I love Christmas rom-coms and this one was really cute. Chloe Kwon and Peter Li are two teenagers whose families have been holding a 15-year grudge and not speaking to each other. Chloe's parents own a Korean restaurant and Peter's parents own a Chinese restaurant, both at Riverwood Mall. Chloe and Peter are kind of thrown together when they find out the mall is going to be demolished and their parents livelihoods are threatened. They work together to try and save the mall.

This was a light, fun rom-com with cute high-school characters. The plot was interesting with the mall issues as well as Chloe's photography contest pursuit. I enjoyed the story. The characters were friendly and easily likeable. It's also a coming of age story as Chloe finds her strengths and Peter does somewhat. The book didn't really have anything to do with Christmas other than things were happening just before the holidays. The book was relevant to the times in that malls have declined in popularity and many have been shut down and lost their anchor stores - I know the one in our town has.

Thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Fire through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published October 4, 2022.

so so cute. one of my new favourite romance/christmas themed books. semi-slow burn but it was worth the wait because peter and chloe are honestly so freaking cute! i would definitely recommend this to anyone coming to robinsons if we get copies, and would 100% read again. only reason that i gave it four stars is because at some points it drags on, and there isn't need for the amount of description, but otherwise, it was amazing.

The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park, is a cute rom com about Chloe Kwon, a young Korean American girl, whose family owns a café in Riverwood Mall. Unfortunately, Chloe’s nemesis, Peter Li, is never far away, as his family owns a competing restaurant in the food court. When the mall is in jeopardy of being demolished, the two must work together to save their family’s livelihoods.

After reading the synopsis of this book, I was really excited to read it! It sounded similar to Tweet Cute by Emma Lord, which was adorable. While The Christmas Clash was cute, it fell a bit short of my expectations.

I will say that many of the characters were well-written. Park did a fantastic job with Chloe’s and Peter’s character development, and they both felt very distinct and unique. Similarly, both Chloe’s and Peter’s friends also had memorable personalities. I enjoyed the fact that the friends in the story stood out instead of feeling like part of the background. Chloe’s friends especially were very supportive of her, and I loved that they knew her so well!

Sadly, I was expecting more from this story than it offered. It’s clearly supposed to focus on the enemies-to-lovers trope, but I felt like neither the enemies aspect, nor the lovers aspect, were done well. At the beginning of the novel, when Chloe and Peter are allegedly enemies, they are swapping dinners from their families restaurants. That, along with other details, suggested that they weren’t truly enemies to begin with. Likewise, the romantic tension was practically nonexistent, both before and after they became lovers.

Other than that, nothing about the book necessarily stood out to me. While I read an ARC version, a lot of the writing was incomprehensible, which drew my attention away from what was happening in the novel. As a whole, not my favorite read this year.

A fun read as two highschoolers from rival restaurant family join to save the mall and their families livelihoods.

Thank you NetGalley and SourceBooks Fire for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a fun and quick read. I liked the modern Romeo and Juliet twist with warring restaurants and the dynamic between Chloe and Peter. It took a little while to get into, and I was hoping for a stronger Christmas theme/feel and enemies-to-lovers storyline, but it was cute regardless.

What happens when you pair two teens (Chloe & Peter), whose parents own competing restaurants in the mall food court? They realize they are some long time family secrets and that they are on the same side. They team up to save the mall from being sold and torn down (and from their parents losing the restaurants they’ve dedicated their lives to).

Anyone who grew up going to mall/food court will be able to relate to this book. Especially with the sad fate of many malls today. A really fun read!

Love a good Christmas theme and this is a cute, easy to read Christmas story where you find two people who don't really like each other coming together in a cute friendly then a little romantic way.

This is one of those books that is not over the top, not, full of excitement and thrills but is just a good, clean, fun, easy read which I enjoyed. It is a bit choppy in parts, sometimes the flow of the story has a bit of a hiccup but all in all an entertaining read.

Two mall restaurants, both alike in dignity... and notices from the landlord...

Chloe Kwon has practically grown up at Riverwood Mall, where her parents run Kwons' Cafe in the food court. Chloe works for the mall Santa, using her love of photography and her "baby whisperer" skills to get the perfect photo every time. If only she weren't losing customers to the 3D North Pole exhibit nearby... and the perpetually teasing and attractive presence of her nemesis, Peter Li. The hostility between rival restaurant families has thrown the two teens into competition since birth, and Chloe knows her chaotic introversion just can't stand up to Peter's people skills and charm.

