Member Reviews
So many great Christmas in July reads and Season of Love was right there with the best of them. This book was so so so fun! and very much like a Hallmark movie. There's great sarcasm and funny moments! Love that there's self-awareness with queer characters. I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it!
Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this Digital ARC
I thought this book was pretty cute! It was a fun read, I enjoyed all the quirky characters, and I thought the plot was great. This book has the makings for a Hallmark Movie and y’all know that’s my jam!
Getting to see Miriam slowly take her old life back was really something. In the beginning you can tell she’s holding something back but once she decides to do what makes her happy, it’s like she’s a whole new person. Watching her reconnect with her cousin, fall in love with Noelle, and rebuild her other relationships while also working to save the farm was so fun.
I loved Miriam and Noelle’s relationship and getting to watch them through that awkward stage and how they grew as a couple. I do wish their relationship was more front and center, though, because I really enjoyed their playfulness and their banter.
There were a few slow spots throughout that made it drag a tiny bit but overall I really enjoyed this one and would recommend if you’re looking for a cute holiday romance!
A artist with a traumatic past returns home to her family after her beloved relative died... only to discover romance and an inheritance she never expected. Miriam Blum is just about to open up her own store, after striving and slowly building up her career as an artist she’s finally going to have her own store. However, just as she is getting ready to open she receives devastating news, her beloved great-aunt Cass has passed away and left Miriam part-owner of Carrigan’s, her (ironically) Jewish-run Christmas tree farm. Miriam’s plan is to just sit shiva, avoid her parents, and then leave Carrigan to the other co-owners.... except things never go as planned. Miriam has been away from her family for 10 years, after finally escaping the abuse of her father and her emotionally distant father. She is now forced to face all her old emotional hurts... as well as the happy memories as well. Along the way she meets Noelle Northwood, the grumpy farm manager who wants nothing more than to get Miriam out. Despite the sparks between Noelle and Miriam, both of them start off on the wrong foot as Noelle believes that Miriam doesn’t deserve all the love from her family as she ran away from them for 10 years and she doesn’t want Miriam invading her space... and yet the more they both get to know each other the more they begin to soften to each other and fall. both Miriam and Noelle have complicated lives and past hurts, but working together to keep the farm going and to create a future for this Christmas Businesses both of them will begin to fall for one another. This was a sweet and super cute fun Christmas rom-com. I had so much fun reading it and think it’s just absolutely adorable.
*Thanks Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), Forever for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
A Jewish holiday romance on a Christmas tree farm and an enemies-to-lovers romance? Sign me up! I always enjoy a holiday romance, so I was excited to celebrate the holidays in July with Season of Love. This is a fun, feel-good romance with humor, a great found family, and an enemies-to-lovers romance.
Miriam and Noelle are layered and complex characters, and I enjoyed their growth throughout the story. Neither are without faults, but, as they face their pasts, loss, grief, and more, they learn so much about themselves. Both have a lot of emotional baggage to work through, and I thought the author did a great job of exploring mental health, the benefits of therapy, and the importance of communication.
Noelle and Miriam have a slow-building, closed door love story. They have great chemistry and banter, and they compliment each other really well. I also like that the story explores all different kinds of relationships, including friendships, romantic relationships, family bonds, and more.
This was a fun holiday romance with small-town charm, dynamic characters, a great found family, relevant themes, and a lovely romance. Thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.
*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
When her Jewish great-aunt Cass dies, Miriam is bequeathed 1/4 of her Christmas tree farm. The only catch? Her favourite cousin, childhood best friend, and the farm's grumpy manager have also been given 1/4 of the farm. Miriam has been estranged from her family for a decade, but she throws herself into trying to save the farm. Too bad the butch lesbian farm manager is more of a distraction that Miriam had bargained for. She didn't plan to return to Carrigan's, and she certainly didn't expect to fall in love, but Miriam's perfect life is thrown into chaos and it's up to her and her found family to make everything right again.
This is the feel-good holiday romcom you need to warm your winter-cold heart. It has all of the best Hallmark-esque qualities, and will leave you feeling warn and cozy inside. I loved the way the book blended both Jewish and Christian traditions and holidays. The characters were so real, and every single one was fully realized. No one faded into the background, and I can't wait for them to all get their own Happily Ever Afters!
