Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love a Hallmark holiday romance so this has been on my most anticipated list for this whole year. When it came down to it, there was just something lacking.

I think the main character’s development was unraveled 80% into the novel to create conflict that didn’t match her growth and the insights we were given into her character up until that point. I struggled with buying into their relationship beyond their past and into the present day. There were delightful moments but awkward pacing and the emotional beats didn’t hit like they were supposed to hit.

It’s all in all a just-okay sapphic holiday romance in an upcoming season with many excellent sapphic holiday romance novels being released.

I know cozy winter Hallmark movie season in ages away (with spring almost kinda sorta here, I don't even want to think about winter!!) but hear me out! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to review this book! ⁠
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I'm so not into romance novels, and I don't even like Hallmark-type movies (okay, there was that one, but I don't wanna talk about it)... but the way the @court_kae wrote #InTheEventofLove, it just works. ⁠
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This book came to fruition because debut-author Courtney Kae was watching a Hallmark movie and realized that they never represent anyone like her - a queer woman. Rather than wait for someone else to write the book she wanted to read, she wrote it herself! And it was a total success! ⁠
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Offering a queer spin on the classic romance tropes of a feel-good Hallmark movie, In the Event of Love is a funny, sexy, and on-point inclusive love story amid timeless themes of family, home, and belonging. It’s everything you love about Hallmark moves but with a twist! ⁠
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If you want a cozy, warm and fuzzy, sweet, sexy, and inclusive read to curl up with next winter, I'd definitely recommend putting In The Event of Love on your radar for holiday 2022!

This book was the Christmas in July experience I needed! It felt like your favorite Hallmark Christmas movie giving you a giant hug but the spice was included. This is a sapphic second chance love story that has forced proximity with the two love interests working together.

Morgan Ross is the event planner to A list clients in Hollywood. She's on the cusp of her career dreams and moving to New York when it all comes crashing down for her with one stupid accidental mistake. She has avoided her past, and her small quaint home town for many years since she suffered so much heartbreak there. With needing some good PR, and the town of Fern Falls reaching out to her to plan a fundraiser, Morgan decides she has no choice but to head back home to save her career.

Morgan literally crashes into Fern Falls and her former best friend and childhood crush Rachel Reed. She finds out just how badly the town is suffering, and that the Reed Family Tree Farm is on the verge of going under. While she plans the best fundraiser the town has ever seen, she starts to repair her friendships with all the friends she left behind. There's a sweet little friend group in this book and my heart is fully invested in Ben and Adam (Rachel's brother) future love story because Ben is the most cinnamon roll bestie you want in your life.

Rachel is the lumberjane we all want to see. She wields an ax, wears flannels, can sing, and is a super talented artists. While the two work closely together on the fundraiser, old feelings start to resurface. The pair have a lot of history to work through, and secrets to disclose. As they build up their relationship, the trust opens up again, and they are able to seek comfort in one another.

There's some serious issues around alcoholism, and childhood abandonment that come up throughout the book. I think these were important for the story to show the traumas Rachel and Morgan deal with, and how they step into their new paths once they tackle these troublesome issues from their past.

I look forward to the next book in the series and really hope it will be Ben and Adam's love story!

Thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Kensington, Netgalley and Edelweiss for my ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: death of a parent (past, cancer), grief, alcoholic parent, parental abandonment

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-f/f second chance romance
-estranged childhood friends
-holiday romance
-pining/yearning
-meddling friends
-coming home
-lumber sexual
-small town
-only one tent
-so much sexual tension

This debut was second chance done right. All of the memories, remembering what the other person feels like, wanting them, yearning. This book has it all. I adored Morgan, down on her luck, everything seeming like its falling apart And then returning to the last place you wanted to be, going home.

Rachel was just there pining away in all of her lumbersexualness and I adored all of the reactions as these two took a chance on love. Such a romantic and so gone on Morgan these two were just adorable hornsters and I couldn't put it down. Their problems and issues were very related including the miscommunication. This book may also contain my favorite first kiss of all time.

And do not let all of the Hallmark talk scare you off this one is steamy and open door goodness. Now I'm ready for Ben to get his happy ever after because I need that poor pining man to be put out of his yearning misery.

Steam: 3.5

This book is the queer holiday hallmark movie of my dreams. Everything about this book makes me want to cry, it's just so cute. It is cheesy but that doesn't bother me at all.

I received an arc from the author.

