I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for my copy of Two Christmases by Suleena Bibra in exchange for an honest review. It published October 25, 2022.
This one has the making to be a super cute story, but it ended up being too "spicy" for my taste.

The season for romance and two Christmases what more could you love. The New York settings had me mesmerised as I have always imagined a Christmas in New York. A cozy romance.

This book didn't land for me; I found it didn't have the lightness that I expect from a book when the blurb references Hallmark.

I really enjoy this author's writing. I thought the setting and plot set-up was interesting as I've only read one other book with an art house setting and that was also by Suleena Bibra. Beau wasn't my favorite but he was balanced well by Sonia.

this was cute and very hallmark-esque. thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting connected to the characters and didn’t get the feeling that they had chemistry. Around the half way mark, I became more intrigued and enjoyed the last half of the book. While it was a slow start, overall it was a cute story.

This was a super fun spin on a christmas rom com! It takes the view of City Christmas Vs. Country christmas!

I enjoyed this perspective on a christmas romance. It was fun to watch our MCs go out of their comfort zones to see Christmas through the other’s eyes and falling in love along the way!

This is a bit spicy and also had some hard topics, but overall was really enjoyable!

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

This was a lovely holiday rom-com by a new-to-me author. Opposites definitely attract in this super cute story. The whole idea of city vs country Christmas was fun and I enjoyed seeing both perspectives. The sparks instantly fly when Sonia and Beau meet and she is determined to show him how great a city Christmas is. Beau also gets his turn to charm Sonia with his South Carolina Christmas.
The story was sweet with a lot of heart and humor and plenty of steam as well. I had a fun time reading this. If your looking for a light-hearted, fun, holiday rom-com, then you definitely will want to try this out.
Thank you to Carina Press and Netgalley for providing a complimentary copy. This is .y honest and voluntary review.

Objectively, this should have really worked for me. I liked the set-up of the story, and the characters went on a few "dates" that I thought were really cute.

But all the same, it quickly became glaringly obvious to me that I didn't like either the main character or the love interest, and it gets really hard to enjoy a romance when that's the case. Because of this, I decided to DNF.

This book was so much fun! I loved the different settings from Christmas in Newyork to Christmas in a small town in North Carolina. I absolutely adored Beau and Sonia's relationship. I am a fan of insta love, or in this book insta lust this one was no different. The banter between Beau and Sonia was absolutely stunning and there were parts that had me laughing out loud. This book felt like the most perfect hallmark movie in the best way. Overall this is such a sweet holiday romance and absolutely perfect for this time of year!

Two Christmases has a nice premise that would make a good movie but the book still fell flat for me. I could not get into it at all and as the other reviewers have mentioned, the pet names were exhausting and annoying, very eye roll or cringe (as my teen would say.)

This was a cute Christmas read.

The premise was cute. Two people who love Christmas and are obsessed with their hometowns, fall in love while competing over which city does Christmas best.

I enjoyed Sonia’s journey to finding and accepting love. She unknowingly has pushed love away ever since her parents left her in the states with her aunt and uncle in hopes of a better life. Through introspection and therapy, Sonia realizes that there is a future with Beau. While this was heavy topic, I felt it added a lot to the story.

I also enjoyed that the multi-cultural love element. We need more representation and diversity when it comes to love. A lot of Beau and Sonia’s problems stem from their upbringing. Beau is used to a tight- knit family and Sonia is not. They view the world very differently, but it is those differences that ultimately lead to their happiness.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Carina Press and Carina Adores (Harlequin) for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Simple and sweet Christmas romance.

There is a lot of Christmas content - activities here and there, hot chocolate intake that will last in their blood system all year round, and festivities that will make you wish for the season to come sooner! I think this is a great approach to highlighting the topic of how these holidays are celebrated differently around the world.

So, if you want to read a lot of Christmas festivity activities, this might be for you. The romance itself was decent, but I did not like the main female character, so I could not root for her. I found it annoying how she was going in circles in her head thinking one set of thoughts over and over again. Unfortunately, those horrific pet names and banter that felt quite offensive ruined it even more.

Overall this was quite a slow read for me. Only the very ending had quite a lot of drama and turn of events that felt fast-paced. Would have been better to balance it out a little.

