's boyfriend (and boss!) dumps her for a younger model, the only silver lining she can see is to be able to spend Christmas at home with her family after years away.

Determined to surprise them, Dani turns up unannounced in her hometown, excited to see that the festive season in Marram Bay is in full swing with Christmas lights twinkling on every corner. But disaster strikes when she finds her parents' house is empty and they appear to have gone away on holiday!

Christmas alone and single is not ideal, and when Dani starts bumping into old friends, neighbours and potential love interests, she can't face telling them the truth. So in a panic she claims to be home to throw a Christmas party for the whole town - easier said than done with 12 days to go before Christmas...

As the fake party approaches, little does Dani know that there may be someone there under the mistletoe for her, if she can just let her guard down and see them...
Really enjoyable romantic comedy read totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Boldwood Books
I just reviewed Single All The Way by Portia MacIntosh. #SingleAllTheWay #NetGalley

I have a major issue with this book in that it is a rehashed version of one of Portia’s earlier books, different heroine name, different beginning but still the same premise of girl coming home to find her parents gone for Christmas and from there on in exactly the same rivalry with the names over the lights and the same islanders appearing including the sisters from school, old love interest Ben and the new police officer.

So if you have already read Home alone on Hope Island from 2019 you will find that Dani treads exactly the same path as Lexi did back then even down to drawing breasts on the neighbours snowman.

Real let down.

Man, I love Christmas. I’m normally a seasonal reader, so I wasn’t sure if I’d really get in the Christmas-y mood as much when it’s still so hot out (honestly, I live in Florida, it’s not like Christmas is cold so I really don’t know what I’m even talking about) but I loved this. My favourite Portia MacIntosh novel to date is Stuck On You, specifically for the Christmas-y elements, and I loved that this had so much of it as well.

I think I just really loved returning to Marram Bay. I haven’t read all of Portia’s backlist, so I know there were references to characters and places that I only recognized from book titles / descriptions that I’ll appreciate more once I’ve read more of her books from Marram Bay. But I have read ‘Love and Lies at the Village Christmas Shop’ and loved seeing those characters again! It’s so sweet that Ivy and Dani were friends, and I still adore Gaz

At first, I didn’t know how much I would care for Rex. His comment to Dani about not seeming shallow to another woman by dating her kind of rubbed me the wrong way, but the way it was said did make it seem like it wasn’t actually about her appearance, it was about him being kind and not flirtatious. Not my favourite phrasing, because it did make me assume negatively about him at first, but it all ended up fine because I really did adore Rex.

I think what I really liked about this was that it honestly all felt quite uncomplicated. I felt like I could see feelings developing on both ends by the way this book was written, and despite some little issues, nothing felt overly dramatic. And that really can happen a lot in books. This was just a fun read about great characters.

There was also something about this book that just felt very positive. Even when things really weren’t going well for Dani, I feel like she remained so hopeful, and that was lovely. Especially around Ivy, and how excited and kind Ivy always was, it seemed like no matter what happened with her love life or career, Dani would have a happy life and had wonderful people in her life.

Total side note, but I feel like I need to count how many of Portia MacIntosh’s novels have a mention of Michael Buble. I feel like it’s a lot, and I love it. Especially for a Christmas book.

Definitely recommend this. I recommend all of Portia MacIntosh’s books, I’ve read quite a few and always enjoy them, but there really is something special about the holiday ones.

Thank you to Boldwood Books & NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book!