Overall, this was a great debut novel and I'm excited to see what happens next with these characters.
This is an absolutely beautiful romance. This story follows Miriam who is a Jewish queer woman running from her past. Miriam inherits a Christmas tree farm from her beloved aunt and reconnects with her old found family. This book touches on so many amazing topics as well as having a beautiful romance.
There is a huge emphasis on healing from past traumas and learning to grow. All of the characters are dealing with their own issues and there is so much wonderful character development that happens. All of the characters are so amazing and found family trope here is fantastically done.
Noelle and Miriam are also an amazing romance. (Fade to black for people asking. Only kissing) They complement each other so well and are so cute. I also love that Noelle is fat, sexy butch who really loves growing trees. They do so much healing both together and separately. Noelle is in AA and Is struggling with the loss of her parents. Miriam is trying to heal from her fathers abuse. They both have their own issues and I love that their romance isn’t shown to fix everything.
This is one of my new favorite romances and I will recommend it to everyone!
Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an arc of this book! When I read the synopsis it sounded like a Hallmark movie but sapphic but this book is so much more. It’s very cute and had me smiling for a good part of it but it still deals with more difficult topics.
TW: alcoholism, abusive parent, running away from home
Cute read. Christmas in July? YES, PLEASE! Looking for a cute book and a comfort read? Look no further! Pick this book up. You won't be disappointed!
2.5/5 Stars
CW/TW : Alcoholism, Abusive Parent
I received a Free E-Arc in exchange for an honest review through Netgalley. Thank you to Forever and Netgalley.
I had high hopes for this book, but 80% through I realized that this was yet again another Jewish story centered around Christmas. I was hoping for an extremely queer and Jewish story and I got a queer story with water down Jewish representation.
Miriam ran away from her one safe place 10 years ago after she finally couldn’t handle her father anymore, she left all of her friends and family and her favorite person, her great aunt Cass in an attempt to keep herself and others safe from her father. Present day in the book, Miriam gets a call that Cass has passed away and she goes back to Carrigan’s Christmas Tree farm so she can say goodbye to the woman that helped raise her and gave her a safe place.
Noelle came to Carrigan’s after Miriam had left, she became best friends with Hannah and was taken under Cass’s wing on the farm. When Miriam shows up at Cass’s Shiva, Noelle wants nothing more than her gone but when the will is read everyone learns that the farm wasn’t just left to Noelle and Hannah as expected but to Noelle, Hannah, Miriam, and their other friend Levi. Miriam doesn’t want to leave without figuring out why she was left part of the farm and she wants to help save it when they aren’t sure how long they will survive without Cass. Noelle hates this idea as Miriam ran away 10 years ago ruining her best friend, Hannah’s life without any explanation. Will the three of them be able to survive through the holidays and save the farm?
The Jewish representation in this book felt water down to still appeal to non jewish readers, there was hardly any mention of the family celebrating Jewish holidays even though this book would have taken place during them. There was a lot of mention about the food but that felt like it was to distract from the lack of other traditions. We only get a mention of a synagogue over 80% into the book and then it’s a total of 3 mentions and just felt like an afterthought. Overall the representation could have and should have been better.
The relationship between Noelle and Miriam felt unrealistic and I didn’t feel the chemistry between them in the slightest. Noelle without knowing more information started very quickly forgiving Miriam after hating her guts on sight after Miriam ran away from her family. I know Miriam had a reason for doing so but Noelle didn’t and it just overall didn’t make sense.
The end didn’t feel well resolved and put together, it felt unfinished especially for the main conflict. Overall this book fell flat for me and just didn’t feel all that special compared to what it could have been.
I recommend this book if you like hallmark movies and good queer representation.
Helena Greer’s debut novel Season Of Love rounded out my Christmas in July reading. There’s just something about a Christmas tree farm setting that just gets me every time. The fact that this particular Christmas tree farm was owned by an eccentric Jewish woman made it even better.
This had lots of family drama, and lots of self discovery. Add in some LGTBQ+ and Jewish holiday representation, along with a lead up to Christmas while trying to save the Christmas tree farm, this was just a lovely holiday romance.
