ARC Review: You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Sophie Sullivan

You Make It Feel Like Christmas
Author: Sophie Sullivan
Publication: St. Martin's Griffin (September 23, 2025)

Description: All bets are off when a single-minded photographer and a professional hockey player are forced to spend a week together on his sister’s Christmas tree farm, perfect for fans of Jenny Holiday and Maggie Knox.

Maisie Smart doesn’t look back. Not on the choice she made to be a photographer, and not on the one-night stand she had six months ago. But sleeping with a professional hockey player who bolted the morning after is a whole new level of embarrassing. Now she’s about to spend the week at Tickle Tree Farms with her family this Christmas―and then the universe throws a Grinch in her festive plans.

Nick King is a mess. After a significant injury benches him, he has more time to dwell on his anxieties and the one-night stand he can’t get out of his head. With the holidays around the corner, he figures visiting his sister and nephew at their Christmas tree farm will be a good way to sort himself out. That’s impossible when he learns Maisie is there, still beautiful and justifiably angry about the way he left. But Christmas is the time for second chances, and the forced proximity may help Nick and Maisie unwrap feelings neither of them can walk away from twice.

My Thoughts: A dyslexic photographer and a professional hockey player with anxiety meet unexpectedly six months after their one-night stand when they get together for a family Christmas celebration. 

Maisie Smart joins her parents, older sister and older brother with the brother's husband's family to celebrate the holidays. She loves Christmas but she doesn't love that her mother keeps trying to encourage her to go back to school to get degrees and give up her "hobby" of photography. She also trying to deal with her broken heart after the one-night stand she fell for ghosted her.

Nick King is recovering from a knee injury and has some tough decisions to make about his future in professional hockey when he joins his sister and nephew for the holiday season. He's suffering from anxiety and rightly so as the injury joins the death of his mother and his sister's divorce in the worry column. He also can't stop thinking about the woman he met at a wedding six months earlier. 

They have a lot to deal with when they meet again at his sister's new tree farm. Maisie wonders of she can give him a second chance, and she wonders how their lives can possibly mesh with her in Seattle and him traveling with his hockey team. This was a great contemporary romance. I loved the characters.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh

My Phony Valentine
Author: Courtney Walsh
Series: Holidays with Hart
Publication: Sweethaven Press; 1st edition (February 8, 2023)

Description: A chance meeting. A hunky hockey player. A fake romance.
Hardly an ordinary day in the life of Poppy Hart.

My days usually consist of agonizing over my failing restaurant, worrying about my mountain of debt and nursing my broken heart.

Everything changes when I bump into a man in the coffee shop and claim him as my new boyfriend. To my absolute horror, he turns out to be hockey’s most renowned bad boy, Dallas Burke. To my absolute delight, he goes along with my story. />When his no-nonsense manager and meddling grandmother jump in the picture, they see a win-win solution for my failing restaurant and Dallas’s less-than-stellar reputation.

A full-fledged fake romance complete with contract negotiations, pretend dates and phony PDA.

But as I get to know the real Dallas Burke, who is not the man the press says he is, it becomes clear that if this isn’t real. . . someone better tell it to my heart.

My Thoughts: Middle sister Poppy Hart makes a rash decision while standing in line at a coffee shop. Tired of being bullied by local mean girl Margot who also happened to steal Poppy's sister Raya's boyfriend, she claims the guy standing in line in front of her is her boyfriend.

Dallas Burke, right wing for the Denver Comets hockey team and famous hockey bad boy, is quite willing to play along. 

That simple event leads to a fake relationship to help Poppy build up business at her restaurant and Dallas to clean up his reputation. It comes with a contract, a rehabbing Gram - Dallas's, and Dallas's agent who also wants to rehabilitate Dallas's reputation. 

And their fake relationship seems to be going great despite conflicting advice from her older sister Raya who keeps telling her to look before she leaps and her younger sister Eloise who is all for leaping - thinking optional.

It doesn't take long for both Dallas and Poppy to want to change fake dating to real dating but neither is quite ready to tell the other about their change of heart.

This was a sweet romance filled with engaging characters. I loved the small-town setting and its juxtaposition with the world of professional sports. 

I bought this one February 12, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Christmas She Married the Playboy by Louise Fuller (Blog Tour)

The Christmas She Married the Playboy
Author: Louise Fuller
Series: Christmas with a Billionaire (Book 2)
Publication: Harlequin Presents; Original edition (November 30, 2021)

Description: Scandal leads to wedding bells in this uplifting, emotional marriage-of-convenience romance by Louise Fuller!

