I absolutely adored this seasonal romance novel, a perfect novel to Cosey up with anytime of the year xxx

Picked up from Netgalley in exchange for a review, this almost didn't make it into the Christmas Reading pile, until I was checking my dashboard on the site for another book, and - eeep! It was there ready to read, and my chance of a themed romance was rapidly running out the door!

So: it's a romance set at Christmas, so you have to suspend any Grinchy-ness if you're going to survive this book. A week before Christmas, and a month before their divorce is finalised, Mary and JT (Joseph Tanner) (yes, there's the first of them!), are sent to the Rekindle Inn by their mothers, in the hope they can recover what's left of their marriage.

They have been separated for 6 months, ever since Mary organised a surprise vacation, only for JT to bail out at the last minute "for work purposes". Both characters have issues that have contributed to their marriage breaking down - Mary hasn't trusted anyone since her father walked out on her mother when Mary was 10, and she gives up at the first sign of trouble anywhere in her life. JT has always felt that whatever he did was never "good enough" for his father, so he strove to be the best at his job, whilst neglecting his marriage. Both of them struggle with communication, with their spouse and family members. Neither have confronted their parents about the trip, or their issues.

Arriving at the Rekindle Inn, the couple realise there is something unusual about the people who make up the staff and the community, starting with the fact that their hosts are called Mr and Mrs Klaus, and virtually no-one is over 5 feet tall. There's the occasional "slip up" where references are made to "el, I mean staff".

This is told primarily from the point of Mary, with a little side view from JT. Some of the secondary characters are more 3 dimensional than others but some are barely sketched.

Once at the Inn, the couple are told about the week's schedule, which involves time spent apart as well as putting the two of them together as a couple. Each day is themed, and allows the couple to reflect on what made them fall in love in the first place, and hopefully bring some spark back into their relationship. They do get together - briefly - during the week, but it is the end of the week when Mary's new boyfriend turns up to pick her up, and JT's boss' daughter continues to try and get her claws into him that almost ruins the reconciliation. However, as per all good romances, especially one set at Christmas, things work out as wished for!

The Christmas tie-ins were laid on a little thick for my liking, but them's the breaks. Some people love the book, some people hate it, I found it to be a nice, fast, post Christmas read over lunch one day.