This was a case of I should have done a little more research before opening this book. It was a DNF at 23% for me. The premise sucked this Swiftie right in but quickly into the story it leaned so YA I began looking at other reviews. It's amazing what the author has done at such a young age but it really does come across the pages and I feel like this book was marketed toward a crowd 10+ years than it should have been. Not that there is anything wrong with the book, but if I knew it leaned YA, as a reader who knows I do not typically enjoy YA, I would not have picked it up from the beginning.

'Tis the Damn Season by Kimi Freeman is an absolute gem that captivated me with its heartwarming narrative, enchanting characters, and clever nods to Taylor Swift. Freeman skillfully weaves a festive tale brimming with holiday magic and genuine emotions, while slyly incorporating Swift's iconic lyrics and themes, adding an extra layer of enjoyment for fans. The storyline effortlessly balances love, family, and the spirit of the season, creating a cozy atmosphere that warms the heart. The characters, inspired by Taylor's storytelling, are endearing, and their journeys deliver a perfect blend of romance, holiday cheer, and a subtle homage to Swift's musical storytelling. Freeman's writing is both evocative and charming, making 'Tis the Damn Season a delightful read that left me with a lingering sense of joy, nostalgia, and a smile at the clever musical references.

When I saw that this book was inspired by the Taylor Swift song tis the damn season I knew I needed to read this book. I love that song and thought any book with those vibes had to be a winner.

Aspen is a famous singer-actress who finds herself in the midst of a scandal that has her needing a new place to live and new friends. She decides the best way to ride out the scandal is by returning to her Pennsylvania hometown. Once there, she reconnects with her on again off again first love, Roman. She knows she can never have a future with Roman, their lives have taken them in two very different directions. But their chemistry is undeniable and she can’t help but remember why they fell in love in the first place.

This book wasn’t quite what I expected, but was a sweet, low-angst romance. It features some fun tropes - second chance, small town, celebrity romance with a touch of forced proximity as Aspen and Roman team up to produce the town Christmas play. The story was cute and it was a fun, quick holiday read.

Thank you to Parson Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

This was honestly a little forgettable.

Tis the damn season is my favourite Taylor Swift song, so I had very high hopes for this, but it fell flat.
I think the author would have been better to name it something else, as to lower expectations.

taylor swift title omg loved it a lot but felt like smth was missing tbh, the characters were good
thank you netgalley for the arc

Sadly this didn't hit the mark for me. There is a difference with these kind of reads between YA and New Adult etc. The author is only young and I think this is reflected in the writing. Whilst it was cute, it wasn't what I was looking for.

This book is a cute YA romance book. The cute cover and Taylor Swift inspired title drew me in right away. This wasn’t my absolute favorite romance however I am extremely impressed Kimi, the author, is only 16 years old!!! you go girl! You have a great career ahead of you!

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is hard to review knowing that it was written by a 16-year-old. Is it the most well-written romance ever? No. Is it extremely impressive for a 16-year-old? Absolutely. Kimi Freeman clearly has a deep understanding of the romance genre. I'm so impressed that she wrote an entire book at her age and for her confidence to put it out in the world. I'm looking forward to seeing how she grows as a writer!

Sadly this one fell flat to me. Right off the bat it came across as very YA which is not my cup of tea. I tried to stick it out but it didn't derive from the YA feel. Think teenage holiday romcom.

This wasn’t what I was expecting at all, especially considering the title of the book, I really thought I’d be reading a Christmas book. It felt very juvenile and young, it definitely would’ve been better set in a high school/university because it really didn’t feel right. I didn’t care for the story or any of the chatacaters tbh, none of it was particularly memorable.

The book "Tis the Damn Season was an enjoyable read. I would recommend any book written by Kimi Freeman. Happy Reading!

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely.

If you’re a Swiftie, the title of this novel might already be ringing bells for you… and for me that’s immediately the reason I requested to read Tis the Damn Season. A romcom based on a Taylor song? Sign me up.

In Tis the Damn Season, we meet Pen and Roman - two high school sweethearts who drifted apart when she moved to Los Angeles to become a TV-star-turned-pop-star. When Pen’s career faces an event that could potentially bring about an end to her stardom, she heads home to her small town for the holidays.

I really wanted to love this book, and there’s a lot about it that I did love. The small town setting is absolutely one I love for Christmas reads, and the sections of this novel where we see Pen and Roman as adults I really enjoyed.

Unfortunately though, that was only every other chapter - for me, this is definitely an example of where to do a bit more research before requesting. The book alternates chapters between Pen and Roman as adults in their early twenties, and as sixteen year olds in high school. The chapters themselves are quite short, and I found the constant alternating made it difficult to get into the story as you never get more than a few pages at a time in each section of the timeline.

I also didn’t realise how much time the book would spend in that high-school period; if that’s something that appeals to you to read about, I think you’ll find much more to get stuck into here.

Ultimately, this was a DNF for me. I found myself just speed reading through the high-school sections and then not being particularly invested in the present-day sections because they were so short. I’m not one to try and push through a book when I’m abandoning certain sections, so I let this one go.

I’ll still be keeping an eye out for Kimi Freeman’s next book because I did enjoy her writing style, and if the age ranges of the book (16 / 24) are what you usually read, I think you’ll find a lot to love in this romcom.

‘TIS THE DAMN SEASON review

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

🎄I requested this book on NetGalley solely because of the title. I knew nothing about the plot but decided to dive in anyways. 🫡 I ultimately ended up having mixed feelings about this one.

