A Wish for Christmas is a great book club choice for those wanting a holiday vibe. There would be much to discuss about the wish that separates Noel and Jonah from their dwindling marriage. Not exactly time travel, but more a do-over existence - as though they had never met. Throw in a little magic and you have an interesting story of "what if". I enjoyed this one for a holiday read and will recommend to fans of happy endings, but with a little angst thrown in for good measure.

A Wish for Christmas by Courtney Cole is a bit of an homage to It's A Wonderful Life: would life be better if the girl and the boy never met in childhood?

This has all of the warm and cozy vibes of a Hallmark movie - holiday traditions, warm beverages, sparkling snow, a picturesque small town, and enough conflict to make things interesting but nothing too serious. The heroine's work in publishing brings a bookish thread to the plot, and Elliott the dog is a great character who uses his goofy personality to bring the hero and heroine together.

My favorite aspect of the plot was the creative approach to memory care; this wasn't new to me but I've never seen it included in a novel. However, the "reverse engineering" of the couple's relationship felt too convenient and unbelievable, and the book within the book was unnecessary.

Because I really enjoyed The Christmas Dress by Courtney Cole in 2021, my expectations for this were quite high. Unfortunately, I didn't like A Wish for Christmas nearly as much, but my reading experience may have been completely different if I picked this up without any prior knowledge of the author.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for the review copy of this holiday novel. 3.5 stars rounded up.

"A Wish For Christmas" is a delightful magic-real love story that enchanted me from the start. Many people would like to change something in their lives, but who has the chance to do it like this? These are characters that everyone will fall in love with, including Elliott, the Mastiff. It's impossible to resist all this joy mixed in with a Christmas theme. I highly recommend this book for reading at any time of year!
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of A Wish for Christmas.
This was the first Courtney Cole book I had read. It's a little more serious than the typical Hallmark-style holiday fluff, but still a quick read. Jonah and Noel have grown distant from each other. Their wish to be apart is actually what brings them back together.

Such a cute holiday read! I enjoyed it! A small town magical romance with great characters, Noel, Jonah, Moxie the kitten and Elliott the mastiff. Noel makes a wish on a magical snow globe that she'd never met her husband and the story is a heartwarming tale of how things work out when they meet again. It's just enough magic with sweetness and hope.

A Wish for Christmas may cause you to believe in the magic of the holiday again. When a successful but unhappily married couple in NYC make a wish on a snow globe they wake up in separate lives the next day. Noel and Jonah are now living separate lives that they wished for and had never met, yet somehow keep running into each other. Noel is a talented publisher, up for an editor-in-chief role while Jonah is a CEO of an investment firm. Fate has stepped in and they are thrown together unexpectedly, both traveling back to the same hometown for the holidays-yet they don't remember growing up together. Noel is editing a book by an unpublished writer as a favor for a popular author and is drawn to the story of Norah and Jack. Is there something magical at play during this Christmas season? Pick up Courtney Cole's latest to find out!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

I received this arc from NetGalley. A Wish for Christmas begins with Noel and her husband, Jonah. They have been married for years and they are both workaholics. The only time they hang out or talk is when they take their dog out. Elliot makes a break from them one night and ends up in a small shop. The older man starts a conversation with Noel and has them make a wish on a snow globe.
The story takes off from there. They both wake up and they are living completely different lives. Their paths cross when they are both asked to come home and help their families. Jonah assists Noel with getting home, as they are going to the same place. The older man stays in the picture by asking Noel to proofread a story he is writing and giving her Elliott to take care of.
I enjoyed their story and really enjoyed watching them reconnect. They both learn a lot about themselves, and it makes you wonder what you would do if you woke up to a completely different life.
I will definitely recommend purchasing this book for my library.

I really enjoy Cole's holiday books, and A Wish for Christmas was really good! I will say, I don't know that I felt... wrapped up? For lack of a better phrase? I don't know, I wanted more out of the ending. But all in all, solid addition to my holiday TBR!

This is an interesting Christmas story where a couple that has been together since college is in a fading marriage that, after a Christmas wish, still brings them back together. It's a sweet and enjoyable read. It's heart-wrenching and creative.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I love every single Christmas book that Courtney Cole writes and this one might be my favorite. It was warm and heartwarming and needs to be made into a Hallmark movie ASAP.

Loved this story!! Everything about it was just perfect. The setting, the characters, the animals. It was a great read to cozy up next to a fire with and get ready for the holiday season.

A Wish for Christmas is a warm, second chance at love novel just right for the season.
Nora and Jack are in a mediocre marriage and wondering if life could be different. Their big, uncontrollable dog Elliot runs into a store, and they all meet Padrick. The next morning the couple wake up as Noel and Jonah who are single and have their dream jobs. As their paths keep merging, they find they were meant to be.
I enjoyed A Wish for Christmas and that it was an easy read during a busy season.
I received a complimentary copy of A Wish for Christmas thanks to Net Galley and publisher, but all opinions are my own.

