First off, I just loved the cover for this book. It’s so eye catching and fun! The story has everything I look for in a rom com and the small town Christmassy setting makes it even better. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

This was a very interesting book! I loved the tension between Isabella and Leo and the fact that she actually explained her motives for leaving preatty early on, so that conflict didn't drag on which I enjoyed!
I also loved her inner turmoil of trying to find out where she belongs and how to balance things in her life the best way.
If you love Christmas romances with happy endings, you should read this one!

Trigger warnings:
-Mentions of death
-Alcoholism
-Food and baking
-Sexual content

A Christmas second chance contemporary romance? Sign me up.

As soon as I saw this cover and read the synopsis I knew I had to read this book. And thankfully it did not disappoint. This book is a fantastic swoony Christmas romance. So many great elements to this book. It is a fade to black romance but is on the steamier end of fade to black.

Izzy and Leo have so much chemistry, sparks were flying off the page. I loved their relationship whilst at the same time hurt along with them for the pain of the past.

The Christmas elements were also fantastic. I love all of the traditions the Whitley family have. Some I definitely want to add to my own family traditions.

You do not want to miss this fantastic swoony Christmas romance.

I don’t like cartoon covers but the blurb and the hype around this book caught my eye. My first by this author and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

What did I like? So I love the name Leo because hello … visualizing this book is like having a relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio. It sets the stage and immerses me almost immediately. Second chance romance happens to be in my top ten of romance categories. Throw in the heat between Leo and Izzy on their eight days of Christmas journey and it’s a highly enjoyable read.

Would I recommend or buy? I really enjoyed this book and so will other romance readers. I’d recommend to pretty much anyone that likes romance! It was an easy read with some slow burn but a cute HEA!

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review!

Izzy and Leo were high school sweethearts and stayed together through college, until Izzy chose to stay in NYC for her dream career instead of head back to Colorado to be with Leo. Now, she’s back for the first time in 10 years for Christmas as their siblings, Norah and Landon, are getting married to each other. Izzy and her NYC boyfriend recently broke up and she is feeling a little lost. Is being back home the answer? Leo’s heart was broken when Izzy left last time. Can he trust her again?
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I enjoyed this book, though it felt a bit slow at times and it felt like there were too many side characters (maybe setting up for future book leads?) The chemistry between Izzy and Leo was great! 🔥 Dual POVs really helped me understand how they were each feeling about different situations, too. This is the first book in a new series and I’m curious if future books will also take place during the holiday season. I’d recommend it if you (like me) love to read or watch holiday romances. ❤️
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5 stars, rounded up to 4.
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Thank you to NetGalley and City Owl Press for an advanced copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I HAD to sign up for this ARC! Izzy is going back home after not visiting for a DECADE! Izzy is not only going back for her little sisters wedding (to ex-high school sweet heart’s Brother no less!), but she’ll be back for the week of Christmas too. Izzy’s family has a tradition, The Eight Days of Christmas, filled with fun and competition. Will these eight days be enough time to thaw out the relationships she left behind? Could this be a second chance for her and Leo?

This Book has:
• Enemies to lovers
•Second Chance Romance
•Witty Banter
•Comedy
•Christmas Celebrations
•Sweet & intimate moments
•competitions
•An Easter Egg for FRIENDS fans out there
•and a wedding!

What more could you ask for in one book?? This book gave me Sweet Home Alabama Vibes, but B E T T E R! 😍 This is a sweet rom-com that will make you feel good and wish you were celebrating the 8 days of Christmas! I can’t wait for my next visit to Pineridge!

My Very First
wannabe_bookstagrammer Review
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam 🔥 🔥 🔥

I think I could just say Christmastime (& wedding) romcom with steam and that would get all the right people to this book. But, I’ll stick to my @wannabe_bookstagrammer plan A: a bullet style review using star-struck emoji, wish/dizzy emoji, and other helpful emojis along the way.

🤩 Second-chance romance.

🤩 Close proximity with ground rules.

🤩 Whiskey and frisky.

🤩 All the feels—from laugh out loud moments to cry baby loving ones.

🤩 Back and forth chapter focus on Leo and Isabella.

🤩 Hot mix of emotional bitterness & physical/sexual desire between the main characters. Did I mention steam in a Christmas book?

🤩 Gradual, clever, and heart-wrenching release of the past circumstances to help us really know and understand the main characters.

🤩 Spicy teasing, banter, and friendly competition.

💫 I wish I’d had a set of the mentioned holiday mugs (Santas, reindeer, bear, and wooden sled up against a tree) to sip all the coffee, cocoa, and spiked eggnog from as I read through this book.

💫 I wish Leo had some balls (sorry, I can’t think of a nicer way to really prove my point) when Harrison showed up. He was definitely my book boyfriend up until that point.

💫 I can’t wait to find out who will take the lead roles in the next two books of the Pineridge series coming in 2022 ♥️ 🍁 (Nora & Landon? Mr. Hoffman--I’m a big fan of how Jasmine Guillory’s Royal Holiday turned out?).

