Overall
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars
- Yay: dual timelines | he falls first | second chance romance
- Nay: some of the drama hit too close to home for me personally

Girl, let me tell you..I need more Taylor Swift references in books. Really really badly. It was like a scavenger hunt trying to pick them all out. Absolutely no way I got every single one, but here are my favorites:
✨ “I want to imagine my life with the man I’ve never been able to forget, but doing so is a death by a thousand cuts.”
✨ “I keep thinking back to what feels the holy ground where we once stood.”
✨ “It’s impossible not to want to see him now when the best person I’ve ever known is waiting on the other side of the door.”

Plot
High school sweethearts, Aspen and Roman, get separated after graduation as Aspen leaves for California to chase her acting/singing dreams. After her reputation comes into question, Aspen comes back home for the holidays and the pair is reunited. As she tries to pick up the pieces of her Hollywood life, the merging of her Pennsylvania life and her LA life causes nothing but problems. Aspen and Roman struggle with the idea of if this celebrity whirlwind lifestyle is something they can take on together or not.
- Yay: I’m an absolute sucked for a second chance romance and I really enjoyed rooting for Aspen and Roman. The drama is mixing a small town boy and a celebrity girl’s lifestyles is one that I actually really enjoy.
- Nay: It all just kept going and going and going. It was one problem after another the entire story. There wasn’t really any down time, very minimal enjoyable time for the characters. That just came off as unrealistic to me.

Characters
I feel as though the side characters did more for me than the main characters, if I’m being honest. Very specifically the kids from the holiday play. I love me some good character development. You could be the villain, but if you have character development, I’m going to be obsessed with you! Let me introduce you to Millie and Ella:

🌟 Millie comes in to audition for the holiday play expecting to get the lead role. She’s full of talent and star quality. When things don’t go the way she plans, she’s very upset and makes a scene. We learn that she is actually under an immense amount of pressure from her mother and the fear of disappointing her is really getting to the 10-year-old. She ends up accepting her supporting role and even supports the rest of the cast instead of just keeping to her small group.

🎤 Ella is the quiet girl who doesn’t have the greatest audition, but Aspen sees all the potential she has and casts her as the lead in the play. She really struggles with self esteem and confidence until she starts to work on her skills with Aspen. In the end, she gains the confidence she needs, absolutely crushes the big performance just the way the Aspen always thought she would.

While Aspen and Roman were dealing with road block after road block after road block, I genuinely enjoyed the side story of Millie and Ella’s growth.

Final Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed escaping into this world. I enjoyed all the characters which definitely doesn’t always happen. And even though the plot was a little hard to get through because of the constant bombardment of problems, I didn’t have any issues with any individual situation.

**Thank you NetGalley and Kimi Freeman for the ARC and giving me the opportunity to review this book.**

sorry, i tried. too many unpolished characters, felt like YA writing. while this was her debut, i think she will benefit as she keeps writing more books, if she does.

I quite enjoyed this book, easy to read and the characters were good. It didn’t blow me away particularly, I did however love the ending.. An easy to read romance. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read.

For lovers of Taylor Swift
This book was a 3.5 star read for me
And I would definitely recommend to those looking for a fluffy small town second chance holiday romance .

This book is a cute read with bit of forced proximity, and is a great read for the holiday season, the characters were loveable and this whole book was just a really enjoyable read.

Thanks to netgalley for the Arc

I really wanted to love this one but sadly it just fell a bit flat for me 2.5 stars.
The characters felt underdeveloped, and I didn’t feel any actual chemistry between FMC and MMC-the book is marketed as being swoon-worthy but i can’t see where.
Whilst many things happened like the scandal, and then more scandal, and then personal family issues, it didn’t actually feel like anything really happened in the actual love story. We went from-they fell in love in high school to they get together when she visits to we can’t be together anymore but I still love you and we won’t stop seeing each other we just won’t kiss or sleep together I guess 🤷🏼‍♀️. Then suddenly everything’s fine we’ll figure it out and live HEA.
Overall it wasn’t horrific and it was a solid debut but not for me, felt a bit shallow and surface level.

This was such a cute story and an all around fun read. I enjoyed the twist of the FMC being the character in the spotlight as the public eye can be such a different experience for women in the industry. The dual timeline was well done and the addition of the playlist added some extra vibes to an already enjoyable time. Aspen was written in a relatable way that I think will resonate with readers who will likely feel themselves reflected in her.

All in all, a fun read where the world of a "boy from my hometown" meets a "Hollywood starlet".

Solid 3.5/5 for me, would recommend to those who appreciate this style of romance or those looking to try the genre.


[Thank you to Netgalley and Parson Press for the opportunity to review an eARC copy prior to publication. All views and opinions are my own.]

I love a Hollywood star trope, so when I saw this was a holiday read centered around a starlet caught in a scandal, I needed to pick it up.

