Lovelight Farms has be on my TBR for a while so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to review the audiobook. The premise was great -- fake dating leads to a sweet friends to lovers story.

I was worried it would be too "christmassy" for this very Jewish girl but I really appreciated that it was more a story about keeping a small business alive.

The only thing I wanted more of: more chapters from Luka's perspective.

I am loving this series! I accidentally read the second book first but it's okay because they can be stand-alone stories. I think this is my favorite one of the two! The friends-to-lovers trope is my weakness. I also have to bring attention to the adorable cover of this book. Altogether, these books look beautiful and I can't wait to have them all.

Stella owns a Christmas tree farm and is struggling to make ends meet. In an attempt to win a competition involving a hefty cash prize, Stella enters Lovelight Farms and embellishes details to make the farm seem more romantic--including the fact that she has a boyfriend. She asks her best friend, Luca, who she also happens to be in love with to be her fake boyfriend to help them win the competition.

This book was so sweet and romantic. I was swooning at every interaction between Stella and Luca. Luca is the perfect person for Stella and I was so happy for them to slowly realize that. When pretending gets a little too realistic, the lines in their friendship start to blur and it was so adorable watching them figure out where their relationship was going from there. This is perfect for Christmas and I highly recommend this series now that the holidays are right around the corner.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

I listened to the audiobook version of the story.

Unfortunately, I did not really enjoy the narrator, and thus could not get into this one.

The premise had promise, but the depiction of the narrator's Stella did not work for me.

Also was not a fan of the influencer/publicity stunt to fix everything.

The fake dating trope is supreme in my romance reading opinion, along with my other favourite, friends to lovers. This story had both.
Stella asks Luka to pretend that they are a couple for a competition that would bring publicity to her Christmas tree farm. Of course he agrees, because the two of them have been secretly in love with each other since the beginning of their friendship.
This was so cute, I loved how they supported each other and the fact that their community was rooting for them. The supporting cast was also great and the friendships and family relationships were equal parts heartwarming and borderline toxic
I enjoyed the story until the last 20 percent, when Stella started to make some very questionable decisions and got all in her head. That was when I got annoyed, but it did not ruin the enjoyment of the story.

This cozy, beautiful, sexy story is one of my favorite holiday themed books I've ever read. And now, thanks to the audiobook, I have read it twice!

Stella is the owner of a small town Christmas tree farm that can't catch a break. She enters a contest and writes that she owns the farm with her boyfriend... just a harmless little lie to attempt to make the farm backstory more exciting. When her farm is chosen as a candidate, and a social media influencer is scheduled to tour and interview the farm, Stella turns to her best friend Luka to pretend to be her boyfriend. I love that it is very clear from the start that Stella and Luka have been privately harboring enormously in love feelings for each other (but the rest of the town has seen it all along!) In Stella's case, she tries hard to keep that knowing even from herself. I love the way the fake dating turns real extremely fast, while still managing to be a slow burn romance!

The relationship and romance is much more important than the holiday themes, and that is one of the things I love about it. The Thanksgiving and Christmas offer a bit of atmosphere, but it's the love story and small town that really shines.

The audio: I have no complaints about reading this as an audiobook. I still felt all of the magic of the slow burn and I think the narrator captured the characters really well. Overall, it was a pleasure to listen to and I'd be just as happy to recommend this audiobook as I would recommend physical reading.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for a chance to read and review this audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts!

4.5 stars

This was a really sweet, lighthearted, friends-to-lovers romance set on a holiday tree farm. The characters were fun and believable, the plot was engaging, and the small-town touches were delightfully comforting. I enjoyed this story as it was pretty much exactly what I needed at the time, and I’m really looking forward to the next one in the series so I can see how other characters’ stories develop.

Lovelight Farms was so cute! The friendship between Stella and Luka was so sweet and wholesome. I loved how much they cared for each other. Luka did so many little things for Stella all the time and was always putting her first.

I also felt the other small-town characters in this book were so much fun and had interesting personalities. I loved both Beckett and Layla because they were such good friends to Stella. Also, Beckett made me laugh so much.

The Christmas tree farm setting was also so nice. There were lots of shenanigans and fun moments that took place there.

