What more could you want for a cozy reading that snow in a beautiful mountain small town, childhood friends, second chance romance, and queer characters in a tight community
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Morgan leads a busy life as a talented event planner, until a footfall lands her on a forced break and puts her promotion on hold.
Just before the holidays, the opportunity appears to redeem herself by organizing a great Fundraising in her hometown
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But with her return, she must face the people she left behind, her father, her childhood group of friends and the girl she couldn't forget
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I really liked the painted images of Fern falls, the flavors, colors and that united community. That group of friends I want to keep reading about. Every character is perfect and I can imagine how beautiful her books are going to be
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I definitely will be looking forward to more books by her
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if you like steamy and heartwarming small town romance between friends who meet again after a few years, with wonderful queer characters and a town with all the cozy and christmas vibes this is your book
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Thanks to Courtney Kae and Kensington Books for give me this beautiful book in exchange for my honest and voluntary opinion I really enjoyed reading it

This was a Hallmark-ish Christmas story about first loves coming back around and I enjoyed it. It was like 85% wholesome and 15% spice so it was a fun combo. I was mad at Morgan for Sweet Home Alabama-ing these people twice in her life by acting like their lives are small because they still live and work in their hometown. These people are business owners and have solid relationships with their friends and community so they're doing alright.

I cannot wait for Ben and Adam's book. I need that story desperately.

Thank you to Courtney Kae and the Holigays22 group for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

This was really cute! If you are a fan of Hallmark movies and sweet holiday romances (but make it queer), I strongly recommend IN THE EVENT OF LOVE.

Though fun and swoony, I do wish this book dug a bit deeper with these characters. The writing and characterization were a bit surface-level for my taste, but I nonetheless still really enjoyed Morgan and Rachel’s romance. I loved the cozy vibes and Gilmore Girls-esque small town setting.

I would recommend IN THE EVENT OF LOVE if you are looking for:
- Hallmark-like love stories that bang
- Great bi representation + f/f romance
- Queer joy + no on-page homophobia
- Estranged childhood friends-to-lovers
- Lovable side characters
- A sweet “save the integrity of our quaint town” plot line
- Cozy Christmas vibes all around

Looking forward to Courtney Kae’s follow-up novel about Ben and Adam!




Content warnings: death of a parent (past), alcoholic parent

In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae is a cute Hallmark movie esque book that will have many sapphics swooning over the holiday season. Two young girls had a blossoming friendship turned romance during high school, but after their graduation they go their separate ways because of an argument. After years of not seeing one another, circumstances lead Morgan back to Fern Falls and to Rachel. In order to save the town from being over ran by a corporation with plans to take over small businesses, the two and their childhood friends must work together before the holidays are over.

I absolutely loved the overall plot of this book. I am a sucker for Hallmark type stories, that are somewhat storyline predictable but always fun to read. I loved the characters individually, but I do wish the romance itself was written a bit differently. The conflict between the two characters seemed a bit dramatic for what it actually was and I feel like if the stakes were set a bit higher it would have kept my attention more. And while I am a sucker for a spicy novel, the content in this book just did not do it for me. Many of the lines made me physically cringe while reading them and felt out of character for the women to be saying after only barely reuniting with one another.

I think this story will be a fun read for people over the holidays, and for a debut novel fairly good! And seeing that this is going to be a series, I am interested to see Kae's growth in her next book. Thank you netgalley and Kensington Publishing Corp. for the eARC!

In the Event of Love is truly everything you want in your sapphic romcom, and I really enjoyed reading it! It was a super sweet story, it had all of the Hallmark movie vibes if that is something you're looking for, and I would highly recommend it!

In the Event of Love is a story following Morgan, who is a successful event planner in LA. After a social media scandal, she is pushed by her boss to take some time off and go home for the holidays. Reluctant at first, she decides to go to her hometown in the mountains. She left many things behind when she moved away - her relationship with her father has become frail, her friendships have dwindled and of course, the is Rachel. Rachel, her once best friend and crush, who's now in charge of the failing family farm. Morgan decides to plan a fundraiser to save the farm, and subsequently the town from being run over by big corporations. That means she is now working with Rachel, and while she is convinced nothing will happen between them some old feelings are definitely still there.

