Read if you like:
Taylor Swift & the Hometown Guy
Transition from fall to the holidays
Second Chance

You should know:
Definitely skews YA
Includes a playlist with songs for each chapter, which is fun!

Would primarily recommend for Swifties, but it was a fun little holiday season read!

When singer Aspen Moore is caught in a cheating scandal, she decides to head to her hometown of Fertsville to recover with her family. When there, she reconnects with her first love Roman Torres as they're doing the children's Christmas show together. They know they have to keep it platonic as she doesn't want to move home and he doesn't want to move to LA but they can't deny their chemistry and it gets harder to deny their feelings towards one another. Could they both be willing to work together to have a happy ending.

This was a decent holiday read. I loved Roman he was so sweet and such a loving person trying to help everyone and always finding the good in people. I struggled to connect with Aspen she was too whiny for me and it felt like everything had to be about her regardless of what anyone else was going through. I feel like more could've happened on the romance part too. I also didn't enjoy the taylor swift-ness of it, it was way too much for me.

I recommend if you really like Taylor swift and celebrity romance novels.

This one just didn't do it for me. It felt really young. Not great but not awful. I love a good Taylor Swift reference though.

‘Tis the Damn Season is a fun holiday romance told in dual storylines. Aspen is a disgraced Hollywood starlet returned to her hometown and hometown flame to do some soul searching and direct a children’s nativity. I especially loved that the chapter titles were song titles.

This has to be the youngest authors work I’ve ever read. Kiki Freeman is 15! I’m so impressed with her.

This is a sweet story that is completely Swiftie coded.

I unfortunately DNF this one. I loved the title and the accompanying playlist but the writing feels very simple and juvenile. A lot of the scenes felt contrived like when Aspen is in the diner and the woman runs in hiding from her boyfriend so Aspen gives her advice on staying away from cheaters and then they exchange phone number all the while this woman has no clue who she is. I read 30% of the book but when I still found myself struggling to get into it, I knew it wasn’t going to be for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Parson Press for the eARC! All opinions expressed are my own.

I was so excited for this one but it was a huge let down!

I loved the playlist in the start of the book and each chapter represents one of the songs! I picked this up because of the swiftie references and hallmark Christmas movie vibes (big city girl goes back to her small hometown to help direct the church play with her ex/best friend 💕).

The novel is told in alternating timelines between present and 7 years ago when Aspen and Roman were in high school. I liked the past POV more than the present, at least in the first half, which had less fleshed out storytelling and felt underdeveloped. Although the past POV was very insta lovey probably because of the short amount of pages that timeline was given, but I so would’ve preferred a story of Aspen and Roman’s high school romance. The book went downhill after 25%

I would’ve loved POV from Roman 😭 The writing is just okay, it’s a lot of telling instead of showing and felt very YA despite the characters being in their mid 20s. YA isn’t a bad genre, it’s one of my favorites in fact, but I don’t like YA writing where the characters are older.

The dialogue also felt unnatural and abrupt. I cringed every time someone talked, I can’t remember a book where the dialogue was this bad 😳 Half the conversations with Leila felt weird and unrealistic. Everything to do with Leila felt unnecessary and her character only served the purpose of being there for Aspen. .

I know FMC is a singer but I haaaaate when books have song lyrics, it’s a personal opinion but I find it so cringey.

“Their chemistry is undeniable” is the chemistry in the room with us? 👀 There’s no tension, no banter, etc. They dated in high school, which that happened super quick very insta love, and then barely have any romance in the present timeline. Their interactions are surface level, how am I meant to believe this man knows you better than anyone else? Roman is also a huge walking red flag 🚩


Did not give a shit about the main characters. Aspen is selfish and “not like other girls” and completely unbelievable.

Story is slow and highlights moments that really didn’t need to be mentioned. A lot of unnecessary scenes that do nothing for the plot or character development. There were so many unnecessary details that the main plot and romance got lost!

Sexual assault references brought up at the very end of the book felt super last minute/rushed/added for “the plot” which I hated. What was even the point of doing that, it was completely out of left field?!

It’s a debut novel and I just found out the author is only 16, which is impressive. I'm not saying young people can't write good books, or that debuts can’t be good, I'm just saying an author’s experience/age can definitely be obvious in their writing in ways that don't really do good things for the book.

Being young or writing a debut doesn’t mean a book will be inherently bad and I’ll critique them as I would any other author, otherwise it’s a disservice. It’s amazing that Freeman pursued her dream of writing and I hope she’ll continue to follow her dream. I commend Freeman on getting her first book out and would be willing to give any future books a chance.

