If you love holiday season then this is one for you! A cheery holiday romance of a fated love story that no one would have thought. Although trying to avoid it they can't help but give into the pull of love.

Every book has its audience. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Just because I don’t like a book doesn’t mean it isn’t meant for somebody. And this one definitely wasn’t meant for me.

Romance books are difficult for me, because they have to walk the very find line of cheesy and sincere. Some people can do that amazingly (I’m looking at you, Emily Henry!). This one just veers way too far into cheese fest for me.

The characters are interesting enough, and I love the various nods to country music stars last and present (I’m from the Midwest, it’s what I was raised on) but the romance just didn’t hit for me. I couldn’t take the constant back and forth, and the lack of communication between characters was unreal! Yes, I know this is fiction, leave me alone.

That said, the relationship between Sadie and her gran was really what kept me going. It was sweet and funny and heartbreaking and so very real.

It just wasn’t a big enough part of the story.

Starmaker is the country music reality show where stars are created. When contestants Max and Sadie go viral for a duet where their chemistry is obvious, they have to take advantage of this opportunity to make it in Nashville.

In some ways, the first half and second half of this book felt like two different books. The pacing in the first half was really rushed, but I thought the second half worked well. I was often frustrated with the inexplicable, poor communication choices the characters made. I enjoyed how everything came together in the ending, and it was a fun Christmas romance.

I kind of struggled to get through this book. The romance was alright, and I just really didnt feel the connection between these two characters. At first, I was like ooh okay, this could be something. But that feeling did not continue as i kept reading. I know miscommunication happens, but this book had so much of it that it was difficult to enjoy the storyline.

All I Want For Christmas was much better than The Holiday Swap! I actually really enjoyed this lighthearted holiday read. I thought the characters were well developed and I enjoyed their banter! Good job! I’ll definitely read them again.

I liked Maggie Knox’s debut novel, The Holiday Swap, as a writing duo, although I did not love it. I thought I would give the authors another shot and read their newest book.

All I Want for Christmas is an enemies-to-lovers holiday romance set amid a reality television show competition for country singers. Despite reading 30 percent of this book, I can not tell you anything more about the story.

I rarely do not finish a book, especially one that was gifted to me. But I have been relying on holiday books to get me in the Christmas spirit this year. After some spending time on this one, I knew that All I Want for Christmas was not going to fit the bill.

The plot of All I Want for Christmas seems straightforward enough. However, I found that there was little plot outside of the reality show competition, which was not all that exciting. There was not even a solid establishment of the two main characters as enemies outside of the fact that they were both competitors vying for the same prize. Other than some interactions between a few characters, the story lacks details that would help create tension and excitement. But I ultimately felt like little actually happened to move the book along or hold my interest.

I do not necessarily dislike books light on the plot so long as they have strong character development. However, I found this novel also fell short on that front. Outside of their status as country singers and a minimal amount of details about their background, I did not know much about the characters. I was not rooting for either to win since there was not enough details about the competition or a fully formed character in which to be invested. Without feeling like I knew the characters or understood their motives, I was left with nothing pulling me into the story.

On top of that, there was almost no Christmas to be found in All I Want for Christmas. There are a few mentions of Christmas and singing Christmas songs. However, the holiday season is really treated as a setting and little else. So if you are looking for holiday cheer, activities, and spirit, you will not find it in this book.

For me, All I Want for Christmas was lacking all the key elements of a good story. I felt like I was thrown into the middle of a book and missed all the context and set-up. But I assure you that I started this book on page one. I found that All I Want for Christmas felt more like an unfinished idea than a book with full-formed details and characters. Ultimately, I could not constitute finishing All I Want for Christmas. I would recommend skipping this one.

I loved The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox, so I was really excited for this one! However, it just didn't seem to work for me. It seemed to feel like the same things I've read before, I didn't love or care about any of the characters, and ultimately I was ready for it to end.

So, I was really rooting for this book just like I was rooting for the characters on the singing competition. But, it fell through to me. I hoped there was more on the competition as there is a lot of potential there to make their relationship grow, but the skipping ahead drove me nuts. The miscommunication drove me nuts.

2/5 - Spice: 0.5/5

Okay, I'm not sure what went wrong for this book, but it just was not for me. I felt no romance, I barely even felt a passing friendship between Sadie and Max. I loved Maggie Knox's first book, the Holiday Swap, so when I started this I was excited for Christmas cheer, but it just didn't do it for me.

Brief Plot: Both performing in a music competition, Sadie and Max are paired together, and further encouraged into a fake relationship to promote their musical careers. But as feelings start getting real, and their dreams becoming reality, will their fake relationship be exposed? and can the two really form a genuine partnership with honesty?

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an eARC copy of All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox. This is my honest review.

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this! I thought this was a fun Christmas time read with. Log of heartwarming moments sprinkled throughout. Great time of year to read this!

This book was really good. I enjoyed the setting of the musical reality show. Admittedly, I read it a while ago and do not remember all of the details, but i do remember enjoying it.

Thank you to the publisher and author for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.


This book was a cute holiday story. But the miscommunication drove me a little nuts. I wish he would’ve stopped talking and running away for two seconds to listen to her explain her side of things. The fact that it happened over and over was too much. I liked the ending a lot though.

