4.5⭐️
1.5🌶

Lovelight Farms is the sweetest friends-to-lovers holiday romance that'll have your smile lighting up like lights on a tree.

Stella and Luka are absolutely swoon-worthy. They are both so kind-hearted and gentle, and their little quirks compliment one another wonderfully. Throughout the story, their mutual pining, stolen moments, and only-for-you smiles gave me butterflies. Wishing I had my own hazelnut latte in hand, I smiled and laughed out loud at their silliness alongside their friends, feeling like a welcomed visitor at their quaint little farm.

Lovelight Farms is an excellent story for when you want a heartwarming story and a soft place to land. The plot is simple with a teeny splash of mystery, and most of the tension is saved for the emotions between the main characters. And while the characters have their soft moments, their own difficulties to process and overcome, it's a fun, gentle story for the holiday season, and totally worth the hype it receives.

Read if you like: grilled cheese sandwiches, small towns, hazelnut lattes, the comfort of a best friend, kittens, and poofball hats.

**Thank you to Berkley, BK Borison, and NetGalley for a copy of Lovelight Farms in exchange for my honest review!**

Stella Bloom owns Lovelight Farms. Her farm is in trouble so she enters a contest for cash to revitalize the farm. She talks her friend Luka Peters into posing as her boyfriend for the duration of the contest ... with romantic results!

I enjoyed the farm setting of this book, the holiday setting as well, and the sweet love story of Stella and Luka. I recommend this book for fans of contemporary romance, especially with a small town setting.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

I don't tend to enjoy friends to lovers. And fake dating is fine. So imagine my surprise when I gobbled this up like a Thanksgiving turkey?

I remain unsure about the Italianisms. That certainly isn't the Italian spelling of Luka. But nearly everything else was quite a delight, and I'll eagerly finish the rest of the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

What you can expect in Lovelight Farms:
-fake dating
-friends to lovers
-slow burn
-🌶🌶
-found family
-small town
-swoony and angsty scenes

When Stella has to come up with a fake boyfriend to help her try to win a contest with a famous influencer - she can't think of a better person than her best friend - Luka. But Stella is afraid to ask him, because of her very real feelings for him. And when he agrees, the lines between fake and real start to blur.

You know how you beat yourself up after reading an amazing romance and wish you would have started it sooner? Yeah, that's exactly how I felt about Lovelight Farms. So many book friends have been recommending this book to me, and I am totally beating myself up for not reading it sooner. I will admit - books themed around the holiday season can be big misses for me. But that was totally not the case with Lovelight Farms. I fell for the main characters as well as the charming small town. This book had all of my favorite tropes - tied up with a beautiful Christmas-y bow on top!

I have so many passages highlighted in Lovelight Farms. B.K. Borison's writing is so beautiful. I'd be laughing one minute and have tears streaming down my face the next. And I absolutely cannot wait to start the next book in this series!

If you're looking for a sweet and swoony small town romance with holiday vibes, I highly recommend you pick up Lovelight Farms.

Lovelight Farms is fluffy, adorable, and delightful romance with lovely characters and perfect setting.

This definitely has a hallmark movie vibe with lots of Christmas spirit, with friendship, love, and holiday magic at its core. Writing is heartwarming, lovely, and steady-paced with first-person narrative from Stella’s POV.

Stella is lovely, kind, and compassionate. I admired her for what she achieved with her farm and how determined she was to make it successful even though her financial situation is badly affecting her savings. I loved how she slowly accepted love and support of both her friends and Luka. It was great to finally see her realize how much Luka loves her.

Luka was perfect throughout the book. I can’t believe how patient he was. He has been showing Stella he loved her in every small way and he knew Stella needed time and had an abandonment issue and so he took it slow and was patiently waiting for her to take next.

Beckett, Layla Stella makes amazing trio of Lovelight Farms. Inglewild makes the perfect quaint small town. Another favorite part of the book is Stella giving Evelyn the influencer tour to Lovelight Farms. I agree with Evelyn, I wouldn’t want to leave the farm after seeing it in its Christmas spirit, her description of the farm “North Pole had a love child with Narnia” is so apt.

