Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this incredible book!

I loved this book! Give me all the indie author Christmas reads this season! I was hooked from the beginning on Olive and Finn’s story. I loved seeing their relationship develop and their connection was incredible! Finn trying to get Olive to love Christmas again with his “12 Days of Christmas” was the cutest.

T H I N G S I L O V E D :
•fake dating
•reverse grumpy/sunshine
•Finn was perfection!
•ALL the Christmas vibes/activities
•he falls first
•dual POV!
•flirtatious banter
•wonderful character growth

This is the perfect book for the Christmas season and such an enjoyable read!

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley & Juliana Smith for giving me an eARC for this incredible book!

I enjoyed every second reading this book! It was truly like a traditional Christmas / Holiday movie as a book and I was hooked from the start. I loveddddd how body image insecurities were tackled in this book and it truly felt relatable and inspiring.

Overall, such a feel good book that truly got me in the Christmas / Holiday spirit! This is my first Juliana Smith book I’ve read, and I truly can’t wait to read more.

I had seen this book all over Instagram and was SO excited to read it! A fun holiday synopsis, freakin' adorable cover, and great reviews--even a blurb by one of my favorite authors, Lynn Painter. So when it appeared on NetGalley, I immediately requested it and read it a few days after being approved.

I'm trying to be delicate, but I have to wonder whether I am reading the same book as everyone else?? There was a bizarre romantic trajectory (strangers to enemies to lovers in the span of a few days), a predictable hook in why the lead hasn't returned to her hometown in three years, and constant discussion of body image issues. Say nothing of the writing itself, which was... less than stellar. It seemed so surface-level and forced. There were also small errors, like the mentioning of yellow ski trails, which don't exist in the U.S. (it goes green, blue, black). This book might be a fine use of time if you have Kindle Unlimited and it's ultimately available on there, but I can't imagine purchasing it individually. The best thing I can say is that if you like The Simple Wild, you might like this, as the main characters are equally as annoying.

I am so confused about the hype surrounding this one, and perhaps it just suffered from a case of OVERhype such that my expectations were too high. I hate leaving a review like this on an indie-published book, but it's almost important to be honest. Thanks to the author for my eARC of this one! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars - 5/10

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
I loved this! A nice change in that the grumpy is the girl and the sunshine is the guy. It was really funny right from the start. And I do love a fake dating trope. My first book by this author - now I have to read her other one. Read in one sitting - cute & fast, not steamy (but that's ok, it works here).

Olive is heading home for Christmas for the first time in three years. Things with her family have been off since the “incident” and Olive has not been home since. She does not enjoy Christmas, and is dreading the next twelve days. On the plane she sits next to the gorgeous Finn, who is all about the Christmas spirit! Finn is amused at Olive’s lack of interest in him, and decides to pester her the whole flight. A few alcoholic drinks in, they are having a pretty good time and enjoying themselves.
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Olive mentions to Flinn that she had told her parents she was bringing home a boyfriend, which she was indeed not doing. Finn offers himself to take the part, but Olive quickly declines. That evening, when Olive was at a very awkward dinner with her family, Finn shows up to help make it even more awkward. Olive finally agrees to let Finn play the part, and he promises that at the end of her time in Aspen, she will find the Christmas spirit again.
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This was a super cute Christmas read, and I really enjoyed reading it. It was fun, and the banter back and forth was on point. I am all about the fake dating trope, but I had to take this down to four stars because the insta-love felt strong. .
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Make sure to pick up this cute Christmas Rom Com for the holidays!!!

