A cute Christmas oriented friends to lovers romance with fake dating seeds, with lots of chosen/found family. Nick and Noel have been friends forever and it’s no surprise that romance is on the horizon. While Nick has just returned from 8 years in the military, Noel has been living back in Mistletoe working as a nurse. Noel is still trying to deal with the loss of her parents when she was 16 and her struggles with grief and the fear of losing more of her loved ones is a constant in her life that has a huge negative impact on her budding relationship with Nick.
While I enjoyed Nick and Noel together, and Noel’s growth throughout the story, it was just an okay read overall. Enjoyable but not memorable.
And knowing that this will be a series about the Winters’ kids, I’m not sure I want to read more because the supporting characters were rather undeveloped with the exception of having one major identifying characteristic (Holly’s store, Gabby’s wedding, Amber being awful, Pike and his odd style, etc.).