This is a very cute winter book!! It also fits well with winter season in general. I really loved the main characters and their relationship with each other and his family. It was a very cute cozy read!!

I found this book nearly impossible to put down! Even while reading it at the start of summer in sunny Florida, I was instantly transported to the cozy magic of Christmastime.

I especially enjoyed the dual POV structure—Mel in the present day and Finn from the beginning of their relationship to its end. It gave me major The Last Five Years vibes.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, so any romance set during the holidays is already a win—but this one was brimming with the kind of heart and holiday magic that makes a story truly memorable.

This was my first Emily Stone novel, and it certainly won’t be my last. I’m already planning to add more of her books to my holiday reading list.

A huge thank you to Penguin Random House and Net Galley for the ARC!

Mel is a jewelry designer with a rising profile. She dated Finn for three years and he suddenly and publicly dumped her six months ago. Finn dares to knock on Mel’s door to ask her to come to Scotland for Christmas and pretend they are back together, just this one time. Mel is furious but she also sees an opportunity for closure so she agrees. Over the next few days, Mel and Finn find that maybe they both still feel a spark after all.

This is a cozy second-chance romance. There are a lot of side characters and sub-plots but it feels more charming than hectic, due to the holiday theme and setting. There are also flashbacks to when Mel and Finn first met and at several other points in their relationship which helps readers understand how good they were together and how painful their breakup was. I enjoyed how Mel and Finn learned to navigate their new standing with one another and their willingness to reflect and change.

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

I was invited by the publisher to review this book. Melanie is not having a good time of life. All aspects are unfortunate for her, but the biggest blow of all was her boyfriend, Finn, dumping her in front of many people during his sister's engagement party. However, two weeks before Christmas, he comes to Melanie asking for her help. He needs to spend Christmas in the Scottish Highlands at a cottage with his family, including his siblings who are in happy relationships. He told his mother that he and Melanie were dating again, to appease her desire for the perfect Christmas. Finn wants Melanie to come to his family Christmas and pretend they're still dating; while she is not so keen on helping him, she does still love his mother. But she instructs Finn that at the end of the holiday, she will publicly dump him, in a bit of a tit for tat. Except by the end of the actual vacation, Melanie cannot discern what feelings are fake or real.

I loved the setting for this book, I loved the Christmas holiday and the closeness of the family, I loved the activities they did together to celebrate the holiday - everything worked for me. I loved that Melanie took the high road, when she could have been bitter. I also appreciated Finn's version of the story, which helped make him more likeable. This should be an easy read and must-read for any reader (and at any time of the year!).

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine/Dell for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

loved this 2nd chance at romance. loved the different point of views and that they were able to get back together. Loved that this happened in the Christmas season with his family.

This holiday read was delightful. The characters were fun with a fake dating twist. I highly recommend this second chance love story. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Emily Stone is definitely the queen of seasonal romcoms. You can't help but fall in love with these characters and the setting, Scotland! This was a quick, fun read with some tugs on the heartstrings.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you want to swoon over some fun and flirty characters during the holidays, please add this to your TBR! I loved the fresh take on the fake dating trope and this was overall a quick and fun read.

Yours for the Season by Emily Stone is one to pick up this fall. It publishes in October and will be a holiday hit.

Yours For The Season is a cozy, emotional holiday romance perfect for curling up by the fire. Emily Stone weaves second chances, heartache, and humor into a charming story set against the snowy beauty of the Scottish Highlands. Mel and Finn’s fake relationship is full of warmth, chemistry, and unexpected tenderness.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of Yours For The Season by Emily Stone

S/O to Netgalley.This book had my emotions all over the place. It was such a good read. I couldn't put it down. I finished it in 2 days! That's how good it was. I was pulled in, within the first chapter, I hope there's more to Finn's and Mel's story. Such a cute Christmas story. Made me feel like it was winter all over again with how this book described the scenery that they were in. It definitely took a turn towards the end and I was not expecting that at all, but I feel like it all tied in smoothly with the whole story.

I was excited to get into the book, but unfortunately I will be needing to mark it as a DNF.

I am the type of reader that likes to feel like I am in the book and can relate to the main character to ground me into the story. As soon as the first page, I was have issues differentiating who was who and who was talking when. I gave it a few chapters and I couldn't slip into mental movie mode, it was just me seeing words trying to connect them to the right character and feeling very disconnected from the story.
In romance books especially, I think 3rd person point of views are difficult to pull off due to (typically) the reader wanting to feel as if they are feeling what the main character/speaker is feeling. Being an observer on the story for romance books doesn't quite makes sense to me as it creates separations.
I can not speak on the premise of the book seeing as though I couldn't get more than a few chapters in, but for a person that enjoys being enveloped in the main character and book as a whole, I could not enjoy it.