This was such a cute, endearing book about second chances, love, family, and friendship! It was a delight to read, and I truly loved the setup and the characters. This book is definitely character-oriented, and the cast of characters and the found family element of the story are amazing. Morgan is a fun character to follow, and I really enjoyed her character growth. She goes from being heartbroken and closed off when the novel starts, to someone who knows what they want and is willing to take risks to get it. In the true fashion of a holiday love story, she learns there are more benefits to having your heart open for love and letting people in than bottling your feelings and drowning in work.

The rest of the characters are great as well, and I enjoyed seeing their relationships. The friend group Morgan has by the end of the book feels more like family, and I do always enjoy a good queer found family element. I especially loved Ben, I think he was a great friend to Morgan, willing to both forgive and call her out when needed. He was really sweet and understanding and his crush on Adam was really cute. I enjoyed seeing Morgan work on her and her dad's relationship, them talking honestly and trying to resolve their issues. I even liked how Morgan's almost-stepmom gets her 'redemption', or more likely faces her own issues and finds new viewpoints herself.

This novel has such a cozy, lovely atmosphere, but I enjoyed how it dealt with more serious issues as well. The talk of Morgan's mom passing, issues with her dad, as well as Rachel's dad's alcoholism, and her mom leaving the family. I like how it went about all of these, it took all of that seriously, and the issues weren't downplayed as I feel like they sometimes are in romance books. I also really enjoyed that it emphasized forgiving yourself when you've grown as a person and in general just giving the characters the room to grow as people. I like that it let them have their second chances all around, and I think it really embodied what a perfect holiday romance should be. I am a big fan of second chance romance (especially if it's queer) so this comes as no surprise.

Some minor issues I had were mainly that miscommunication was used as a trope to convey conflict, and it's just something I'm never a fan of. It makes sense for these characters, considering there are years when they had no contact, but I wish it wasn't used. I also wish there was a bit more buildup with Morgan and Rachel's relationship as adults, I feel like we get some scenes of them as teens, and then almost too quickly they're back together. That said, I think there were slight issues with the pacing, but nothing too major.

I would highly recommend this book if you're looking for something cozy and fluffy that reads really fast. This would probably be perfect to read during the holidays, but if you're interested there's no need to wait :)

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

“I want to be overwhelmed by you. All of you.”

In The Event of Love is as sweet and cozy as a cup of hot cocoa (or maybe a spicy mulled wine??). The book was a sapphic spin on the small-town holiday romance. Morgan returns to her hometown after a huge professional and personal embarrassment, providing her event planning skills to help raise funds for the struggling Christmas Tree farm, owned by Rachel – her former best friend (and first love). Was it a little predictable at times? Sure. However, there’s a reason why predictability works with this book - you know you will feel good and fall in love with the characters along the way, which is exactly what this book brings.

If you want to read a light, swoony, charming, queer holiday book, I definitely recommend this one! Thank you to @Netgalley and @Kensington Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I feel almost bad giving this 3*, because In the Event of Love does exactly what it set out to do and exactly what I expected—it’s just that I didn’t like how it did it.

This is a fun, light, cheesy, ridiculous hallmark movie of a story. Sure, it was completely predictable and I could’ve told you the whole plot before I even opened the book, but that’s part of the hallmark charm! Sometimes you just want a warm and cozy little romance that follows that same over the top formula! And this book nails that on the head!

For me, though, I think that hallmark vibe just doesn’t translate super well into book form. Half of the appeal of hallmark movies, in my opinion, is that they’re a little bit (a lot a bit) garbage. This is great for a two hour movie, less great for a 300-something page book. Morgan’s inner monologue was tedious and repetitive, and I grew tired of it pretty quickly. Additionally—and this is admittedly a pet peeve of mine—this was so clearly written by someone late millennial/early gen-z. Wow. This is just full of slang and both gets dated very, very quickly and completely pulls me out of the story.

