3.5 stars rounded up

I read this series out of order and picked this one up after book 2, In the Weeds. I didn't love In the Weeds but had heard Lovelight Farms was better. I do agree with book 1 being a better read than book 2, but I actually think reading book 2 first helped me to appreciate book 1 more fully. I feel like the social media competition and Beckett made more sense to me than had I had no background information on them. Maybe the point was to have no idea about them but I think I would have felt less grounded in the story without that information.

I haven't read many fake dating books and I'm not certain if this is on par for them or not but I'm thinking they may not be my jam. I think maybe it was the combo of friends to lovers mixed with the fake dating that really made it less desirable for me but whatever it was I'm not rushing after another fake dating book at the moment.

I did enjoy the small town setting and the characters and think it would make for a cute Hallmark movie. I have trusted romance friends who loved this one and I liked it fine enough just not one I'm personally filing away as a favorite.

Why did I listen to Lovelight Farms?

When I saw Lovelight Farms on Netgalley, I was immediately ready to join this small town Christmas vibe. There's a Christmas tree farm, delicious baked goods, best friend with hidden feelings, and a small community where everyone really does know everyone. It sounded like the perfect way to kick off my 2022 holiday season.

What's the story here?

Lovelight Farms is a Christmas tree farmed owned by Stella Bloom. She has loved the Christmas tree farm since she was a child and when opportunity arises, she purchases it. It seems like she has had nothing but bad luck since the purchase - dying trees, damaged fence, pumpkins destroyed, missing decorations, and shipping orders - and now the farm is in financial distress. As an attempt t save the farm, she enters a contest being held by a social media influencers. If she wins, the farm would get good publicity and $100,000. There's only a little catch: when she fills out the form, she says she owns the farm with her boyfriend - except in reality she does not have a boyfriend. Enter Luka Peters, her best friend of 10 years.

How did I like Lovelight Farms?
Luka agrees to be Stella's fake boyfriend in order to help her with the contest. From the moment, he agrees I could tell there was so much more going on between the than they were admitting. These two were so adorable. Seriously, they just had me grinning the whole time. They spend time together trying to get their story of their relationship straight before the influencer arrives and let's just say it's pretty easy for them to slip into fake dating. In some ways they just continue doing what they have always done. Except now they can be affectionate with each other and let their chemistry shine.

The people of the town were not surprised in the least when Stella and Luka announced they are together. In fact there was a buzz about them for years. People could see that they had something special from the moment they met. Not everyone is entirely subtle about this either. They provider some very comedic moments. These moments blend nicely with the heartfelt moments of Luka and Stella. And all of this was done with the background of the beautiful small town.

How was the narration?

Lovelight Farms is narrated by Pippa Jane and is 10 hours and 15 minutes in length. I listened to it at 1.5x speed which was comfortable for me. The narration was easy to listen to. The voice was soft and even and I enjoyed the characterization that was put into each voice. This was the perfect book to start my holiday season off with.

This was such a sweet friends-to-lovers romance! I don't think I've ever read a romance novel where both partners' love language was touch even before they were together officially.

This is a sweet, light, friends to lovers romance.

Stella’s left the normal work world to pursue her dream of creating a magical winter wonderland at her Christmas tree farm, Lovelight Farms. She has invested all of her savings and would feel like things would be okay except for a run of bad happenings. Fencing is collapsing, one whole section of trees is dead, a family of raccoons seems to have taken over the barn, and a shipment of fertilizer keeps going astray. As a means to revive the tree farm, she enters a contest with a famous travel spot influencer to promote the farm as a romantic destination for the holiday. The publicity and $100,000.00 prize would be a great boon for her situation. The only issue is that she lied on the application saying the farm was co-owned with her boyfriend. But Stella doesn’t have a boyfriend.

Since the influencer, Evelyn St. James, is showing up soon to check out the farm, Stella has to come up with a serious boyfriend. Fortunately, her best friend, Luka Peters, comes in from out of town and agrees to play the part. Stella immediately begins taking walks with Luka so the townsfolk can see them together and get the picture they are serious.

Luka and Stella have been best friends since being childhood neighbors. It is clear to everyone, including the reader, that they have great affection for each other. But, having had a father walk out on her when she was young and a mother who bounced from relationship to relationship, Stella has always held men at a distance. She has been determined not to mess up her friendship with Luka by having a sexual relationship with him.

