The Winter We Met by Samantha Tonge is a novel worthy of Hallmark and Netflix! It is heartfelt, engaging, and sad. The emotional tug of war is constantly there. The characters are charming and hopeful. The setting is beautiful. Makes you wish the book never ends.

I really enjoyed this story - and although I'm reviewing it late (almost 2 years since reading!) - I can still remember the storyline and many things about the characters which is a huge plus for me. It was easy to fall in love with the characters, and get attached to them and everything that happens in their lives. This was a fast, engaging, charming, and endearing book that I would happily read again!

A lovely warm Christmas read. Jess and Nik are lovely main characters and there is a great additional cast in the care home. Plenty of warmth, humour and Christmassy feel make this a perfect book to curl up in front of a fire with

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

This is so much more than a feel-good festive book, this is a timely reminder to cherish the small stuff, enjoy the life that you have and surround yourself with love. This story masterly controls the twists and turns of the narrative, sprinkling lashings of magic and pixie dust into the mix. A truly enchanting and magical novel that will whisk you away but also remind you to cherish all that is close to your heart.

Sam weaves together glorious characters in places and situations that are so well constructed that you feel like you are there. Being set around a care home and a toy-shop adds another dimension after these strange years, reminding us of the importance of community and support.

Found this to be a nice read. Technically, not much is happening romance-wise and character-wise, and it reads a lot like a script (super dialogue-heavy) with random pops of POV in. Good to while away a moment, but can read more on the 'bland' side if you're looking for more

I was looking forward to reading this book but after all of the other great holiday stories I was able to read, this one failed to hit the mark for me. I loved the characters at the care home but felt like they were charactures at times. Unfortunately this book failed to engage my attention for a long time and I struggled to finish it.

When Jess makes the decision to sit in the wrong seat on the way back from a toy fair, she couldn’t have anticipated meeting a handsome Australian man. They have an instant connection when they realise they’ve both been to the same toy fair and are heading for the same destination.

As the pair take in the delights of London and the toy store where Jess works, she receives upsetting news. The care home that her grandma is residing in is set to close. Jess is left trying to find the perfect new home for her grandma and is determined to throw the best farewell Christmas party she possibly can for the residents of Willow Court care home.

This was a delightful festive read with twists and turns to keep you hooked, desperate to find out what is going to happen next! The characters were brilliantly written and there’s a real sense of community throughout, which is heartwarming to read. This is an easy read, perfect for relaxing reading and a heartwarming escape!

Lovely feel good seasonal book. It was just lovely. Romantically charming book you dream about. Great plot and characters. Perfect for reading over the festive period. Or at any time if the year. Christmas books can be enjoyed anytime anywhere. Very well written and flowed well. Love this authors books they just get better and better

Jess is travelling back from Germany when she meets Nik on a plane, they hit it off and he ends up spending a lot of his holiday hanging around her village. She has just found out that the residential care facility her gran lives in is shutting down and is panicking about finding somewhere new.
So begins a lovely tale of community and friendship. I loved the pensioners aspect, the community that had been built in the residential home was lovely to read about and the characters that resided there.
The romance aspect for me came a bit out of left field and threw me off my stride slightly. I enjoyed Nik as a character and we learnt more about him, but I didn't feel like we learnt enough about Jess and some of the other side characters, especially for me to be cheering the romance part on.
This was a fun and festive read, but it left me wanting a bit more.

Just as an aside - there was a bit of a continuity error half way through, which may have been adjusted since the ARC was created, which took me out of the book.

The Winter We Met by Samantha Tonge was a great festive read. Jess meets an Australian, Nik on her flight back to the UK from a toy fair in Germany who then helps her sort out the last hurrah party for her gran and the other residents of the care home her gran lives in as it is being closed down. A story of friendship, romance and a little Christmas spirit thrown in. A lovely read.

A lovely Christmassy book that has several layers, adding to the interest. It's a story about friendship, and connection all sprinkled with just a dusting of festive magic. I love how Ms Tonge has given depth and focus to a generation that can sometimes be forgotten. It's easy to forget that those who no longer have much of a voice had lives and loves and dreams too. It's especially poignant bearing in mind the last year.

I've read quite a few of Ms Tonge's books now and they're always an enjoyable escape with depth and heartfelt emotion wound within the words. This one was yet another example and did not disappoint.

This book was cute but felt a little predictable and the writing was kind of saccharine. It’s essentially a Hallmark movie in book form but it’s a good holiday read!

I really, really wanted to love this book but I didn’t even enjoy it. I had to push myself to read it and started to skim the end.

I went into this thinking it was a romance and while romance is present, it is more of a women’s literature book than anything else.

It’s super slow paced, making it boring at times. It’s repetitive, especially with Jess, our main character, talking about how perfect Nik is. The ending is predictable and abrupt. The middle is just a bunch of words and it felt like the author was just putting in filler information to get to the ending, to make it a longer book because NOTHING was happening.

I loved the winter vibes and how Jess and Nik work in toy stores. That was about all that I liked about them though. Seriously, there wasn’t a single character who was more than one-dimensional or even remotely likable.

A fun christmas read - I would have liked to have seen more of an epilogue to see what happened next for Jess and Oliver, but also the residents of the care home.

Eh. The dialogue seemed forced and the author focused on unimportant details in an exposition dump, rather than weaving together a picture of who the characters are and why we should care about them.

It started well, with a nice meet-cute and the toy shop business providing a welcome variation. But this soon became only a side note, and the main story shifted to the retirement home of Jess' gran. Which was still fine with me, I liked the characters and I find it important to focus on them in books as well - because we all get old and are maybe faced with the problems Alice and her fellow lodgers have.

But just as Oliver, I found Nik too good to be true, and not even any 'explanation' at the end could convice me that this whole thing could really happen. Him doing everything he did out of purely altruistic reasons. It was way too far-fetched.
I also got a bit bored in the middle, with all the detailled planning but not much happening...

However, the business idea that Nik comes up with really sounds like something that is worth to be realised for real!

I really loved this one! I was surprised by how invested I got in it. It was so cute and entertaining!

A fresh take on a Christmas romance, this read was super fun, yet poignant, with a touch of magic realism. I loved the characters and their relationships which form the foundation of this story, and loved the surprise at the end!

Thanks to NetGalley for a arc copy for a honest review. Great Christmas book! I really loved the sweet love story, and characters. It definitely reminded me of Hallmark movies.