I did not really enjoy this book. I felt the narration was very flat, and difficult to read. The dialogue was immature, and I did not like any of the characters. Especially Nick. I felt like Ivy could have done better with both of the love interests.

DNF at 10%. This read like a description of a novel. The book didn’t take us inside the interior life of the POV character, and I was unable to connect emotionally.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.

I found this to be a fun rom-com read. The multiple POVs flowed well together. It reminded me of a sitcom when one character would leave the scene we would stay in the scene from a different character’s POV. We did get some character development from some of the side characters as well. A fun summer read!

Who doesn’t want to read Christmas books all year long?!

I think the plot of this was really fun! Unfortunately, for me, something about the writing felt odd… it was choppy, awkward, and a bit childish to be honest. It distracted me from much of the book.

Ivy heads back to her hometown when her script gets picked up to be made into a movie. It's too bad that the guy that broke her heart, and whose character she kills off in her movie, is back, too. Should she take him back or stay with her hot, director boyfriend?

Right away I was drawn in by the cover and the description. Everything else really fell flat for me. The pacing is really hard to follow...all of a sudden it's six days from now with no warning or explanation. One minute we're in a bar with friends and then suddenly we're somewhere else completely and days have gone by. It was very confusing.

There were way too many pop culture references, a lot of telling instead of showing and I just couldn't get past the poor writing. Unfortunately this was a DNF at 25%.

I really loved the concept of a Christmas book in July in a small town. I think it has Hallmark movie written all over it once the writing gets smoothed out a bit. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the advanced copy to read and review.

This book would be perfect for seasonal readers who miss Christmas during the year. It was easy and quick to read, but sometimes I ended up spacing out, which made it hard for me to stay connected to the story and characters.

This was an easy, quick read. The Christmas theme is super fun. However, the book just seemed to fall flat and it wasn't what I wanted it to be in the end,.

To sum up, The Summer of Christmas is a very light read if you aren’t particular about certain things. The Christmas elements are fun, so all is not lost.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The writing was engaging and the book had a promising start but the amount of OW drama started getting on my nerves. I could feel the connection between Nick & Ivy but I felt that neither Nick nor the new guy that Ivy met deserved her. The OW showed up all the time and she really got under my skin to the point that she became intolerable and I did not buy her sudden redemption at the very end at all. Nick was very dense and immature, his actions and the reasons behind them annoyed me. The only reason I'm not rating it lower is because I quite liked Ivy and her relationship with her family. Also the parts where Ivy & Nick reminisced their past in between shooting the scenes were cute. Griffin was my favourite character, at times he left me wishing he was the main love interest instead. To be honest, the amount of drama was just too high and because of that the book did not live up to my expectations.

Thank you, NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

"The Summer of Christmas" read JUST like a Hallmark movie. It is now surprise that the writers both have multiple Christmas movie's under their belt. While reading this one, I pictured watching it as a movie and could even hear the cheesy music that always plays in them! The cheesy happy ending along with side stories of other characters made for a quick and enjoyable read.

I did feel the book had moments where it was a bit disconnected. If there were clear breaks between different aspects of the stories it would have helped! Overall this was a very sweet and fun read!

This cover is everything!!! Loved the blurb!!! Always down to read a Christmasy book in the summer. This booo has potential but ended up falling short for me. Sometimes it was too slow, and sometimes things happened to fast. The pacing was hard for me and sometimes the chapters jumped around too much.

Thank you for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was attracted by the blurb and the idea is very interesting. Unfortunately the storytelling didn't work for me and the story didn't keep my attention.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Ivy's back in town because her script is being made into a movie! Yay! And she's in a relationship with Drew, the producer. All good, right? Wrong. Turns out that Nick, the man who broke her heart and who looms large in the movie,. is back too. Is this a second chance for them? To make it one they both have to get over themselves, This is notable for the look at making a movie in a small town but the romance is trope-y. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It would be a good adaptation for a Lifetime movie.