Luka has always cared for Stella but has not known how to show her how he truly feels. He doesn’t want to risk their friendship either, but he may not be able to continue without revealing his feelings.

Matters get more complicated as Evelyn arrives and loves the farm but suspects a problem. Then it becomes clear that the incidents of damage have not been accidental but have been sabotage. Luka may find it easier to help the town sheriff stop the harassment than getting Stella to acknowledge the feelings between them.

I did enjoy this sweet romance but got annoyed by Stella’s lack of courage. She seems totally blind to how much Luka, and her friends, love her and want to help. Someone really needed to wake her up! Luka was a great character and Stella had friends who were supportive too, especially once she let them in. I recommend this to readers who enjoy friends-to-lovers stories. And the Christmas magic is an extra bonus.

Audio Notes: I enjoyed the narration by Pippa Jayne. Her voice fit the story and the character of Stella perfectly. She didn’t do as well on the male voices but it didn’t hurt the story. The narration added to my enjoyment of the story.

Source: 2022 NetGalley. My Rating 4.25.

3.5 Stars Rounded Up.

I received an audio reviewer copy of Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison from the publisher Dreamscape Media from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Stella Bloom has always wanted a Christmas tree farm that would be the winter wonderland of her dreams. However, things are not going well. In order to save the farm, she enters a contest hosted by an influencer where they host the influencer get publicity and potentially a $100,000 cash prize. The only problem is she says that she owns the farm with a boyfriend, but there is no boyfriend. Desperate to save her farm, she enlists long time friend (and sometimes crush) Luka Peters to act as boyfriend.

What I Loved: This is a really strong friends-to-lover and fake dating romance storylines. I loved that there was obvious history here and connection and that these two love each other. This relationship is really respectful and considerate, which is nice to see because sometimes that is missing. I loved the idea of a Christmas Tree farm being a community center, it was very sweet and cute.

What I didn’t like so much: I didn't really understand some of the third act break up or buy that there could be confusion about feelings. I wish I got to know some of the side characters and the community better, it would have likely made me care a bit more about other aspects of the plotline.

Who Should Read It: People who love a small town fake relationship romance. People who love friends to lovers. People who love books set around holidays but not overly Christmas-y.

Summary: A young woman fakes a relationship with her friend to save her Christmas Tree farm.

This book has been in the top reads of so many of my book friends, so I was excited to finally read it, and was gifted the audiobook format for review.

LOVELIGHT FARMS features a friends to lovers, small town romance that takes place in the most magical and perfect holiday setting; a Christmas Tree Farm!

I loved the story, but thought that the narrator was just okay. I listen to quite a few audiobooks each month, and this was my first time listening to Pippa Jayne as narrator. She just tended to have a monotone inflection, and maybe a different narrator would brought more excitement and emotion to bring the story to life.

*many thanks to Dreamscape Media and netgalley for the gifted copy for review

🔊Song Pairing: Christmas Tree Farm - Taylor Swift (felt like this song inspired the book!)

💭What I thought would happen:

This cover is gorgeous. Seriously and it was a buddy read so I just jumped in with Christmas spirit in my heart 😂

🗯Thoughts:

Oook this book and I instantly had a problem because the Christmas tree farm was a HORRIBLE investment. Within the first chapter it’s mentioned that the MC purchased the business a buttload or bad debt and never realized it. Does this woman not know how to read a balance sheet. The accountant in my cringed so hard.

Oh and it’s friends to lovers. Like long term friends where love was there all along. Make me gag much…that could have been the stomach parasite though so maybe not the books fault.

The scenery was beautifully written and truly the author does have a real talent at creating a magical setting. Oh and there are kittens and tattooed men…not hard to get me on all 4s

Perfect holiday Christmas magic! This was my favorite holiday book I read this year! I thought it was so cute.

The town was perfectly quaint and had the best small town romance setting I’ve ever read! I’m ready to visit Lovelight Farms ASAP!

I love a friends to lovers romance, and loved the slow burn and the fake dating trope mixed in. I loved Luka. He’s absolutely on my list of book boyfriends now.