There would be a new cold war brewing at the mall this holiday season if it weren't for two things:

1. Chloe has entered a national youth photography competition, and her best friends Sophia and Elias have persuaded her that her impromptu photos of Peter are the best in her portfolio.
2. Both Chloe and Peter discover that their respective parents have received notices from the mall landlord that, after the holidays, the mall will be demolished to make way for new condos -- leaving both the Kwons and the Lis without their businesses and income.

Chloe's initial resistance to Peter's needling gradually gives way to the awareness that the two of them, while different in so many ways, have more in common than she initially thought. Over dinner swaps (Peter craves the Kwons' spicy pork mandu and offers Chloe his family's shrimp lo mein in return) they discuss how to address the landlord's attempts to push them out, and the time they spend together leads to friendship and more.

The book offers chapters in both Chloe's and Peter's perspectives, and that helps the reader understand the family expectations they both experience as well as the personal challenges that affect how they both see the world and each other. It's a treat to watch them both grow over the course of the book and to see them learn how to communicate feelings and problems with each other. While the characters of both sets of parents seem a little one-sided, other characters really shine: Sophia and Elias are #friendgoals, the other business owners add quirkiness to the story, and look out for the sassy Silver Sneakers!

While some of the plot threads are woven a little more tightly than others, I really appreciated how the author worked Chloe's photography and the competition into not only the mall situation but also Chloe's understanding of herself and her relationship with Peter.

I've enjoyed other books by Suzanne Park -- her humor adds a light touch even to serious topics, and her characters are genuine and relatable -- but this one tops the list of what I've read so far. And I never thought I would look back fondly on Christmas shopping at the mall, but this book succeeded in evoking good memories from my own teen years (no mean feat!).

--Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are my own.

Thank you to sourcebooks fire and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

This was a fun read. I really liked the main characters and the romance they had, and I liked the storyline of them fighting to save the mall that was so important to them and everybody else. The Christmas theme wasn’t overly present in the book, which is fine, if that’s what you want, but don’t go into this one expecting a holiday story that feels like Christmas on every page. I feel like there were full chapters where you wouldn’t know at all it was a book that had Christmas in the title. It was mostly a story of two young people whose parents own rival restaurants in a mall and it happens to take place at Christmas time. Overall, it was a fun read and I would definitely read it again one day.

I think Suzanne Park is great! Her writing is so funny! I loved the rivals of Chloe and Peter and also the rivals of their family. It was a fun, easy read that brought me Christmas in the summer!

Any Christmas themed book generally has my attention.
This one is well paced with well thought-out characters. The side characters are just as important as the main characters. You really get to see each main character with their respective friends and families and see how different yet alike they are.
The story had good plot lines and good tense moments that left you wondering what exactly would happen.
I'm excited for others to read this one.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a fan of Holiday books and read them all year round. This was really good book and I enjoyed my time with it. The main characters are both enjoyable and are characters who are both strong apart from each other. I don't enjoy couples where one is unable to function without the other. The support characters of friends and family were all hilarious and I enjoyed their interactions. I would not say this is an enemies to lovers romance it felt more like a Romeo and Juliet romance with the fighting families. I never felt the two main characters hated each other just more that their parents had just told them not to deal with the other and had constantly told them to stay away from them. The Christmas vibes were light but the parts that were there were fun. The VR ride sounds amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I am a sucker for a Christmas romcom!! This book was very cute and very different than the Christmas books I’ve read. It follows two rivals, Chloe Kwon and Peter Li, who band together to save their families’ restaurants in Riverwood Mall.

I do think if I read this during the holiday season I would’ve enjoyed it more because I wasn’t in the holiday spirit. I wish we got more of the romance and that there was more buildup — it felt more like a subplot. It is rivals to lovers, but they do become friends pretty quickly. Overall, it was a cute Christmas book that is worth the read if you are wanting those holiday feels and a happy ending!

The Christmas Clash sounded fun, but I couldn’t get into it. The setting was interesting and it was a slightly common trope, but there were so many things going on that didn’t add up. It was hard to folllw.