The pacing in this book was really fast it was hard for me to get into it and keep track of characters.

thank you to netgalley (@netgalley) and the publisher (@sourcebookscasa) for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review

this book unfortunately was not me, i had high expectations when i requested it on netgalley. the two reasons i wanted to read this book was that the cover is very pretty and the description sounded interesting, so i was intrigued

but from the first page and so on, i was left disappointed 😞

i wrote this review many different ways cause i don't know how to word it, so i'm just going to list the things that made me not like the book:

• third person pov

• too slow of a read

• felt like i had to push through in order to review it

• was debating on dnfing it or not

• scenes jump around a lot, like for example, the main character was with her friends, and suddenly she's in the bathroom hearing her "friends" talk about her, then we cut to another scene. this format made it feel very confusing and unorganized

• told instead of show

• there were too many pop culture/movie references, i just didn't like how every sentence mentioned something pop culture, brings me out of the book

• called it quits at 17% 😔

• hard to understand, mainly because of the scene jumps cause it made me feel like maybe it's me, who can't understand, but apparently on netgalley, it was not just me

although i didn't like the summer of christmas, the idea of the book: main character creates a movie based off their relationship, and then she comes across her past lover, and second chance at love. and christmas in the summertime is fun 🥰🎄☀️

The Summer of Christmas, by Juliet and Keith Giglio, is a light-hearted rom-com about nouveau screenwriter Ivy Green and her perfectly scripted love story of she and her high school sweetheart. The problem is, her love story goes off-script when he breaks up with her on the brink of her success, days before Christmas. The acceptance of her screen play, an amazing opportunity for Ivy, and one she has worked hard for and simply can’t turn down, is tarnished by this sudden and devastating change. And when filming eventually takes her back to her hometown and to Nick, the hero of her story, and the one who broke her heart, she’s not sure how she’ll cope. Things escalate as filming starts, complications ensue, and Ivy is forced rewrite her happy ending.

The Summer of Christmas is cute, clean, and festively magical. It’s an easy-to-read, rather simplistic story that is slightly sappy, but also good fun.

Ivy Green is a young screenwriter. She has just sold her semi-autobiographical screenplay about herself and ex-boyfriend, Nick Shepherd. Ivy is shocked when it is revealed that they want to film in her hometown, forcing her to confront her past sooner than expected.

The Summer of Christmas is a second chance romcom. The plot is cute and the characters are relatable. There is a lot of technical language which obviously comes from the authors being screenwriters. This may be off-putting to some but I think it adds to the authenticity of the story. There is some lag in the middle but the ending almost happens too quickly. It’s hard to tell how much time passes once they’re in town making the movie.

The concept was good but the story needed to be smoothed out a little. I would have liked some more backstory about the two main characters rather than just alluding to the past as memories.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

Well, are you not the cutest little Christmas in July book.

I really enjoyed this one y'all. It is a Hallmark Christmas dream. Very fun. I would feel comfortable giving this title to anyone as it was not steamy and my goodness....these characters. Loved them.

If you are a Hallmark fan....pick this one up. You will enjoy it.

This one sucked me in with a cute cover and the promise of a fun vacation read. I mean "The Summer of Christmas"...yes please! But no, this is one I should have skipped. It is not for me. And look, I love me some meet-cute rom com, and I particularly like to ready a light fluffy palate cleanser after reading something a bit heavier. I was totally in the right headspace for this one, but I was turned off from the beginning and had to call it a DNF at 25%. All telling, no showing. Janky narrative that oddly fast forwards, sometimes significantly and within a single paragraph. One dimensional characters.

It's a shame, because the concept was super promising, but the execution was not there. Or maybe it simply wasn't meant to be a book. I see the authors are screenwriters, and perhaps this would have translated better in a visual medium.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for this honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, but the writing style was too choppy for me and there was too much telling, not enough showing. The characters also felt inauthentic to me and I had a hard time connecting with them. It is a great premise though, even if I didn't love it

This is really hard for me as I am firmly a positive reviewer. Did I like the plot and the entire premise of the book? Absolutely! But did it make me feel anything? Not really. It lacked the real heart and emotion that I want in my romantic escapisms. I heard a quote that said "you need more context in situations to create appropriate emotion" and I kind of feel that’s what was lacking here. I understand that this writing duo are screenwriters who create stories and interpret them for the screen. Whether it be a big screen or a small screen, I’m sure they do an amazing job. However, The Summer of Christmases just lacks that intimacy this reader needs to really develop a relationship with these characters. Would I watch this on the big screen? I absolutely would, but to read in print there is a bit of a disconnect. I do think readers are going to enjoy this book. I also think there is an audience for it. I just personally wanted a bit more insight into the minds and hearts of these characters. It would’ve been the cherry on top.

All that said, I really did enjoy the book. (I also want to mention that there are two parts in the book that are VERY familiar to me. As in I feel like I've read it somewhere before.) I can't figure out why that is but it's been bugging me for a few days now.

*Thank you to Sourcebooks via Netgalley for the ARC.