Lauren Blakely is so funny! I haven't read her in a while so this one was a great surprise and reminded why I love her books so much. If you're looking for a holiday romance to add to your list then this is the one you should grab!

This book was astonishingly amazing, the winter vibes in the summer was what I needed the authors writing is captivating ! I can't wait to add this book on my shelf because this fake dating Christmas Billionaire vibe was steamy! romantic and couldn't just let it be for the holidays both Wilder & Fable needed / wanted more perfect amount of spice in this ladies!

This was a spin off stand along Christmas special. A romcom with all the right tropes that was set over the holidays with a great friends and family group.

It had fun humor, banter, and spice through out the book. Unfortunate this book fell a little flat for me. The idea was great but the plot was lacking and didn’t feel like it was going anywhere at all.

I’ve read other books by this author that I have loved, unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me.

🎄‘It’s not fine. It’s the finest.’🎄

My Favorite Holidate by Lauren Blakely is such a great holiday read. I am forever a fan of the Single Dad trope. It gets me every single time and this one didn’t disappoint! Plus you also get a little fake dating, forced proximity with one bed, and a truly amazing friend group. I was hooked from the very beginning because the characters were so likable and fun. I really enjoyed this one. This is a standalone but I definitely want to go back and read the previous books. Highly recommend if you’re feeling the holiday spirit and want a spicy read!

✨𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰✨

“𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙤 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤𝙤.”

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: 21, 27, 32, 37, 41 & 52
𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧: 55%
𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬: Billionaire romance, single parent, forced proximity, fake dating, workplace romance
𝐏𝐎𝐕: 1st person, Dual POV
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Full cast
𝐊𝐔: Yes

I really enjoyed this book! It’s a fun, steamy holiday romance that hits all the right notes. If you have the chance, I highly recommend the audiobook, it features a full cast and is incredibly entertaining. Plus, Jason Clarke narrates the MMC’s POV, and let’s just say… it’s absolutely delicious.

Overall, this was a festive, feel-good read with just the right amount of spice. Perfect for the holidays, or anytime you need a romantic escape!

Thank you NetGalley and Astria books for ARC!

4 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I enjoyed this book. I am a fake whatever trope fan so this made me happy. Lots of smut but also with a plot which I also love! I do feel like I could have been like a 100 pages shorter it dragged in parts but still loved it.

4.5 Stars I only somewhat recently began reading Lauren Blakely’s books and I regret not starting earlier because she writes such fun and spicy romances! I just finished My Favorite Holidate and now I need to go read her entire backlist lol

Fable is in need of a man to be her date for her sister’s Christmas Eve wedding. Luckily, her billionaire boss and the best man, Wilder, also needs a date so his meddling aunt will stop trying to set him up. Fable wants to show her cheating ex-boyfriend, who is also in the wedding party, that he didn’t hurt her. Plus, Fable needs Wilder to not only be her date, but her partner in the week-long Christmas games leading up to the wedding. The more Fable and Wilder play pretend in a winter wonderland, the more their real feelings emerge.

My Favorite Holidate was the perfect book to read in the lead up to the holiday season. It gave both the warm, cozy vibes of a holiday romance and the spice and banter of a Lauren Blakely romance lol I love single dad romances, especially when the child is part of the meddling and getting the main characters together. Mac was probably my favorite character in this one and I loved her meddling to push her dad and Fable together. I highly recommend this holiday romance!

A swoonworthy love story that’s as sweet as a sugarplum!

Impeccable use of cozy Christmas Town backdrop and fake-dating trope!

Thank you so much to Atria Books, Simon and Schuster, NetGalley and Lauren Blakely for the opportunity to read and review this romance!

Wilder and Fable - boss/employee - have agreed to be one another’s phony “plus-1” for an upcoming winter wonderland wedding.

Through alternating chapters we do learn that Wilder is wildly attracted to Fable, but not interested in a relationship.

But can Fable’s cute creativity and chaos slowly unravel Wilders tough side?

Wilder’s unfailing selflessness towards EVERYONE —
His young daughter, his ex, his meddling aunt, his deadbeat dad - and now, his fake girlfriend - is so moving and heartwarming.

And Fable’s sweet humility and her full belief that she’s almost not worthy of a relationship this rewarding, made her so authentic.

