In the Event of Love is a delightful and perfect read for the holidays or anytime you want a wintery read. This feels like the queer rom-com of your dreams and fans of holiday movies will love this one. I am so happy to have a queer romance to add to the shelf of Christmas and winter stories to recommend. This feels like a gift from your best friend who knows you so well! Readers of Alexandra Bellefleur will love this book.

In the Event of Love started strong. I loved the tension between Morgan Ross and Rachel Reed (Ross and Rachel - was this intentional???) and enjoyed learning about their back story.

What fell flat for me was the fight that drove Morgan five hours to LA for 7 years. Also, the ending felt pretty reachy to me, even for a romance. Also, while I am all for a steamy romance, some of the dialogue was a bit over the top and they characters were SO hypersexualized, I had a hard time seeing their attraction to one another beyond sex.

All in all, I enjoyed this book for the most part and look forward to what Courtney Kae has up her sleeve for the next book in the Fern Falls series.

This is a new to me author and I have to say I am looking forward to reading more by this author! I loved this book

Do you want a cute, sapphic literary Hallmark movie? This book is for you! I couldn't put it down. Five stars, and I honestly wish I could rate it higher than that.

this is your typical christmas romance but make it sapphic. and i mean typical in the best way possible. it has that plot line of the work aholic main character who ends up in their childhood small town, falls in love there and decides to move back. and i love that plot: i’ve read it again and again but it hits when done well. and it was done well. the christmas spirit was there, the small town community feeling too, maybe it was a little cheesy that they had to fight a big corporation but, hey! it’s a christmas romance!! and the fact that this was pure queer joy added to that christmas spirit. if you’re looking for a cute and sapphic christmas romance, this is the one!

This was really cute and I want to go spend Christmas in a tiny mountain town now!

I’m not generally a fan of the lying/ withholding of information trope so I was a teensy bit annoyed with Morgan for that.

The epilogue was ADORABLE and I am obsessed with Ben and Adam and all their stolen glances. I can’t wait to read their story.

The two main character had zero chemistry. The conflicts felt overdramatic and childish. I might still read the next book in this series though, since one of the few things I liked about this book was Ben.

Thank you so much for this wonderful Holiday read with sapphic characters! It took me a little bit to get into this book, but once I did, I absolutely loved it. Perfect for curling up by the Christmas tree with a cup of hot cocoa, I will definitely be revisiting this book in years to come. Thank you!

to whoever writes book blurbs: please stop claiming that every queer romance is “for fans of casey mcquiston.” no ❤️

in the event of love is a hallmark movie of a book about an event planner returning to her hometown post-scandal to save the local christmas tree farm (coincidentally owned by her first love) from a corporate buyout. i wanted to like it, but i found it generic and contrived with none of the heart i expected from a small town holiday romance.

the setting was easily my favorite part—fern falls is a quirky, charming town and i would have liked to see more of it and its residents.

the plot is unrealistic and barely there, which i don’t necessarily mind in a romance if the romance itself carries the book. unfortunately, it doesn’t here. morgan is immature and all i know about rachel is that she’s hot. i never felt any spark between them despite morgan constantly fantasizing about rachel, and there is too much focus on their bond as teenagers and not enough on their relationship as adults outside of their supposed intense physical attraction. they also have significant communication issues that are never resolved.

all the relationships suffer from telling instead of showing, so what should be meaningful moments feel unearned. i wish some of the time dedicated to multiple cringe-worthy sex scenes had been spent on character development or conflict resolution instead.

i love that mainstream publishers are finally publishing more sapphic romances, but this one was a disappointment for me. it reads like a checklist of romance novel tropes with nothing to set it apart aside from an unlikable main character and a quaint, progressive small town setting.

I think this is the perfect, cozy-time holiday read for me. I fully recommend it to anyone looking for a solid festive wlw story!!

This one read like a cozy and comfy hallmark rom-com - in the best way possible. I felt like there was actual connection and communication between our main characters. The fact that this hardly contained any of the miscommunication trope was honestly refreshing. At times it was a bit too cheesy - the villain who quickly turns around and admits her faults, the parent/child relationship quickly being fixed, an event seamlessly pulled off...BUT sometimes we have to suspend some disbelief with holiday romances.

I loved the small town, cozy vibes and the idyllic inclusivity, but it just wasn’t enough to salvage Morgan. Morgan, the main character, was annoying to the extent I could not overlook it as she was constantly in your face doing or saying or thinking one ridiculous thing after another. The romance was rushed, the conflict cringe-worthy, the ending was a succession of perfect-happy-ending-bows. Sadly, this was just not it.

This is a very enjoyable and lovely book to read. I really enjoyed the characters, the pace and the way in which it was written. If was an easy read and would highly recommend it. Also, I am Obsessed with that gorgeous coverrrrr.

