Craving a sapphic holiday hallmark movie? In the Event of Love is the kind of magical holiday romance novel where you never once have to question how it might end, with its endearingly predictable plot and comforting setting. 

After an accidental scandal, a mid-20s event planner living in the big city and married to her job must retreat to her quiet hometown for the holidays where she (quite literally) falls into her high school sweetheart turned ghosted nemesis, who runs a christmas tree farm (hell yeah lumberjack lesbian).  When a big company threatens to buy out the failing tree farm and turn the cozy small town into an overpriced capitalist hellscape, the girls must work together to throw a fundraising party to save the town (and maybe fall in love along the way). 

The two main characters are immature, and their choices and disagreements can seem childish.

the big fight that led them to not talk for 7 years was truly just not that serious.

I found the narrator not very likeable for the first half of the book, but as she came into herself more, she and her very sweet relationship grew on me. The romance felt authentic and just right for this genre. Always lovely to have more queer women rep in the genre, especially a story with no coming out storyline or drama. 

This is not a complex, didactic novel, but it isn’t supposed to be. It is a silly, cozy holiday romance— reading it feels like sipping hot cocoa cuddled up on the couch with snow falling outside.