“All I Want for Christmas” is the Christmas book I was most excited to read this year. I liked Maggie Knox’s last book, “The Holiday Swap”, and I like music and reality TV so I was into the premise of this book – Sadie and Max are finalists on a TV singing competition who are forced to partner together in order to win the show. A year after the finale we catch up with them to see whether or not they’re together.


But the premise was the only thing I liked about this book. The characters were very one dimensional. And the plot made me want to scream. If Sadie and Max had even had ONE complete conversation with each other there wouldn’t have been any misunderstandings between each other. So the back and forth conflict felt extremely manufactured. And the writing was so wooden that the characters didn’t feel real, and the chemistry certainly didn’t either.

That said, maybe I’m not the target audience for these books. I like well-written contemporary closed door romance but I don’t watch Hallmark movies. If you can’t get enough of Hallmark holiday movies, though, and you like reality TV competitions and/or country music, give this book a try!

I was really excited when I was given access to this book because I've enjoyed some of Knox's other reads. Unfortunately, this particular book was a letdown because it didn't really have a a lot of Christmas feels, and had a huge lack of the romantic elements I was expecting from a book that is labelled as a holiday rom-com. On top of that, the main characters weren't very likeable, which is a big deal in a romance.

I fully plan to read Knox's other books in the future, and I have high hopes for them because I love the writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for access to this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Read if you like:
🎸 Country Music
🔥 Enemies to Lovers
🎙️ Singing Competitions
💋 Fake Dating
❄️ Snowy Settings

This one has all of the classic romance tropes mixed in with holiday vibes. I was truly so excited for this one after reading The Holiday Swap and loving it last year, but the sophomore follow up was not everything I was hoping for and maybe my sites were set too high to start with.

I was hoping for more of the singing competition but it was only part of the book before the book jumped ahead a year in the future.

I just also wish that the characters were more likable as they definitely had a good lot of flaws and at times was hard to read with immaturity and rudeness the characters were displaying in a holiday book where I thought I was getting sweet and fluffy.

Thank you Putnam books for the gifted copy.

All I Want For Christmas is another cute holiday-ish romance out this season. Sadie is in Nashville for a singing competition (a la American Idol but country) and she is an underdog, but still very popular with the fans. Especially when the producers strike a deal to pair her up with Max, the son of a country legend, to compete as a pair. Sadie has a grudge against Max from a prior meeting, but what starts out as unfriendly turns VERY friendly, if you catch my drift.

Then they win, and things happen, (a TON of miscommunication, which is my LEAST favorite trope), and they split up for a year. Until they are supposed to pair up again to record and perform a Christmas song at the competition a year later.

There are a lot of things thrown in the mix during that year, but the crux is a lot of miscommunication between them. It got kind of frustrating, because I don't think it would have happened quite that much in real life.

Overall, this is a cute read, and I think it could be a great Hallmark-ish movie!

I’m sad to say that I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I had hoped. I really enjoyed Knox’s debut novel last holiday season, but this one feel short for me. There was a lot packed into this story and it felt like a bit much for me. I wanted more holiday magic from this but the miscommunication between the two main characters was so frustrating.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you Net Galley and Penguin Group Putnam for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I did not like this book. I really just didn't. Spoiler-free version: This was supposed to be a romance book, but I found it very unromantic. The love interest was veryyyyyy... unlovable. He was such a jerk and extremely self-obsessed. What was even more annoying was the fact that the book would make him seem self-aware, so it's he's like "oh wow I understand this is a special opportunity for people" but then his actions completely go against this. Also, I felt the story to be very surface-level. Many things happened (kind of), but there was barely any depth beyond the event itself occurring.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Another thing I really didn't like in addition to the horrible love interest is the sexual harassment that took place. Like how is that romantic? Why is that in a Christmas romance book? And why did the main dude allude to knowing that the bad guy was a bad guy and then when suspicious things kept happening he just was like omgggg she likes him. Like bro what. No. Have more than two brain cells please. Also the main girl apologizing to HIM at the end????????????????????????? NO. you're joking right??!!!!!! Why ON EARTH would she apologize to him?

What could have made this better? Better love interest with more consistent morals and zero harassment

3.5 This was a cute romance for fans of reality singing shows all set in a backdrop of Nashville at Christmas. This story follows Sadie and Max two contestants on a country reality dining show. Sadie is trying one last time to make it big before moving back while Max,son of a famous country singer, try’s to break free of his father image. When they are paired together for duet week the fans fall in love with Saxie! This leads to Max and Sadie fake dating but maybe their are more real feelings involved than they expected.

This was a cute book that I really wanted to love but Max was my least favorite character in a long time. With Max getting on my last nerve I felt like I was being pulled out of the story. I also felt the characters felt a little flat and had some parts in this book I really had to push to get through. I would pick up more from this author in the future though I enjoyed the premise and look forward to seeing if maybe another character might draw me in. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

American Idol but add a country twist? Two country artists are coerced into a fake dating relationship to boost ratings and, well you know the rest! Sadie and Max are your typical grumpy to sunshine trope. The only problem i had with this is, i hate the miscommunication trope more than anything. When the protagonists clearly have feelings for each other but we have to pretend for 300 pages that they dont. All in all it was cute and i flew thru it but im not sure id recommend it as a Christmas read?