One Christmas Eve by Shannon Stacey gives us a book store owning recent divorcee as a heroine and an uptight, by the book hero. This is a good hate-to-love you story with great banter. Zoe is free spirited and a tad wild, and Preston is a no nonsense kind of guy. They are oil and water from the beginning and I was loving it! Overall, the story is simply adorable! It really was one of those super cute love stories that just makes you smile. Both of them have just enough past drama to make them interesting. If you want a quick holiday read that will warm your heart, One Christmas Eve is a perfect pick!

Zoe and Preston are a real treat for all those readers that LOVE a good bookish romance! She runs a slightly saucy bookstore; he's come to town to help people get their affairs in order. They may sound like oil and water, but once things get churned up, the mix is downright DELIGHTFUL! The banter and whit, the battle plans she puts into play utilizing her window display, and the favorite book with marked passage passed between them...let's just say, a definite choice to spice up your cold winter nights!

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.
This was REALLY cute. It’s a very quick read but the characters dig into you. I liked that both Zoe and Preston had their baggage but they didn’t delay long in handling it. I really appreciate that. I liked both characters a lot. Both were realistic and reasonable. I liked the tension. This was just a great book.

Cute Christmas novella! I really enjoyed the banter and the enemies to lovers trope. Easy read and something light/quick for the holiday season.

I really enjoyed this novella! Great opposites-attract romance with the perfect amount of sass, swoon, and sexy.

Favorite Quotes:

Disapproval. Zoe knew that look. She’d divorced the man she’d thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with— a man who’d claimed to love and cherish her— because of that look, so she wasn’t about to accept it from a total stranger. Arching one eyebrow, she gave him her best bitch face. And not the resting kind, either. Hers was a fully active bitch face.

“Just... be neighborly.” “Oh, should I run home and bake him a pie first?” “I’ve had your pie and I’m going to vote no.”


My Review:

This was my first experience reading Shannon Stacey and I’m not sure what took so long for her to ping my radar, as she seems to have been quite busy with a veritable library of books listed under her name. I plan to make amends to the talented Ms. Stacey for my slacking as I enjoyed her easy-breezy writing style, snarky humor, and wily wit. I picked a nice place to start with this light, small-town, holiday romance with opposite attraction. The characters were endearingly quirky and likable while the story held my interest, was easy to follow, and developed at a good pace with tasty bites of steam, levity, and a sweet HEA for all involved.

I've been reading Shannon Stacey's work for a few years now and know I can always count on her to write strong characters. Zoe isn't perfect and understandably has a bit of a chip on her shoulder after her failed marriage, but as soon as she has the spark of attraction with the stuffy shop owner next door, it is clear the sparks will really start flying. This is a nice opposites-attract story with complex characters and an easy flowing story.

This is the second book in the Cedar Street series, but it definitely stands on its own. I did not read the first book and did not have any problems understanding the storyline.

This is a very quick, steamy read. It is a perfect easy read for the busy holiday season. I absolutely loved both the characters, and how we really got to see both of their personalities. I loved how it was really woven throughout the whole book.

The fact that they communicated through books was adorable, and the gift at the end was so sweet! I loved this book, and am interested in reading more from this author.

5 stars
I received this book for free in return for an honest review.

This was a fun, quick and surprisingly steamy holiday read! Exactly what I want in a Christmas book and even better it was a bit of an enemy to lover trope! Very cute story based on a small town bookstore owner and the new business owner next door if you want a quick binge read pick this book up!

This was one of the best Christmas books I have read this year. The chemistry and story were amazing together. Could not put down.

Shannon Stacey never fails with wit, charm and the sexy she brings to her books and One Christmas Eve is no exception.
The story of Zoe Randall and Preston Wheeler will knock your socks off and make you feel festive.
Randall is new to town and he Zoe got off on the wrong foot but the chemistry between them is more than palpable.
I could not put this book down until I finished the last word.

This is how an opposites attract romance is done! Zoe and Preston were a really enjoyable couple to read about for so many reasons including, their initial dislike for each other was not overdone, they were very honest with themselves and each other about their feelings and the drama was very minimal. 

One other thing: I loved that the characters' lived experiences had made them very upfront about what they would and would not tolerate in a relationship and they did not hesitate to express that.

It's amazing that this is the very first book by Ms. Stacey that I have read and I look forward to reading more from her.

Cute Christmas romance. I love that it involves a bookstore! Zoe and Preston are a case of opposites attract.

