Singer Sadie and Nashville legacy Max get paired up in a music contest and thrown into a fake relationship in this enemy to lovers Christmas love story. While this book had plenty of Christmas spirit, the characters came off childish and the miscommunications got very frustrating! The relationship also lacked depth making it not feel very believable. I wanted one more Christmas easy read before the end of the year though and it did deliver there at least.

🎙🎸Book Review:
Title: All I Want For Christmas
Author: Maggie Knox
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/4 stars

One year later, I've finally read this book!! I had to wait until December, okay?! This book isn't about Christmas, just centered around the season. Very cute rom-com!

A lady named Sadie.
A guy named Max.
A country music reality competition show.
A music recording contract is on the line.
A fake romance.
Sleazy men in the industry.
#saxie
Nashville, Tennessee
A musical duet
True love ❤️💚
Sounds good, right?! It is! Read it!

Published: October 2nd, 2022

Thank you, @netgalley and @putnambooks, for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 2/5⭐️⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦: 1/5🌶
⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
𝗪𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝: I really loved Sadie’s grandmother (Gran), and the sweet wisdom and support that she brought to the story. The few chapters that took place in Banff (Canada) were a little glimmer of hope in an otherwise unmemorable book.

If you are a fan of singing competitions, you might also like this one.
⁣⁣⁣
𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞: I never felt the connection between these two characters, and their relationship felt like a convenient chemistry of proximity based on their musical talents. There was nothing about their romance that felt lasting.

If you are a fan of the miscommunication trope, this book is for you. It will beat you over the head with miscommunication. It felt like, in every single conversation, either Sadie or Max would just jump to a conclusion and storm off. They were constantly apologizing to each other for very basic assumptions that they jumped to, and it felt like every single point of tension could have been easily avoided.

Lastly, the patronizing dialogue (largely focused on trying to seem “Southern”, calling people “darlin”, etc.) wasn’t for me.

Perfect for this holiday season! Gave the cozy vibe perfect for this years christmas reading! Rivals/ fake dating will always hit

I personally wasn’t a big fan of this book. It felt like the male character kept running away over things that could be easily fixed and the relationship would never last. I loved the holiday swap by this author, but this one fell flat for me.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I was able to find the audio version through my local library.
Well this was just not great for me. I am trying to read as many Christmas books as much as possible and this book was just a mess for me. It was extremely unrealistic. Why on earth would the main male love interest be completely feminine and absolutely unrealistic. Just a major disappointment. The main female character was absolutely annoying.

Super cute - read like a hallmark movie! Thought it was pretty so-so though but if you watch in front of the holiday tree with a fire going - it really does give you that warm fuzzy feeling you get during the holidays!

I loved this one! Cozy vibes perfect for drinking hot cocoa and eating your NeXT Maggie Knox. I will probably be rereading this one in future Holiday seasons

This was…not great. I requested this thinking it would be a fun Christmas rom-com with fake dating and a little bit of enemies to lovers sprinkled in. What I got was miscommunication, miscommunication and more miscommunication - ugh!

I loved the singing competition but it was over so quickly. I wish we had spent more time with Sadie and Max working and singing together on the show. I think if we had, I would have been more invested in #Saxie as a couple. I honestly didn't care if they ended up together in the end.

My biggest issue was the depiction and use of Nashville as a setting. I live in Nashville, so maybe I'm being nit-picky but I could tell that the author has probably never been here. Some mentions of specific locations in Nashville were weirdly used and at times felt unnecessary. It was like the author Googled popular locations in Nashville and then just dropped them randomly into the story. THERE AREN'T PAPARAZZI IN NASHVILLE! Celebrities are pretty much left alone here outside of the occasional tourist who may ask for a selfie. I don't know if someone who isn't from Nashville would find these things as bad as I did but it really ruined my reading experience.

Overall, I just did not enjoy this book. I didn't buy into the love story and it didn't fill me with enough Christmas spirit.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an e-copy of this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group, for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All I Want for Christmas is a cozy holiday read, but it lacks depth. It leans heavily into the miscommunication trope, which, admittedly, is my least favorite. If that doesn’t bother you, then you will likely enjoy this novel. It’s a total mood read, best enjoyed by the crackling fire on a cold winter’s night.

A sweet, cute quick holiday read-just what i like to cleanse the pallete anytime of the year. Grateful for the ARC, unfortunate that I got to it so late.

I feel bad that I procrastinate reading this book. As expected, it would have been a perfect read during the holidays.

Max and Sadie were singing contestants paired together to compete. Little dis they know that this competition will bring their partnership to the next level.

Fake dating trope is one of the romcom themes I enjoy. There is just so much possibilities, just like this book, Maggie Know definitely presented us with a cute romcom with the perfect now on top.
Thank you Netgalley for the ecopy in exchange of my honest review.

Such a cute and cozy read! Loved Max and Sadie’s storyline! This book was about a small town girl finally getting her shot only but getting paired with singer with someone with a famous dad. I felt like the miscommunication between them went on a little too long and felt frustrating on the readers side of the story especially because they knew they liked each other.

Very cute overall, would be perfect to read around the holidays!

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

This was the third Christmas book I read in July as part of my Christmas in July readathon! It wasn’t one of my planned picks, but I got approved for this book via Netgalley that month and just went for it!

Fans of reality TV shows like The Voice will love this book and if you love the city of Nashville- yep, you’ll be a fan!

What I Liked:

The cover is so dreamy. Heart eyes.

As I said in my review on Goodreads- I need more #Saxie! Now truthfully, sometimes Saxie frustrated the hell outta me, but when they were on, they were on and I was here for ALL that.

Fake romances can be hit and miss for me in books, but this one- and I think a lot of it was because it was Christmas in a cup- really worked for me.

Bottom line: I predict you’ll be a #Saxie fan and a Maggie Knox fan by end of the book!



*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Thank you to Netgally and Viking Publishing for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. Maybe it was a mood thing, I normally love Maggie Knox so I am sure I will pick this one up again in the future!

“You can love someone who isn't perfect and be deeply loved despite your own imperfections.”

So I adored the Holiday Swap by these authors, and was hoping for something sort of similar in terms of the sort of feel good holiday romance vibes, but I was really had to discover that I did not feel the same way about this book. I am someone who can tolerate a little bit of miscommunication, but I think that there was so much in this book that the plot was lost. I also just really started to dislike Sadie because some of the stuff that she lied about I just was like... how are you going to recover? I dont know I think this was definitely just a case of this not being the right story for me. It had elements I liked but overall I really was hoping for more.

This was very good and I would read anything from this Author. I enjoyed the storyline and the characters very much.

Rayna and Deacon, that you? Ahhhh gave me allll of the 'Nashville' (TV show) vibes and I LOVED it! Wasn't crazy christmassy but a cozy winter read for sure.

I thought I had this book figured out several times, and there were definitely parts that were predictable. However, Maggie Knox took my predictions and gave them twists I didn't see coming, which I really appreciated.
I definitely wanted to shake each character a couple times during the book, but even their annoying traits were handled believably, which I don't always see in romance novels. I hate when toxic traits are swept under the rug because: "love." This book made the characters address the issues that caused them to act (or react) in unhealthy ways, and it made the book much stronger overall.
Overall, this book was so cute! It is the perfect holiday read if you are looking for a sweet romance with fairly low stakes drama and some mild spice!

Cute Christmas read. Would recommend for anyone looking for a cute Christmas romance! If you love a Fake Relationship or Enemies to Lovers trope, give this a shot. I also enjoyed the musical aspect as they are both artists competing a show that reminded me of American Idol or something like that.