Review will go up By 11/25

Buckle up for a ❄️blizzard❄️ of emotion and romance!!🎿This book is a wonderful, funny, cute way to start getting into the Christmas spirit!!! 🎄
I cannot DESCRIBE how good this book is!!!! The story of Finn and Olive is so cute!! The chemistry between these two characters was absolutely amazing!!! (I really love the scenes of them on the plane watching Harry Potter together 🥰!)
I mean who doesn’t like a fake dating, reverse grumpyxsunshine vibe, “he falls first”, Christmasy, and romantic book with an extra dash of mysterious drama!!!! 😧 I mean not only is there a plot of “Are Finn and Olive going to get together???”, there’s also a plot line of “What made her not want to go back home SO badly??”! It’s a pretty fun combo to read, it really equates to you just never putting the book down!!! I just really love all of the characters and the chemistry!!!
It’s a super super fun read and I definitely recommend it! Reading this book, on a cold day, with some hot tea/coffee (or maybe some of Finn’s apple cider 😉)-what could be better?!?! I can’t wait to share this book and see how much other people love this book because there’s no way you can’t like it!!!

Thank you so much to and for letting me read this book!!!! I think this book may always be special to me because there’s a lot of little coincidences/Easter eggs that tie into my own life! I really hope y’all go read this book and get to experience the ❄️blizzard❄️ of emotions that this book will take you through! -M💛

Baggage Claim — 🧳🎿🌲⛸❄️☕️

4.75 ★’s

“If you were mine, you’d never wonder how perfect you are.”

•Holiday Romance
•Small Town
•Fake Dating
•Reversed Grumpy x Sunshine
•Forced Proximity

The story follows Olive Moore as she returns to her hometown of Aspen, Colorado for Christmas. Anxious to return due to the skeletons of her past, she meets Finn Beckett—the hottie in seat 15B—during her flight home.

The book is very well paced. It predominantly takes place over a two week period, but at no point did it feel rushed. The deeper topics layered throughout the story allow the character’s to feel more realistic, and connect you to them on a more personal level.

One of my favourite parts was when Finn created his own ’12 days of Christmas’ in order to show Olive all the things she’s been missing. She even adopts the most adorable nickname and every time he called her some variation of it, my heart squeezed 🥹

I found this an easy and enjoyable read and would highly recommend to anyone looking for recommendations for their Christmas TBR.

A Hallmark movie in book form. I can’t wait to purchase a physical copy!

Thank you @author.juliana.smith and @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Baggage Claim releases on the 26th of November and will also be available on Kindle Unlimited!

“Not that this was a date. It was an experiment, a practice, a three-hour trial to the subscription of Finn. ”

Olive hasn’t been home to Colorado in years due to a horrible Christmas she had and wanted to forget. With some pushing from her mom and a flight booked to Aspen, she accidentally says her boyfriend is coming, but Olive doesn’t have a boyfriend…. While on the plane, the hottie in 15B gets her to fess up as to why she’s so nervous and offers to be her fake boyfriend for the holidays. 12 dates of Christmas later, and the fake feelings are starting to feel real.

Winter, snow, Christmas and Harry Potter. I just can’t imagine how this could have had any more me in it. It started off so strong with the grumpy Olive to the sunshiney Finn. This hit me right in the feels when she finally gets home and sees her mom for the first time in years.

Olive has some insecurity issues, which I see some reviewers had a huge problem with. We are seeing these issues through Olive’s eyes though, not anyone else’s, so these are her personal insecurities, and I didn’t feel this was “sending” any bad message even if it wasn’t necessary. Finn definitely came on very strong which was funny, but did feel a bit pushy and was a bit much. I did very much adore him though, so I guess the dimples do work.

“I had no interest in anyone other than the Grinch sitting on my right. ”

This book has a short time line so it ends up being insta love, which I don’t like. Some of the scenes rush into others without an appropriate break or timing explanation. The conflict was predictable from the start but didn’t get “discovered” until almost the very end (silly) and in my opinion totally unforgivable and the reasoning unrealistic. Lastly, there was one fade to black.

Overall this was a cute, winter Rom-Com. It would have benefitted from being longer. It started off very strong, and tapered off for me. My ARC copy was missing 3 chapters and had a repeat chapter in place so there was something I must have missed. I received an ARC of this and my review is my own opinion.

