2.5

Monica Adams Skips Christmas is a story following a first-year university student, Monica, as she goes home for the holidays and tries to decide what she actually wants to do. But she has just been dumped, she is pretty sure she wants to drop out, her parents have no time to see her and her grandpa has moved into her room - pretty much nothing is going as she's planned. In that light, Monica is boycotting the holidays until she reconnects with the upstairs neighbor Paige, an acquaintance from high school. Maybe there still is hope for the holiday season to get better after all?

I'm sad to say, I was just a tad bit disappointed reading this. It sounded really cute and promising, and while I can't say it was falsely advertised, I ended up enjoying it less than I expected. It seems to me that there were too many things trying to happen all at once in such a short story, that all of them ended up feeling surface-level and not as developed as they should have. There are several more serious topics and conversations that happen here, and they fall just a bit short on the account of the story being short and there not being enough time to fully explore them.

The novella is a happy ending, Hallmark movie blueprint, where you have everything goes wrong before the holidays, and then everything magically gets fixed just in time. And of course, that is not a bad thing. However, in the rush to fix everything some of the resolutions seemed quite unsatisfactory to me. Monica comes home wanting to drop out, knowing that telling her parents will react badly, they do react badly but the whole thing gets solved in one three-second conversation. Monica and Paige have quite a stupid miscommunication and stop talking but they also solve everything in a split second. I am aware you cannot fit everything into a novella, so there are bound to be some scenes that are cut but I just wanted a bit more overall!

Don't get me wrong, overall it was cute and soft and it had some fun scenes. I also loved the message of staying true to yourself and re-finding yourself after you feel like you've lost yourself. I can't say I disliked this book, it was okay, it was enjoyable but I felt like something was missing, just a little. So all in all, even if I've not enjoyed it as much as I hoped, if you want something short and sweet with a happy ending, this might be for you!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review!

Such a cute fun quick novella! I loved the christmasy vibes and the characters were so charming!

Only negative was that it was so short and I wanted more of this story!

Trigger Warnings: break-up, cheating, biphobia, past death of a grandmother, Alzheimer’s/dementia symptoms, immigrant parents

Representation: Polish-American, Bisexual, Lesbian

Monica Adams Skips Christmas is a sapphic Christmas novella. When Monica Adams comes home from her fall semester, she is struggling with how to tell her parents she doesn’t plan to go back in the spring. Her homecoming is less than ideal when her boyfriend breaks up with her, her grandfather has taken over her bedroom, and her parents work nonstop. Monica runs into her neighbor and old classmate, Paige, quite a few times which kickstarts their relationship.

Yay! Another gay Christmas book! This was a great little novella, very easy to read, and quick- I read it in one sitting. Both girls are very likable and while my parents weren’t immigrants, the pressure from Monica’s parents is very relatable. I wish the story was longer though. I think there were a lot of story arcs that could have lengthened it. I would have liked to learn more about Paige or Monica’s sister, the grandfather’s story could have way more depth, and a bit more development for the parents as well. Overall though, this was a very cute Christmas rom com that anyone looking for a HEA will enjoy!

This novella seemed rushed. I understand that there’s less room to write when doing a novella, but this was too much too fast to the point it was unrealistic. The love story was cute and the family aspect was cute, but it was all too fast. It was not my favorite read, but it’s a quick one.

This novella is a lovely little Christmas read that instantly put me in the festive spirit! I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting.

Harper includes many little details which make the book so special - including hot chocolate illustrations below each chapter heading and relatable Christmas references… I knew this book would be good when it mentioned my favourite Christmas film - The Holiday!

If you’re looking for a quick read with all the Christmassy feels I’d definitely recommend giving this a try!

Thank you Netgalley and Krista Harper for the ARC!

