Aspen Moore is a Hollywood actress who has been caught in a scandal, supposedly sleeping with her best friends boyfriend. She returns to her hometown where she reunified with her high school boyfriend and the two direct the towns annual nativity play.

This was ok! I do enjoy a good second chance romance but idk it felt a bit flat 😂 I didn’t really relate to either character, the idea was good the execution not so much. I thought the twist at the end came a bit out of nowhere as well

Sadly this book was not for me. While I enjoyed the premise, this felt a little under developed. I think if the characters had been in high school not 25 that would have made this story a little stronger. While the author did an incredible job for someone so young, I feel like the editor and publisher should have been more helpful in cleaning up the story and pushing her towards a younger subject matter.

Thank you to the publisher and author for giving me early access to this book.

I found out about this book from the author’s Tik Tok page. The description and obviously the Taylor Swift reference caught my attention. With all that being said, this was a cute book. I do think this book should have been marketed towards young adult more. I enjoyed reading about these characters, but something was missing for me. On a more positive note, I like the book giving us present chapters and past chapters. It really helped me understand the characters more. The song choices before the chapter started were incredible. Lastly, there is a trigger warning that readers won’t know about until they start reading. For future books, hopefully this is something that can be warned about. I do recommend this cute book, and will read more of Kimi’s books.

First, thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Romance? Based on a Taylor Swift song? Sign me up. Beyond that, I liked the concept of the dual POV over different times and the Taylor Swift references scattered throughout.

Unfortunately, the book wasn’t quite for me. It read younger than I expected (both POVs) and that greatly impacted my experience. A lot of the drama felt petty most of the time and the characters felt underdeveloped.

A lot of people did call out the surprise SA - I did see it coming based on context clues, but there should be trigger warnings for that stuff.

I did almost DNF but did choose to finish.

There is so much potential here but the story did fall flat for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Parson Press for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

As a Swiftie for 15+ years, the title caught my eye, and when I saw the synopsis, that it's inspired by the Taylor Swift song with the same name, I just HAD to request this book, and I'm so happy I was approved for it!

This story is about Aspen, nicknamed Penny or Pen to family and close friends, a small-town Pennsylvania girl who's moved to LA. She used to star in a TV series, but now she's expanded to singing, which she has done since she was a child. But of course, it being LA, there's drama and the press exaggerating things, and Aspen ends up leaving early to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at home with her family, where she reunites with her high-school sweetheart, Roman. All very "tis the damn season"!

The story is told in dual timeline, alternating between present-day Aspen in her hometown, and years ago, when she was still in high-school and first met Roman, and their relationship developed. It properly gives off that "road not taken" vibe from Taylor's song! Every chapter has the title of a song and who it's by, and about half of these are Taylor Swift songs. I also kept finding lyrics and titles of her songs casually throughout the book, which I loved! To mention a few, Roman is "the guy on the football team" from Fifteen, I got some Dorothea vibes as well from the whole "coming back home" story line, and I found mentions of "all too well", "tolerate [it]", "[mr] perfectly fine", "leave well enough alone", Reputation... So much Taylor! And I loved it!

Anyone who's read my reviews before will know that I love anything with either a dual POV or a dual timeline, and anything that makes a book unique, and I thoroughly enjoyed this!! It was fast paced, so easy to read, and I adored the story lines!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 from me!

First off-there are some triggers readers should be aware of-there is past sexual assault to a character.
Overall, I liked this book! I liked the chemistry between the characters, and the idea of how the romance could happen. There were some inconsistencies in the fmc that kindof bothered me. Some people may not notice them but for some reason they glared at me. There were parts of this story that I absolutely loved too! I think this is definitely worth the read, and I know I am going to follow this author for future books! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Absolutely loved this book!

The authors writing style is amazing!

I look forward to reading more from them!

It’s The Damn Season was such a cute read! The name being inspired by a Taylor Swift song is what drew me in to start! It’s a dual timeline in Aspen (the FMC’s) POV. The author of this book is just a teenager but she did a really great job writing this book I would have NO IDEA if I hadn’t done some research after reading it! It follows a girl Aspen who’s currently a Pop Star who has run into tabloid troubles when her best friends boyfriend accused her of coming on to him. Which she most definitely did not. But the whole country believes she did and she’s hurt and sad and needs an escape from the public eye. So she goes home for a few months and with the help of her high school boyfriend Roman, takes over the responsibility of directing the children’s Christmas play at church. There’s the perfect amount of. Inflict and resolution. The world building and character development is great. And there’s a perfect HEA. Kudos to Kimi Freeman on a job well done! I’ve already ordered my published copy since reading this ARC!

