A Town Called Noelle is told from two different points of view. The first one is Brooke whose mother has recently died causing her to go back to her hometown in order to deal with the arrangements as well as her will. Then you have Holly who rents one of Brooke's mom's storefronts where she is a baker.
Brooke wants to sell all of the properties as quick as possible and get back out of Noelle as she doesn't have many good memories there and was told by her mom that the town didn't like people who were deviant which she considered Brooke to be because of who she is attracted to.
however, Holly and her daughter end up showing Brooke what the town is really like and help her see some good in it.
Overall this story is very short and we don't get to see a lot of Holly and Brooke together. What we do get to see though is nice, and I liked that we got to see them again a year later to catch up with what they were doing then and if Brooke had changed her mind about Noelle at all.
This one was a quick read that isn't super Christmassy or romantic. Instead, it's more about Brooke realizing that the stuff her mom told her about the town was a lie and that she did have people that cared about her no matter who she is attracted to.

This book wasn’t for me and I’m truly sad about it. I love Christmas novels and try to read all the ones I can. I didn’t connect to the characters and the story didn’t click for me. So I had to put it down.

Unfortunately I was unable to get in to this story and had to put it down, however, I'm sure it is a highly loved book and appreciated by the right readers.

I can only imagine how challenging it is to get 'enough' in a novella. The premise of this book is good. Brooke has to head back to the town where she grew up, Noelle, to finalise her mother's estate. Part of which involves selling property. Holly's bakery exists in one of those properties, so predictably their initial meeting doesn't go well.
There's some spark between the characters, but I really felt like it wasn't enough to ignite a fire.

A Town Called Noelle by MK Hardy is about high-flying city exec Brooke Hawkins who is forced to return to her small home town just a few days before Christmas due to the death of her mother. She hasn’t spoken to her mom since she left for college over a decade before. The town, Noelle, is as full of the Christmas spirit but Brooke plans to get through the funeral, sell the property and be gone by December 25th. A man named Greg is trying to connect with Brooke.

Small-town baker Holly Jackson gets a nasty shock when she receives the news that her little shop is about to be sold from under her by her late landlady’s estranged daughter. She is a widow who takes care of her daughter.

When Holly and Brooke cross paths, sparks fly—and not in a good way. Brooke is determined to sell up and get out of town. Holly is determined to make her business work and take care of her daughter.

The town of Noelle has it’s own influence on all.

This book started out with Brooke and Holly fighting each other and their interests but they end up best of friends. Snow and Christmas Spirit bring the book along. This is a good book to read by the fire on a snowy day.

I enjoyed reading this story, with its requisite quirky small town characters. And I love a Christmas Carol! So this was the perfect combination!

Sweet story about how coming home can change your life for the better.

A Town Called Noelle was a quick and easy read. If you are looking for an uplifting Christmas story this one will fit the bill. Surround by bad memories Brooke has returned home to take care of her mother’s estate. Holly is the local bakery owner that has finally gotten her life on track after the death of her husband. When Holly realizes that Brooke is going to sell the building her bakery is in she approaches Brooke with the hopes of changing her mind. And that she does.

Read on to find out how taking a chance can be beneficial in business and in love.

This was a cute Christmas time love story. It was predictable, but I really liked the characters so I didn’t even care.

This was the perfect Christmasy, winter read. For anyone that craves a queer hallmark movie read this book!

This was such a cute story. Brooke and Holly have a very nice and appealing chemistry, and the plot was a winner from the start. Both Brooke and Holly are lovable characters, that during the book grow even more on you.

I loved the idea of a LGBTQ Christmas novella as it is a neglected store in this holiday space. However, I felt that this story line may have worked better as a YA novel. The characters were slightly one dimensional and I was hoping for more.

Brooke Hawkins believes that everyone in her hometown of Noelle will hate her--that's what she's been told by her estranged mother all her life, after all. Brooke left for college and hasn't returned until her mother's death--and the need to settle the estate. For Brooke, this means selling all her mother's property and returning to her regularly-scheduled, if lonely, life.

Holly Jackson grew up with Brooke, and looked to her mother as a mentor. She admired Brooke somewhat in school, but they were never close. Holly's a widow now, raising a young daughter and working hard to make her quirky bakery one of the must-stop places for tourists to Noelle. She's not happy when her realtor calls to tell her that her lease is being broken--because Brooke is selling the property to a developer and Holly can't even make a bid.

In such a small town, it's inevitable that they will meet, and Holly let's Brooke have it, confirming Brooke's suspicions of being the odd-woman out. It seems her mother was highly respected by the community, and no one really knows how emotionally abusive she was to Brooke growing up. Brooke wants to sign all the paperwork and leave, but ice storms and a blizzard cut her quick escape off. Force to endure an extended stay in Noelle gives Holly the chance to apologize for her fiery temper--and maybe kindle a tiny spark of desire and connection that each woman needs.