Stone's holiday-themed books are among my favorites. Her new title was no exception. The characters are fun, flirty, and likable in my opinion. The international setting had me swooning. I'm in love with the cover! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 follows Mel agreeing to a wild plan to fake date in front her ex's family to create the picture perfect holiday for his sweet and kind mother's sake.
The twist? this time around she gets to (fake) breakup with him.
But when the pressure to keep their act together (when she'd rather strangle him) catches up with them... they realise they might not be as over each other as thought.... oops.

~

I liked the plot and the cast of characters. The chemistry and that feel of family was definitely well crafted. I just wish the romance had more depth to it.

For a second chance romance, as emotionally plotted the look-in to their past was (how they met, got together, developed feelings etc), their actual second time around felt just as anticlimactic. It needed more angst and groveling.

Aside from that, their was a minor plot twist which I figured out at the beginning (there are small clues, if you really want to look for it!) the rest of the sub-plots kept me engaged and hooked.

~

3.75 / 5 ★

Thanks to Ballantine and Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Yours for the Season is the perfect rom-con for a cold winter's night. It offers a new twist on the fake dating trope which was so enjoyable that I finished the book in less than 24 hours. It was a light, quick read with heart and substance. Highly recommend. 4 1/2 rather than 5 because it was a little predictable.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc.

I absolutely love Emily Stone and her writing. I love the depth of her characters, the authenticity that comes out in the relationships she builds, and the situations that arise throughout her stories. I always anxiously await her next novel, and this one didn't disappoint. Mind you, this was more lighthearted than her others. I do enjoy a tear-your-heart-out love story, like her debut novel Always in December, which has gone down as my all-time favorite. I do think that her unique voice, the raw grief she clearly has some personal knowledge of, and perfectly drawn-out timelines, so I was sad to lose some of that here. That's what I see to be her unique niche, and that's what I've loved about her, although this was beautifully written and I will still be recommending it to my friends and students alike, especially around the holidays for a wonderful festive read. I do hope to see more of her roots come back next time with another Always in December type novel, as I feel like that's missing in the genre, and she filled a gap.
Thank you so much for allowing me to preview this beautiful book!

It’s the fake dating holiday rom-com that will melt even the frostiest heart.
Fake dating. Real feelings. And a second chance wrapped in twinkle lights and tartan. I devoured Yours for the Season in one sitting—it’s festive, funny, and full of heart. Mel’s dry humor + Finn’s awkward charm = the slow-burn holiday magic I wait all year for.

Yours For The Season by Emily Stone is such a good holiday romance! Melanie is trying to hold it together after a humiliating public breakup. Her ex, Finn, shows up asking her to pretend they’re back together for Christmas to make his mom happy. Mel and Finn have real history, and watching them navigate unresolved feelings and cozy family traditions while fake dating is so charming! And the Scottish holiday and winter vibes were so festive! This book is absolutely perfect for the holiday season and second chance romance lovers.

This book was amazing! I don’t give out 5 stars easily, so you know this one won me over.

In this novel, we follow Mel and Finn. Six months ago, Finn dumped Mel at his sister engagement party. Since then, Mel has thrown herself into her small business but is stressing herself out. One evening, Finn knocks on her door and asks her to pretend they got back together and head to Scotland to spend the holidays with his mother and siblings. Mel decides to go along with it, but little does she know there are family secrets, love in the air, and an itinerary that will have the family busy spending time together.

I loved everything about this novel.

Mel’s attitude was spot on. Yes she was salty about the breakup, but it didn’t become her whole personality. I hate when either lead characters are mean to some degree, but she was the perfect blend of sweet and salty.

Finn was a fun character. We got the flashback scenes from his POV, which really helped the storyline.

The plot was great. It wasn’t the typical pretend to date and only one bed tropes. There was more to it, and the chemistry between these two was real.

I really do recommend this book, even if you read it in the summer like me. It was a comforting read with a plot that left me entranced and forgetting what time it was.

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

4 Stars

A cozy, Christmas-filled, second-chance romance full of family and feelings! Sometimes the hardest conversations are the ones that most need to happen and sometimes, well most times, problems are more easily faced with support from the ones you love. Yours For The Season delivers exactly what it promises to. The plot was a little predictable and the characters were a little forgettable, but the romance was sweet and the atmosphere was festive. A Hallmark Christmas movie in book form, perfect for a snowy December evening!