❄️ Reverse Grumpy Sunshine
❄️ Winter Rom-Com
❄️ Fake Dating

3.5 ⭐️
0 🌶

If you love everything Christmas, fake dating trope, and lovable MCs, this is the Perfect holiday read!

Olive is flying home to Aspen for the first time in 3 years to spend the holidays with her family after an incident that led her to run. In a panic moment she told her mom she was bringing home a boyfriend that she most definitely did not have! Step in Finn, the good looking ski instructor that she shares a row with on her red eye flight home. After too many Jack and cokes, Finn offers to be her fake boyfriend. In addition to playing her boyfriend, Finn is determined to make Olive love Christmas, so he plans a 12 days of Christmas for her.

This story was predictable, but I loved every single second, and devoured this in a day! The story was so sweetly written, and I loved Finn and Olive. The banter was fun, I loved the nicknames, and it was such a fun holiday romance read.

Thank you NetGalley and Juliana Smith for my ARC in exchange for my honest feedback!

4.5 🌟 overall!!

This was an absolutely enchanting Christmas read that I had been anxiously awaiting since it was first announced on author Juliana Smiths Instagram!! If you’re looking for an adorable reverse grumpyxsunshines, fake dating, hallmark-esque holiday romance than this is the book for you!! It literally has everything, the plot is awesome, the characters are just amazing… I mean I never knew how much I could love a cinnamon role book boyfriend with just the right dash of protective possessiveness, and how well that kind of book boyfriend would fit with the strong willed, broken but healing main female character!! All together this book has been my favorite holiday book of the season so far!


We start off our story with a red eye flight from bright, warm, sunny Florida to cold, Christmas loving, snow covered Aspen. This is where we meet Olive, our grinch like, Christmas hating, anxious to be reunited with her family main character. And honestly all poor Olive wants, is what we all want on a long flight… to be left alone. Unfortunately for her, or perhaps fortunately this is where Finn comes in, and he is a Christmas loving, buddy the elf type flirt, who is here to annoy Olive in to talking if for no other reason than to amuse himself on this red eye flight. When Finn finds out that Olive is dreading going home and all that comes with it, he offers to be her fake boyfriend in return for her allowing him to show her just how much Christmas magic is left in the world. And while their meeting is full of turbulence, after a 4 hour conversation and about as many drinks they heading for a smooth landing. This kicks off a of crazy, beautiful, super romantic events that tie together to make and amazing novel. One that you absolutely must add to your TBR.


HAPPY READING 📖

A fake-dating Christmas romcom reminiscent of a Hallmark movie. I found the writing and dialogue to be amateurish, and the characters hugely unlikeable. The pacing was off, which resulted in a total lack of tension. I personally wouldn't recommend this to any experienced readers of romance, and would hesitate to recommend it to anyone brand new to the genre either.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I love holiday books. Even if they’re cheesy or unrealistic, I just love reading about characters doing festive activities and falling in love as the snow falls and Christmas carols play in the background. This one did not disappoint. Baggage Claim is a perfect holiday rom-com! Truly a hallmark movie as a book. It was just the right amount of cheesy, yet serious and sincere and I found myself unable to put it down.

This definitely included insta love, but I found myself not really caring because I loved these characters and allowed myself to suspend my disbelief and have a fun time watching the two of them fall in love, despite the unrealistic timeline. I also found the plot twist toward the end to be fairly predictable and not super important to the story, but again, I didn’t really care because the story was so sweet.

I really loved this story and I thought it had just the right amount of holiday cheer. I liked that it was a holiday book that focused more on the season as a whole than just on the holiday. It was so sweet watching Finn help Olive work through her insecurities and get back to her old self. I really adored Finn and Olive as individuals and as a couple, and it was so fun to read their story.

