Anne

Very cozy book, the tea- and bookshop sounds really nice. I like that the characters are quite capable, it always feels more relaxing to read about someone who knows what they're doing. I also really liked the side characters, all the people in the village were very likable and I'm curious to see more of them in the rest of the series. Although of course Visk is the best side character.

The one thing that I'd like to see improve in the rest of the series would be that the dialogue feels a bit clunky at times and that there's a lot of telling instead of/plus showing, especially in regards to how Kianthe and Reyna relate to each other.

In short: A bit unpolished, but very fun.

I enjoyed reading this book and am currently flying through the sequels. I think the characters and relationships are very good, they are very lovable and especially the relationship between Hadrian and Royce is great. I also like the side characters, especially Myron, he's so sweet. The plot is interesting enough to keep me invested, but there's some info-dumping and in some chapters I started skimming a bit, because I didn't care as much about the current characters we were with or they were a bit long-winded (mostly not when we're with Hadrian and Royce, but in some of the other chapters).

I don't dislike these books, but after 4 books I'm also still not super invested, so I think I'm gonna move on to other books I'd like to read, maybe I'll give it another shot in the future.

I liked most of the story, fake dating while being childhood rivals is a fun trope. A fun quick holiday romcom.

Things I didn't love:

- the girl was extremely hung up on their childhood rivalry when the guy was not at all, which made her seem very childish and petty.

- the guy had apparently been pining for like 10 years (in which they either didn't or barely saw each other), which honestly is a bit sad.

- the way the sex scenes were worded was uncomfortale for me (like 'milk', 'cunt', immediately thinking about 'putting a baby inside her').

Fun romcom, very sweet, I liked how supportive everyone was of each other.

Some bits did make me roll my eyes. Like I just cannot take anyone that uses 'No Ragrets' unironically serieusly... There was also a bit more tell instead of show that I would have liked.

A quick read if you're looking for a light-hearted semi-holiday romcom.

I like the setup of the grumpy restaurant owner being the female lead's dating coach, but the characters fell a bit flat for me and I think the story tried to do a bit much for the short page count.

My main gripe is that the main characters don't really feel like real people. The female lead is very naïve, the male lead I heard someone describe as 'women-writing-men', which I thought was a pretty accurate description, I'm not sure how to describe it better, but he just didn't feel like his own person, just there to be the 'perfect' rough-but-loving romantic interest. The main secondary character is the guy's younger 16 yo brother, who is the main person driving the two main characters together, but he often says things to his brother that would have felt more natural coming from a close (same-age) friend rather than his teenage brother.

Very light spoiler about the guy's background: I didn't like the cancer storyline, I just don't want to think about that while expecting to read a light romcom. I think I at least would have preferred knowing she survived it from the start.

(It's not super Christmas-y btw, most time is spend on dates in the couple months/weeks leading up to Christmas)