I thought the premise was cute, but there were too many things that made this book a dud for me:

1. There were weird moments of religion thrown in. I get it’s Christmas, but as someone who isn’t religious at all I would have wanted this somehow expressed in the synopsis. It threw me off a bit.
2. The pranks weren’t even that funny. I wanted a bit more action. Something that would make me laugh. It’s okay if it’s unbelievable since this is fiction, but the pranks were just eh.
3. There were too many characters! I don’t even know how many sisters, nephews, and boyfriends were floating around that house. It made it hard to concentrate on the plot since the whole time I was like “ok, now who is this again?”
4. The characters were flat. They literally had no life to them. I’m not sure if there was a book before this one that explained more, but I had so many questions: why does Nick want a therapy farm? How did he get in touch with the Sinclair about buying the land? Should we have a deeper connection with Ryan and Lydia? Even our main characters didn’t give me a reason to cheer for them because they were two dimensional.
5. The chemistry was severely lacking. I didn’t believe it, but character development could help.

I really wanted more from this book. As a December baby I know what it is like for family and friends to either forget my birthday or just lump it in with Christmas. Not fair. I also liked the synopsis and wanted the book to center on that rather than the current craziness.

I would say this is still an interesting Christmas read.

*_An ARC was received in exchange for an honest review.

Not yucking someone’s yum but I didn’t realize that this book was kinda religious focused. Don’t have an issue with it but I do wish that religion was tagged somewhere. Other than that, it was a good book but something in the story was missing.

Right off the bat I want to say that this book mentioned god/ministries/missionaries - it wasn’t a lot but it was in there and it threw me off and turned me off a bit. Nothing against it but just not for me - I wish this was mentioned in the description or somewhere. The story line was good but I felt like it wasn’t executed properly and there was lack of feelings and emotions involved. It was just an okay book for me, 2.5 rounded up to 3 for me.

It was a dual point of view story but I wish it was more clear when it switched. There’s just something missing from the book and it wasn’t for me.

I just finished such a fun book. Holly and Nick Hate Christmas by Betsy St. Amant comes out this fall. Don’t skip this one.

This should’ve been also listed under Christian fiction and if it was I honestly wouldn’t have requested it. There’s too much emphasis on praying for my liking.