Oh and Finn is top tier as far as book boyfriends go🫶

Thank you to NetGalley and Juliana Smith for the arc!

To ease her family's concerns about her love life, Olive lies about having a boyfriend to bring home for Christmas. Without a plan in place, she gets on the plane home and drowns her sorrows in alcohol and shares her predicament with the man in the seat next to her. Finn is ready to save the day and pretend to be Olive's boyfriend so she can keep up her act, but Olive isn't convinced.

I was really, really looking forward to this one, but there were a few things that ruined the book for me.

The first thing that bothered me was the way Olive viewed her body and the way others interacted with it. The whole "chubby, brunette ugly girl turned blond, thin babe who doesn't finish her slice of pie" is so 2006 and I don't want to ever see this trope again. Ever. I had hope that eventually we would get a heartfelt conversation about her body image and diet/exercise habits, but instead we got a paragraph about how she was going to try to eat dessert occasionally. *eyeroll* Glad she has a great body that most men would love tho.

The second is kind of a spoiler, so stop here if you don't want to know any more.

I detest reading books with forced conflict amongst women - especially over a man. To go so far as to have the main character not be on speaking terms with her sister over a man is too much. Having a main character be cheated on by a boyfriend with her BIG SISTER is too much. "Love at first sight" is not an excuse for cheating. You knew each other for a few hours. Their excuse was that they kept staring at each other over dinner. I mean....come on.

THEN Finn really got mad at her for not telling him? Babes, you met her less than two weeks ago. Then she apologized and he sent her away? For what reason?

Overall, I think this had a lot of potential, had certain topics been handled more sensitively and others not have been included in the first place.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I REALLY wanted to like this book. I loved the plot set-up, and I even downloaded it to read during my weekend trip to Colorado. I love all of the tropes included, but ultimately the characters were not developed. This book was the epitome of insta-love, which isn't always a dealbreaker for me, but I had a hard time believing that these two characters even knew each other. All of their interactions were extremely surface-level, and I could not feel any chemistry between them. Also, the main conflict in the book is handled so oddly?? And there are so many plot holes?? Genuinely confused. I really wanted to like the family's involvement, but even that didn't make sense.

I'm not against reading more by this author, but this book needed some serious reworking/added depth.

I really enjoyed this book and absolutely loved the grumpy sunshine/fake dating plot about it. The characters were really lovely and I read this book in one sitting. This book made me laugh and I would sincerely recommend this book! This is a good holiday read. 🎄

My personal rating: 4⭐️

Olive Moore moved to West Palm Beach, Florida after a huge falling out with her sister three years previous on Christmas. Now her mother is urging her to come back home for the holidays. She misses her family more than anything so she agrees to fly back to Aspen, Colorado to spend the holidays with them but may have let it slip that her boyfriends is coming too.

Her non-existent boyfriend.

On the flight she meets the dreamy but irritating Finn who is her seat companion. After a few drinks loosen her up she informs him how she lied to her family about bringing home a boyfriend when Finn has the bright idea of playing the part for her.

Will there be kisses under the mistletoe?

I wanted all the swoony holiday goodness that was promised but I didn't get it and the reason for that is easy, Finn.

He's a real dudebro. Every woman is called doll or darling. All woman practically drop their panties when he looks in their direction and if people really winked as much as he did in this book then the world would be an even creepier place than it already is. 😉😉😉

"I was the best with parents actually; usually when I broke up with a girl, her parents were as upset as she was."

I'm sure they're thrilled you dumped their daughter and broke her heart. Right!

"I was known as the guy that parents love, but unfortunately for them, I didn't stick around long. Usually, their daughter said she wanted something casual, but the second her family met me, she started picking out wedding flowers."

Bless her lovestruck heart!

"She placed a soft hand on my bicep which I probably flexed a little for her."

Is it hot in here?

"I may or may not feel like flexing a little bit in front of her; she is not easily shaken it seems, and I want to see her pretty little jaw drop to the floor."