This is a short read, with two rather interesting main characters. I liked them both, but I didn't really get a good sense of their connection. Brooke was enchanted to be included in Holly's plans--including the holiday festivities--once she could get over her ingrained shyness. There aren't many tender moments on the page, which made it hard for me to really understand what changed for Holly, in terms of her attraction to Brooke. I get that she was emotionally connected to the decisions Brooke made that ultimately played in her favor, but Holly's sudden interest in a physical relationship with Brooke--who could jet out as soon as the weather clears--didn't have a firm grounding, to me. It's a decent story, but my disbelief at the situation and the plot couldn't stay suspended long enough to reach the happy ending.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

A warm fun read for the winter month. It looks like a enemies to lovers dynamic, but it is more a misunderstanding and miss communication kind of dynamic.

Brooke returns to Noelle after her estranged mother passes away. Her only purpose is to sell of the building she heridated. A building in which Holly has her bakery for which she worked hard. Moving would mean she loses her business.

Once Brooke and Holly start really talking and listening to each other they soon are on the same line.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read this just before the holidays bit haven’t had a chance to post my review. This is a nice enough Christmas novella. It features Brooke, who is returning to the home town she hates to bury her mother and settle her mother’s estate and Holly who owns a bakery, is a single mother, and is about to be evicted by Brooke. Brooke’s kind of a Scrooge or grinch, not sure which, but she hates the town and Xmas, and unfortunately for her is snowed in and stuck in town over the holidays. After a rocky start she and Holly keep getting thrown together, and get to know each other. This leads to a thaw in Brooke and they spend the holiday together and eventually manage a HEA.

Because it’s a novella, there’s not a lot of substance to this, there’s way too many characters and situations going on, which means that there’s not enough time to get to know the leads or really establish their relationship. Still, it’s an enjoyable enough read. 3.5 stars.

This sounded like a perfect read for me but unfortunately I just couldn't get on board with the romance here. I feel like this was meant to be an enemies-to-lovers romance but I just never truly felt that there was any real anonymity between Holly and Brooke so the development between them seemed strangely paced to me.

This story rather follows the typical Hallmark style Christmas movie setting, which was overall pleasant. Noelle follows the story of Brooke and Holly, two women with different agendas. Brooke wishes to severe all connections with the quaint town of Noelle, even if that means selling the bakery that Holly uses to support herself and her dreams. Over the course of the book, one is brought into the bustling town of Noelle and the people within it. I found it fascinating to see how the two lives of Brooke and Holly would come together.

However, there was one thing I was puzzled about. Though there was some mention of the Brooke's mother, the reason she had to come back to Noelle in the first place, I found that the person I was most interested in hearing about was Holly's husband. He was barely mentioned and yet, the few times he was, it seemed that Holly deeply loved him still. I feel that knowing that she was married to a man would've have brought some extra tension to the building relationship between Brooke and Holly, and I was disappointed to see it never really addressed in the story. Some more tension, as was hinted in an early blackout/snowed in scene made me think it would have happened. Surely Holly would've had some concerns about falling for a women when she supposedly never had such inclinations before, unless she had repressed them all her life? Was she bisexual all along? Maybe I missed something in my reading of the book, but I feel that things were a bit rushed in this story because these things weren't full addressed. Overall, I found the story a comfortable read to enjoy by the fire place in the evening with a nice cup of cocoa. The characters for the most part felt real and their interactions were something I believe I could relate to and so could anyone else. It is a nice Christmas themed story that would make for a decent film if it were ever adapted.

Wonderful lovely festive read. Lose the stresses of this time of year and get wrapped up in this book. Well written and flowed well.

This was a quick cute read and I did enjoy it! However, I felt like their pacing of friendship was forced and that this story was going for an enemies to lovers trope but these characters were never really enemies. I also didn't really feel their chemistry, however in the last chapter they were very cute, I can't deny that!
Overall I'm glad I read this but I wouldn't read again.
[I received a copy on NetGalley for an honest review]

A few days before Christmas, Brooke Hawkins is forced to return to Noelle, the small town she grew up in. She has to attend her mother's funeral and sell off the real estate she has inherited. She wants to get in, take care of business, and leave again as soon as possible. But bad weather gets in the way of that. To make matters worse, Brooke keeps running into Holly Jackson, a single mother who is being forced to close down her little bakery soon because Brooke is selling the building. Holly is determined to save her bakery and wants to convince Brooke to change her mind. Equal in their stubbornness, Brooke and Holly keep butting heads. But then they start to look beyond first impressions and bad childhood memories.

This was a cute F/F holiday romance novella. It's very trope-y, but it mostly gets away with it. I would've like to have seen more of a connection between the main characters, but the story length really got in the way of there being more emotional development between Brooke and Holly. There is some angst in this, and some mentions of homophobia, but for the most part it's pure fluff.