Ellie is spiralling hard. Last Christmas, she was crushed by a girl she met fatefully on Christmas Eve, this Christmas she’s fake engaged to a guy for money. Unable to get the girl she met out of her brain, when that same girl happens to waltz back into her life, Ellie must make the choice, go through with the fake engagement and claim the money, or chose true love. This was a very cute novel, with a hint of spice and had a lot of personality. There were times this read like a fan fiction because of the way things happened, but the reader let that slide because they really liked the premise of this. This had fake dating, but it wasn’t the kind of fake dating this reader enjoys as the two faking it were never going to for real fall in love. It was set from the get-go that, that probably wasn’t going to happen, so that trope kinda fizzled for this reader. But the other tropes, like being snowed in and there’s only one bed were good. It did feel like a lot was thrown at this to make it as versatile as it was, but it could have toned down just a bit in terms of the different tropes used. That aside, this was super-fast-paced and even though the twists could be a bit predictable, the reader still ate it up and enjoyed every minute of it. What really stood out was the communication between the two main characters, their honest game was refreshing to read because it avoided the miscommunication that can drive some of these contemporary romances; so to see these two sitting and talking about the things that bothered them was so nice to read – even if it wasn’t always pretty. These characters were really flawed and that’s what made them so approachable to read; they felt relatable, no matter where they came from. Ellie as a main character was good because she knew she had to work on herself and it wasn’t like she recognized that and it became the perfect fix, we really got to see her struggle to find herself and find what worked for her, which was all part of the journey. She had a handful of really good side characters who were very supportive and a few not so supportive that threw curveballs to the story to make it interesting. In the end, this was a cute holiday romance with good themes on how to deal with anxiety and the fear of failure.