Wilder’s generosity and warmth hits new highs in his efforts to treat Fable like his own Christmas princess (and sometimes his own naughty elf🌶️🔥) … yes there’s some serious spicy in this story - made me turn as red as a Santa suit!

His viscous vitriol for the jerk who hurt and humiliated Fable is sweetly swoonworthy as well!

Everything about this novel wrapped me up in the rosy glowy sensation of Christmas cozy, and I know I’ll visit these pages over and over again when I long to capture that festive feeling.

Fake dating? Check. Revenge plot? Check. Charming single dad? Double check. My Favorite Holidate kicks off with all the holiday magic and chemistry you could want — right from page one. It’s flirty, funny, and full of festive feels, though I won’t lie — it ran a tad long (like that one relative who won’t leave the Christmas party). But with swoony moments and heart to spare, it’s totally worth cozying up for.

This was a great holiday romance! It was just the right amount of cheesy and the right amount of banter!

Thanks to atria books and NetGalley for this arc.

Alright, first off, it’s Lauren Blakely. Come on. We love her. And it’s a spicy Christmas rom com. Of course we love it. That’s all that really needs to be said honestly.

If you want a spicy Hallmark holiday movie book, read this. Now.

I enjoyed this story alot. It was very cute. I love he falls first books. Theyre always adorable. The holiday game/activity stuff was so fun. And I loved them getting back at the ex. The family interactions in this story were just so wholesome and great. While also bringing in real traumas people deal with in family such as addiction and abandonment. And the holiday kinks were definitely a new spin on some spice!

I will never skip a cheesy holiday romance. Combine that with fake dating and I’m beyond hooked. 5 out 5 stars for the vibes.

If you ever wanted a Hallmark movie in written form, you have it with this novel. Wilder and Fable are every Hallmark romance you have ever watched. Wilder, is the perfect billionaire fake boyfriend. He is thoughtful, giving and a great Dad (who has a very good relationship with his ex). Fable, is a fun, flirty creative soul who has not had the best luck in the romance department. Wilder and Fable decide to fake date through the holidays. The fake dating lines are blurred relatively quickly and the couple become more real the longer they are together.

The Christmas part of this book is like Christmas exploded and every Christmas trope is found within these pages. Christmas cookies, mistletoe, caroling, Christmas games, ornament making, sledding, gingerbread house making, gift wrapping and even a Christmas wedding make appearances. I felt that this book did drag a little in the middle and was a tad too long. However, I loved the banter between the two main characters and the side characters were very supportive and interesting in their own right.

Overall, this is a great Christmas escape when the real holidays start to overwhelm you. As a reader you can forget your to-do list for a couple of hours and escape into a fun Christmas romance to put you back in the spirit. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves contemporary romance, chick-lit, holiday romance or even women's fiction.

There are few things I love more in life than the holidays and romantic comedies! When you combine the two, I’m completely hooked. This was a super fun holiday read, even during the summer. The fake dating that turns into a genuine romance is the perfect storyline for anyone seeking a cute and easy read. It reminded me of watching a feel-good Hallmark Christmas movie in the best possible way. I would definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to preview this book in exchange for my honest review.

Cute Light Holiday Romance

After a recent embarrassing breakup, Fable needs to find a date for the upcoming wedding activities since her Ex is in the wedding party. Wilder needs to keep his matchmaking aunt off his back for the holidays. This story is in dual POV giving you insight into both main characters.

Elements I enjoyed:
• The scenes with Wilder’s eleven-year-old daughter.
• Well-developed characters.
• The epilogue as well as the extended epilogue.
• Poetic justice.

Elements that didn’t work for me:
• The steam was a little too graphic and too often for my tastes.
• Seemed a bit too lengthy for such a simple plotline.

I love a good romance novel and this one had all the elements of a good one. I really enjoyed it, the characters were perfect.

3.5/3.75 rounded up to a 4

Disclaimer that I didn't know this was a previously-self-pubbed-title that got scooped up by a trad publisher. Which also means I didn't know that this is an interconnected stand-alone. But that becomes very obvious pretty early on in Chapter 1 when a ton of characters are introduced and you just ~get the feeling~ you're supposed to know who these people are.