Romance is slow burn with friends-to-lovers trope. It was heartwarming to read how Luka and Stella slowly falling in love over the past ten years. Banter is fun and chemistry is hot and sizzling. What I loved most is how they handled fake dating and their real feeling. They were upfront about how they didn’t want it to ruin their friendship and handled the confession maturely.

Overall, Lovelight Farms is cozy, comforting, fluffy and heartwarming small-town fake dating romance with lovely characters and setting.

I don’t totally understand the hype around this one.
I liked the setting and thought the Christmas tree farm was so warm, cozy, and nostalgic. I enjoyed the side characters and through they added a fun and quirky layer.
My problem was this book used my least favorite trope, miscommunication. Stella and Luka just refused to talk. And even when Luka stared talking, Stella was so clueless and refused to believe him. It was just annoying how obvious both characters were about their feelings but they refused to act like adults about it.
Overall, it was a cute love story but not for me.

Friends and Fake Dating: Lovelight Farms

What I Liked

Stella Bloom has a dream, to revive the warmth and love she experienced with Lovelight Farms as a young girl. But the expensive purchase of the charming christmas tree farm seems like a bad decision at every single turn. Rotting trees, destroyed property, dwindling finances and the list goes on. To gain some much needed publicity and a hefty cash prize, Stella enters a contest held by an influencer, Evelyn St. James, but embellishes the truth a little to make her entry more appealing. Stella claims that she runs Lovelight Farms with her boyfriend, despite not having one.

In swoops her best friend, Luka Peters, who is more than happy to fill those shoes. Temporarily, of course. At least until the contest is over and the farm is saved. But the entire town has been rooting for their romance and suddenly, it no longer seems as fake. But Luka and Stella refuse to jeopardise their friendship for something more. Or, at least that’s what they tell themselves.

We all know where this is going.

Lovelight Farms does nothing brand new but it does it in such a way that warms your heart. It’s your standard Hallmark Christmas repertoire in written form. I only wished that this was released around the Christmas season rather than in the middle of the year, which is such a strange time for a cosy holiday romance. I loved how charming everything is, from Lovelight Farms, the townsfolk and the small town stories. I have a lady boner for small town living and it just sets the background so perfectly for Luka and Stella’s romance. Some of the descriptions are absolute chefs kiss; beautifully written lines that put you right in the moment.

I also loved Stella and Luka individually, despite Stella being a little bit frustrating at times. I love how dumb and oblivious she is about the signs that Luka is practically holding up in neon. I also loved the relationship that they have. I’m not a huge fan of the friends to lovers trope (give me a good enemies to lovers romance any day) but this one may be just enough to convert me. But, I also absolutely love faking dating even though this one was severely underutilised, mostly because it’s clear as day that Stella and Luka are in love with each other.

What I Didn’t Like

I absolutely did not like the length of Lovelight Farms. It dragged on longer than it should. I believe it’s mostly due to the friends to lovers trope not being utilised correctly. To me, friends to lovers is only a trope that works if the friends slowly grow to realise that they’re in love with one another. Right off the bat, Luka and Stella already admit to having feelings for each other (but not to each other, of course). I also absolutely dislike the miscommunication trope which seems to be a more common trend for third acts. The entire book could have been shortened if Stella had just communicated with Luke instead of avoiding him and making baseless assumptions.

I was also not a fan of the external conflict because it didn’t seem to affect the story except provide a convenient excuse for Stella to join the contest and call in Luka for help. It was dismissed and resolved in a moment of Hallmark simplicity. The influencer contest was also just another convenient excuse for Stella to insinuate Luka into her life. It was so unexplored, unexplained and there was barely any proper resolution. Most scenes with Evelyn St. James were fade to blacks or, they happened off page. In fact, it is clear that Evelyn St. James’ introduction was merely to give her a story with one of Stella’s employees. For a book that’s so lengthy, it doesn’t focus on any one aspect to explain in depth and develop. Like, pick one or the other and explore it properly.