So, in short, this book does exactly what it sets out to do, but it wasn’t for me.

2.5 stars

*SPOILERS AHEAD!*

I didn’t really like this book. It was basically a hallmark movie in book form, and I am not a fan of those movies. It also felt really, I don’t know, one dimensional? I didn’t like the MC, she seemed rather, idk, high on herself? Or, she had these ideas in her head that were totally not true, but she just kept thinking them. Like, she legitimately thought so poorly of her high school friends, because she was convinced they hated her, but they were just hurt that she fucked off and severed all contact with them?

I also didn’t believe the love story. Like, the MC, whose name I’ve already forgotten, dumped her high school gf because she was mad? I don’t quite know… they kind of explain it poorly. So, treated ex like shit, didn’t even response when the ex reached out, still acted badly when she returns to her hometown because of *insert hallmark trope here*, but then they are in love and everything is sparkles and rainbows, and she’s made up with everyone and life is perfect. Until she takes a job on the other side of the country and expects her now gf to just drop everything and join her, because they’ve beat the big bad guy who was set to ruin the small town, so there’s nothing tying her to her home town anymore. Right?

Overall, I just felt like it was a poor remake of about a thousand hallmark movies in book form. I’m trying to read more sapphic romances, but this one just wasn’t good, unfortunately. And that’s not just because I don’t like hallmark movies. I didn’t feel like the writing was very strong, the characters were all very one dimensional, or not even that, they were just kind of there? Not a good start to the holiday romances I have lined up…

This book is EVERYTHING. It has a wonderful setting, top tier comedy, a vast representation of multiple LGBTQ+ identities, religions and ethnicities. What more could you wish for?

It has an adorkable protagonist, a love interest that honestly any reader would fall for, a crew of supporting characters that’s so diverse and beautiful that I wish I was in Fern Falls with them right now. There are witches, a real-life fairy smashing the patriarchy, an elderly bisexual novelist, a customized-sweater kind of dad… The characters are so alive through the pages and in my mind that I truly wish this book will grow a fandom because geez, the possibilities!

Also… I thought that reading a winter romcom in August would be “refreshing” but about halfway through the book it got REALLY HOT IN HERE. The spice is heavenly. There, I said it. I normally have a poker face for reading smut in public thanks to years of Wattpad training, but when the smut is full of fluff AND comedy I just can’t help but to giggle and squeal. That’s what I’ve been doing like half of the time as I read this wonderful book. Morgan, our protagonist, spends like 99% of the story thirsting and simping over Rachel, but honestly? Same. Morgan Ann Ross: you beautiful horny disaster, don’t ever change.

One thing I wish I knew before I read the book is that it’s actually a third chances story. In other words, you’ll have to suffer a little. But it will be worth it! And it has tons of amazing tropes, like found family, there’s-only-one-tent (this one is way better than the overused bed trope I said what I said), platonic soulmates (everyone deserves a Ben in their life), hurt/comfort, childhood best friends to lovers to strangers to enemies to lovers to idk to lovers :) yeah, a lot happens in this book.

This author now has my complete trust and admiration and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for two of my favorite “side characters” in their sequel, and I’m really grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Such a cute holiday romcom! Coming back to the small town where one grew up in after years away. Reconnecting with old friends, family and a first love. All the holidays’ magic pouring in and coming together to save the day!

Morgan left her hometown in the mountains 7 years ago, and went to LA to get away from the hurt and feelings of not being enough for her dad and friends, and leaving as much hurt behind. Forced to come back now as a professional party planner to run a fundraiser and save her career, she will have to face the people and the hurts from the past.

One thing I really enjoyed was seeing their group coming back together and supporting each other as the found family they were meant to be. As a Christmas book, this party comes through beautifully. I also loved the side characters, especially Ben and Whitney. The second book will follow Ben and Adam, and I can’t wait to read it. Oooh, and I wanna try all of Ben’s pastries because they sound amazing.

