This is filled with plenty of holiday vibes, despite the fact that Charlotte- and sometimes Graham- is a bit of a grinch around the holidays. Her sister and brother-in-laws family are continually doing very cheesy Christmas activities, that Charlotte is trying to avoid. Her and Graham visit various Christmas movie locations in order to commission art pieces, and when they're discussing the movies filmed there, I was like "wow that sounds terrible- I would totally watch it". Exploring London in December with them was wonderful, and I thought Martha Waters did a good job making you feel the frenzied holiday spirit. This is fun and flirty, but low on angst if that's what you're looking for!

I liked how the characters compared their story to a Christmas Romance story and the plot line followed along as well. It was an interesting look into what child stars have to go through. I liked the both families supported them and were funny.I just did not like that baby.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC of Christmas is all around.

I have loved all of Martha Waters books and this one is no different. I loved the relationship between Charlotte and Graham. The side characters truly made the story unique and added so much to the plot.

I definitely recommend this book!

london boy by taylor swift is playing 💗

you should definitely add this book to your winter tbr. it’s a great christmas story with engaging plot and characters with deep backgrounds.

main female character is a former actress who is being haunted by her childhood role while male character is actually the owner of the house where she filmed that specific movie.

it was so fun to see characters interact and build bonds. they both have incredible families who have their own plot lines, creating an incredible winter picture. i definitely skipped some scenes because i just couldn’t keep up with charlotte’s hate toward that one role. she mentioned it like million times, and i still can’t understand why she acted so weird, if only 2-5 people ever recognized her (i do understand her and wanting to be know for her art but still she was to focused on acting)

chemistry between main characters was strong and their trips were my favorite parts.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun holiday read! I love the cozy feel and the chemistry.

Martha Waters is an absolute delight! This romp of a read has all of her characteristic charm, banter, and romance in a charming contemporary setting. The balance of poking fun at Christmas movie tropes, while simultaneously having the characters live them out is hugely entertaining. Highly recommend! This is an excellent Christmas romcom, truly!

This is such a cute, funny, and sweet holiday read!! I love holiday romances and this did not disappoint!

The characters are so well written, even the side characters. Ava and Kit were just fantastic and easily became my favorites. Charlotte had a lot going on, but I loved her character so much. She was blunt and honest. I loved her relationship with Graham! Graham was a sweetheart. Their banter was so great.

Overall, such a heartwarming and romantic read! Will definitely be looking into the author’s other books! Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was such a great read! It instantly lifted up my spirits and got me excited for the holidays. The read was charming and witty, without it becoming too cheesy. I enjoyed reading about the different problems the characters faced, to the point where the story felt relatable and enjoyable. Baby Alice was a delight to read but I had a little trouble with the rest of the characters.The plot could have used a little more adventure but it was a great read overall.

This book was read in 3 days.

I truly enjoyed getting to read Christmas is All Around. I love a good Christmas rom com, both book and movie form, so to find a book that had such a fun take on a former Christmas rom-com child actress was great. As much as Charlotte hated it, she really was living in a Christmas meet cute. I found both of the characters really entertaining, like a lot Graham and Charlotte's scenes together had me laughing out loud. The way their relationship was portrayed was really well written. They felt realistic with the actions they took and what they said, which made the story so nice to read. I thought the secondary characters really added to the story.

Overall I thought this was a really cute Christmas romance and can't wait to recommend it to my friends!

A charming holiday romcom set in England. Reading it in July was a blast! I'll reread at Christmas to double the fun. Enjoy!

Hilarious and bantery and so much fun!! Martha Waters' writing is instantly familiar, in a new setting - a contemporary holiday romance, following her historical Regency Vows series. I had a great time reading this one!

Thanks to the publisher for providing me a digital review copy via NetGalley!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing this book, with my honest review below.

Christmas Is All Around is a sweet holiday romance that riffs on the idea a child star from a movie - very similar to Love Actually - is sour on Christmas and carrying some trauma from her child star days that can ruin her romance.