The amount of queer holiday books that have been released this year is joyously astounding. Seeing media begin to not only embrace but promote queer stories has been such a wonderful transition from how things were even just a few years ago. Granted, I understand most companies don’t do this out of altruism or pride. They go where the money is and have finally started to embrace that those in the LGBT+ community have purchasing power outside of June. While I can’t always show support with my wallet, I did pre-order 3 or 4 Sapphic holiday novels once they were announced. In the Event of Love was one of those ordered long before I was granted access to an ARC.
 
Unfortunately, this book was just fine for me. Not great, not awful, just fine. My biggest problem is that phrases and dialogue are used that have become trite. It’s yet another book that uses “mediocre white man” and “smash the patriarchy.” Which, yes absolutely, but there has to be another way of wording these ideas. Of course I may just be online too much, or have read too many books by people with the same type of vocabulary. At this point though, it just feels like a bot inserted those lines, instead of an actual living, breathing human being.
 
The main character also started out pretty unlikeable for me, but eventually was just bland. The rest of the characters and the chemistry between the leads were all just bland. I will absolutely concede that I may not be in the space for this type of book which may have impacted my lack of buy-in. I’d be down to try it again next year to see if this experience changes. However, there is one character who feels as if they are never enough who ironically continuously makes others feel as if they are not enough. My opinion will stay the same that they need therapy no matter how many re-reads occur.
 
Upside for those looking for steam, they fuck. A lot. They think about it, talk about it, allude to wanting it, do it. It’s steam city here and there ain’t nothing fading to black.
 
In the end, while this wasn’t what I’d hoped for, I’m glad it exists. More queer stories need to be told. Those that are good, bad, mediocre, and the rare ones that are utterly perfect. One of the wonderful things about books is that my mediocre is someone else’s perfect.
 
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After a not-her-fault career ruining moment happens in front of a camera, Morgan Ross makes the hard decision to return home. To her at arms length father. And Rachel. The best friend turned crush she left behind right after high school. After suffering heartbreaking losses in her youth, Morgan has spent the last few years trying to prove she's worthy and pushing anyone away who tries to get too close. If she can leave first, she won't experience such severe heartbreak again. With her career on the line, Morgan sets out to pull off an event of a lifetime. One that'll save her hometown of Fern Falls from encroaching developers, and will also provide her with career saving publicity in the process. She just didn't anticipate also finding out that she hadn't left Fern Falls, and Rachel, as far behind as she thought.

This book will turn even the Grinchiest heart into a Mariah Carey level Christmas lover by the end of the book!! Morgan and Rachels chemistry is sizzlingly hot, and watching them find each other again leads to one of the very best love stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Fern Falls is such a wonderful little town that if it actually existed I'd be booking a Christmas vacation there asap! Add in the fact that each and every character is a gem in their own right, I have to confidently say this is the hands down very best Sapphic Christmas story I've ever had the pleasure of getting lost in. Easy five stars, and I truly can't wait to read Ben and Adams story next!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books, and Courtney Kae for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is a cute and cozy Christmas second-chance sapphic romance with small town vibes, which I am a sucker for! In classic Hallmark-esque fashion, this is about a woman who leaves the big city to visit her small hometown to plan a big event in order to renew her image at work because she makes a mistake that put her job on the line, but ends up having to hash up old wounds with her ex-friend Rachel, volunteers to help Rachel with her family’s struggling tree farm and navigates through communication, digging deep into what it is she truly wants, and hopefully making it through to the other side to have a HEA with the woman she loves and has been yearning for for years *swoon*

This is an amazing book to curl up and savor on a chilly winter day!

This second chance romance had me swooning. I really enjoyed the characters growth and development and was hooked from beginning to end. Morgan and Rachel’s love story is epic and I cannot wait to pick up the audiobook and fall in love all over again!

I loved the concept of this romance - Former best friends who had a falling out and who fall in love for a second time. The fact that Morgan was going to help her small town survive seemed like the making of a great romance.

The things I liked
- I loved the small-town vibes along with the festivals
- I enjoyed the supporting characters
- the drama was rightly dramatic and made sense for the story
- The spicy scenes were great * chefs kiss

Things I didn't love
- Morgan's selfishness - she constantly forgot about how things affected other
- The repeat conflict - like full circle all over again

However, this was a cute romance, with some super spice

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the last book in the now IG infamous "Holigays" group that I had left to read. I initially downloaded the first few samples for free on Amazon but when I got approved for the ARC I screeched.

If you are looking for a fun, Hallmark style, LGBTQ rom-com with all the holiday feels, this is the one you should be picking up. It was my personal reading goal this year to read more sapphic romance and I think I accomplished that. This was probably the last F/F romance I'll be able to get to this year but it was one of the best I came across! I'm very excited to see the continuation of this world and Kae's characters. You can bet I'll be checking out whatever this author writes next!

This book sincerely made me sob. It checks off all of the typical Hallmark holiday tropes and it's honestly just so sweet.