But perhaps, the thing I hate most is that all the characters introduced are falling in love with one another. It’s becoming more and more common to see this being blatantly done in recent publications to create opportunities for a series. I get that this can happen in small towns, especially since these are the people that you see on a daily basis. But it just seems so awkward and unnatural when Stella goes into town, her narrative is just constantly pointing out that this person has a spark with this one and this couple are together. Practically everyone in town is in love with each other; like, I don’t come from a small town so I wouldn’t know but it just seems like lazy writing. It’s clearly done to create anticipation for further romances in the series. Almost all romances do this but it’s done in a more subtle way rather than having ten pairings thrown at you on every page!

To sum it all up, there are a lot of things execution wise that I didn’t quite like but it did not take away from my enjoyment of the book. It’s just part and parcel of reading a book that seems like it’s stepped right out of the Hallmark repertoire.

I would have likely enjoyed it more if I read it in November or December, but I appreciate how it was not over-the-top holiday-ish either. I adored the small town these characters lived, with all its charm (including a very fast phone tree) and overprotectiveness of its citizens. This found family of friends were everything one could want and I look forward to their upcoming love stories, especially Beckett after find the "raccoons".

As for Stella's, how can you go 10 years of being in love with your best friend? She had to have been blind to not see how much he loved her and vice versa, especially near at the ending. The man deserves a gold medal for his patience! Luka was one of a kind. I was also not a huge fan of the reason for the fake dating, which was that she felt her Christmas tree farm would be more romantic if it was owned by a couple. Her origin story was amazing as is.

Thank you to netgalley for the e-book!

really lovely and made me want it to be Christmas time, hahahah! characters and setting were oh so real. Excited to see more of this universe

Lovelight Farms was beautifully written. I loved the tenderness, the hesitation of the characters to change their relationship, the pacing. The main character grows in the story, and accepts the love that has been offered for her. Of you enjoy the fake dating and friends-to-lovers trope, this novel is a must read.

This was a very cute friends to lovers/fake dating romcom. I'm very impressed that this was the author's debut novel. Luka was such a sweetheart and my favorite type of hero - an ooey gooey cinnamon roll to the core. The thoughtful things he did throughout the novel and the banter between him and Stella had me swooning. The spicy scenes were also delish after so much build up. I also really enjoyed the secondary characters and am very intrigued by grumpy Beckett and Evelyn, as well as Layla and perhaps a certain deputy.

I think my biggest issue with the story was how frustrating Stella was. I understand that her fear of abandonment was incredibly high given her history (please check the CW's), but to withhold information for so long from Beckett, Layla, and especially Luka really grated on me. The final conflict felt like drama just for drama and the hurt it inflicted was so unnecessary. I wanted a lot more grovel from her at the end, but ultimately, I still enjoyed this one.

CW: death of parent (past), parental abandonment, strained parental relationship, infidelity (parent, past), grief, financial concerns, vandalism

a fun holiday small-town friends to lovers fake dating! (wow, that's a lot of tropes). i really enjoyed reading this one (despite the fact that i was at the beach when i finished it) and am looking forward to the rest of the series. the cast of characters is very endearing and stella and luka's story was super cute, despite being a little frustrated with them not realizing how in love they were while they were fake dating. the third act conflict being a miscommunication was a bit annoying, but i appreciate how they actually did talk. this book sets up the rest of the series well and the writing is well suited to the content.

Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison is the first book in her Lovelight series. Stella Bloom, our heroine, is the owner of Lovelight Farms. She loves the farm, and she has two great people in charge of various areas, Beckett and Layla; but of late, due to someone sabotaging the farm, Stella is having financial problems. A number of dead trees, damaged fence, raccoons, pumpkins and decorations have been destroyed, and shipments stolen. Stella keeps her problems to herself, not to worry her friends on the farm. She enters a contest, with a $100,000 cash prize, and she lied on the application, noting that her boyfriend is part owner; but Stella has no boyfriend.