Aspen Moore is living out her dreams as an actress and singer in Hollywood until the media publishes false stories about her being involved in an affair. The smear campaign is out to ruin her reputation and her friends have turned against her, so she decides to return home to Pennsylvania for the holiday season to get away from the drama. That is, until she rekindles a relationship with her high school ex-boyfriend while producing the town's holiday pageant, and everything seems to erupt in her love life once again...

I thought this book was very cute. Told with dueling timelines between present day and Aspen's high school self deciding to pursue her Hollywood dreams, 'Tis the Damn Season is a fun romance great for young adult readers.

This is Kimi Freeman's debut novel, and I felt like that showed. The writing is definitely targeted to a younger audience, as the characters tended to be immature. I am also starting to feel burnt out on the Taylor Swift lyric trope, it's becoming over-done and I think it diminishes the longevity of the book. The playlist and concept is fun for now, but how will that hold up in a few years? Are we going to cringe over these references? I also wish this had more holiday references, it felt like that part of the plot was secondary to everything else happening, even though the novel is supposed to be centered around it.

While this is not a literary work of art, I would never expect it to be from a debut author and I give Freeman props for her work at a young age and look forward to seeing her writing advance.

‘Tis the Damn Season feels like an epic love story following a couple over the span of many years, with flash backs to the past of the couples journey in between the present chapters. This is the first book I’ve read that made it easy to follow the seperate timelines, and I feel that’s a big credit to Kimi Freeman’s writing. I was never left scratching my head like what what’s happening , where are we.

I absolutely loved that each chapter had a song, I was only thinking lastnight how I wish more books did that, it helped me sense what mood the book was,

While I loved the set up of the book, and the playlist I felt the story was lacking in some spots. Towards the end it felt dragged on and the story line of the ruined reputation felt very similar to some other Taylor Swift coded books I’ve read this year. If I hadn’t read those books I may have felt different about the story line themselves.

Over all I enjoyed the book and would recommend it

*Trigger warnings: sexual assault

When I go into books like these, I do it for the immediate and shameless serotonin rush. A rich plot with a good combination of tropes and characters to fall in love with are more than enough. “‘Tis the Damn Season” promised some of my favourites: second-chance, small-town romance, golden-retriever-energy love interest. The well-curated Taylor Swift playlist was the cherry on top, but unfortunately, I felt this novel fell short in many ways.

After moving away from her hometown, Aspen Moore has become a renowned singer and actress. Everything she has worked so hard for is jeopardised when her best friend’s boyfriend spreads a rumour claiming she tried to sleep with him, and amidst that PR nightmare, she decides to go back home for Christmas to clear her mind. And her plan is almost successful if it weren’t for the fact that she is still in love with her first boyfriend, Rome, and now they have both agreed to work on a children’s theatre production for the holidays. Even though they both acknowledge they care deeply about each other, Aspen asks him to just remain friends to avoid getting hurt again. But, of course, the more they spend time together, the harder it is not to give in, and both of them have to make a decision: will they choose the lifestyle they want for themselves, or will they choose each other?

I think my biggest issue with this novel was the lack of a problem in the plot. Aspen tells us plenty of times that reestablishing a relationship with Rome is a bad idea because they have been hurt very deeply in the past by doing this, but we have no insight to it. She tells us more than we are shown, and because we do not get to see how she has felt heartbroken or conflicted in the past, as a reader I felt indifferent towards her struggle. It doesn’t feel like there’s anything at stake. This plot offered a good opportunity to set up some angst and longing, but I found the characters a little too one-dimensional—the good boyfriend who never gets angry, the career-oriented woman who fights her battles alone—, and their interactions sparked little emotion. But that is all there was to them, and I was halfway through the novel without much interest in learning more about them.

Another aspect I disliked was how the main character achieves to restore her image when she comes forward telling her experience with sexual assault. In my view, instead of being treated as a subject that carries such heaviness and pain, it is waved like a magic wand for her to regain the sympathy of her fans. By no means am I saying the author minimises the topic or is insensitive towards it, or that it was an unnecessary part of the plot. However, I feel that since it was thrown so close to the end and there was little exploration of this topic, its depiction was very surface-level, which to me was a recurrent problem in “‘Tis the Damn Season”.

Thank you to for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Everything about this book was so good. Of course, reading about Roman and Aspen made for a great story, BUT put it together with be playlist that goes with the song titles, it’s literally perfect! Some of the chapters took about the same amount of time to read as the length of the song that goes with the chapter. 10/10 recommend pairing this book with the playlist. I loved this book!

An instant add for a Swiftie (Taylor Swift). Second chance lovers based on the Taylor swift song Tis The Damn Season set during the holidays what more could you want.

First, big thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this book! Second ratings: 3 stars.