I loved this book. It was a sweet holiday romance with a twist. When a high-stressed, work-driven couple, Nora and Jack, look for their missing dog, Elliott, they stumble upon a strange old man in New York City who gives them a snow globe. Nora makes a wish that her life could be different. The chapters then alternate between a woman (Noel) and a man (Jonah). Noel is an editor who has been approached by a man (Pad) who is writing a romance. Jonah is a workaholic in New York who has been avoiding visiting his father in a small Wyoming town where he grew up because he hasn't gotten over the tragic death of his mother on Christmas Eve. As it turns out, Jonah's father hates Christmas for the same reason and, as mayor of the town, has forbidden any holiday celebrations. Noel's father, on the other hand, wants to bring Christmas back to Winter Falls. The two men engage in a PR battle. A series of events throw Noel and Jonah together including the author's dog, Elliott, who he asks Noel to keep while he works on his book. Without giving away the twists in the story, which I believe are obvious, the ending is happy for Noel, Jonah, Elliott, and Winter Village.

It's not the first time I've read a book where a wish on a snow globe sends the main character along an alternate timeline, but there was something extra special about this one. Perhaps it's because to the secondary storyline with Padraig and his book or the lovable characters of Elliot and Moxie, but I found this story impossible to put down.

The story starts with a husband and wife who have hit a rough patch. They're stuck and don't know how to bring life back into their marriage. The clock is ticking and if they're ever going to have a family, the time is now; but they're not on the same page about what they want.

A kindly stranger shares a few choice words with them and presents them with a snowglobe as a gift, and the next morning, the couple each awake living separate lives, not knowing one another at all, and being drawn back to their hometown where they fall in love with each other all over again.

The whole story is so sweet and romantic that I didn't want it to end, and yet I couldn't read it quickly enough too.

Thank you to Courtney Cole, Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for an advance review copy. This story made my day!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really lovely, heartwarming, Christmas novel. I had a great time reading it!

This one was a sweet Christmas read, that also a quick read. Most readers could finish this one in a couple of hours.

I’m not someone who shares spoilers but I’m considering this a content warning rather than a spoiler. There’s a very upsetting scene with the dog Elliott in chapter 31. Elliot survives but frankly it was very upsetting to me and did affect my overall enjoyment of the book. I read an arc and I just really hope that the author changed this scene before the final copy.

At the beginning of this story we meet a married couple who is at an impasse. They love each other and they love their dog Elliot but they don’t know what to do next. They don’t know if it’s too late to a baby. They are each blaming each other for the flaws in the their marriage. Then Elliot gets off his leash and leads them to a cool older man named Padrig. After pouring their hearts out to him, he gives them a snow globe and says they should wish for what they want for Christmas.

And then we meet Noel and Jonah. They live in the same city, in the same building and even came from the same hometown but they haven’t met yet.
They meet soon and because of Elliot they wind up going back to their hometown on the same flight.

What follows is some kind of heavy stuff. We learn that Jonah doesn’t go home much because he’s still traumatized from a loss when he was a child. And he’s leery of relationships for the same reason.

Noel and Jonah’s parents are having their own battle and bring them into it of course.

There’s a discussion of Alzheimer’s. I feel like it was actually done in about as positive of a way as possible.

Despite the heavy stuff, this is ultimately a book about healing and second chances. Their potential relationship, this couple feeling almost fated to each other, it’s pretty cool.

I absolutely loved the wonderful, huge dog Elliot and the adorable tiny kitten Moxie.

Despite the heavy issues for a holiday book, this is a good book. It’s emotional but it pays off. You can just skip the scary part at chapter 31 if you want to!

I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley, thank you!

If you like your Hallmark.Christmas movies with a touch of magic, you’ll love this sweet, clean romance. It’s similar to the popular trope of a city executive who visits a small town to come up with a solution that saves it, and ends up falling in love with a local. The twist in this story is that it starts with a married couple in New York City, Nora and Jack, who have known each other since childhood, but have been so focused on their careers that they’ve lost sight of what’s important to them both. While chasing down their monster English Mastiff dog Elliott who’s gotten loose in Central Park, they stumble into an antiques store and meet the proprietor, Padraigh, who asks them to make a wish on a snow globe for the life they want to live.

The rest of the story features Noel and Jonah, neighbors who have just met but end up sharing a flight to their respective hometown, Winter Falls, WY, where their parents are at odds over the best way to save a dying town. As their story unfolds, Noel, a book editor, carries on a correspondence with her newest potential author, Padraigh, and Jonah confronts unresolved feelings of grief over the mother he lost as a child. It isn’t too difficult to figure out what’s going on, but like any good romance, it’s the journey to the happily-ever-after that makes it impactful (or not). This has all the elements (small-town rivalry and busybodies, an emotionally-stunted main character, an adorable canine and cute kitten who become bosom buddies, and a huge, healing Christmas celebration), but like most made-for-TV movies, it’s not terribly original, memorable or realistic. In a crowded field of Christmas books, this doesn’t stand out, but it’s fun while reading it.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Avon through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

If you’re looking for a fairy tale Christmas story this is it.. A magic snow globe. A marriage in trouble. A pushy old writer and a Christmas wish. This would be a perfect ready for a snowy night.

This book was dreamy! I loved the cover. First of all, it is so pretty. I loved how she made a wish and just how the whole thing played out. I did not expect all the different turns and how, for the better, her life was able to be changed. I loved the ending, and even though there were a lot of sad parts, the whole story was just super cozy. I would highly recommend this book to everyone. If you haven't read it, please do. Thank you to netgalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this lovely book.