The biggest sin this book suffered was the length. If it had been a bit longer I think this could have been a queer classic in the making. Overall it felt more like someone summarizing the story. I'd still recommend it, especially to get in the holiday spirit, but with the warning that it may leave you wanting more.

the second i finished this book, i missed monica and paige (good news is, this is part of an upcoming series, so we'll get to see them again!!) i usually don't gravitate towards short books-they leave me wanting more sometimes and i feel as though the characters are surface level. but not with this book. monica and paige were developed really well, and really quickly. i think this has a lot to do with the immigrant parent trope. this is something that a lot of people can relate to, and something i relate to as someone who's grandparents immigrated to the us and raised my dad in a very traditional wav. i loved the inclusion of immigrants, Igbqt, and family struggles, as they really made the story feel real. i read that this was going to be like hallmark but make it gay, but the variety in the characters made it feel more real than a hallmark movie ever could.
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((I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.))

Thank you to NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

Overall my biggest issue with this novella is that I wasn’t shown a story. I was told how I was supposed to feel and how people were acting. The idea is here but I was not impressed with the completed product.

3.5⭐️/5

Many thanks to NetGalley and XPresso Book Tours for the digital ARC copy!

Reading this felt like waking up on Christmas morning and snuggling under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate. Such a cute and cozy Christmas novella. I loved the bisexual representation. I think I would have loved to learn more about Paige’s life and I could easily see this novella being turned into a full length novel.

I love Christmas novellas/short stories! It was so fluffy and cute + I’m a sucker for any sapphic story. I don’t really have anything bad to say, only I wish it was longer so we could’ve gotten a slightly slower burn for Mon and Paige!! They’re so cute, I just wish they would’ve had more time to get to know each other before they got together.

The real title of this book should probably be something closer to Monica Adams Skips Christmas for 10 Seconds.
Monica Adams is coming home for the holidays and her boyfriend dumps her so she decides to skip Christmas. She's struggling with her boyfriend dumping her, deciding to quit school, her Grandpa's failing health, and her parents absence but in comes the upstairs neighbor Paige, a girl she went to school with but doesn't really know but they do start to spend more time together and potentially something else develops.

This is a waffle between 1 star to 1 1/2 - 2. It had the bones but not the execution.
This is a novella that suffers greatly from being a novella. The author really bit off a lot more than they could chew and then tried to cram so many heavy-hitter type topics into such a short book. You've got being a first generation American and parental pressure to be successful because of sacrifices made in the past, you've got young heartbreak/young love, you've got dealing with growing up and determining what your future is going to be all on top of holidays with your family. There's just so much that could be very interesting but it's crammed so quickly that everything just falls really flat or is just very generic/stereotypical (the grandpa, her parents, and the random British guy that has like three lines "A bunch of wankers this lot is, innit?" really?).
I can feel for Monica and what she's experiencing but I don't really care about her because we just don't get enough of the story, she and Paige don't really have any personality whatsoever other than maybe the 'sunshine one and the grumpy one' trope but that barely applies here since you really do not know them at all. I guess for the sake of speed and limited pages so many things just jump forward very quickly, there are lot of instances of everyone jumping to wild conclusions (side note, Monica immediately says that Bryce was cheating and she tells everyone this but it's written that Bryce was only hanging out with the other girl and that was why he was breaking up with her. Hanging out isn't cheating sorry, you're allowed to have friends of the opposite gender and the fact that she immediately assumed cheating means that they definitely weren't in a healthy relationship. Bryce was a jerk but still), just to move the plot forward but it makes it unrealistic especially when some very big things get wrapped up in a neat little HEA bow in under 5 pages. There's a lot that could be so good, but it just needs to either be longer or have a lot taken out which is unfortunate. I'd probably give this story another go if it was full length.

This was a fun little novella about a young burgeoning romance. The two love interests are cute and the author did an amazing job fleshing out our main protagonist in just a few chapters.

I also loved reading about young queers in Chicago, making the city come alive along with the family traditions and the romance itself. I am eager to read more and would love something longer from this author!

A sweet holiday romance, it does have some potential. However, it feels like the book has been stuffing too many things and ideas at once in this short story. They deserve a few more chapters.