Luka Peters (hero) is Stella’s best friend for over 10 years, and now that she is desperate, she asks Luka if he will pretend to be her boyfriend for the week when the famous influencer Evelyn St. James, arrives to check out Lovelight Farms. She worries, since she wants to keep their close-knit friendship safe. What follows is a sweet friend to lovers’ relationship between Stella and Luka. It was great to watch Luka and Stella slowly begin to feel their amazing chemistry, as well as the fun and sexual banter.

Stella was a fantastic heroine, as she was sweet, independent, and caring. Luka was not only very handsome, but kind and helpful with everyone; you can see the love he had for Stella. She was feeling strong vibes for Luka, but she feared to lose their friendship. The secondary characters were all so great, especially Layla and Beckett, who were more like partners with Stella; Dane the police chief was also good, and he discovered to the person sabotaging the farm.

Lovelight Farms was a fun, cute, sweet romance, with wonderful characters. The epilogue was very good at the end. Lovelight Farms was so very well written by B.K. Borison. There are two or three books still to come in this series, with Beckett and Layla to each get their own story line.

Lovelight Farms is a sweet holiday romance that takes place on a Christmas tree farm. The farm isn’t doing great financially, so in an attempt to save the business, Stella, the owner, enters a contest with an Instagram influencer that will get the farm publicity AND some needed cash. The catch? Stella wanted to make the farm seem more romantic so she said she owned it with her non-existent boyfriend. Luckily her best friend Luka is willing to step in and be her fake boyfriend.

I was lucky enough to read the first edition of this book and was so excited when Berkley picked it up to publish the series. This book is so fun and cute and even the reread hit me with all the feels. Both times I’ve read this book, I’ve been so engrossed in the story that I read it in a day. There is just so much to love about this book! First of all, how perfect of a setting is a Christmas tree farm? What made it even sweeter was how badly Stella wanted it to be successful so she could honor her mom’s legacy. Stella was a bit of a mess and was under so much pressure and I felt for her. Then there’s her best friend, Luka. This story is what friends to lovers dreams are made of. I was rooting for them from the beginning and loved seeing how quickly their relationship went from fake to real and how sweet they were together. If you are looking for a fun and heartwarming read, look no further! I’m excited for the rerelease of the rest of the series in the upcoming months!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the advance copy.

What a delight! I understand why this series is taking the internet by storm.

Stella/Estelle/Ella/Lala/a million other nicknames owns a farm in a small town in Maryland. She enters a contest to bring more business and a cash prize but in the application, states she owns the farm with her long time boyfriend. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, she asks her best friend of 10 years Luca to be her fake boyfriend. She has been in love with him forever, but refuses to say or do anything about it in fear of losing him from her life forever.

The chemistry between these two character leap off the page. I loved Luca. Stella was a little annoying at times, but nothing unbearable. She has some serious abandonment issues and I got a little annoyed her friends didn’t try to help her deal with them sooner than this story. They obviously know that the reason she hasn’t told Luca she likes him is because of this fear, yet they don’t confront her about it until the end of the book. Why did they not talk to her about this 5 years ago?

Luca is a gem. He is absolute perfection. I loved his banter with Stella. Especially in the steamy scenes. It was just so good and really made me giggle. And maybe blush. What I also appreciated about this story is it avoided the third act breakup. No spoiler, but just to have you not worry about it, but there is no massive blowup at the 75% mark that will make you want to smash your head against the wall. They do have a small conflict but it is resolved super quick and I loved it.

There are so many side characters too. This series could go on forever because very side character is great. The next book is even set up in this one which I adored. The only issue I had with this book was the writing at times was a bit weak. The repetition of some of Stella’s issues, stated in the exact same sentence, as well as other repetitive comments drove me a little nuts. Within the first 15% of the book it was stated “I’m just touchy.” Or “I’m just someone who has to be physical.” By multiple characters in multiple situations. It could’ve been reworded or cut from certain parts.