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book from NetGalley. My review is honest, unbiased, and completely my own.

Unfortunately I had to dnf this one, the writing wasn't for me. I really wanted to like it but I it just didn't click for me.

A pop star returns to her home town after a scandal and reunites with her high school boyfriend as they work together on the church’s holiday play. Told in 2 timelines - then and now. This books is fine, but is a little boring for a celeb-normie romance (and I read a LOT of books in this niche).
🌶️: no.

DNF at 25%. This book has a lot of potential and I loved all the Taylor Swift references, but the writing just wasn't for me.

I went into this book totally blind and I’m glad I did. The love you saw from Rome was so cute. Brought me right back to my high school days and the relationship of two kids in love with so much life ahead. I loved the different dynamics to the story line too. It wasn’t just about a love story, but also loving yourself first before you can love your forever.

This novel has …
- small town high school sweethearts that never let go
- Celebrity girl and protective small town boy
- Real heartbreak and struggles.
- I wish there was more angst and emotion behind the characters, especially with how heavy some of the dynamics of the storyline were. The story line moved along quickly and was an easy to follow book. Overall, I enjoyed reading Pen and Rome’s love through all the years.

Thank you Netgalley and Parson Press for the eARC.

This was a sweet and overall enjoyable read but I think it fits better into the young adult category.
The story does take us through the main characters lives from teenagers but much of the plot and story felt a little childish at times, so I think this would suit the younger reader.

This was generally cute, but read much younger than I expected. The characters are in their twenties, but I honestly felt like I was reading about high schoolers. The story is cute and fairly low angst, but it didn’t do that much for me. It had similar vibes to a Hallmark Christmas movie (read: slightly cheesy), but as I’ve said many times in this review, was cute.
I’m also not a Swiftie, and after reading other reviews, I think if I were, my appreciation of the book would be higher.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

First time reading a novel by Kimi Freeman after seeing her name pop up on reading lists and libraries. Based on the cover and the obviously referenced Taylor Swift lyric in the title, lead me to wanting to read this book. To be frank, I was very underwhelmed by this novel. Felt like the characters were very dry and lacked an character development. Happy to have read it, but not a book I would recommend to everyone.

This book was so cute from start to end. Sign me up for any book based on a Taylor Swift song and comes with a custom playlist for each chapter! Loved the love story between Aspen and Roman and how it spans from high school to the present time. The author was very thoughtful in how she played off the past and present to show how their history affected their current situation. The last few chapters brought happy tears to my eyes, perfect holiday rom com!!

I was kindly given the ARC for this book and even though I read it in august, it got me massively into the christmas spirit. As soon as I read about this book, I knew I needed to read it and I was not disappointed. I love taylor’s music and christmas so it was perfect for me. The books did not disappoint, I loved both Aspen and Roman which is rare for me in books but I really enjoyed their relationship. Also absolutely loved the chapters turning to two different timelines after a chapter ended, I loved that it always switched because otherwise I didn’t get confused when they randomly switched.

This novel was sweet and cheesy and made for an easy read. I personally found though that the characters lacked depth and the growth of the characters was very superficial and convenient. Full of cliches, this story unfortunately didn’t keep me invested. There was nothing memorable about the plot or characters and the emotional reactions to events in the story sometimes didn’t make sense.
There is potential for this story to become a good rom-com story with a bit more fleshing out of the descriptions and adding more depth to why the characters behave the way they do. I liked the main characters’ names, they were original and worked well together.

As a Taylor swift fan I was super excited to read this book after hearing about all the references to made! I really enjoyed all the chapter names, I think that was really cute. For a debut novel, and the author being only 16 (I just found that out) I think this had great potential. But there were some let downs within the book. I really enjoyed the premise of the book, celebrity romance and a second chance romance. What better! But I felt that the characters fell flat for me, and were immature for their age. This book is meant for new adult, and it does contain content that make it such. However I felt as if the writing style wasn’t mature enough for new adult and would have been a perfect older YA read.

💭A thought💭
There was no TW for what occurred.

Huge thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

i enjoyed this book, it was a great debut book! i love the t swift references & it just made my heart happy. the characters are captivating and were enjoyable to read about!