What an incredibly sweet winter book! I love it when authors are like here have a christmas romance with a side of anti capitalism. That’s my favourite combo.

This book focuses on Morgan as she takes a sabbatical from her job after accidentally kissing her client’s fiancé (his fault not hers). But she’s a workaholic so she decides to plan a fundraiser for her hometown’s christmas tree farm so that the greedy mega corps can’t buy it out. There’s something about writing a book that somehow actually captures the emotional spirit of a family holiday while emphasising that consumerism and capitalism ISNT what makes it a celebration that does it for me. Bravo.

Morgan is emotionally distant and Very Sad but quickly breaks down as she realizes maybe she was perceiving actions wrong because she was in her own head and therefore makes an active effort to build back relationships. That made her really relatable and wonderful. Of course her emotional arc is an oscillating rollercoaster because she’s conflicted but it resolves beautifully.

I also loved how not chill she was about her crush on Rachel. Like it was a high school crush that never went away and she just Cannot Stop. It’s too cute. And funny enough despite not having Rachel’s pov you can also clearly tell Rachel is also Not Chill about being in love with Morgan. Their whole romance is too cute for words. And there were three lengthy smut scenes. Chefs kiss.

The small town vibes, close knit friends and found family, and ambience were just immensely perfect. This was the quintessential cozy winter romance. Loved it.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Cute holiday romance. It would seriously make the perfect Hallmark movie. Morgan and Rachel were great characters and their romance just worked. I was rooting for them the whole time! Side characters were pretty great too and actually added to the story. Overall a good cozy read.

In the Event of Love is a holiday romance for the ages. It has all of the warm fuzziness of a Hallmark movie taking place in the small town of Fern Falls. The book is sugar and spice and everything nice.

I think the best part about this book is the writing of the main characters. Rachel and Morgan are both realistic and we get moments of vulnerability from the girls. You can see from flashbacks how much they’ve grown and even though it’s only in Morgan’s POV, Rachel feels just as real.

This is definitely one of the best sapphic books I’ve ever read and it’s an absolute crime that it doesn’t come out for another 2 months.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the Event of Love is a queer Hallmark rom-com. This is Courtney Kae's debut novel and I found it wonderful! Perfect for the holiday season or really anytime!

This book is full of small towns, and second chances with just the right amount of Christmas coziness. I loved the main characters Morgan and Rachel. Their relationship was so good and hot. The only thing holding them both back was their life experiences and not trusting themselves enough. I didn't find this book had much angst, but I think that is because of the Hallmark vibes. Even though there wasn't much angst I found both Morgan and Rachel had a lot of depth, with familial issues and more that they struggle with. I wish we could have gotten some of Rachel's perspective in this book, it could have been interesting.

The book did start a little slow for me and took until Morgan arrived in Fern Falls for me to really get into it. Once she arrived though, it was full of all the awesome things that small towns have. An awesome friend group, a corporate "evil" trying to take over the town, and everyone coming together to save the town.

I really enjoyed this book and found it as cozy as a cuppa cocoa on a cool evening. I cannot wait to see what Courtney Kae writes in the future (please let it be Adam and Ben's story)! Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for a honest review!

big city event planner morgan ann is forced to take a visit back to her small home town after a scandal with one of her celebrity clients ruins her reputation. after spending years cutting ties with her loved ones that live there, who ends up being the person who hired her for a fundraiser? none other than her old love, rachel reed, the owner of the towns christmas tree farm. will they get a second chance at love? will the town raise enough money before being bought by a major resort company? will morgan find she misses her home more than she thought? stay tuned for when this book is released in august of this year!

this was the cutest!! in the event of love is full of christmas movie magic, a sapphic romance, and the cosy, festive setting of fern falls! it made me feel very nostalgic of watching those cheesy hallmark movies (where the female lead is always a reporter and the guy hates christmas for some reason). except it’s even better because it’s sapphic, and everything’s better when it’s sapphic <3 anyways, this was adorable, i liked it!

my only complaint is we never got to see what happens with ben and adam (but im assuming that may be the plot of the next book in the series?? im excited 👀)

Fun and campy holiday rom-com. A bit heavy on the sex scenes, and a few too many storylines to follow. Wondering if a second book will wrap everything up. Entertaining.

Following social media backlash, event planner Morgan's employer tells her to take the month of December off, and she goes back to her hometown for the first time in years. Her ex Rachel runs a tree farm there, and she gets roped into organizing a fund raiser to prevent a big corporation from buying the land and turning it into an outlet mall.