Miriam maybe wasn’t my favourite protagonist, but while learning of her past traumas, my heart certainly went out to her. At first I wasn’t a huge fan of Noelle, she grew on me, especially as her relationship with Miriam grew. I have very mixed feelings about Miriam’s mother, but grudgingly will give her some benefit in the end. I loved the rest of the side characters from Cole and even Tara to Mr and Mrs Matthews.
Overall this was a quintessential hallmark feel romance, that plays on several emotions! Would love a Hannah and Levi story in the future 🤞🏼.
Helena Greer’s debut, Season of Love, is such a warm and cozy read!
After 10 years, Miriam returns to her family's Christmas tree farm, where she meets the grumpy farm manager Noelle. They don't get along at first. But brought together by the loss of someone special and trying to save Carrigan's Christmasland, they both learn to open up and share with each other and the ones who love them.
I adore holiday-themed romances and really love the inclusion of Jewish traditions and holidays into this story. Season of Love has one of the best found families, and I can't wait to read more about them!
What to expect:
Sapphic holiday romance
Butch MC
Witty banter
Baking as flirting
Delightful cast of secondary characters
Swoonworthy closed-door romance
Thank you @readforeverpuband @netgalley for the eARC.
CWs: death of a loved ones, grief, toxic relationship with parents, spousal abuse, alcoholism
Season of Love fulfilled all of my wishes to take a Hallmark Christmas movie and make it sapphic! It was a slow burn romance, and I really appreciated that they purposefully took things slowly instead of immediately jumping into something serious before they were ready.
If you are looking for spice, this may not be the read for you, but I’d still say to give it a try. The personal growth that Miriam and Noelle go through on their way to each other is well worth it. Plus, there are many hilarious and heartwarming moments throughout!
Overall, this was a wonderful debut, and I sincerely look forward to many more works from Helena Greer.
Thank you so much to Forever and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.
The first 70% of this book is 2.5, the next 10% is 3, and the last 20% is 3.5.
Normally, I don’t rate different parts of book separately, but this book has proven to be an exception.
This book was hard getting into. Then fortunately it improves, but I had to get through 70% of the book first, which honestly was really hard. There were many words without anything happening, and I'm left wondering if I'm reading a summary. It's almost a DNF book but I hung on because I was confused about why it has high ratings. The cute sapphic love story is the main thing that keeps me reading, even though Miriam, the main character, annoys me the majority if not all of the book.
The other reason that I had to finish this book is that I was so excited for it to come out. However, that was I was disappointed by how it turned out, I wouldn't NOT recommend this, but I would advise that you should lower your expectations for it to be a well-written book.
The book's pace goes either really slowly or quickly and the plot goes from 0 to 100 and then back to 0 in a few paragraphs if not within the same paragraph. And the time jumps/skips can be confusing due no transition. Conflicts would come out of nowhere and get "solved" instantly.
The plot and the character development are mostly ok. However, the writing style was the problem as I mentioned. Fortunately, the writing style does improved for the few last chapters. But by no mean, it was well done.
Thank you NetGallery for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I am a sucker for holiday themed books so I was so excited to read this! This book was such a cute and fun read. Found family is one of my favorite tropes and I loved Miriam and Noelle’s relationship. However I did feel like there wasn’t enough of it! I did already preorder my physical copy!
Extra bonus points for the super cute cover!
Season of Love by Helena Greer
⭐⭐
CW: Emotional and Verbal Abuse by a parent (past experience,) death of a loved one, grief, toxic relationship with parents), alcoholism (MC, and past parents)
Thank you Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I just could never connect with the story or with the characters to really enjoy it.
At the start we are introduced to Miriam Blum, an artist who makes her living decoupaging antiques, running a successful instagram and pinterest following, and generally happy with the arrangement she has with her fiancée Tara. However, when she gets news that her Aunt Cass has passed away Miriam decided to return to the one place that makes her happiest, Cass’s Tree Farm, and sit Shiva. While there she is reunited with her estranged family and meets the farm's grumpy and attractive manager, Noelle. When she learns that she is given a portion of the tree farm and that said tree farm is about to go bankrupt, Miriam, her cousin Hannahm and Noelle, must work through their own drama and come together to save the place that brings them all so much joy.
