When Hannah and Finn find themselves as the last two people in their college dorms on Christmas, they form an unbreakable bond based on Christmas day adventures and their lack of anyone else to celebrate with. After adding a few more members to their holiday adventure crew, they dub themselves the Christmas Orphans Club. But with a fued between the two friends and Finn getting ready to move away, their traditions together are in jeopardy. This sweet story is one of found family is told through dual timelines and is the perfect feel good mood read.

I LOVED this book. I really felt as if I was part of the club and was definitely jealous I didn't get to go on their adventures myself. I would have loved to hear more of the story from Theo's and Priya's point of view, but still really enjoyed the dynamic they did bring to the group. The love stories are precious. This book just felt like the perfect mix of cheesy hallmark movie and actually relatable rom-com.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance e copy of this book! All opinions and ratings are my own.

This book was so sweet and everything I wanted it to be. I've been a fan of Becca Freeman's work for years so getting a full-length novel from her was very exciting! I loved the dynamics and the relationships in the book. I love that it wasn't a predictable, cheesy, rom-com Christmas book but something different. I wanted to be part of this friend group and spend Christmas with them!

I have been anticipating this book for awhile and it really delivered! I wish there were more books centered on friendship. A very sweet story.

This was a very cute debut and I will read whatever Becca writes next. I did enjoy that this was more about friends and found family then traditional romance.

The most perfect holiday and friendship story. I felt so incredibly connected to the characters and could truly picture the scenes from the book. Gorgeous cover!

I loved this story about found family and traditions. Fantastic debut by Becca Freeman, I can't wait for her next release. This one evoked great emotions and was a true love letter to New York City! Themed around growing up, what family means and how change can be good. Dual point of views.

I really liked this one! I especially enjoyed that while it has elements of a love story, it truly is a story about friendship. Also- if you love New York you will love this. All the references to the city were so fun and nostalgic for me.

This book follows 4 friends who are all Christmas orphans, meaning they for various reasons do not spend Christmas with a family. This book explores the concept of a found family. While there are a few romantic relationships throughout the book, the real relationships explored are that of the friendships between the 4. I would have like to learn more about Priya however I imagine some of that had to do with her plotline. I dont always love pop culture references however they really worked here especially with all the flashbacks. My favorite part of the book was the fun activities the friends came up with each year to do on Christmas day. I have heard criticism that some found Hannah a bit immature however I felt she acted very age appropriate. I understand why both her and Finn were hurt and it felt very real for friends to fight over something blown out of proportion. Overall a great read and cannot wait for the author's sophomore novel.

Book Review:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The holidays are often associated with family. But the sad truth is not everyone has this luxury. So when four young individuals realize loss, disagreements, or geographical location stands in their way of a traditional Christmas, they decide to celebrate together. The Christmas Orphans Club is sure to remind us all that family is not always biological!!!

This is one of the more unique holiday reads I have had the pleasure of reading. That says a lot since Christmas romances are among my favorite sub genres. Just this past December I read roughly 30 new titles that fit this category.

What stood out the most to me was how Freeman formatted her book. She wrote a story that does not follow a linear timeline. It goes back and forth between the past and present, focusing on all ten Christmas the group spent together. In addition, it is told from the perspectives of Hannah and Finn. While Hannah and Finn are the main female and male protagonists, the other two members of the Christmas Orphans Club are not apart of the narration. As much as I would have loved to have Priya and Theo’s side of the story it would distract from Hannah and Finn, the founding members.

The celebrations discussed inspired me to think outside of the box when it comes to the holidays. I loved all the Christmas experiences the group came up with, but the dinner of the seven hamburgers was by far my favorite.

If you are looking for a heartwarming story that tackles friendships, family, and complicated feelings this is the Christmas book for you! Special thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Group Books, and Becca Freeman for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I didn’t love this book. The main character was hard to root for. She was over obsessed with the traditions and it felt a bit much. It just wasn’t my style.

Thank you for this ARC. I have heard others describing this book as the "Romcom for friendship," and it's a great way to describe it. It was a heartwarming holiday read.

The Christmas Orphans Club by Becca Freeman was a fun read. I liked how the book flashed from the present to the past to really get to know the characters.

