This book was just so sweet to listen too. I adored this slow burn romance. Add in the sapphic flare and i'm sold.

Duplicate review due to audiobook.

Sweet sapphic medium-spicy holiday romance perfect for the reader who loves wrapping up in a blanket and watching Hallmark movies. Melissa Moran is the perfect narrator for this and I look forward to hearing her read other books.

this was just like a hallmark movie in the best way. I really enjoyed it and the characters were so lovable. it left me wanting moreee.

Melissa Moran narrates Courtney Kae’s In the Event of Love (Fern Falls #1), in which event planner Morgan Ross gets a second chance with her dream girl and rediscovers herself along the way when she returns to her hometown for the holidays. Morgan’s career as a Los Angeles event planner trajectory hits a snag after she ends up in the tabloids after a night out. She retreats to her hometown and the people that broke her heart to work—and lay low. But she’s avoided going home for years, unable to face them or her past. When she slips and falls in the freezing mud, her rescuer is none other than the primary source of her heartbreak, Rachel Reed—her first love and childhood best friend. Rachel runs her family’s tree farm now. Her family’s struggling farm remains the only business standing between Fern Falls and the corporate greed destroying the whole town’s livelihood. To save the farm, Morgan resolves to plan her best fundraiser ever. Can Morgan maintain her professional distance long enough to pull it off and resist the pull of a heartwarming holiday happy ending with Rachel?

A clever, creative, successful event planner, Morgan puts all her energy into her work, ignoring her personal life and her badly broken heart. Morgan is aloof, self-isolating, lonely, and afraid to trust or let anyone get too close to her. Burdened by profound self-esteem issues, she carries the weight of the past with her everywhere she goes—despite trying to escape it by running away—unable to view it through mature eyes. While she’s relatable, Morgan’s a frustrating character to root for because she tends to wallow in the past and the fear that drives her issues and avoidance of her hometown. It almost makes her incapable of moving forward. Compared to Rachel, she’s a bit immature. Despite struggling with her own personal/family issues and baggage, Rachel is sweet, steadfast, kind, resilient, and resolved, with a forgiving heart. She’s also an incredibly talented artist. Rachel is still irresistibly beautiful and even sexier to Morgan than seven years ago.

Moran’s dynamic, amusing narration drew me into the novel from the first scene. Her voice perfectly fits Rachel, Morgan, and the novel’s male and female secondary characters. Moran captures each shift in the character’s emotions with expressive and distinct voices that differentiate the characters using pacing, pitch, and dialects. Her narration makes you feel like you are present with them in each moment. Skilled in narrating and providing distinct voices for numerous characters, her voice changes to reflect the characters’ moods and reveal their personalities, feelings, quirks, and states of mind with ease. Additionally, Moran uses her full vocal range to express/portray the intimacy between Morgan and Rachel and their chemistry, sensations, and moods during the novel’s intimate scenes.

Complementing Kae’s snarky, introspective, humorous, emotional, and lively narrative style, Moran’s narration delightfully brings Kae’s charming story and complex, relatable, and fallible characters to life. Kae’s colorful description makes her characters and story come alive in your mind. It’s a well-written mix of friends-to-lovers with a touch of second-chance romance. Although, technically, Morgan and Rachel’s romance never advanced past revealing their feelings and sharing a first kiss before their lives imploded during their senior year of high school. Kae develops Rachel and Morgan’s connection and evolving romantic relationship with chemistry-filled, sweet, sexy, steamy, humorous, colorful, and intensely emotional interactions, banter, and love scenes. In Morgan’s first-person POV, the author tells their love story by interweaving flashes of memories with the present. The novel’s quick pacing and mostly lighthearted, humorous tone, with a bit of angst, combined with her description, characters, and natural-sounding dialogue, make it a page-turner.

Kae creates a world that values diversity, rich with fascinating characters from different races, religions, ethnicities, sexual genders/identities, and sexualities. I love how they reflect open-minded loving respect for people based on how they treat others, their actions, and their hearts. Kae deftly develops her characters through humorous, sweet, emotional interactions and lively dialogue. I like Rachel, Morgan, their friends, and the townsfolk. They’re genuine, quirky, and funny, but not without their share of angst and drama. Kae nicely captures the feel of small-town life and community—how entwined peoples’ lives are and the fishbowl nature of small-town life. But she also explores how townspeople love each other, coming together to help one another.

A fast-paced read with an evenly balanced lighthearted, nostalgic, yearning, emotional tone, In the Event of Love is a sweet, sexy, humorous, steamy, and angsty small-town, friends-to-lovers, second-chance romance, exploring themes of friendship, letting go of the past, self-discovery, forgiveness, belonging, discovering what makes you happy, and coming home.