I really enjoyed the side plot and all of other characters and can’t wait to read their stories!

Overall, a perfect holiday romance for me!

This was a darling holiday story. Is it extremely predictable of course. What really matters is the book worth the trip and yes it is. Stella runs a small Christmas tree farm and her business is in a bit of trouble. She enters a social media contests to get more publicity and possibly win a $10,000 prize. However, she lies on her application and says that her and her longtime boyfriend bought, and run the place together. However, Stella does not have a longtime boyfriend. She has a long time best friend who is a boy, but not a boyfriend. With some goading from her friends, she convinces Luca to play the part of her boyfriend for a month and a half while the competition is going on. But it turns out both of these people have been pining for each other for a long time. There are obstacles that have kept them from coming together as a couple, but also kept them as best friends. The story was sweet. It’s got a little bit of steam but not a lot of spice but it’s the perfect combination of romance and Christmas novel. This is full on Hallmark fun even though it’s not from Hallmark. This book is just one of three in the series, but it was nice to start off with a Christmas story. I love this book so much that I can’t wait to read the next two.

This is one of my favorite romances this year. The friends to lovers, fake dating tropes work so well for Luca and Stella. I love their banter and the chemistry between them is electric. Lovelight Farms itself sounds like a place I'd love to visit and I'm looking forward to the next book featuring the grumpy and glamorous secondary characters. You won't regret spending time in this adorable small town.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to listen to this advanced reader copy. This honest review was based off my experience listening to this ARC, which in no way biased me. All opinions are my own.

This is my first BK Borison book, and it was overall enjoyable, I am definitely interested in reading the rest of this series.

I am not going to lie this book was in the 4-4.5 star category for most of it, the last 20-25% I would say fumbled it a bit to the point where overall it ended up in the 3 star category.

I am usually not a fan of best friends to lovers, but this somehow did this trope really well (except for the classic romance book 3rd act break up). The fake dating added just enough of the angst that was really good.

Unfortunately the ending, the third act breakup reason, ended up hurting this book more than helping it. I do believe if this was a dual POV it could have potentially helped.


Overall a good time, it could have been better. Will be reading more from this author, I am very interested in Beckett’s story and Layla’s too.

Well that was lovely. Anyone who throws together fake dating best friends on a Christmas tree farm deserves my undivided attention. And, B.K. Borison you got it! I will admit, I was worried about the hype but I needn’t have worried. This was lovely. Lovely, I tell you. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. Ok. Stella owns a Christmas tree farm that she and her mother, who passed away before the book began, went to when she was a child. It holds so many memories for her, so when it went up for sale she bought it. But times are tough. The farm is hemorrhaging money because everything keeps going wrong (or is it sabotage??), so she enters a content to try and win a cash prize and publicity from a famous social media influencer. Grrr… I am so tired of influencers. Like, SO tired. lol. But moving on. Stella lies on the application for the contest and claims her best friend, who she has been in love with for years, is her boyfriend. No big deal, she will rope him into pretending he is. And he is really, really good at it. Stella is super likable. She’s guarded, but she loves fiercely and protects those she cares about. Luka is a dreamboat. No complaints.

2. Speaking of Luka. He’s Italian and loves to cook Stella yummy pasta dishes, tidies up her home when he visits, and will drop everything at the drop of a hat to be there for her. Where do I get myself a Luka? And his mother, oh my gosh. I love his mom.

3. I love the other supporting characters who co-own the farm with Stella. They’ve got a lovely found family dynamic, and look out for one another. The three of them are such a supportive and loving unit. I’m excited to read their stories in the other books in this series. I also love the local sheriff. He’s taken Stella on as a daughter figure and is very quick to help her with whatever she needs. He watches out for her, and I loved that. The influencer, Evelyn, even won me over, with her down-to-earth personality and caring nature. All in all, it’s such a great cast of characters.

4. I loved the setting so much. The Christmas tree farm sounds magical and beautiful, and the descriptions of the scenery and the weather were breathtaking. I loved the small town, and how everyone knew everyone. It felt like such a friendly place to be.

5. There’s a bit of a mystery, with a couple tense moments, which really added to the story! There’s also a lot of depth surrounding the origins of Stella’s and Luka’s friendship and also how she acquired the farm, which grounded the rather light and fluffy main storyline.