💫 I wish for some of my #bookstagram friends to read this whole series with me. 😁

🙄 Special thanks to my 16-year-old daughter for taking time to read my reviewer notes out loud in a mocking voice on several occasions so I could feel extra confident as I worked to find my reviewer style.

A cute and quick Holiday read. I enjoyed the characters in this book as well as the story. The characters felt relatable and the story was a little different than other romcoms I have read. I would read more books by this author in the future. I already recommended this book to a friend!

I love Christmas, so movies & books that center on Christmas time are some of my favorites. This book was right up my alley. The story was cute and realistic, and the characters were well-developed and likeable. I devoured this book in just a few hours and I would highly recommend it to any fellow Christmas-loving readers. I can't wait to see what else this author comes out with.

As a massive fan of Christmas and romance this book hit all the right spots
This was like hallmark movie in print.
A great warm story for this time of year

Eight Days of Christmas was such a sweet holiday rom-com with a little bit of angst to keep things interesting. If you’re a fan of Christina Lauren’s In a Holidaze or pretty much any movie on Hallmark during the holiday season, this one is definitely for you!

Isabella and Leo are childhood/high school sweethearts who went to different colleges after graduation, pulling them apart and keeping Isabella away from Pineridge, Colorado for ten years and breaking both of their hearts in the process. She’s headed back for the first time for her sister’s wedding on Christmas Day and happens to run into Leo, the last person she wants to see, on the way home. Izzy is struggling to figure out where she belongs after a breakup and is anxious about returning to Pineridge. She’s emotional and sensitive about her family’s remarks about her return and feels like she has to make up for lost time. Leo is finally starting to live his life, starting his own business and doing things for his own happiness. Izzy broke his heart and it’s taken years for him to feel better, but her reappearance has his feelings rushing right back.

I thought Izzy and Leo were really sweet together. There was clearly a connection there, even when they thought they hated each other, and I really liked seeing it grow into more as the truth finally started to come out. Their relationship development was believable and I loved how everything ended after they got through all of the hurdles placed in their way.

I loved all of the Whitley family Christmas traditions - they all seemed so fun and really brought the family together. Even with their kids all grown up, they’re all excited to participate and look forward to all the activities that happen that week.

Some of the conflict felt manufactured to me and definitely fell into the lack of communication trap, which always frustrates me. If they would have just come out and said things instead of dragging them out or let the other talk, so much conflict could have been avoided. I also felt like there was something going on with Norah and Landon leading up to their wedding, but nothing ever came of any of their cold feet/weird feelings/hesitation. Just felt like a dropped plot thread to me and didn’t really add much to the overall story.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-read, enjoyable holiday read, I’d definitely recommend giving Eight Days of Christmas a shot!

This checked off everything I look for in a book. Was not disappointed. Really enjoyed this book. I will read more from this author. Must read

If you like Hallmark Christmas movies you’ll love this book - It’s just the ticket to get you in the mood for the big day! It’s a sweet romance with most of the plot focusing on Isabella’s family’s Christmas traditions. I did like the twist when her ex turned up though. All in all a great festive read to read in the run up to Christmas.

Thank you NetGalley, Victory Editing Co-Op and Starla DeKruyf for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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QOTD: Does your family have any holiday traditions?
My A: Yes!! Christmas is a big deal in our house. Not quite as big a deal as eight days of themed challenges, but we still had a few traditions! My favorite is our lotto tickets in the stockings. It seems super un-christmas-like, but every year since we were kids we’ve gotten a thick stack of scratch tickets in our stockings. The first year my now husband came over I warned him it would be an hour before we even got from opening stockings to opening actual presents. It was always a competition to see who could win the most. All of us kids are in our upper twenties now and this past Christmas my father was going to skip the lotto tickets. We all were so bummed he went on Christmas Eve and bought them.
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If you were a fan of CL’s In A Holidaze, you’ll love this one! Eight days of crazy Christmas challenges, one roadtrip in a snowstorm that leaves the windows steamed up, one Christmas Day wedding and two grand gestures, there’s just so much to love. At first I worried I wouldn’t like Isabella and there was no way the chemistry between Izzy and Leo was ever going to get to a point where an actual relationship could play out. I feel like Starla DeKruyf wrote a realistic look at two exes forced to spend the holidays together because let’s be real, that would be ugly more often than not! I loved this book and I am an itching to read more holiday books! Any favorites?

Hallmark Holiday movie in book form. Cute and fun. Entertaining but not amazing. Will be an easy sell to customers looking for Christmas romance titles. Always popular.

I love Christmas themed novels and this was such a great one! It was uniquely written and I loved the different projects for each day leading up to Christmas. It was so nice how everything tied in together. It had a bit of romance. Definitely a good book to cozy up by the fire with in anticipation of the upcoming Christmas holiday season.

Set in the run up to christmas and a wedding, will it be a second chance romance for Izzy and Leo, or will they face the same issues as last time - wanting to live in different parts of the country.
Sounds like a great place to spend christmas and get in a festive mood.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange of an honest review.

Very sweet story, give it a go.