Season of Love had all the elements of a fun holiday romance, and yet more often than not the story and its characters felt flat, leaving me uninterested and even at times frustrated with the two main characters. Part of this may be because we don’t often get a lot of opportunities to learn about the characters and experience their development as they operate outside of their mutual attraction. Often Miriam or Noelle is experiencing something and then it is resolved minutes later. Case in point, there is a great scene where Noelle, identifying she is having a hard time with Cass’s death and has just yelled at Miriam because she blames her for not being at the tree farm and taking care of Cass while she was dying without asking why Miriam stayed aways (communication between these two is off to a great start) , goes to an AA meeting for support. After the meeting she is approached by three older women, none of them have names, (why they don’t have names is beyond me…but, fine) who proceed to give her unsolicited advice… about her love life? I expected this scene to showcase Noelle’s struggle with losing a parental figure, learning more about her struggle with her own family, how her alcohol addiction started or plays into her life, or exploring why she is such a defensive person. What we get is almost none of this and just that she is frustrated with her attraction to Miriam. Then she is told she has to make amends for yelling at Miriam (which she should because her anger is unjustified) and no further mention of groups support for her to help process or grieve Cass’s death. Up to this point Noelle’s character is upset with how she acted toward Miriam, sure, but not for the reasons why she acted the way she did. Look, I know this is a rom-com and unnecessary drama is part of the package, this just felt like a reason to introduce characters that had no real importance to the plot, took away an opportunity to see character growth or perspective from a main character, and resolved an issue so fast so we could get back to mutual pining. And this isn’t the last time it happens. So much of the story operates on this same formula. There is an issue, here is a character who resolves it for the MC, MC does X and we get back to romance.
In short, the romance between Miriam and Noelle just didn’t work for me. Their lack of communication was frustrating and the storyline was so rushed it just didn’t feel fully developed to hit the emotional impacts it was going for.
If you are looking for a rollercoaster of a romance with seasonal flair, perhaps this story may be for you. Meanwhile, I’m still on the search for the fictional lumberjack lesbian of my dreams.
This was a really lovely and delightful holiday romance. I loved the world of Carrigan's and all of these interesting, prickly characters, and especially of course I loved the magic cat. I loved how seriously the importance of art is taken, and the community building.
It does definitely have more emotional heft than the average Hallmark holiday movie, which IMO is good but I saw some reviews surprised by it. The book itself does include a list of content warnings which include alcoholism, domestic abuse, etc. so bear that in mind! But it does have a delightful happy ending and I am eagerly anticipating book 2!
Season of love follows the story of Cass's closest friends, family and Christmas tree farm guests following her death. Helena Greer has written a beautiful novel which follows the magic of the tree farm, the nieces, nephew and close friend that Cass left behind and the journey to keep the magic that is the tree farm. She has told a story of loss, of love, of family, of romance, or unforgivable destruction and more.
This was hand down one of my favorite novels of this year and will be my favorite holiday novel of the season. This is a must read if you enjoy the holidays, romance and have either a love or hate or both for family.
Hallm*rk--esque setup ✓
Dysfunctional family dynamics ✓
Fantastic characters ✓
Strong connection to Jewish faith? ✓
Wonderful friendships ✓
Sloooow burn ✓
Amazing character growth ✓
Plenty of swoon? ✓
This checked all those off and I absolutely adored this novel!
My only issue was the lack of spice in this one.
I really loved Miriam and Noelle as characters, the old ladies (both Noelle's and Miriam's), the elder Matthews's, and Hannah (that ending is making me hope for a second installment into the world of Carrigan's!) Season of Love was fantastic and I recommend it.
eARC kindly provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley. Opinions shared are my own.
This was a cute romcom that really made me think of those 90s movies I loved to watch, except very queer, which I loved. I struggled a bit with the tension, because after the issue of the MC having a fiancée was resolved, it sort of seemed like that went out the window. I also wanted a bit more Christmas mania, I guess? It's a book set in a Christmas farm, but it felt like it was mostly about business and worrying about business. I guess I thought that would be a lot of cool Christmas related swoony moments in that first half. I think it'll scratch that Hallmark itch for a lot of people, though.
I always love to see more Jewish characters and Judaism in romance! I loved the representation of holidays and Jewish practice. As someone who is Jewish and whose family sold Christmas trees, I was delighted by the setup of this novel. I also really appreciated the humor.