The one thing not on her Christmas list?
A convenient winter wedding!

Louis Albemarle has tried to bury the pain and guilt of his father’s death with his playboy antics. So when a photo of his stolen moment with figure skater Santina Somerville proves one scandal too many for his company’s shareholders, Louis must contemplate the unimaginable: marriage!

Marrying Louis is the only way to save Santa’s pristine image. But after a past betrayal, it’s not the gossip she really fears. It’s the burning attraction between her and Louis that might just make resisting her convenient husband impossible…

My Thoughts: Santa Somerville is an up-and-coming star figure skater. She has been on the ice since she was three trying to fulfill her mother's and her own dreams. Her mother died when Santa was six; her father remarried; she has two half-brothers. Her father and stepmother have been working two jobs to support Santa's dream. Santa knows and appreciates all their hard work. Now she has gained a sponsorship with an ice cream manufacturer which is finally making things a little easier financially.

Louis Albemarle is the Duke of Astbury. The tenth duke, in fact. He has recently inherited the position after his father's death. Louis was disowned by his father when he left his chosen bride standing at the altar some years earlier. He has been forced to make his own way with the help of his beloved grandmother. Louis has developed a business from a diamond mine to a retail business and to a jewelry brand favored by A-listers around the world. He is quite close to having enough money to buy out his shareholders. He has also developed quite a reputation as a playboy.

The two meet in Switzerland where each takes an immediate dislike to the other despite being incredibly physically attracted. When the paparazzi discover him walking her home after a fancy party, rumors begin to fly that threaten her sponsorship and his control of his business. The only thing he can come up with to make things right is a marriage of convenience. Santa very reluctantly agrees.

They find themselves honeymooning at Louis's Canadian home where the attractions catches fire and the marriage of convenience and separate bedrooms become things of the past. But both are still keeping hurtful secrets. Santa is having trouble getting over the betrayal of her first boyfriend who humiliated her and wrecked her already fragile self-esteem. Louis also has to deal with his issues with his family. Each needs to support the other and help them deal with the hurtful things. 

This was an entertaining romance. The characters were well-developed and interesting people. I enjoyed the way they helped each other get through their tough pasts. I liked the way they learned to trust and love each other. 

Favorite Quote:

She was still the same lonely girl who wanted to be special for something other than her skating.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley as part of a Harlequin Blog Tour. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: A Highlander Is Coming to Town by Laura Trentham

A Highlander Is Coming to Town

Author: Laura Trentham
Series: Highland, Georgia (Book 3)
Publication: St. Martin's Paperbacks (September 29, 2020)

Description: The third book in the Highland, Georgia romantic comedy series from Laura Trentham, A Highlander is Coming to Town, full of love, laughs...and highlanders!
You better watch out. . .

Holt Pierson is dreading Christmas. His parents absconded to Florida for the season and left him to handle the family farm which will be his one day―whether he wants it or not. Driven by duty, Holt has always followed the path expected of him. But lately, he’s been questioning what he wants and where he belongs. Will assuming the responsibility of the Pierson farm make him happy or is there something―or someone―else out in the wider world calling to him?

To Claire Smythe, the Scottish lead singer of a touring band, Highland, Georgia, is the perfect place to hide . . .until a very handsome and deeply curious Holt begins to ask all the questions Claire doesn’t want to answer. As Holt draws Claire out from under and into the fabric of small-town life, can Claire put the past behind her and embrace the unexpected gifts of the season―including the new and lasting love?

My Thoughts: This contemporary romance stars Claire Smythe and Holt Pierson.

Claire is in hiding and trying to decide about her future. When she turns 25 right after Christmas she will inherit shares in her family's company which is a whiskey distillery. Doing so will force her to return to Scotland and her parents and will put her right in the middle between her father and her cousin's goals for the company. She is a poor little rich girl who was raised more by the family lawyer than by her parents. 

Holt Pierson is a lifelong resident of Highland, Georgia. He is an only child and works at his family farm. He likes his life but is now feeling lonely since his parents have semi-retired and taken off in an RV to travel. Holt is feeling lonely and a bit envious of his friends who are finding love and marriage.

Claire is working for an elderly woman and living in her house after spending some time as the lead singer of a Scottish rock band. Claire keeps running into Holt, usually when she is having problems, and Holt becomes fascinated with her. 

This was a nice, fast-paced story with engaging characters. 

Favorite Quote:

She was trapped. It was scary and thrilling. She'd always had an out. An escape route. She had run away from complications more times than she could count, starting with her parents.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.