I think novella tried to pack a lot into its short length. Monica deals with a breakup, school stress, her grandpa's health, absent parents, and a budding romance with a neighbor. With just 80 pages, none of these storylines get enough time to really shine.
While Monica and Paige's romance had potential, it felt rushed and lacked chemistry. I appreciated Monica's college struggles and family pressures, especially with their immigrant background, but they needed more fleshing out.
Despite its flaws, the wintery Chicago backdrop adds a nice touch. Overall, it's a quick read, but it could've been better with more focus on fewer plot points.

Thank you Netgalley & Southside Mountain Press for an eARC of Monica Adams Skips Christmas!

This is a quick binge read with friends to lovers and a guaranteed happy ever after! Love the LGBTQA+ representation in this one.

19 year old Monica is going through it when she decides that she's going to skip the holidays this year. Her neighbor, Paige, is the only thing keeping her spirits merry. Paige has always been crushing on Monica, but does she feel the same way?

Even in the off-season, I love a good holiday rom com! My first by Krista Harper and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

A quick holiday read, I enjoyed reading it. I would have liked to see it being turned into a full-length novel just to have more time with the characters and their story.

This is a very new adult sapphic holiday novella. It has themes of big life changes and figuring yourself out. There's no steam. Enjoyable if you're looking for those things.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my chance to review.

This is a fast-paced novella, which I didn’t realize at first. I wished this book was longer because I wanted more of Monica and Paige’s story. There was A LOT of plot stuffed into this novella and some of it felt like it wasn’t flushed out (biphobia, cheating, a death, Alzheimer’s, etc.). I think it would have been better suited as a full novel

The hallmark channel Christmas movie, in book form. I don’t say that as a bad thing. Quit the contrary. But this one just fell flat. Maybe I just need a break from the genre but this one just didn’t do it. It was too short and so much is packed into those few pages.

This was quite soft, sweet. I enjoyed the concept of always putting yourself first and rediscovering your joy in life. The romance was wonderful.

This is a novella. I was very suprised thought it was no longer than 80 pages.

The author tries to put a lot into the story; first generation immigrants, caring for aging (grand) parents, family expectations and it is almost too much for a new adult romance. Especially when there is almost no romance in the pages. If this the set up for ongoing series then the set up is good. If this is the entire story for these characters then I was left with a lot of questions and am not satisfied. (2.5 to 3 stars)

A cute love story, but overall underwhelming. Monica is devastated by a break-up and the changes that have occurred in her household while she’s been away for her first semester of college. The plot is thin and the reasoning behind decisions is not solid. There are much better YA sapphic romances out there than this one.

Okay, so for reading a Christmas book in June, I actually loved it. It was so cute and whitty and I loved the majority of the characters. The ones I hated (Bryce & Monica's mom for a small amount of time) I feel was just and were just well written to help me feel those negative emotions.

Was a super short read (which I love) but packed a big punch with such a great story!

Paige and Monica forever 💗

This is a short and sweet story, I enjoy how things were not drawn out and the characterization was well done for not having a ton of space, A nice read for the holiday season!

"Monica Adams skips Christmas" by Krista Harper is a short novella about 19-year old engineering student Monica, who gets broken up with just before Christmas. With parents too busy to even say Hi and a grandpa living in her old bedroom, Monica decides that she has had enough and doesn't want to participate in Christmas anymore. That is, until she meets one of her former high school classmates Paige again...

This was a cute short festive novella! I loved the Polish and Japanese representation in this book and Paige and Monica were quite cute together. But unfortunately I lacked a deeper investment in this story, as I felt the story was too short and could've been longer. This novella is a bit overambitious with the issues it wants to tackle and I feel like focusing on some few core issues would've been slightly better, as there would've been more room to explore the characters a bit more deeply.

It was okay, short sweet and to the point, just not my favorite read. I kind of wished there was a little more to the story. If you're looking to fill your monthly read goal this might be a quick way to get your number up.

Thank you netgalley for the review copy
2.5
I liked the story but I feel like being so short went against the novella and it's development.

This was a quick and easy novella, ait was very fast paced. I genuinely liked the story and most of the characters, but I think I would have liked it if it was longer. It seemed like there was missing something which would have been great to elaborate on in a longer book.

I liked Paige a lot and the relationship build up, and the way they interacted with each other. However I think the way Monica handled Bryce was just annoying, she didn’t get to stand up to him or make him see that it wasn’t her fault, she basically just took the easy way and said whatever and make him think he was right about everything.

Overall it was a quick lovable novella with a fun and easy language, could have wished for more, but great nonetheless.

This was a cute book. I loved the setting and I did like the characters, but I really wish they had been fleshed out a bit more. This is a light read that screams for more depth and length.

I’m someone who has spent a huge part of my life in Chicago so I was super excited to read a Chicago based romance. This book is definitely short and sweet so you have to expect things to move quickly but I felt that it could have easily been longer just by letting us get to know the characters more and I felt that that was needed. I unfortunately did not care for the characters really at all and I found our main character to be a bit annoying. I could absolutely see the potential here but I do feel it needed that length and depth to get there.

2.5⭐️ Holiday Novella ❄️🧤🛷

I reallllly wanted to like this, but there was too much story in this short novella. I feel like this could easily be expanded one day to create a super cute, more fleshed out /smoother, holiday story and romance. I just didn’t totally buy the relationships in this one and think it needs more “meat” to it to make it complete!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-book ARC!

This was a cute Christmas Story and while I applaud the author's efforts to combine so many things in less than 100 pages, it didn't make me feel the Christmas warmth. The characters were super cute.

I enjoyed this quick romantic read. It felt cozy and just the right amount of cheesy and festive. I would recommend this to anyone wanting WLW during the holidays.