All in all, I loved this. Lovelight Farms is just as sweet and cozy as its name, and I really enjoyed reading it. I got all the warm fuzzies and so much Christmas cheer. I can’t wait to read the other books!

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook arc.

This are a 3.5 star book for me.

This book is cute and phone but was nothing special for me. We follow Stella and Luca in a fake dating friends to lovers story. Stella owns a struggling Christmas Tree farm and the only way to save it is to pretend she is dating Luca and win a social media contest.

While I really liked their friendship and their love story I felt like a lot of the other stuff was a bit rushed. The resolution of the person breaking into the farm, the ending where they finally confess their love for each other and I was not at all impressed with the epilogue.

Overall I do think that its a fun and easy read for this time of year and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good holiday adjacent romance

such a cute and cozy listen! perfect for the holiday season or really whenever you want those christmassy winter vibes

I liked it. But it moved slow. Friends to lovers is tricky but it seems to go back and forth too much. But Overall, a good book! I loved the narrator!

I enjoyed the audiobook version of Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison. I had a hard time getting into the book initially, but the last 1/2 of the book was steamy! The narrator did an excellent job with this book. I read In the Weeds first, so I already knew how this book would end. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it first. I would recommend this book as a fun Christmas read.

Thank you, Dreamscape Media, for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Need to squeeze in all the Christmas vibes? Love Hallmark-esq settings? Are you a fan of friends to lovers or fake dating stories with a hint of forced proximity? Meet Lovelight Farms by BK Borison.

This book is getting lots of love and I'm here for it! Lovelight Farms is great for some winter escapism and it gives you all of the fuzzy feelings. The characters fit the story perfectly and I love that the setting feels like somewhere between a Hallmark Movie set and Stars Hollow.

I am so thankful that @netgalley and @dreamscape_media allowed me an opportunity to listen to an advanced copy of the audiobook for Lovelight Farms. The narration was well done and I could absolutely see myself revisiting Lovelight Farms next year to help put myself in the winter/holiday spirit.

Cute book that felt just like a spicy Hallmark film. I mean, like, identical to at least one if not more Hallmark Christmas movies...and then add a little spice. There was nothing unexpected. But I think that's kind of the point of these types of stories. Comfort and joy. Comfort and joy describes the book well. The characters--even the secondary ones--are great. Immediately rooted for Luka and Stella. Although, I've gotten tired of all the spice that is so often included. I'm not a prude, but I did skip through it. It's especially awkward to listen to in audioform.
My complaint though is that it quickly switched tropes from fake fiance to best friend lovers. I mean, Luke agreed to be Stella's fake fiance, and then they basically just started dating...except Stella was so annoyingly thick headed that she didn't think they were actually dating...just that it was still for show.....even when they were alone...even when he brushed her leg under the table...even when he was making her breakfast and doing things for her that friends don't do but boyfriends and fiances DO, she still wrote it off. That was the worst part. I could take the trope switch, but her being so dense that she can't see that he's actually in to her and it is no longer fake...that was just annoying.

Honestly, I picked the book up for the cover because HOW COULD YOU NOT?! It's probably the best Christmas cover I've ever seen. Hands down.

Cover: 5 stars
Title: 5 stars
Premise: 4 stars
Narration: 4 stars
Everything else: 2.75 stars

Stella Bloom loves the Christmas tree farm she owns and runs, but the problems just keep piling up, and she wonders how she can keep it going. When she enters a contest to win $100,000 from Instagram influencer Evelyn St. James, Stella sells the idea of the Christmas farm as a romantic getaway – including lying about owning it with her nonexistent boyfriend. When Lovelight Farms gets picked as a finalist, Stella convinces her best friend, Luka Peters, to pose as her boyfriend. Can the pair pull this off and save the farm?

This book has two of my favorite romance tropes – friends to lovers and fake dating – so how could I not enjoy the story? Unfortunately, it was like and not love overall; while I like subplots in stories on the whole, one of them felt very unrealistic to me, which drew me out of the story a bit. Still, this is a cute holiday story. If the blurb of the book interests you, then check it out!

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Lost a whole half a star for the conflict/fight/miscommunication. Not here for that.

Otherwise it was absolute perfection and I never wanted it to end