This is a cute second-chance smalltown romance between two bisexual women, but if the plot sounds familiar, that's because you've definitely read it before. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this, and I especially enjoyed the writing style. But overall, it did not stand out to me, and I wanted a little more out of this. I didn't feel like a lot was happening in these pages, and I felt myself zoning out at times. I especially wish the characters were fleshed out a little more, because I feel like they all stayed pretty surface-level.

My only regret is that I read this book in the heat of summer. This book is like a warm and fuzzy Christmas hug, and deserves to be read by the glow of the Christmas tree, while snuggled under cozy blankets with some hot chocolate.

It’s a super sweet second chance romance that gave me all the wonderful Hallmark Christmas movie feels, but thankfully it isn’t hindered by the G rated status, so it actually depicts a realistic queer love story.

Lastly, I rooted for Rachel and Morgan from the very start, and I know the third act relationship trouble/break up happens in almost every romance, but they seemed so solid that when trouble started my first thought was “no, no, no, no, no, no- get it together, ladies!!!!” but don’t worry, it’s worth in the end because their HEA is absolutely adorable!!! 😍

If you like a cute holiday F/F romance with a lot of heart and a little spice, I would highly recommend this book.

This book is perfect holiday second chance romance. Morgan is an event planner to the rich and famous but doesn't let anyone close because she had her heart broken in Fern Falls. Morgan has a tabloid fiasco and flees to Fern Falls where she falls into Rachel Reeds arms the girl of her dreams. Rachels family farm is dying so Morgan plans an event with the town to help save it. But she also learns a big corporation is trying to buy it and its being bought by someone who helped break her heart. I love all the characters in this book and really hope we get some more stories about Fern Falls!

Before I get into the review, I want to say a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Kensington Publishing for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. In the Event of Love is a queer holiday romance in the style of a Hallmark Christmas Movie. Morgan flees L.A. following a faux pas that becomes the next trending hashtag In doing so, she finds herself face to face with the girl who broke her heart, Rachel. Can the event planner from L.A. help save the local Christmas tree farm? Can the local girl help right past wrongs? In the Event of Love is out on August 30th and is available for preorder now.

There was so much to enjoy from this debut! Courtney Kae shows off her love for Hallmark Christmas Movies with such a movie worthy setting and plot. Despite the fact that it’s been in the 100 degree range all three days I’ve been reading this one, I’ve found myself in a very Christmasy mood because of this novel. I could see this mountain town and all of the acres upon acres of trees so clearly in my mind. And the Christmas spirit gets kicked up a notch when the girls throw the fundraiser to help save the Christmas tree farm. I also really loved the small town feel. I could so clearly picture the town square and how cosy and quaint it all seemed. I felt like the conflicts in this novel were realistic. It never felt like I had to suspend my disbelief when everything came to a head. Which can be a problem with a lot of Christmas romances (books or movies). I really think the author did a great job with this one.

While I found so much to love in this story, I wish there had been a little more depth to the side characters. I know this is going to be book one in a companion series so I’m sure we’ll get more depth from them later on. But I just wish we had another 20 or so pages to get scenes with the side characters that were fluffy or filler. Something to give them more depth. I also didn’t 100% love the epilogue. And I think epilogues can be tricky with romances. It can either make a book a shining star or make the reader doubt everything they had read before it. I liked how the conflict worked out at the end, but I didn’t feel like everything had to be wrapped up in such a neat bow at the end. Maybe we could have finished with a different type of event taking place on the Christmas tree farm instead? (Trying to be as vague as possible here.) But that could just be a me thing.

Overall, I think this is the perfect book to get anyone into the Christmas spirit. Not just us crazy Christmas in July people. It comes out at a great time of the year so people can grab this one and enjoy it on a cool Fall night next to a fire.

i really enjoyed this. I love queer romance and i really loved this book. Beautiful writing and lovely characters!

This book was really good, I enjoyed it a lot.
The best parts were:
- the sapphic rep. I really loved the romance and the relationship between Rachel and Morgan!
- Ben!!!!! Uh, he was such a good character, I loved all the parts he was in but boy, did he deserve better in terms of a certain friend.
- The holiday vibes!! The farm! The inn!!