The romance between Morgan and Rachel was ok, there was slow burn and spicy scenes, but I confess I didn’t feel much chemistry between them. I guess it came from them being in love with each other for all those years, so there wasn’t a growing spark. The love was already there, they just had to get over themselves and talk about their issues to finally be together. It was cute and nice, but couldn’t really hold my interest. To be honest, I was more invested in the romance between the side characters.

There was a lot of representation here, and it was interesting and nice to see a small town being so accepting of queerness. Maybe not too realistic, but I liked seeing it anyway. Towards the end, the author seemed to be trying to introduce even more rep and it all felt a bit jumbled together and, sadly, it didn’t really came through.

Anyway, if you enjoy Christmas books/movies, I’d recommend checking out ‘In the Event of Love’ because you’ll probably have fun with it.

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an e-Arc in exchange for my thoughts.

alright alright alright in the event of love is THE book!!!! this is the gay hallmark movie i’ve been dreaming of my whole life! a sapphic, small town, second-chance, holiday romance where they fight for said small town!!!! morgan means everything to me and i would duel anyone who hurts her. rachel MF reed is the lumberjane of my fantasies <3 <3 <3

courtney kae is a talent in and of herself and i cannot wait for all their subsequent works to follow. pls pls pls read this xoxo

This is one I was really excited for... a queer Hallmark-esque romance novel set at Christmas time? It checks a lot of boxes for me. Unfortunately, I was less than impressed and ended up skimming the entire end of the book after the midpoint. I felt like the main character was really unlikable, Rachel was pretty dense, and a lot of the supporting characters just felt like copy and pastes. Really, the only two characters I liked were Johanna (Morgan's boss) and Ben. I'm assuming there will be a sequel about Ben, but I'm not sure I'd read it. The writing style was pretty meh and overall, I thought this one was just pretty boring and had a lot of random side plots just thrown in to "spice it up" without much actual motivation for those elements. Disappointing.

I LOVED this book! It’s described as a queer hallmark movie, and it completely shows up as such.

This book is great for people who love love and romance, conflict then second chance and a bit of a steamy sapphic love! The two main characters Rachel and Morgan had chemistry and made the story.

The small-town feel was exactly what you’d expect in a hallmark movie scene. I would recommend this to anyone who’d like a sweet romance that was a quick read!

This was cute! I liked the build-up at the beginning, given the strained backstory between Morgan and Rachel. I felt like the majority of their relationship boiled down to lust, though, and with the exception of one scene, I didn't get the sense that their connection was very deep? They ended up getting together more quickly than I expected, which was a bit of a disappointment, because a lot of the tension died for a bit. Don't get me wrong: this was a cute and fun read, and I love Kae's writing style! I just didn't feel a whole lot when it came to the central relationship.

Read this if you enjoy:
*Second Chance Romances
*LGBTQIA+ Rep
*Hallmark Christmas Movie Vibes
*Small Town Setting

Overall this is exactly what I expect from a cozy Christmas book. For a debut I think it was a great start with room for growth. I didn’t enjoy the conflict/misunderstanding in the beginning of the book and there were minor things that I wish could have been removed from the story but I think this will be a great holiday read.

So in rare fashion it's only been a few days since I've read this and I still can't remember a lot of the details. This book is cute and it's very much a rom-com, but it isn't necessarily memorable.

I enjoyed the story while I was listening to it and it's one that I would recommend as a low angst holiday read, but it's not going to blow your mind.

I don't think that all books need to be revolutionary and not all stories need to pack a huge punch, but I do wish that our characters had a little bit more depth to them.

We get two sapphic bisexual main characters which is amazing and small town romance with a side of party planning and saving a local business. It's cute.

4/5 ⭐️

This debut novel is a cute and cheesy second-chance romance with a sapphic Hallmark Christmas movie feel!