🎄Here’s a summary of the plot:👇
Aspen left her small town and moved to Hollywood where she had major success as an actress and singer. When a scandal turns her world upside down, she returns to her hometown right before the holidays. While she’s there, she keeps running into Roman, her first love. Aspen and Roman want completely different things in life, but they can’t deny the connection they feel whenever they’re together…

🎄I kept thinking this book read like a YA novel (not a bad thing necessarily, the writing just felt juvenile to me). But then I learned that the author is only 16?! While I did think some of the writing was a bit out of character for the characters that were in their mid-20s, I was super impressed that a high schooler wrote this novel. 👏 This was a cute, fluffy holiday read. I liked the flashbacks between past and present and it kept me engaged in the story. Towards the end I was kinda over the constant Taylor Swift song titles being dropped in the book. If they happen a couple of times throughout I’m all for it, but at the end it was a song title on every other page and it just felt forced? Idk it made some of the writing feel unnatural to me.

🎄Overall I thought this was a solid holiday read if you want a fluffy romance. I would check out more by this author for sure!

'Tis the Damn Season by Kimi Freeman is a contemporary romance that I requested on Netgalley because of the title - it was inspired by the song of the same name. In fact, every chapter of the book is a Taylor Swift reference, and the author has provided a great playlist to go along with the story.

Aspen is a singer/actress living in L.A. who finds herself moving back to her hometown temporarily after being wrongly involved in a scandal that threatens to damage her reputation and career.

Roman was the love of Aspen's life - and he still proves as one of the most supportive people in it, believing that she would never have done what they say she did, and supporting her to no end.

So why aren't these two together?

We go back and forth between now and then, learning about their friendship and relationship, and why it eventually came to an end. Or.. did it?

My notes for this one say: "Roman is an adorable cinnamon roll of a human. She's a bit of a melt." which I stand by. She did grate on me, but I liked how she grew throughout the story.

There's a subplot involving children that I could have absolutely done without (Aspen & Roman are helping with a nativity & some kids are being mean to each other) but I appreciate the way that element of the story is utilised to help Aspen heal her inner child (can't see that sentence without hearing Cordelia Chase say "spank your inner moppet").

There are some heavier issues addressed here, notably an incident in Aspen's past that involves an assault, but the rest is a nice meander down memory lane, lending a festive YA element to the book.

There may be another reason for the YA coming through so strongly - the author, Kimi Freeman, is a High School student. I was dumbfounded when I discovered this (about four minutes ago), because this was much better than some of the other romance novels I've read this year by older and more established authors. Kimi is an author I'll be keeping an eye on.

One for the Swifties!

I'm a sucker for a dual timeline, second chance romance and 'Tis the Damn Season was a pretty cute addition to the genre. I did find myself wanting to scream at my Kindle when Aspen and Roman wouldn't admit just how crazy they still were about each other, but overall I really enjoyed the time I spent with these characters.

pretty boring unfortunately and i just couldn’t get into it. i did not finish. the characters just didn’t feel realistic enough for me.

This was a really sweet holiday romance. The relationship between Aspen and Roman feels so fated from the beginning. I think the book does suffer a little from underdevelopment of story. Having everything wrapped up so nicely with a bow in just a singular moment feels a little forced. Especially after the angst and problems throughout. I loved Aspen and Roman working with the kids on the Christmas performance. Their interactions there and with the children felt the most genuine.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book made me want to DNF at so many points in time but I stuck through it.
I didn’t love the storytelling of the dual timeline, it works in some cases but in this one the more it went on, the more it truly annoyed me.
Also Aspen is so annoying at times! But also Rome…
I felt like a lot of things were a little randomly thrown in there but my major issue was how negative this book made me feel and overwhelmed as well like I just kept thinking when would the book end.
It had some redeeming qualities obviously like the character development but overall it was a miss for me…

Note: thanks publishers and netgalley for an ARC in exchange of an unbiased review.

When I found out the author of this book was only 16, a lot of the issues with this book made sense. Freeman is clearly a talented writer, and one who I hope keeps pushing forward with her writing, but I (personally!) don’t think this book was of a publishable quality. It needed a lot more editing and work with the author to get it to a better standard.

There are good ideas here. I really look forward to seeing what Kimi Freeman comes out with once she’s had some time to hone her craft, as all writers must do. Unfortunately, ‘Tis the Damn Season was a struggle to read, and there were some topics that were approached in an immature way. It felt like things that deserve a lot of consideration were thrown in with little thought. The majority of characters are undeveloped, there’s no real chemistry between the two romantic leads, and more often than not the male love interest is really not a good guy, and I don’t mean this in a kind of ‘sexy bad boy’ way, but in the way that with some experience, you can identify a huge amount of red flags.

Too much of the book was unrealistic and disjointed. I admit, I didn’t even know there was a Taylor Swift song called this, but I do think the playlist (which is largely Swift) was a cute touch to the novel.

The events are simplistic, the obstacles between the couple are non-existent, and there are some really uncomfortable moments where characters act really over the top. It was a little jarring in parts.

I want to reiterate: Kimi Freeman is a young writer with raw talent that largely just needs to be refined a little to really land something that’ll be an absolute pleasure to read, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, given a few years, she comes out with a book that really catches people’s eyes.

It is was utterly impossible to not sing the song every time I read this book! A dual timeline totally sold this one for me! This was a seasonal one that I really enjoyed!
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Thank you #parsonspress and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.