Margot Murray's holiday plans with her girlfriend fell through when the relationship ended, and she doesn't really want to spend Christmas with her mother, so she agrees to an offbeat plan proposed by her client, Ben Gibson: if she pretends to be Ben's girlfriend for the holidays so that he doesn't have to feel like a sad singleton, she can spend a couple of weeks with him and his family at their manor house/inn in Cheshire. Getting to know each other in order to get their story straight helps them develop an easy friendship, but Margot finds it more difficult to feel at ease around Ben's gorgeous sister, Ellie, after a clumsy meet-cute when she arrives.

Ellie, the "loose cannon" of the family who normally travels the world and arrives home for Christmas with a girlfriend of the month, can't figure out why someone as gorgeous and as put-together as Margot would be with Ben, a very earnest and chatty man who hasn't been able to find a girlfriend before. And when Ellie overhears a couple of their conversations, she suspects Margot has ulterior motives for cozying up to Ben.

What worked for me:
--Margot's genuine kindness, even when playing a part.
--Margot working through the difficult realizations she has about her previous (toxic) relationship. Very realistic portrayal of the difficulties of labeling abuse and finding ways to move past it.
--Ben! He's adorable, and the way he offered Margot support was top-notch friend skills.
--Gramps. What a mischief-making sweetheart.
--A good family reconciliation at the end.

What didn't:
--Ellie. Snap judgments, eavesdropping, jumping to conclusions... then doing a 180 when Margot cleared things up? Someone really needs to work on communication skills and trust and curbing impulses.
--Pretty much all the other family members not really seeing each other clearly, especially how they ignored Ellie or how compliments were often couched with a "you could have done better" vibe.
--The almost-insta-love.
--Ellie's really reckless reaction to something towards the end of the book.

A pleasant enough read, but the more I pondered it, the more I felt like it just fell short. 2.5 stars rounded up.

CW: past death of grandparent, gaslighting, emotional abuse

Thank you, Alcove Press and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

<i>Thanks so much to Alcove Press and NetGalley for this eARC</i>

This was a very sweet book. There were definitely shades of [book:Kiss Her Once for Me|60321485] with the fake relationship over the holidays, but at the same time, it was done in a very original, unique way (i.e. not for money or anything, just out of embarrassment and family insecurity). I like that the author didn't try to force the lie/Ellie's investigation into Margot's gold-digger nature for longer than she did, as I could have seen that getting very tiresome to read.

This book also does a very good job looking at emotional abuse. At one point, it's a little like the signs were being copied from a info website about it, but thankfully, the emotions of it, and the chaotic nature, the uncertainty, all of that is handled beautifully.

Something unusual for me here is I need to give a shoutout to a supporting character before mentioned either of the mains: Ben is just soo sweet! I was a little concerned that at some point he might try and make his fake relation with Margot into the real thing, even though she was 'a raging lesbian' (her own self description). But no, he was just a wonderfully positive example of non-toxic masculinity, and just an incredible friend.

Our two leads Margot and Ellie were great. That said, it did get a little on the nose at times just how perfect/in-sync the two of them were (i.e. just how often one would says something they love, or think it, and then the other would talk about their love of it). I do have to agree with another commentator about how much Ellie seemed to infantilize Ben. Finally, Ellie says she never guessed Margot's sexuality...really? Really, Ellie? She lists one of her favourite musical acts as Girl in Red...that didn't clue you in at all? ;P

This is definitely the most PG friendly romance I've read in a while, at least from a spice-level standpoint. The affection among the characters is limited strictly to kissing (I don't think there's even a mention or hint of interest in anything heavier than that). This is fine, of course, but if you're looking for a romance for the sex scenes, this is a skippable book.

One other minor complaint: This book felt pretty long. For as low stakes as the drama was, it felt like a bit much to go through every single day leading up to Christmas, plus Margot & Ben's initial set up and the epilogue afterward. I might have shaved some of that down a bit.

In the end, a cute holiday rom-com. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

It's a classic setup: Ben needs a date for the holidays, and Margot needs a place to go. In public, they'll be together; behind closed doors, it's strictly platonic. But there's a twist...in the form of Ben's sister, Ellie. Who is a lesbian. As is Margot. And when sparks inevitably fly, it's not between the "happy couple".

On the whole this is cute and fluffy, poised to be a fun winter read. There's a fair amount going on—Margot is still reeling from the falling of her previous (toxic) relationship, Ellie is trying to prove to her parents that she's moved on from her partying days to string lights and picnics, and Ben is sufficiently ashamed of being chronically single that, well, Margot is there for Christmas. I'm on record many times saying that I don't love Evil Villains Who Are Evil, but I *do* appreciate that the other characters understand, often better than Margot does, why it might be hard to fully disentangle from her ex. And I love the occasional silly plays with language, e.g., "I'm feeling very strange about the strange thing with the strange stranger" (loc. 187*).