3.5 stars

This is a quick and fun read with little drama.

I love how Zoe and Preston met, the whole instant-dislike!!! turns "huh? I guess I misunderstood you" to "oh no I like you", plus Christmas vibes? I love cute Christmas-themed stories!

I've been on a Hallmark holiday movie binge lately and this was the perfect book to pair with it. I loved the enemies to lovers vibe between the two main characters, Zoe and Preston, and how fleshed out their characters were. Plus I'm a sucker for a holiday setting so I loved that element as well.

If Lifetime Christmas movies are your jam, One Christmas Eve has all the er, hallmarks, of this annual tradition. Small town book store owner and new-in-town uptight estate planner are enemies-to-lovers in this quick hit read by Shannon Stacey. It starts in early November and takes you right through Christmas, so it's a perfect fit for the holiday season. And if you follow The Ripped Bodice's monthly window displays on Instagram, Zoe's taken a page from their book, and it's pretty great at getting under Preston's skin.

One Christmas Eve is the second book in the Cedar Street series by Shannon Stacey. You do not have to read the series in order, but I do recommend it only because I am a fan of the author.

Zoe Randall is busy living her life as she damn well pleases. She’s back in her favorite town, her divorce in her rearview mirror, and living out her childhood dream of running a bookstore with her cousin. She has no interest in the uptight nerd who opened his boring-ass business next to her shop, until he complains about one of her sexy window displays. Preston Wheeler knows he takes life a little too seriously. But when the saucy bookseller next door starts pushing his buttons, he can feel that changing. Beautiful, vivacious Zoe challenges him in all the best ways, and soon he’s pushing her buttons right back: teasing and flirting all the way through the holiday season. As Preston loosens up and Zoe is treated to the man behind the suit (particularly his forearms), she realizes she’s more interested than she cares to admit. And Preston comes to see the beauty—the absolute delight—in adding Zoe’s bright splashes of color to his once very black-and-white existence.

One Christmas Eve is a lovely addition to the Sedar Street series, although it can be enjoyed on its own. Zoe is a smart and energetic woman with a great heart. After leaving a judgemental marriage she worries about her heart and making the same mistakes again. Preston is a planner, and while he is intrigued by Zoe, he worries that he will not be able to hold her interest. I loved their banter, and the slow glide from enemies, to friends, to more. The worries and doubts Zoe and Preston had were very realistic. I found their inner dialogues and banter to be relatable, and sometimes highly entertaining. The secondary characters were well fleshed out as well- including those from the previous book and those I expect to get their own book in the future. I found everything to be well written, and feel like I could go vacation in this little town, but only in the off peak season.

One Christmas Eve is a wonderful contemporary romances with a nice combination of realistic fears and sassy humor. I enjoyed the read and will continue reading everything from the author.

Loved it! Wasn't liking snooty Preston very much as the story opened but didn't take me long to warm up to him. Both Zoe and Preston have had some bad relationships and are scared to open up to each other and instead quibble and pass messages via books which is another thing I loved along with Zoe running a bookstore! I love love love stories with bookstores or libraries in them! When they did put their baggage to the side things heated up and this pair sizzled together!

Received an advanced copy in exchange for a fair review.

I'm waffling on this one between two and three stars. Two seems harsh for what were quite likable characters and not bad writing. Three seems too much for a plot that did not hang together for me and forced conflicts that made no sense.

Zoe is sensitive to criticism after her husband's judgmental side ended their marriage. Preston is used to women eventually finding him boring and tossing him aside. The initial conflict seemed... silly. Preston reacts poorly to a "sexy" display in Zoe's bookstore window and she takes it way too personally and spends way more time thinking about the incident than it really seemed to warrant. But Preston apologizes and a truce is declared rather swiftly.

If the book had taken its time and built the pair's relationship from there, showing them start to click, date, get close, be vulnerable, etc. over time then the Big Fight might have been believable. But in less than six weeks, they become so in love that a fight devastates them? And the big fight is... silly. It comes out of nowhere and it's supposed to be both of their worst assumptions about each other and their relationship coming true and oh god we should just break up now but it truly makes no sense. If either one had taken a beat to calm down they should have been rational enough to recognize it made no sense and work it out.

The insta-love and forced conflict made this feel extremely, extremely rushed. Not my favorite Shannon Stacey.

This book was cute, it is definitely a novella. It gave me all the Harlequin vibes from my early childhood. I would read any Christmas book I could while my mom and I were at the store.