"Maeve, Josie, Everly, Charlotte, and Leo, and also Rachel and Elodie. Josie brings Wesley, and Everly brings Max. Elodie brings her husband while Rachel brings her sister, Juliet, since her husband, Carter, is on the field preparing to play the game." . . . "...Max Summers and his wife, Henley Rose..."

Spoiler: I finished the book and still don't really. To me, that's neutral-leaning-toward-negative because on the one hand, it's clearly an Interconnected Standalone that's supposed to be read in a Certain Order, but it wasn't advertised that way, and so I didn't know going in, which meant I didn't know I was picking up book 4? 5? whatever in a series. Then again, I'm sure it's refreshing if you have read them all to not be beaten over the head with the same info you already know. (A couple of sentences here and there briefly explain the friends' love stories that were clearly part of other books.)

It also reads as very Self Published, meaning that the pacing is quick, it's dual POV, the author and characters' voices are snappy, the romance moves very quickly despite this being a "slow burn" since they don't have actual sex until closer to 75ish%, the Christmas references are abundant and cheesy, and the book overall is too long and could've been easily trimmed without losing the story.

The characters were standard for Self Published That Blows Up: Billionaire, single dad MMC who's been pining for self-made FMC with a quick mouth who hates to show feelings because the Ex she breaks up with to open the book hurt her. And their names. Oh goodness. Wilder and Fable. I almost didn't request because of that ridiculousness alone. And then the MMC, Wilder, made his billions in a very, very unrealistic way. I guess he needed the poor, tragic backstory? Also, FMC is dumb because she think he lives in a, and I quote, "nine-figure home" neighborhood. That's a $XXX million dollar house, in case you don't want to do the math. It might be the only thing she was dumb about, and I was willing to overlook the previously mentioned because the writing was so fun and engaging.

Fake dating and pining MMC are delicious tropes, and the author did them really well. Could've punched up the pining, but that's almost always my opinion. The chemistry and banter and relationship development between Wilder and Fable were awesome. Really really well done. The writing was quick and snappy and made me want to get back into the story as soon as I could. It was easy to read, hard to put down, and engaging enough to spend a good chunk of a Saturday reading. A super fun holiday Rom Com told in Dual POV with multiple open door scenes. It's as cheesy as you'd expect a Christmas Rom Com to be, and a little too much at times, but it's so fun you don't even care.

I wasn't a fan of the entire Third Act Conflict because there was too much going on.
*Fable barely knew Wilder and surely didn't know his dad and his history/relationship with his dad, but here she is being all "I don't think you should pay off his debt." It went beyond overstepping boundaries for me; it was just rude and out of line.
*And then for Wilder to just listen. It was very uncharacteristic. He made billions--BILLIONS--of dollars post-high school, but he's going to listen to a random designer who he has the hots for when it comes to telling him what to do about anything, much less something she clearly knows nothing about? I don't buy it. It also showed me that the author has no experience in complex family relationships like this. If the dad is really an addict, his son suddenly--and with zero warning, I might add--cutting him off, probably isn't going to be the successful trip to rehab Fable thinks it will. It's Romance, and a Rom Com at that, so I'm kind of willing to let a lot slide for the sake of the perfect red bow on the HEA, but this was more than a little much.
*The fake dating didn't need to be revealed. In fact, for the love of my reading time, can I get a fake dating, revenge book in which they just get away with fake dating?! Where the mean ex doesn't find out and gleefully rejoice and the lovable, well-meaning family members don't get hurt??? Pleeeeease. Because OMG the drama around all of this coming out was so frustratingly unsatisfying as a reader. (And I hope that's not just me.) I mean, it still works out because the Ex and his new GF get thrown out of the mountain lodge, and there's some sweet character development in a humbling way with the lovable family, but omgggggg it was frustrating to get through.

Overall, very fun, very cheesy, very Christmas-y, very Rom Com read that you're not missing out on if you skip, but you'll enjoy if you read! I would absolutely read this author again after working with a trad pubbed editor to see how her writing develops and improves!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for previewing this copy.

This book is the definition of cheese and i honestly ate it up. I'm a sucker for a holiday read in July and this one hit the spot for sure.

This book was so terribly cheesy but I ate it up. There were moments I liked but for the most part… too much. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.