Charlotte is the child star in question and while her woes at her child stardom are appropriately called out by her sister and BFF, this part of the book wasn’t as easy to go along with. I also wished the idea of the movie she starred in was expanded, specifically the reboot she didn’t agree to star in ensuing issues it causes which cause her to stay in England longer than planned. Don’t get me wrong, the movie, Christmas, Truly was explored in depth as a plot point with her love interest, Graham. What I was wanting was to better understand Charlotte’s trauma with it and the recent reboot madness that caused her to stay away from her home country. As it stood I wasn’t able to get behind the fallout being so strong that it haunted her into adulthood and caused her to have to stay with her sister.

I enjoyed the chemistry and banter between Charlotte and Graham as well as a lot of funny bits about baby Alice. I just think the premise was so weakly written that I ended up disliking Charlotte and not buying into the climaxes of the book as much.

I throughly enjoyed this book! I love the holidays, so any excuse to read about romances set during that time of year is perfect for me. I was disappointed that there was a third act break up in this book because it’s one of the most overdone and frustrating tropes. I see where the author was going with the trope, but the failure to wrap it up nicely with more fluff and detail after it was resolved left me wanting more.
With its predictability and cheesiness scenarios, I think the book doesn’t deserve as much hype. For Christmas book, it is a cozy and simple read, but is it the best book ever? No.

This was a great book for those of us who can't wait for Christmas season! It felt like a Hallmark movie, which I love, with the romance, setting, and banter. The characters are cute together and were pretty relatable as well.

this book is like a little hallmark movie playing in my head. Overall, i really enjoyed this read. the characters were likable, the storyline was relatable, and i liked how the book didn’t focus on a specific trope.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me this ARC!

Christmas Is All Around was a fast paced book - very reminiscent of HallMark Christmas movies!

This book and the characters would be very loved and supported by an audience in which respects and admires HallMark!

5/5

This is the perfect book to curl up with on a winter's night. It is cute and fun, with loveable main characters and love developing between the two of them.It was amusing and kept me interested, an absolute delight. Overall, one of my fav holiday books that I can't wait to reread later this year.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.75 out of 5. There are some cute things about this book. I love that its based in London, there are so many Christmas settings and the Meet Cute is adorable. I also feel like there is some actual character growth on both sides that is being done and its refreshing and exciting. Themselves as well as their relationships in all their aspects have some very positive growth. So of course given the title, the movie she was in Christmas, Truly is basically Love Actually. A love Actually type of movie, that is as similar to love actually as can be. I love Love Actually. What I didn’t love about this book too much is how bad it made me feel about loving Love Actually. Your target audience for these books are probably people who love Christmas movies and books, so really if you are going to be a drag about Christmas and Christmas movies throughout the book eventually it starts feeling as a little bit of a dig. I’m the first to be able to make fun of myself and Christmas love, but it eventually can be too much. And even though at the end it tries to bring it together as to how she is living her Christmas movie, the disdain in general made it a little bit less special. I felt like the editors convinced the author that a Christmas book would make good money so she should go that way and this is her protest writing. I would say its a good Christmas book for those that do not like Christmas movies?

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=5 | 😘=4.75 | 🤬=4 | 17/18+

summary: this is hard to describe bc it doesn’t rely on as many tropes to carry the plot (but in a much more real sense it does??) which is a good thing! anyway. former child actor (one hit wonder in a popular Christmas movie) goes to England for the holidays and there’s this guy and this mansion and she’s an artist and they fall in love

thoughts: delightful and charming and witty. fantastic characters and pacing. I also loved that there was genuine conflict both inside and outside of the romance; like, these are fully fleshed people w problems separate from each other AND there is still drama together. it’s great. and it was simultaneously very silly and tropey (the Hallmark Christmas romance of it all) and very fresh; it didn’t rely on faux enemies-to-lovers to carry the plot, just a relationship building based on genuine, natural, romantic, vulnerable interactions between the MCs. slay.

A sweet holiday rom-com.

Charlotte is a talented illustrator and kind of a grump. She doesn’t like the holidays, perhaps especially because she starred in a cheesy Christmas movie when she was nine years old. She isn’t looking for love but she does meet a handsome and kind man who happens to live in the house where part of her Christmas movie was filmed…

This is a cozy, low angst read with a cheerful (despite the bad weather) setting of London and its suburbs in December. Charlotte and Graham are great together and I appreciated Charlotte’s general demeanor and humor. Overall, a fun and charming read.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.