Suleena Bibra does it again. This book was excellent and I fell so in love with Beau. He really is the perfect southern gentleman. I also thought that Sonia was such a relatable lead, I saw so much of my own fears and insecurities in her. I loved the small competition between Northern and Southern Christmas. This book is spicy and it is well written, but I do wish it was a little bit more descriptive. I also thought that the side characters were great, I loved Anna and seeing Gavin and Priya again. This book would be closer to stars if the last 20% of the book did not feel so rushed. I felt like at the very end of the book Sonia made some weird choices that felt like they came out of left field together and the resolution of the secondary conflict with her parents seemed very easily settled. Thank you so much to Netgalley and Carina press for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While the premise is fun and has Hallmark-movie esque bones, with a native New York auction house employee falling for a southern cowboy client, it was a push to get through. Sonia, who dreams of interior design over the art auction house business, is up for a furniture promotion she isn’t sure she wants, and Beau, looking to outfit the offices of his green business venture to appeal to clients with money, is looking for guidance when they meet and Sonia uses his need to feed her desires. The attraction is strong, they debate over where Christmas is best, the city or country, and she takes him to her favorite haunts, including a 170-stall holiday shopping bazaar, a theatre running Christmas episodes of television shows, multiple Christmas parties and more. Hot chocolate is running through their veins.

They consummate their relationship early and with fairly mechanical precision, little variation or dialogue, and zero of the awkwardness or consent conversations that punctuate real-life encounters. She defines what I’d consider pedestrian as the best sex of her life. He calls her Baby Girl with great affection, which I personally found disturbing. Relationship-phobic Sonia dreads the ease with which they come together and tries to set boundaries–she KNOWS he’s going back home–and fails. His invitation to visit on his turf shouldn’t take her by surprise. She agrees to go and experience a country Christmas.

The writing is disappointingly amatuer. Descriptions are detailed, but not sensory, mostly just visual observations. Indian culture is nicely integrated with names, family dynamics and specific Hindi definitions, references to chai and cookies and Indian soap operas. Adverbs are over(ly) used and the writing it repetitive. Sonia smacks Beau on the ass on their way into the LEGO store, and he –her client–doesn’t react. She insults him throughout the first quarter of the book, calling him variations of “Old MacDonald.” These behaviors are unattractive and rude, and the character is not developed enough and the writing is not good enough to pass it off as flirtation or banter. I pushed through the predictable ending.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #TwoChristmases from #NetGalley

Perfect Christmas content in my opinion - did it blow me away? No. Did it annoy me? No! It’s what a lot of readers want when life is busy and stressful around Christmas. Simple and sweet!

3 stars

These Christmas books have been a real mixed bag this season so it was nice to finally come across a perfectly mediocre 3 star Christmas book. Nothing super duper offensive, nothing super annoying, a lot of Christmas content. It's a Christmas miracle!

The main characters spend two different Christmases together doing all the Christmas activities: one in New York City and one in South Carolina. This was probably the strongest part of the book because sometimes you just want to get Christmassy without extra bull crap. A+ Christmas content.

The problem comes when these main characters, Sonia and Beau, start calling each other by pet names. The pet names "Baby Girl" and "Old MacDonald". ...... I hate this so much I can't even express it properly. These characters are basically the same age they do not need to be calling each other "Baby Girl" and Old MacDonald.. Ugh. Ugh.

Horrific pet names aside, there's also an underlying theme of neither character willing to leave their life in their respective homes so they will never work out ever. Until they do because of course it's a romance novel what else was gonna happen. But Sonia does not figure out any of this until like 90% into the book where she dramatically runs away to...India. Without any luggage. And then confronts her parents, goes back to new york city and starts therapy, and like one day later goes back to South Carolina to win Beau back just in time for Christmas. This is way too much unrealistic emotional growth and travelling to squeeze into the 5 pages before the epilogue. On the other hand, this is a very Hallmark Christmas movie trope so points for that I guess.

Side note, this book is probably a secret advertisement for Zaxby's which is mentioned approximately 5000 times in the book and is described as the ideal Southern food which is very incorrect. Zaxby's is mediocre fast food at best and if you're gonna do southern fast food Bojangles is the superior choice. Do not buy into this books' lies about Zaxby's it will only lead to disappointment.

This was a really fun Christmas romance! I loved seeing how the holiday is celebrated in two different locations, I thought it was really cool how the setting played such a big role, almost like they were an additional character. I love Suleena's voice and this was a really enjoyable holiday book!

Sonia, a big city girl, works at her family's auction house, and Beau, a former form South Carolina, is expanding his business, so he seeks her help to decorate his new offices. So she tries to convince him that Christmas in New York City is the best by taking him there to see the sights, and in turn, he tries to convince her that Christmas in the country is actually the best. Who will win?
This is a cute opposites attract, city vs country, insta-lust, very cheesy rom-com. I would've loved to see a bit more of a slow burn, but the banter was great and so was the relationship development. This is the 2nd book in a series (the first one being Two Houses), but you can very well read this one as a stand alone (I have). If you love Hallmark Christmas movies, this is for you!
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.