You Adonis you! How can any woman resist?

"Even after buttering up her parents and wearing my best-looking suit, she still told me no. It knocked me down a few pegs, but thankfully I have ego to spare."

Ego to spare? You don't say.

"I wasn't shy or quiet by any means when I found a girl attractive, so they usually loved my honesty and would jump at the opportunity to go out with me."

Of course they did!

"It was odd to have someone consistently say no to me. I had cute cheeks with dimples as a plus. Combine that with sweet manners, and I could get just about anything I wanted."

No means no, dude. Dimples or not.

I could go on and on with these quotes but I will spare you.

This was instalove that made zero sense. There was absolutely NO chemistry between these two but within days they are head over heels for one another.

The conflict between the sisters was so obvious from the beginning that dragging it all the way out to the end seemed a little ridiculous and, as I said, not the least bit surprising.

I'm also a little miffed that when Olive had short dark hair and was a little chubby she was the ugly sister but when she moves to Florida, loses weight, dies her hair blonde, gets a tan she's now become every mans dream come true. What message is that sending? No wonder she has an eating disorder. I just hate that so much emphasis is place on appearance rather than personality and that's in regards to both characters, Finn and Olive. We get how insanely beautiful they are without it being mentioned on every single page.

'Tis the season and a Bah humbug from me! 2 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for my complimentary copy.

rating: ★★★½

this was such a cute and fluffy, christmasy read. I absolutely adored this baby! It had everything from good humor to soft and mushy moments—and by good humor, i mean real good. Most of the times such books lack that immensely and every other joke’s just cringey or stupid.

obviously all the credits goes to our man, Finn. This was a reverse grumpy x sunshine and i usually don’t like it much but this book proved me wrong cuz i thoroughly loved Finn!! I read it in basically a day because the pace was extremely good and the story, if not unpredictable, was enjoyable.

Well, one thing that surprised me was no smut? Lmao I don’t know why I thought it’d have some if not very explicit, but...ugh. It sucked. Apart from that, I loved the banter and the ending?? It wasn’t surprising but it still left me in tears cuz I was real mad at the situation whatsoever. I’m not a forgiving person...AT ALL so, yeah. That’s all I got to say.

Thankyou so much Xpresso Book tours and netgalley for sending the arc!! I appreciate it sm!

I absolutely adored this wintry rom com and couldn’t put it down! If you like a fake dating trope, this one is executed to perfection!

Olive meets Finn on her flight home for Christmas. It is the first time she has been home in three years, after an awful incident involving an ex made her rush out of town. She told her family she would be bringing a boyfriend with her, and Finn volunteers to play the part of her boyfriend. He also decides to give her 12 days of Christmas to put her in the Christmas spirit, and the days are sweet and fun and bring the pair closer.

There was so much holiday atmosphere here as they decorate the Christmas tree, go ice skating, and watch all the best holiday movies. The slow burn to their romance was so well written, and their banter is funny and fun to read. The growing relationship between Finn and Olive is center stage, and both characters are so lovable that you just want them to hurry up and be happy together! Olive’s mental health and feelings of not being good enough took a hit from what happened with her ex, and I liked how the author didn’t shy away from that topic and how Finn discusses this with her throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Juliana Smith for the fantastic ARC in exchange for my honest opinion! I would highly recommend giving this one a read!

I enjoyed this cute holiday romance. This was my first book by this author and won't be my last.

Being from Colorado I enjoyed this being set in the Rocky mountains! I loved how this played out and Finn coming to the rescue. The whole sister drama I kinda figured it out but wish it was mentioned sooner so we didn't have to keep hearing about it. I get it, it would be extremely awful but mentioning it everyone thought was a tad annoying.

There was one double chapter that I emailed them about so I missed a chapter.

This book was good. The writing was excellent and the overall themes and the story was very good. The writing flowed making it very easy to understand