In the Event of Love follows our two main characters, Rachel and Morgan. These two women grew up in a small, close-knit mountain town. However, right after their high school graduation, Morgan and Rachel have a falling out. Morgan ends up moving to LA and becoming a successful event planner with many high-profile clients. After seven years of no contact, Morgan returns to her hometown and reconnects with all of her old friends, including Rachel. Things are awkward in the beginning because of their history, however their chemistry is very apparent and things start to heat up from there.

I really think the side characters made this story so much more intriguing and I especially loved Ben, Adam, and Whitney and hope to see more of them in the following installment. Additionally, the representation in this book was great and many of the side characters were very diverse as well. Although a lot of this book was wholesome, the conflict that Morgan and Rachel have towards the end of the book kind of left me cringing with how it all played out. I just wished the execution of the conflict was handled differently because it made me feel like Morgan’s character development really took a step back. After the conflict, the ending seemed pretty rushed but overall, I liked the story and am looking forward to reading the next in the series!

Thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

After a night out jeopardizes her career, Morgan Ross is forced to go back to Fern Falls for the holidays to lay low. As if going home after cutting everyone out of her life to move to LA wouldn’t be embarrassing enough - she arrived with a bang, literally, she crashed into the sign of her childhood sweetheart Rachel’s farm. After a lot of back and forth Morgan finds out that the farm is in need of saving and she decides to use this opportunity to save the farm and with it, her career.

What made me want to read this book in the first place was the strong Hallmark vibes it gave me, as Hallmark has been my guilty pleasure since I was 15. And it’s sapphic? Win, win.

I think what I enjoyed most about this book was the small town vibe, and the comforting sense of community it gave. All of the background characters were so personable and willing to help out with the farm which was lovely to read. This story, like most Hallmark movies, isn't particularly showstopping or original, but it has heart, and sometimes that’s all you need in a book.

I enjoyed Morgan as a main character. She’s stubborn and kind of self centered, but she grows a lot in this book which was nice to read. I don’t feel like I got to know Rachel that much. She and Morgan had few conversations as adults, so it feels like the versions they love and know are them as teens, not them grown up.

The ending felt a little rushed, and some of the turns the characters took didn’t really make any sense to me and it was quickly brushed off as a “christmas miracle”, which… I guess?

Overall I think this was a decent read and I bet I would enjoy it even more around christmas time.

Rating: 3,5 stars, rounded up.

I was NOT prepared for the emotions this one was going to make me feel. File this under ‘books that have made me ugly cry’. ITEOL for short, this book has a very hallmark rom-com/dramedy to it, but if that isn’t your thing, don’t let that turn you away! ITEOL covers several themes that hit close to home, but I think they’ll resonate with most readers. Rachel, Morgan, Ben, Adam, and the others will take you through the heartbreak of first loves lost, escaping places where they never felt they belonged, and reconnecting with those who stayed behind. Don’t forget the raw nerve of family relationships that have struggled for years. Morgan and Rachel are two characters that I’ll remember for a while, and I’ll be on pins and needles to read the next book in the series, which follows more characters from the Fern Falls universe.

This ARC copy of In the Event of Love by @court_kae was generously provided to me by @netgalley. #lgbtq #lgbtqia+ #pride #wlw #sapphicromance #queerbookclub #queerbookstagram #queerrepresentationmatters #lesbianromance #lovestory #literature #fiction #lgbtqfiction #firstlovetrope #fernfalls #iteol

This is a sweet holiday romance. The plot is reminiscent of a Hallmark movie but with great queer representation and an acknowledgement of many religions.

Morgan returns to her small town after a career mishap. I grew to like Morgan, as I learned more about her past and came to understand her choices. And I adored Rachel throughout. She stayed in their hometown and runs her family tree farm. The chemistry between the two is fabulous and steamy. And it's a great second chance romance.

I recommend this book to all who enjoy the big city girl returning to a small town and finding love along with community and holiday spirit. And to all who wish that story were more inclusive. This fills such a need for holiday books.

Thank you to Kensington and a Goodreads giveaway for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.