CW: Alcoholism, abandonment issues, self-esteem issues.

Advanced review copy provided by Tantor Audio via Netgalley for review.

A quintessential christmas romance! I LOVED Fern Falls and Morgan and Rachel and Ben and Adam and I'm so excited for the rest of this series!
The narrator did an incredible job with conveying Morgan's emotions and inner turmoil.
I do wish this book was dual POV, because I feel like having Rachel's perspective during key moments could've really added to their chemistry and development. But I loved being inside Morgan's head and understanding where her hurt and fears come from.
All in all a fantastic debut from a debut author who surely has amazing stories to tell in the future! I can't wait for Ben and Adam's story!!

heading back home for the holidays, morgan ross reunites with her old crush by planning a fundraiser to save her friend’s tree farm.

in the event of love is a cute and lighthearted romance to keep your heart warm during the holidays!

as cute as it was, i often found it difficult to get attached to the characters, which in turn made it difficult to be invested in the main relationship.

i do recommend this book if you are looking for a simple sapphic romance.

thank you rb media and netgalley for providing me of an audiobook arc in exchange for a honest review.

Is there anything purer than saving a Christmas tree farm from corporate greed? Event planner Morgan Ross retreats to the small town of Fern Falls just in time to help her childhood crush, Rachel Reed, save her family’s Christmas tree farm from being destroyed.

I was really excited to dive into Courtney Kae's debut novel. The world is overdue for queer holiday romances, and I'm so thrilled to see publishers acquiring more of them. I really enjoyed the community and friendships that Kae centered in this story, and the entire setup of saving not just the farm but also the town which is being threatened.

I love second chance romances, though there were times with this one where it felt as though so much of their connection was based on their past and not on who they've evolved into. I wanted to see a bit more of that growth and falling in love with the adults they've become. That said this is this author's first book, and I'm definitely curious to see what she'll write next!

I was familiar with Melissa Moran's narration from a different sapphic romance (Hideaway by Rachel Lacey) and really enjoyed her performance. I'll definitely be listening to more from her.

I thought this was super cute. I feel the conflict was overblown and caused unnecessary fallout. It's a cheesy sapphic Christmas romance in a small town and I am 100% here for that at all times.

I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a cute sapphic holiday romance.

Melissa Moran's narration was really good. She portrayed the characters well and had the perfect amount of emotion

this was good. i liked the hallmark story but in a sapphic setting. it was very similar to everything hallmark type things do before but theres a time and a place for it and i did enjpy it as i was writting it.

I received an advanced audiobook reviewer copy of In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae narrated by Melissa Moran from the publisher Tanter audio from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Morgan Ross's career has just blown up due to a paparazzi shot, desperate to keep up momentum in her event planning career despite the incident, she takes a job in her hometown Fern Falls, Montana. However, she doesn't expect that her job is really to save her former best friend turned crush turned kiss turned terrible break up, Rachel's Christmas tree farm.

What I Loved: Okay I love a book in Montana is there any place that evokes Christmas like Montana mountains? Please take me to Montana this Christmas. I loved being able to escape to Fern Falls. I loved meeting the whole crew group of friends. I loved the chemistry between Morgan and Rachel, I totally was cheering for them and wanted these two to live happily ever after. I thought this book was really a delight.

What I didn’t like so much: The conflict in this book seemed ridiculous and unnecessarily escalated. Like I couldn't believe that these conflicts led to such big consequences like not speaking and being angry for years. This doesn't just include the romance but also relationships with friends and family. If at least one of these conflicts didn't lead to the silence treatment it would be more believable.

Who Should Read It: People who want a great sapphic holiday romance set in Montana.

Summary: A second chance holiday sapphic romance in the mountains

I really enjoyed this narrator!

This was really cute and I want to go spend Christmas in a tiny mountain town now!

I’m not generally a fan of the lying/ withholding of information trope so I was a teensy bit annoyed with Morgan for that.

The epilogue was ADORABLE and I am obsessed with Ben and Adam and all their stolen glances. I can’t wait to read their story.

Right now I’m in the mood to read all things cozy and Christmas-y, so I’m positive I read this at the right time. It was exactly what I needed to get myself in the Christmas spirit.

This book was a super cozy and cute read, it (again) reminded me of a Hallmark movie, but add in some spicy-steamy times. The romance between Morgan and Rachel was adorable; I enjoyed seeing their feelings towards each other grow and develop over the course of the book.

Though I will say my main issue was that we never got Rachel’s POV. I just wanted to get to know Rachel more and her backstory. So, I felt this book could’ve heavily benefitted from a dual perspective. I also felt the dialogue was a bit too cheesy at times, and it kinda took me out of the story a little bit.