I also liked that the social media competition wasn’t the main focus of the book because the other parts of the story were more interesting to me.

My biggest issue with this book was the conflict. It made irrationally angry, and I felt that it didn’t completely make sense considering the events that had already happened.

The only other issue for me was the steaminess of the book, but that is because I prefer books to be more closed door.

I would recommend this book to romance lovers because it’s such a sweet and swoony love story, and I’m excited to read the sequel.

This story is amazing! I have read the book and now have listened to audiobook. Both are excellent! This story of Luca & Stella is a friends to lovers romance. It is such a great love letter about each other as well as for Lovelight Farms and Stella’s found family. Beautifully written - you feel like you are right there experiencing it all. Highly recommend it!

Lovelight Farms was such a cute book. I always love small town romances, and even better when everyone in town is interesting and their is great potential for a series (which is looks like this one will be!). I enjoy the best friends to lovers trope, and also books that make me laugh out loud at how funny it is and also smile and how cute and romantic it is. I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to the next in the series.

Stella owns a Christmas tree farm and financially, she’s in trouble. In an attempt to save the farm, she enters a contest with a social media influencer that comes with a hefty cash prize. There’s only on problem… on the application for the contest, Stella says she owns the farm with her boyfriend… she has no boyfriend. Her best friend Luka will have to do as a fake fill in.

I absolutely adored this book. I loved the characters. I loved the writing. The narrator was great too. Lovelight Farms has it all. Love. Humor. Spice. Sadness. And Luka :swoon:.

I’m looking forward to more titles by this author.

This is the holiday romance that you've been waiting for. Although, calling it a holiday romance does not adequately describe the depth of the story. It is a well written story of loss, dreams, love and so much more. The author does an outstanding job of creating realistic characters wrought with dreams, insecurities, loss, friendship, loyalty, wit and more while the narrator makes sure that we feel the emotions of the main character as well. This is one of the most enjoyable audiobooks that I have listened to in a while. The narrator truly brings the characters and story line to life just as I would think the author intended. I absolutely hope to read more from this author and hear more from this narrator. On the off chance that the author sees this review, I'm here hoping that we will revisit Lovelight Farms to follow the other characters on their journey! I am definitely not ready to leave the farm just yet!!

This felt like being transported to Stars Hollow at Christmas and I am here for that!! The main characters were so cute and I loved the story. Maybe moved too quickly from friends-who-are-fake-dating to actually-dating, love some pining and awkward will-they-won't-they moments. Overall, would def recommend for a cozy first snowfall this year!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: fiction, romance
CW/TW: mention of parental loss

I wanted to restart 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙁𝙖𝙧𝙢𝙨 as soon as I finished listening to it. I fell so in love with this story set in the charming small town of Inglewild, population lots of busybodies who have a pool going on whether Stella and Luca will ever hook up.

Stella owns the struggling Lovelight Farms so she enters it into an online contest run by a famous social media influencer who’ll visit and judge it among other businesses. On the line: prize money that could put the tree farm in the black. Problem: she lied on the application saying she ran it with her boyfriend who doesn’t exist.

In desperation she asks her awesome best friend Luca to pretend and he goes for it. These two have been dancing around each other for 10 years so this should be interesting.

This had all the humor, sweetness and delicious spice to make it one of the best stories I’ve listened to this year! Pippa Jayne’s narration is perfection! Every character had their own voice and unique personality, and I adored them all. I was impressed by how she captured Stella and Luca’s flirtations, their subtleties and nuances…these characters jumped to life! Borison gave her excellent material to work with. Several times I’d sigh over how well certain feelings or emotions were articulated. Both Stella and Luca carry grief and theirs was described so beautifully and respectfully. It connected deeply with me.

This is the book to read if friends-to-lovers and small town charm hit your sweet spot. It’s so well written and paced. The hype for this book is deserved and I’m jealous of anyone who gets to read or listen to it for the first time.

Thank you @netgalley & @dreamscape_media for my audio copy. This is my honest review.

<Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

First things first, I love the cover. I love the calm colours and the cute illustration. It matches the overall warm feeling of the book. But I was honestly bored with the book. (I’m probably the only one who thinks so because there are a lot of glowing reviews). I wasn’t not interested enough to stop reading it, but I probably won’t remember this book by next week.

The main relationship was honestly a bit boring. Luka didn’t really interest me as a character, but he did have some cute moments with Stella and an adorable family. But that ending though? Played with my heartstrings.

You know what? It was the setting that kept me around. The cozy small town and the Christmas tree farm with all the side characters.

I’m going to take a breather before going into the second book (which I thought was the first book lol).

Lovelight Farms is the sweet and steamy holiday romance we all need!

I am so glad that I got to read the first in the series since I started with In The Weeds. I really wanted to know the backstory on Stella and Luka and get introduced to the town and all the quirky characters.

This town is something special and it's so fun to see how close everyone is and how much everyone knows about everyone. It provides for some comedy for sure.

This is a friends to lovers, fake dating, small town, found family, holiday romance and I'm here for all of these tropes! Stella Bloom has just received the opportunity of a lifetime to have Lovelight Farm, her business, featured by the famous travel blogger Evelyn St. James. The only problem is she lied on her application and said she has a boyfriend. Luka Peters has been Stella's best friend for going on ten years now. He's her rock and she doesn't want to do anything to ruin their friendship. In this bind to help save her failing farm she has no choice but to ask him to fake date her and pretend to be her boyfriend.

Of course the pretending opens up the real feelings and the chemistry starts to build from the start of them agreeing to do this. As the two are forced together, it doesn't seem weird at all, but completely natural. The only issue is it's all temporary. But is it?

These two are definitely head over heels for one another from the start. You can tell how much each has pining for one another and as the reader you can't wait for them to finally be together!

I really enjoyed seeing Beckett in this book since I read In The Weeds first. His personality really shows and it was great to see the found family friend group created by the farm and the town. I suggest reading them in order because that really gives you the full story and it was so enjoyable for me to have that!

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for this ALC in exchange for my honest review.

The narrator, Pipa, did fantastic in Book 1 for this series. She read at a very clear speed at 1.75x This story is only told from Estelle/Stella/La La point of view. It’s a very cute read with adequate spice to it. There is a lot of the main characters thoughts in this story based on the POV. This made narration a little tricky at times because I wasn’t sure if she’d actually said any of those thoughts or just had two paragraphs of inner monologue before simply replying “okay”. It didn’t hinder the story, I just had to check back on the ebook 1-2 times if she’d said something or just thought it.

The perfect small town hallmark vibe. A great listen and as always great book from BK Borison. Auto buy for me for sure!

Watch my amazon live with Bk: https://amazon.com/live/broadcast/893b98d9-fb7a-4e04-b05d-d7c3cdeb3b64?tag=erinmbransco-20&linkCode=ilv&ref_=social

Thank you NetGalley for this audiobookARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is such a cozy story and it has the best winter/Christmas vibes!!

This was such a great story! I absolutely loved Stella and Luka’s friendship and their love story. The fake dating was done so well and I love how you could feel their connection through out the story! They felt so real and relatable and I just wanted the best for them :)

I absolutely loved how supportive both Luka and Stella were of each other. It was nice to see their bond and how they were able to grow throughout the book! It was nice to see Stella lower her walls and finally let Luka AND the partners in for the farm’s success.

Not only was the romance done so well, the messages throughout made it so well rounded. Seeing Stella deal with obstacles for her business and how Luka was dealing with grief made my heart want the best for them.

Such a good read!

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison. This book is fantastic! One of the BEST friends to lovers romance I have read!

I absolutely adored this book! B.K. had me smiling, crying, and feelings all kind of feelings I want to feel in a romance novel. This book is very much a hallmark movie in literary form, but in the best way possible. I had always thought that the enemies to lovers trope was my favorite, but B.K. convinced me that friends to lovers does it better! This book felt like that first warm cup of hot chocolate during the holiday season.

I truly felt transported to the little Christmas tree farm and I found myself fantasizing about heading east to find something like it this holiday season.

I enjoyed the audio book narrator as well, having read the physical book and listened to the audio version I can say I enjoy the story just the same with the narration.