Let’s start with a light summary: Aspen Moore is a pop sensation and leading actress of a hit television show. After moving to LA to start her career from a middle-of-nowhere town in Pennsylvania, Aspen finds a friend in influencer and model Sierra Wong. But things go terribly wrong when Sierra’s boyfriend, Cane, alleged that Aspen attempted relations with him while they were on tour. Sierra kicks Aspen out of their shared apartment, and effectively sends Aspen running home for the holidays. Here she reconnects with her high school boyfriend, and long time hookup partner, Roman Torres.

This is a dual timeline love story that follows Aspen’s story of finding her voice in the music industry while also opening herself up to the potential relationship she could share with Roman. Also, this book is inspired by Taylor Swift’s Evermore song “‘Tis the Damn Season.”

Okay, here are my thoughts.

I found the dual timeline to be hard to follow at times. I loved watching them fall in love, it was very high school romance where the popular footballer falls for the outcast songwriter. However, as much as I wanted to know why Aspen was so hung up on Roman, the characterization of them as adults versus as teenagers drove me crazy. Especially towards the end of the high school timeline where Roman felt so disconnected from Aspen emotionally and treated her like crap. At times it felt like a movie where the timelines converged and it was nice, but I found myself skimming through parts of the high school timeline.

The reason I gave this 3 stars is because I wasn’t convinced that Aspen and Roman were a good match in the end. I really didn’t connect with their coupling because I thought that Aspen was asking too much of Roman and that Roman wasn’t giving enough for Aspen. Yes, the relationship is cute in high school, but in the end, Aspen held herself back in LA because she missed Roman.

I really wanted to like this story because I love that song, and while I loved the concept, I just wish it had gone differently. To me, it would have done the characters more justice if it had gone differently.

Wasn't really keen on this book. Felt it very young and couldn't connect to it. Ive since found out the author is young, which is a fab achievement. It just wasn't for me.

The first this I noticed about this book was the songs at the start of each chapter. I love a book with a good soundtrack!
My second thought about this book were that the writing is awfully similar to that of an ‘Episode - Choose Your Story’ game… This set the tone a little bit for the rest of the read because all I was picturing was that game.
So if ‘Episode’ meets ‘Hallmark’, it’s going to be a cringy & predictable love story. But that’s what I love so much about Christmas.

A sweet debut by a young author, 'Tis the Damn Season was a one-sitting read for me. I love a second chance romance and the dual timelines are an interesting way to tell the story. The last section of the book felt somewhat rushed to me but overall a nice easy read.

Tis the Damn Season immediately makes the reader think of Taylor Swift with that title, and the references don't stop there!

Aspen is a singer who recently got trashed by the tabloids. She heads home for the holidays to avoid the glare of the spotlight and to reconnect with her family and her ex, Roman. She is determined to keep him at arm's length and not fall back in love, but their connection may prove too strong to fight.

There are several things I enjoyed about this debut romance. The concept was fun, as I always love a celebrity romance! The dual timeline is another favorite of mine, flashing back to when the couple first met and got together. It adds extra depth to a second chance romance, and I liked seeing the characters build their original connection. The song titles at the start of each chapter were a fun touch.

In the present timeline, I found the characters to be written more like teenagers than like actual adults, making this veer into YA territory. The constant push and pull and the way Aspen couldn't make up her mind about things felt younger than the age she was supposed to be. I think the book could have benefitted from keeping the main characters closer to their teens and making this a YA romance.

My other issue was with the way I felt like the author was telling us things, not showing them. I didn't feel the connection between the characters and didn't feel connected to the story itself. The youth of the main characters came out in their dialogue and their actions.

Thank you to NetGalley and IBPA for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was looking so forward to this book as a huge swiftie.
I did love the songs on each chapter. And how they were SO fitting to the chapters.
The book overall felt very Wattpad like. I didn’t like the single POV, however the different timelines did help break it up some.

3.25

I have to say this is quite a quick and easy read, and while there was nothing outright wrong with the story I couldn't help but feel the characters fell flat for me. Neither of the leads had any actual flaws, they always seemed to make the "right" decisions by their standards, until a conflict about 2/3 through the book, but by then I was already tuned out. It also didn't have a very intricate plot, and while the alternating chapters from different timeliness helped lend to some of the intrigue of the story, it still wasn't enough for me to rate the story any higher.

Not a bad book, but also not the most memorable.

I liked the plot of this book but the way it was written just wasn't it for me, there were instances where I felt like the FMC was acting like an immature person and a bitch, especially towards the MMC but apart from that it was a decent book and also I did not like the fact that it was a single pov instead of a dual one.

This book is an impressive feat for a young writer! It has a very compelling story, likable characters, good world building— it has all the bones to be truly spectacular and I do look forward to reading Freeman’s future works and seeing her writing grow. The dialogue and pacing both presented issues to me in this book. The dialogue felt a bit messy, a bit unpolished and overdone. The pacing felt like we spent a lot of time building to big reveals and conflict but barely spent any time in those moments. Overall, I enjoyed this read as a Swiftie but definitely think it could use some additional polish.