Thank you, NetGalley and Southside Mountain Press for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Type: Romantasy
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
Age range: 18+

Quotes:
- “Next time I hear you talk badly about your-self, I’m going to put you over my knee and spank the fuck out of your ass.”
- “ I know, Mom. That’s why I’m here. All yours for a while week. I’m even participation in this Christmas musical, even though I would rather throw myself off the Empire State Building”
- “This is crazy. And… I kind of love it.”

Review:
If you need a little heat to melt you this Christmas season this book is for you. It’s a nice Novella about a girl and her brothers best friend making a bet under Mistletoe. Things change when suddenly they are flirting and kiss. I really enjoyed how the story wasn’t dragged out like so many can be. The comedy in it is also a nice sarcastic break from the heat.

- Romansy
- Hidden Romance
- Friends to Lovers
- Fated Mates

Monica plans to skip Christmas this year. But we all know how that's going to go. I loved that this one was able to surprise me. And Christmas and Holiday books aren't known for being able to do that.

I think this novella bit off more than it could chew for the very short page count it had. The story is about Monica dealing with being dumped, not liking what she’s doing for school and potentially wanting to drop out, her grandfather beginning to decline in his health, her parents being absent, not feeling in the holiday spirit, and starting a new romance with a girl who lives in her building. The story is only around 80 pages so there’s just not enough time for any of these different aspects to feel completely fleshed out.

If this were a full length novel then I think this could’ve been really good. But as it stands most of the stuff here just felt so underdeveloped. I liked the idea of the romance between Monica and Paige, but there wasn’t enough time or enough chemistry built up to truly make me care about them.

I did appreciate this being a story about a girl in her first year of college and figuring out that she actually wants to do something different with her life. The pressures from her family and them having immigrated from Poland gives extra weight to that portion of the story. But again it doesn’t get enough page time to fully develop. There’s also some nice, atmospheric wintery and Christmas stuff with the Chicago setting. Overall I think this was a fine and very quick read.

What a nice little amuse-bouche to start my holiday season reading.

This extremely fast-paced novella is a Hallmark script waiting for pick up. I say this because although we have a LGBTQIA+ romance with a HEA, its very bare. I wish there was another 100 pages to flesh out the characters and settle the story down.

Other than, this book was a very short, cute romance. Which is what you sometimes need in-between all the seasonal heaviness.

Thank you to Southside Mountain Press and Netgalley for providing an e-ARC for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for giving me the Arc for Monica Adams Skips Christmas..... Unfortunately it wasn't for me. I'm not usually a holiday romance person to begin with so that could be a valid reason for me not enjoying it much. However, I DID like the culture that was incorporated I was just wishing there was more. More of everything really. The book was way too short so that made all scenes, components, conflicts, seem fast paced and rushed. 2 ⭐ It just didn't work for me but if you're into Hallmark this may be the book for you. Releases November 29, 2022.

This was a very fast read, not what I was expecting at all. I had a hard time connecting with the characters, the story was a bit sporadic and hard to follow.

Monica is having a bad day, like, a really, really bad day. She just returned home from her first semester in college to find her parents are too busy to say hi, her boyfriend dumped her instead of picking her up from the airport, and her grandfather's dementia has gotten worse. The happiest time of the year is anything but, until she runs into Paige her neighbor and ex-classmate.

This was a very cute Sapphic romance between two girls that will really get you into the winter holiday spirit.

I do wish it was a bit longer as most of the characters could use with a little more development, but for what it was, it was still a very cute novella - perfect for an afternoon on a cold day with a cup of tea.

I will mention though, one thing which really annoyed me (perhaps it's just because I'm an adult reading this, but nonetheless) was that Monica was so upset about not being about to see her parents because they were too busy at the shop to spend time with her, but she never offers to help out? They're obviously overwhelmed with the holidays and can't be at home, so why don't you spend time with them?

Thank you so much to Southside Mountain Press and Netgalley for giving me a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.