The parts I didn't really like/care for:
- the motives behind everything that was happening were not well executed. It just felt very shallow and unexplored in depth. I would've felt more sympathy for Morgan and Rachel than I did had they been well executed.
- most of the characters here felt like caricatures like the author assigned a certain character trait(s) to a character while writing this novel and then ran with only that trait(s) without exploring any other facets of them.
- a lot of times the writing got repetitive when talking about the past stuff. I get it you can't just start having an inner monologue about something that happened in the past without rehashing how it happened but how many times??? It got very irritating when even some new info about the events was prefaced by rehashing what we already know.
- morgan's relationship with her dad. Uh, I just didn't feel this was executed well. Her dad seemed more of a friend/acquaintance than a parent which is not a bad thing IF they are both but he wasn't. I'm trying not to give any spoilers but I just kept waiting for things to go differently in their relationship but they never did like an actual parent-child relationship. It always seemed like more of an acquaintance/friend than a parent except for when they talked about Morgan's mother.

If the reasons that disappointed me a little don't bother you, you should definitely check out this novel for some amazing bi (both Rachel and Morgan are bi) and sapphic rep!!

actual rating: 3.5

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. August 30, 2022.

This was a cute female female second chance romance that is basically a Christmas Hallmark movie in book form.

Our main character Morgan is an event planner in LA who goes back to her home town Fern Falls to salvage her career by helping to save the Christmas tree farm. Rachel is the owner of the Christmas tree farm. Morgan and Rachel pined for each other back in high school, and this is the first time they’ve been reunited in seven years.
The book follows Morgan and Rachel trying to put on a fundraiser to save the tree farm while also falling for each other.

What worked for me:
-Cute Christmas small town atmosphere
-The pining and steam

What didn’t work for me:
-Slow paced. Lots of boring setup before Morgan even gets to Fern Falls, then lots of explanation and introduction of side characters in Fern Falls before we even meet Rachel
-Disconnected writing style. The writing of the Morgan and Rachel scenes had a completely different tone than the scenes where they talk to anyone else or have internal monologue. This also added to the slow pace.
-Lots of caricature side characters and quirky Fern Falls places that were only superficially discussed. It was hard to tell what and who were important so my brain started to blur them all together as unimportant.

Despite those issues, it was super cute and I had fun reading about saving the Christmas town. I will definitely read the second book if it’s about Adam & Ben (Rachel’s brother & Morgan’s childhood friend).

This book felt very much like a Hallmark movie but in book form. I don’t typically watch Hallmark but other family members often have them playing on the TV around Christmas so I have gotten a sense of key themes that they tend to feature. This story was fun and sweet, with a cast of characters who immediately endeared themselves to me.

One theme of Hallmark movies is a big-city career person discovering the important things in life in a small town. Here we meet Morgan Ross, event planner for LA, who is forced to return to her childhood small town, Fern Falls, after a situation with a client in the city. She left the town 7 years before after a series of events that left her feeling unwanted there and has not returned since.

This book has a lovely second chance romance between Morgan and her former best friend, Rachel. At the beginning, the feelings that Rachel has towards her are unclear but I think they work through their pasts well, without a lot of miscommunication or difficulties. There are some complications near the end, as often happens in romances, but I think these are resolved well.

Aside from the second chance romance, I think a lot of this is in some ways about second chances. Morgan and the people of Fern Falls both have to give each other a second chance. Morgan gives a second chance to her relationship with her dad and to her friends from high school that she hadn’t spoken to in years. Seeing these relationships develop again feels meaningful and true to life.

An important character in the book is the small-town itself. Fern Falls has the charm and cute restaurants and shops characteristic of small towns. This story is also about keeping this charm and not losing it to something more corporate that lacks that heart and soul. Saving that small town from corporate developers is a big part of the story. The story shows how people caring and coming together can help so much.

This was a lovely, holiday story that would be perfect to read with a mug of hot chocolate on a cold and snowy day! It releases on August 30th.

This was literally the epitome of a Hallmark movie in a book just make it a little spicy and sapphic. I enjoyed my time with it but it was cheesier than I usually like my romance novels and I could see the third-act conflict coming from a mile away. It definitely wasn't anything new or original. It's a bummer people are giving this bad reviews for being too spicy or fetishizing queer women. I didn't get that at all and the author is bisexual herself so saying the only people who write sapphic romance well are lesbians is quite biphobic in my opinion. If you just want a sweet holiday read come this December and don't mind that it's not anything new in the romance genre (besides being a sapphic holiday romance, which is why I requested this in the first place) I'd recommend picking it up. It's like candy.