Also if the author is 16 WHY NOT WRITE A YA ROMANCE?! Writing an adult romance as a teenager feels wild because the adults now read as juvenile and unnatural.

I continued purely for the unique song playlist tie in and Taylor swift references 😅 I so badly wanted to love this one!! The holiday vibes, unique chapter song tie ins, Taylor Swift references, and hallmark-like plot all sounded great in theory. But the dialogue, telling instead of showing, underdeveloped characters, and lack of chemistry just made this novel fall flat for me 😭 please someone give me a good romance rec that has either TS references and/or has a hallmark Christmas movie-like plot!

Tropes: Small, hometown romance; holiday romance; Football player x nerdy girl; small town guy x pop star; second chance; insta love; surprise pregnancy

Rep: Latino love interest, BIPOC author

TW/CW: bullying, death of parent (brief mention), underage drinking, vomit, infidelity (brief mentions), sexual assault, cancer (brief mention)

overall this was a decent read. I found it quite hard to get into in places but I just skimmed over these bits. I liked the main characters and the dual time line. A sweet second chance romance

3.75 stars

If you're looking for a romance that's easy to read, not heady and moves along fairly quickly, then I'd recommend this book.

We discover our two characters' past relationship as the book progresses, giving us a better understanding of how they came to be in the first place.

This book focuses on character development, both personal and collective.

I liked the author's choice of music at the start of each chapter, which represents the mood of the chapter.

I found the book perhaps too simple for my taste, not adult enough.

Thank you Kimi Freeman,Parson Press and Netgalley for this ARC

This was a cute, holiday rom com.
I felt like Aspen was pretty self absorbed but she got a lot better and became more likeable.
This was sort of a holiday journey on positivity and self love. It wasn’t spicy at all, just kind of cute and wholesome.
It was a quick read. I liked the high school sweethearts nod and for a debut it was well written.
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

a small-town second chance romance that is literally based off of a taylor swift song - sign me up !

the title alone was what initially attracted me to this book - i started humming along immediately (this was a veyr smart move on the authors part)

the chemistry between the two main characters - aspen and roman - had such cute chemistry, i was smiling and kicking my feet like a goofball!

Special thanks to the author and publisher for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 2 stars.

Some topics in the story may be triggering. Please check content warnings (below) and read with care!

Not gonna lie, I picked this up because of the title (ifkyk). Although the premise plays out pretty much like the song does, it sadly didn't work for me. I didn't understand why this couple needed to be together and in fact, I felt as if they shouldn't have been together because they had a fairly toxic relationship with major communication issues. It wasn't that there was miscommunication, it was simply that they barely communicated and I found it incredibly frustrating.

I'm going to try and keep this review short-ish. I did learn after browsing reviews that the author herself is only 16 years old and it explains why the writing read quite young but also, damn, congratulations because to be published at that age is amazing! I think with time, guidance and editing, the author can easily fit into the YA romance category. Yes, this is marketed as New Adult but it isn't and if you go into this expecting it (like many understandably did), you'll be disappointed.

As I mentioned, the tone was very immature. I think the characters are in their mid-20s (although I can't recall their ages being mentioned at all) but they read as very young adults. I honestly couldn't differentiate much between their younger high-school selves in the flashbacks and the older versions of them. Sadly, I couldn't connect or empathise with the characters at all and that likely has to do with how one-dimensional they were but also, how everything seemed to happen off-page which made it hard to feel invested in what they experience. All of the major moments in their backstory and what little "growth" there is in their relationship, don't happen in front of us and with the unclear time lapses, it read very chaotically. This contributed to me not understanding their relationship because it seemed toxic and as I mentioned, they struggled to communicate. Aspen challenged this when she urged Rome to be more open—and he did open up more for a while—but ironically, she wouldn't do the same with him and would continuously say "I don't want to talk about it", sweeping it all under the rug and never addressing any of it again. It was irksome! Beyond the characters being one-dimensional, they were also fairly unlikeable, in my opinion. Well, I honestly can't say much about Rome because he felt like a cardboard cutout and lacked personality. On the other hand, Aspen was very difficult to stomach. She was selfish and self-centered much of the time but she also let everyone treat her like trash. It was very "woe is me" and after a point, it got tiring because nothing changed until the very end.

If the characters had been better developed, their relationships more fleshed out, and the flow was less chaotic, this could've been really good. As it is, I didn't enjoy this at all.