Yet another book that tosses “enemies-to-lovers” in for no real reason…Seriously though, this book was fine for the most part but also fell flat for me in a lot of ways. The Christmas Clash was a cute holiday romance where two teenagers whose families own rival restaurants must work together to save the mall they’ve grown up in but ultimately felt disjointed as a story.

Chloe‘s and Peter‘s families own rival restaurants in the same mall food court and have always hated each other for as long as the two of them have been alive. They also work at rival Christmas-themed shops; however, when they learn that the mall is closing, they must set aside their differences to save their families’ businesses.

I liked the characters! Both Chloe and Peter have supportive friend groups who are always there for them. I also liked reading about their relationships with their parents, where they both struggle to be the best in their eyes.

The romance was cute for the most part; I did like their scenes together and how they gradually open up to each other. However, I was disappointed with the fact that their dislike for each other faded almost instantly. At this point, I should be used to books using “enemies-to-lovers” or “hate-to-love” as a plot point and then not actually following through on that, but it never fails to disappoint. In this book, we’re told that Chloe and Peter hate each other; their friends mention multiple times that they always complain about the other person, yet we never actually get to see this in action.

I suppose we see a little bit of that at the beginning but that’s only about the first twenty percent before they start liking each other. And that’s fine! However, this definitely contributed to the pacing feeling unbalanced because I had no idea what was going to happen now that they no longer “hate” each other so early in the story.

After reading multiple works from this author, I’ve found that she tends to get incredibly detailed for the plot in a way that isn’t really conducive for a story. For example, why did we have to read so much about the leases and legal jargon about the mall closing in this book? I feel like some of it is necessary for you to understand how dire the situation is, but at a certain point, it takes you out of the story.

I could honestly complain more about this book, but ultimately, it boils down to the fact that it felt like yet another book where some tropes and a setting were thrown together. I did enjoy parts of The Christmas Clash, I promise! I think many others would enjoy this or at least find it to be a cute read; I just was left disappointed by so many aspects of it.

Ughhh I have to DNF this one at 60% because there is just no Christmas and no clash! I like the characters in this novel but the story is going no where. There is way too much going on yet too little romance and not enough Christmas. It comes off too YA for my taste. Disappointing!

This was a super cut ya book I think teens will love this Christmas book this is the first book I read by this author and was not disappointed

As a self-proclaimed Suzanne Park hype woman, I have to say that this may be my favorite book by her so far based solely off of the vibes. The Christmas Clash is like a YA version of Kim's Convivence x You've Got Mail with a dash of A Pho Love Story thrown in. The story is cute, the little mall community is the sweetest, and banter is so much fun. Objectively, the story wasn't as Christmassy as advertised (with a title like "The Christmas Clash," it needed a lot more holiday cheer,) and Chloe and Peter's relationship seemed inconsistent. They felt much more like resigned family acquaintances than enemies, and I never quite understood the dynamic of their pseudo-frienemy-ship. I think it might've been believable, but we needed a lot more context (like what's the whole backstory behind the meal swaps? and are mortal enemies supposed to have each other's numbers?) Still, I absolutely adored The Christmas Clash and was smiling throughout the entire story. I started reading it after I'd literally gotten two shots in my butt and was disappointed when the nurse came to discharge me because that meant I'd have to stop reading. This is story I'll definitely be re-reading at Christmastime if not sooner.

The Christmas Clash was a cute and enjoyable read. I think teens would enjoy this book during the holidays or anytime! However, I felt that the book was too repetitive. We know the mall is being torn down, and they need to save it. So readers don’t need to be reminded of that fact every chapter. Also, the pacing of the book was a little off. Timing of events would go quickly, then the time window would slow down. I felt the final moment was abrupt, and just sort of ended. But overall, it was a feel food romcom and I liked reading it. I would recommend this book to teens.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

I love all all of the books I have read by Suzanne Park, and this is no exception. This book is such a cute YA love story, built on the foundation of family rivalry, holiday shenanigans, finding what you are good at, and all of the delicious Chinese & Korean food you could want. Once again, I am left hungry for food I don't have easy access to after reading one of Suzanne's novels - and I am not mad at it (well, mostly). This book alternates between Chloe and Peter's points of view, and I loved reading how the two of them grew as people, finding out what was important to them and what made them - them. The book was realistic, and I was really rooting for the characters to save the mall while also figure out the family rivalry situation. This book was a nice, sweet read, with a nice HEA/HFN, which was exactly what I needed.