Where I get stuck, though, is with this: When Margot and Ellie get together, it's with a thoughtlessness so extreme that it borders on cruelty. They absolutely don't mean any cruelty—they're both nice women with a side of pumpkin spice. But there's never a point at which they consider that sneaking around to date each other, when Margot is there to play-act as Ben's girlfriend, might hurt anyone. Nobody suggests that they hold off on their attraction for a couple of weeks, or discusses how it's going to feel to Ben to have to either 1) come clean to his family about hiring a girlfriend for a week or 2) *not* come clean but instead pretend, a month or two down the line, that it's totally fine that his ex-girlfriend is now dating his sister. Margot is looking forward to telling Ben everything, but only so that she has someone to giggle and gossip with, because she's now viewing Ben as her best friend. (There's actually something quite intriguing in Margot's decision to view a relative stranger-come-fake-boyfriend as her best friend—it might be reflective of the shakiness of her other friendships and perhaps the damage that's been done to her sense of what a relationship should be, thanks to the toxic ex. Or it might be something else! In any case, it would have been interesting to see that explored in more detail.)

So I wanted to cheer Margot and Ellie on, but in the end I was mostly just sad for Ben. It works out, of course (not a spoiler! It's a romance novel, so of course it works out—and you can see the shape of things working out coming from quite some distance), but I spent most of the second half of the book trying to figure out what would have made the whole thing sit better with me. Again: as characters, they aren't written as bad people, but...with a lesbian romance novel, I don't want my overarching takeaway to be sympathy for the straight, cisgender, "best friend" of a man.

I was very much looking forward to this—it wasn't the book for me, but I hope I'm the outlier here and that it'll work better for other readers.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, and quotes might not be final.

This was such an entertaining and cheery read okay 😭 I usually dislike misunderstandings in books? But every single one in this book was just pure chaos followed by wholesomeness, and now I just want to read it again 🥲

💫 I loved the main romance, as well as the main friendship! This is a sapphic fake date's sister romance set during Christmas at the fake date's country manor, along with the fake date's entire unhinged family.
💫 The book also heavily deals with one of the MCs identifying that she was gaslighted and emotionally abused by her ex, and the realization + relapses + the healing was written really well.
💫 The book also has themes of family reconnection, and it was so wholesome 😭
💫 The last chapter and the epilogue were >>>> there are a few people who jump on the sofa in joy in the last chapter, and I wanted to do that too coz of the ending 😭

TWs - death of a grandparent faced by both MCs, gaslighting + emotional abuse by an ex (which happens on page)

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

<i>I received this title as an ARC on Net-galley in exchange for a honest review. Thank you publisher for the copy!</i>

<b>The Good</b>
This is entirely new version of the fake-dating trope I haven't seen before. Ben is chronically single and enlists his coworker Margot to fake date him at his family home for Christmas. The plan goes wonky when Ben's sister Ellie overhears a conversation of theirs out of context and assumes Margot is a gold-digger only interested in Ben's money. Resulting in further hijinx!
I loved Margot so much it's insane. Her story about her Nana, her witty and kindness, her journey figuring out how bad her ex truly treated her. I really liked her and loved reading her POV. Ben also was incredibly sweet and supportive. His issues with feeling like he wasn't enough was very relatable. I liked the subplot with Mitsi the dog and Grandpa with the mysterious "pony". It had a really sweet Christmas vibe.

<b>The Bad</b>
The idea of women dating men with money and not doing a humble bit of refusing said money or else they're gold diggers has always annoyed me. Ellie infantilizes Ben at every turn. Your brother, an adult man, dates a woman and treats her with his own money and therefore she is a terrible villain? Also Ellie lacks self-reflection. She projected so much onto Margot and when she's revealed to be completely wrong she's like "anyways yay! new friend!" like what? It might just be my feminist brainrot at work but it felt like a plot-line from a 90s/00s movie that wouldn't be used today.

<b>Format:</b>
Ebook — Netgalley Arc

<b>The Rating</b>
I give this book a <b>3/5🌟 rating.</b> The concept was very fun and cute and I love Christmas romance novels. However, if the 'suspected gold-digger' part was in the summary I wouldn't have read it.

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Cute story that I can recommend for a good light read.

Margot finds cheesy romcom plots awful, along with Christmas music and movies. But to avoid her mom after a bad breakup, she agrees to play the fake girlfriend for one of her clients, Ben. Never mind that she's a lesbian and stiffens when touched by a man. Or that Ben's sister Ellie is also a smoking hot lesbian, who Margot literally bumps into upon arriving at the family manor. This plan will still totally work, right?

Interestingly, my favorite characters were not the primary love interests. Ben was such a complete sweetheart that I want to be friends with him. And I'm totally adopting Grandpa Mo; he's wonderful and funny, even if age is catching up with him.

Content warnings: The book does dive into emotional abuse and dementia, in case those are hard topics for you. However, they are broached with kindness.

Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGally for the free advanced review pdf copy. Thoughts, words, and opinions are my own, however.