Someone, probably Johnny Marks himself, was taken aback at the idea "that on one of the most hectic of nights, you want me to tell people to go out and have a DRINK? Another of the book’s strengths is the delicate balance between fun and humor and the heavy familial issues both Ellie and Jack are dealing with. We happen to be going through a big wave of Covid right now, in fact it is why I’m a little late on reviewing this book. her version retains the most important themes from the original (bone-deep loneliness and the idea of falling in love with an entire family, tropey holiday sweetness, conflicted romantic chemistry with supposed love interest's sibling) while adding new depth (ellie's anxiety and fear of failing, intergenerational pain, poverty and socioeconomic privilege).

If you enjoy cheesy Hallmark movies with insta-love and a lot of Christmas-y scenes, this book will be perfect for you, and you should definitely read it! Well, while this is a fauxmance, this is also a second-chance romance and to show the first-time romance, it is shown in flashbacks which just so happens to include an instalove story. If you are not a first-person romance fan or a selective one like I am, I would still give this a chance as I think Cochrun will win you over like she did me. This is made her fault for not trusting Jack--a woman she's known for 16 hours who didn't mention she was married.Found Family--Always welcomed, and I loved Ellie's found family complete with drunken grandmas and laminated activity schedules. Charming, hilarious, and full of nuanced conversations about sexuality and mental health, the novel struck a chord with a wide range of readers. When something more serious actually did come between them, the reactions still seemed realistic and I adored how they both had to grow before coming together again.

This whole pinning the guilt on Ellie even continued later in the book, too, for things that weren’t Ellie’s fault. It was fun and engaging, and the explorations of the main characters’ various traumas/issues and how they drove their behaviour and affected their relationships were nuanced and thoughtful. I REALLY liked Jack’s insistence that they communicate, because Ellie’s lack of communication was so frustrating as a plot device. To spend Christmas morning scraping a hungover Linds off the floor between suffering her rants about everything from my lackluster physical appearance to my even lacklustier love life? There was tons to like here, and this was so close to working for me, if Jack had just acknowledged her significant part in what went wrong--but she doesn't.

But I wish the book hadn't decided that Ellie's issues needed to be addressed while handwaving Jack's, because that left a fundamental imbalance for me. because the key love story is between ellie and jack, but this is also a love story between ellie and jack's entire family. I immediately fell in love with Ellie and Jack, and from the first page, a smile started dancing on my face.

And then they don't meet for an entire year, and you want me to believe both are still super attracted to each other?HOT romance--whew, the romance between Jack and Ellie is swoon-worthy and absolutely believable despite their meet cute turned insta-love, which is most often eye roll inducing for me but not this time. Homesickness sluices through me, but there is no home to be sick for, nothing waiting for me here or anywhere. Instead of being written as more of a second thought, Andrew, Dylan, and Jack’s whole family, were all well developed and so fun to read about! Her fear of failure is a habit borne out of being the kid of two parents who got accidentally pregnant when they were hardly out of childhood themselves and who kept the baby because of their Catholic background.

I also appreciated that miscommunication was addressed quickly and that the characters often talked about their feelings with each other (as the love interest says, miscommunication is for the straights). And the 3rd act breakup who are you to talk, Jack, with you having a wife and all and then the ending ~ both for the birds.My first novel, The Charm Offensive, about a disgraced tech genius who goes on a reality television show to salvage his reputation and ends up falling in love with his producer, came out in fall 2021.