This is much more than a Christmas book, it follows a group of friends and examines how their relationships grow and change over the years. Now it's their last Christmas together and everything has to be perfect, but with so much pressure, not everything goes as it should.

This was a fun, heart-warming read for the holiday season. I loved that it was a love story about friends, who are the characters chosen family. I think the holiday season is bombarded with traditional love/family stories. And I can imagine that the many people who do not have that type of life feel left out by books and other media. Becca Freeman fills that gap with this story! I also like that it focuses on how friendships evolve with age. Nostalgia is a fun thing- until it stops you from growing and living. I loved that the two main characters grew as the story progressed. They were not perfect and never will be, but they learned to learn from their mistakes.

I loved this book about four best friends who spend every Christmas together. There are so many books out there about romantic love, but few that capture the love of friends as well as this one does.

So many romcom adjacent novels feature problems that feel made up just to advance the plot, but all the dynamics of this novel rang true for me. It felt like I was reading about four very real people. People who might not be perfect but who I’d enjoy spending time with.

This was one of my favorite books I read in 2023 and one I will re-read Christmas after Christmas (although I really appreciate that the book isn’t so Christmas-y that I couldn’t be enjoyed at a different time of year or by readers who don’t celebrate Christmas).

Bravo to Becca Freeman – I can’t wait to read her next novel (and hopefully many more to come after that!). She’s now one of my favorite feel good authors alongside Steven Rowley, Amy Poeppel, and Elissa Sussman.

This is my favorite kind of Christmas book! It’s got a lot of heart, relatable characters and super realistic found family dynamic that really warmed my cold, read heart. This follows four best friends, although we only got the POVs of Hannah and Finn who are spending one last Christmas together before everything changes. For varying reasons, they are pretty much all each other has. I found Hannah to be insufferable at times, but deeply relatable. I thought Finn was truly so sweet and his romance was my favorite part of the book, but I loved reading about he and Hannah’s friendship too. Finn is gay and was disowned because of it, but manages to have a lot of love to give.

This book has a lot of jumping around timelines, but it is easy enough to follow, and I found that I just wanted these characters to get all their messes cleaned up. We see them learn and grow so much together, and I was so touched by it. This was a really pleasant surprise and I look forward to more from this author.

I read this book at exactly the right time. For technicalities sake, this book is not a romance but a fictional novel with romance elements. I feel the need to make that clear since it is very clearly marketed as a romance but doesn't technically fit the genre.

Following Hannah, Finn, Priya, and Theo over a span of years, the Christmas Orphans Club is about four best friends who don't have family to spend Christmas with, so they spend it with each other. After a tumultuous few years, Hannah finally feels settled with her friendships until Finn drops a bomb: he's moving to LA. Now Hannah feels the need to make this Christmas better than ever, but there's still some cracks in her personal life that are starting to grow larger.

I really liked Hannah as a main character, I thought she was interesting and I really understood her feelings on a lot of the situations in this book. The author definitely wrote herself into a corner making this book mostly only take place on the Christmas holiday in varying years, but I thought it all came together really well. My favorite part of this book was Hannah and Finn's friendship and how they were really there for each other even when times were hard. By the end of the book I was in tears. Yes, it's a Christmas book but it also wasn't super cheesy like a Hallmark movie (not that there's anything wrong with that).

5 Star Holiday Book - I loved this novel, it touched on all of the things that most of us focus on around the holidays. Traditions, spending time with the ones you love, trying to fit all of the plans in and make everyone happy. I loved this book so much! The perfect amount of New York, relationships, Christmas cheer. Would recommend!

LOVED this! It wasn’t what I was expecting at all but just what I needed. Gave it 5 stars on Goodreads

I heard someone describe this book as a "RomCom for friendship" and I feel like that is exactly what this book is. I read this book because I knew about Becca from her podcast Bad on Paper, but I'll come back for her next book on her merits as an author. This book was a delight.

This was an amazing debut book. I loved that this was more of an unconventional holiday book. It had more depth than a lot of holiday romance books I have read. It made feel seen because I also have struggled with the pain of letting go of traditions and the pain of moving on. I loved that it explored the complexities of friendship. The New York City setting was also a great backdrop for the story.