3 Chocchip Pancake Stars ⭐️
Spicy Level:🌶️🌶️/5

If you love a Christmas Romance or are the type of person who will voraciously devour every Hallmark Christmas movie...you will love this...

𝙎𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨:
Josie loves Christmas... people in the town of Strawberry Hollow even call her the Queen of Christmas because her personality is the physical embodiment of the holiday and what it represents. She is also a primary school teacher and has the most adorable students in her class. One day, her newest student Lucy (who Josie has formed a sweet connection with) wants to introduce her to her dad. However, it turns out her dad is Wyatt Owens, the boy (AND NOW MAN) who 8 years ago broke her heart when he broke up with her and left town. Now he is back and he wants to try a second chance with Josie. Josie is apprehensive but when Lucy needs a third person to compete in the town's Christmas List competition to win a float ride with Santa...Josie cannot say no to help; meaning she and Wyatt will be spending a lot of time together.

𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨:
This was sweet, low angst and literally sings about the joy of Christmas. I enjoyed the plot and the vibes and the Christmas Romance gold because this story is heartwarming, cute, sweet, and adorable.

Josie is kind-hearted and generous and so big on family and Wyatt is just a gooey cinnamon roll. Their reconnection was cute and it was sweet. BUT One thing that bothered me, and it’s the reason I don’t typically enjoy second-chance romances, is that I need a valid reason for the breakup. In this case, their breakup felt pretty weak. Wyatt essentially left and abandoned her. I couldn’t help but think that, if he truly cared about her, long distance was an option they could have explored. Instead, he just walked away and never looked back. When they do reminisce, I expected more grovelling from him to make up for such a flimsy reason for leaving, but that never happened. They jumped back into love so quickly that it felt almost insta-lovey.

I understand that this is a Christmas novella, and the pace is supposed to be fast, with sweet and cosy vibes, but I wanted more redevelopment of their relationship. It felt like they just slipped back into love without working through the hurt or addressing what went wrong.

The only reason I’m willing to give it a pass is because this is a novella. There’s not always enough time for deeper character development. Honestly, if this had been a full-length novel, I think it would have worked better for me.

𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
▶ Small Town Romance
▶ Forced Proximity
▶ Second Chance
▶ Single Dad
▶ Christmas Romance

and 𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙧𝙤 𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
▷ Under Table Touching
▷ "Hold on to the..."
▷ "Sit on my face..."
▷ "Fuck It"
▷ Throws her over his shoulder
▷ "More"

Overall this was Christmas vibes, it was a quick read, and it made me happy, so can I really complain?

Thank you to ValentinePR and Maren Moore for the gifted copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own