Content/Trigger Warnings: Bullying/Cyberbullying (FMC and side characters), sexual assault/rape (FMC, detailed recounting), grooming, death of parent (cancer, MMC's mother), Parent diagnosed with progressive disorder (Parkinson's, FMC's father)

Second chance romance & dual timeline inspired by T Swift? Yes please! Aspen is an actress & singer struggling to cope with a false celeb scandal against her, so she heads back to her hometown for Christmas where her Dad asks her to direct the annual nativity with her first love, Roman. But of course, it's not all smooth sailing as they try to navigate a path forward together.

While I agree with others that this would've been better marked as YA and parts felt a little too juvinile for me, overall I still enjoyed it and thought Kimi captured the love between Aspen and Roman well. I loved getting a look into their relationship at different stages. I also really enjoyed the way that every chaper is inspired by a different song!

**TW - Mention of SA & family death.

Thanks to Netgalley and Parson Press for this arc in return of a fair review. All thoughts are my own.

Christmas season rolls around and Aspen Moore, a twenty-three year old singer/actress is back in her small town after a huge scandals blows up her life in L.A. She finds herself directing a children’s Christmas musical with her childhood best friend, and the guy she never got over. Things heat up between them and she has to make a decision. She doesn’t want to stay in a small town and he doesn’t want to leave, so how will they ever make this relationship work?

This book felt really juvenile. The characters are supposed to be in their mid-20s, but they speak and act like teenagers. After reading this book, I found out the author is only 16 herself…so it makes sense that the characters were written in a more juvenile manner. I think it’s really incredible that she was able to get her book published at such a young age. I just wasn’t totally sold on the story, but I did like how each chapter had a song on the title page. The book is really fast paced, so it was really easy to binge.

This definitely isn’t an adult contemporary book. It felt more like fan fiction I would have written in my teenage years. If this was marketed as a YA book, I probably would have rated it higher. It’s definitely not an adult contemporary romance. That being said, if you’re looking for a quick read with a Christmas background and you don’t mind suspending reality for a bit, maybe give this one a try.

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. I was enjoying the dual timeline chapters until it got to a point where it felt like the story wasn’t moving along in either timeline.

The dual timeline structure effectively contrasts Aspen's glamorous Hollywood life with the simplicity and authenticity of her hometown. Freeman's writing is engaging and relatable, bringing to life the characters and their emotional journey. The romance between Aspen and Roman is slow-burning and believable, their undeniable chemistry simmering under the surface.

While the story occasionally feels predictable, the overall charm and emotional depth of 'Tis the Damn Season make it a worthwhile read. It's a heartwarming tale of second chances, self-discovery, and the power of love to remind us of who we truly are.

Content warning: there is brief mention and description of sexual assault in this story.

This was such a fun, lighthearted read that was just what I needed to get me out of a reading slump. I found myself rooting for the characters throughout (especially Rome!) and loved the way the non-linear timeline really helped create an understanding of Aspen and Rome’s relationship. From the second I read about the night when their relationship started, I couldn’t put the book down because I wanted to know how their story ended. It was fun to watch the characters grow up and become more mature, as they learned how to balance the demands of Aspen’s celebrity status with Rome’s tendency to be more private. The ending really just made me happy and I finished the story with a smile on my face!

The songs that were paired with each chapter were a fun little extra, given Aspen’s music career. They would make an awesome playlist!

this was such a cute holiday read!!! i absolutely loved the second chance romance of this & how pure the love between roman + aspen was <33 i love books with a past/present timeline and this one did it so well! i also had the most fun noticing all the little taylor swift inspired moments!!

3 stars

Did I only request this because of the Taylor Swift song??? Yes...do I regret that??? Nope!!! What a cute read! This was fun and kept me busy for a couple days.

This is a cute little Christmas romance, and it’s especially perfect for Swifties! There’s a fun playlist with a song for each chapter, and the main character is an aspiring singer/songwriter. I loved Roman’s character and his and Aspen’s love story, although at times Aspen seemed a little flat and superficial. It also seemed a bit weird to me that a small-town church would have such a heavily directed and produced children’s Christmas musical, but it added a fun element. However, the biggest surprise of the book (and this one’s on me for not paying attention lol) is that the author is SIXTEEN! I was reading the acknowledgements after finishing the book and had to stop and go look at her Instagram, because I couldn’t believe this is a debut from a sixteen year old! The quality of writing and storytelling was, in my opinion, that of a much more experienced writer. In conclusion, if you’re looking for a quick, fun, Christmas romance, this one’s for you!
TW: sexual assault

Many thanks to NetGalley and Parson Press for the advance copy; Tis the Damn Season is out now!