But this was still an enjoyable read and I would recommend it if you’re looking for a a solid sapphic Christmas book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

The amount of queer holiday books that have been released this year is joyously astounding. Seeing media begin to not only embrace but promote queer stories has been such a wonderful transition from how things were even just a few years ago. Granted, I understand most companies don’t do this out of altruism or pride. They go where the money is and have finally started to embrace that those in the LGBT+ community have purchasing power outside of June. While I can’t always show support with my wallet, I did pre-order 3 or 4 Sapphic holiday novels once they were announced. In the Event of Love was one of those ordered long before I was granted access to an ARC.
 
Unfortunately, this book was just fine for me. Not great, not awful, just fine. My biggest problem is that phrases and dialogue are used that have become trite. It’s yet another book that uses “mediocre white man” and “smash the patriarchy.” Which, yes absolutely, but there has to be another way of wording these ideas. Of course I may just be online too much, or have read too many books by people with the same type of vocabulary. At this point though, it just feels like a bot inserted those lines, instead of an actual living, breathing human being.
 
The main character also started out pretty unlikeable for me, but eventually was just bland. The rest of the characters and the chemistry between the leads were all just bland. I will absolutely concede that I may not be in the space for this type of book which may have impacted my lack of buy-in. I’d be down to try it again next year to see if this experience changes. However, there is one character who feels as if they are never enough who ironically continuously makes others feel as if they are not enough. My opinion will stay the same that they need therapy no matter how many re-reads occur.
 
Upside for those looking for steam, they fuck. A lot. They think about it, talk about it, allude to wanting it, do it. It’s steam city here and there ain’t nothing fading to black.
 
In the end, while this wasn’t what I’d hoped for, I’m glad it exists. More queer stories need to be told. Those that are good, bad, mediocre, and the rare ones that are utterly perfect. One of the wonderful things about books is that my mediocre is someone else’s perfect.
 
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute story. This book has included all of the LGBTQ family. Not every queer book includes everyone in the group, it's nice to see this inclusivity that I have not seen before. I liked this book very much. I really like Courtney Kae's writing and the next book in this series is just too far away, I will be counting down the days til I can listen to it.

As this was archived one day after I got it I sadly can’t give a genuine review. I have a job, so I don’t think I can be expected to read this whole book in one day.

What a perfect, sapphic romcom for the holiday season. If you're looking for a book that feels exactly as comforting as turning on a Hallmark movie and curling up on the couch to watch, this is it. Bonus points for being an f/f romance!

I was surprised to see the different audiobook cover, especially since the book cover has been all over my social media feeds. I think this might have changed since publication, definitely like the illustrated version better!

I loved the theme of this book. It was an adorable read perfect in time for holidays. I love a good troupe book. It was a quick read.

I'm going to give the audiobook version a 4 (I reviewed the book at a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars). Maybe it was because I kinda knew what was coming, or I could just pay closer attention to my favorite bits, but I had a pretty good time with the audiobook. The same problems still arose, like how most of the emotional conflict was driven by the main character simply harkening back to past issues - making references like "just like they did back then" or "just like when Christie walked out." The callbacks were too frequent and just didn't have enough of an emotional foundation built for you to think oh ya that really stuck with her I can see why she thinks that (plus all of that happened like 7 years ago). But aside from that, this has all of the Hallmark holiday goodness that you could want! There's flannel, delicious coffee and cupcakes, a cute Christmas town, the big city gal returning home with improper footwear (to quote my last review). The main characters are sweet and likeable and there's some good chemistry. I enjoyed the narrator (Melissa Moran) and her voice was perfect for Morgan. So grab some hot chocolate and curl up with this cute Sapphic holiday romance!
Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the advance copy.

Essentially this is a sapphic romance on Hallmark lines and it is not for me. I don't know why we need 2 full chapters to set up that the heroine is a mess and miserable. I feel like we could cut to the chase much quicker. I don't particularly like the heroine, nor do I love the second-chance romance paired with a messy family. I think this book may have an audience, but it felt clunky and generally not for me.

This was a book seemingly written with me in mind as the audience. So many gay women have always wanted to have a whole channel filled with hallmark movies just for them. This book fills a HUGE GAP in representation. Traditional publishers and popular media outlets have been turning down books and films and stories like this for years so it is a HUGE RELIEF to finally see stories like this picked up and promoted and published in the wider book community. Gay women do deserve to have a place in traditional publishing, they do deserve to be authors with book deals, they do deserve to see their stories made into films. I could go on and on! Thank you Courtney Kae for writing such a sweet and angsty Christmas Romance. This is easily one of my favorite books of the year. I fell in love along with the characters! *and I did grow up in a small California mountain town so this really hit the spot*