This book is a solve 4.5 stars for me. I love this town and want to visit it. I adored Luca and the chemistry and the farm and just kept wanting to come back to it. Where it lost a few points for me was the writing and the repetitiveness. Not that a 4.5 is bad in any way. I can’t wait to read more about Lovelight Farms. If you love small town friends to lovers romances, pick this one up now.

I absorbed this book like warmth from a fire place. It was just so warming to the heart and cute. A small town romance that is well written and you will fall in love with holiday vibe surrounding it. It would make a nice book to read around Christmas. I enjoyed the time I spent reading this.

AHHHHHH THIS ONE WAS SO ADORABLE!! 🥹🤠🥰 so many hallmark christmas movies vibes, and even though it’s the middle of summer, I didn’t mind one stinkin’ bit it was so cute

the chemistry that luka and stella have together was on literal fire 🔥 I was in tears from their mutual pining!! absolute cuties from start to end … I just wished they admitted it so much sooner than like the last few chapters ugh!!

what I possibly loved more than their clear chemistry was the vibes of lovelight farms!! it seriously felt like a christmas hallmark movie (hallmark if you’re listening, start your options now!!) 🥹 I would love to pull a beckett and just live there with a box full of kitten pls

the cheesiness of it all definitely put me off at first, but once I got about 25% into the story, I was hooked! stella’s insecurity and blindness to her own emotions really annoyed me because how can you just stare at someone that you’ve been in love with your entire life and just be like eh I’m good actually 🥴🥴 it felt very disconnected from her own characterization

also I cannot wait for both beckett and layla’s stories omg! this town has me in a chokehold!! 🤠

thank you to netgalley and berkley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!!

rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: sonoma coast rosé

3.5 Stars

Stella Bloom loves her little tree farm and is willing to do anything to save it. There has been a number of setbacks, and now Stella is desperate. On a whim, she enters an Instagram contest that would award the farm $10,000 to help out. The only problem is she lied and mentioned that she owned the farm with her boyfriend. Now she has to come up with a boyfriend, and with potential suitors, she enlists her best friend, Luka, to help.

Luka agrees to Stella’s scheme because he knows how important the farm is to Stella’s life. She didn’t have the best childhood, and she connected to nature. It is the thing she felt great about, and he wants to help her even if it means deceiving everyone in their hometown. The problem is that the feelings are very much real, and how can they manage the fake breakup?

This story is not the most memorable. It's very formulaic. You, as the reader, just know how it will all play out. The angst is mild and most in part because Stella is just annoying by second-guessing everything. However, it works. Every single thing about the story works to create a good romance story. Luka is a very strong book boyfriend. He does all the cute stuff that a woman loves, and he is perfect in his response to Stella’s rebuttals of their romance.

The comedy is on the light side but adds another element to the story. I really did enjoy the people in the town more than anything. Yes, this story takes place in the holiday season. Listen, I am no where thinking about that, but it helps to get the cozy vibes.

Overall, this is a quick and light read. Perfect for a lazy afternoon, and I recommend it for people who like light contemporary reads. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

~ Samantha

“chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire."
Luka's hand slips up my spine and curls over my shoulder. "No matter where you go, you will always end up at home."
"Yes." She snaps her fingers at her son. "And with home comes family."

i love a small town romance. it! never! misses!!!

if you’re a fan of
-the townspeople in gilmore girls
-kitten adoptions
-small town romance
-friends to lovers
-FAKE! DATING!
-he falls first/has been pining (Christmas tree pun intended) over her for years

luka and stella are so cute. if you’re gonna read a christmas-y book in the summer then this is the one you should be reading!!!

siri. please play ‘christmas tree farm’ by taylor swift.

if anybody needs me i will 1) be running to indigo.ca to buy every book b.k borison has released about the characters in this town and 2) rushing to see when it is deemed appropriate to visit a christmas tree farm in the summer.

i love this couple. i love this town. i love christmas. i won with this book!!!