This is a clean contemporary romance that has an interesting storyline, likable characters and and overall, feel-good vibes. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was all the Taylor swift references. Seems like this is geared towards TS’s fan base.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kimi Freeman for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Anything Taylor Swift related is a big yes to me, however this book did have some cringey and cheesy moments hence why the rating is what it is.

An enchanting journey through vividly imagined worlds and compelling characters. This fiction gem weaves a tapestry of emotions, adventure, and unexpected twists that kept me eagerly turning the pages. The author's masterful storytelling evokes a powerful connection, making this book an absolute delight to read. Highly recommended for anyone seeking a captivating escape.

3.5| Thank you to NetGalley and Parson Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review

If you know me, you know my favorite song ever is ‘tis the damn season by Taylor Swift, so when I saw this on NetGalley, I just knew I had to request it.

Aspen Moore is a major singer and actor in LA. When a scandal hits her out if nowhere, she escapes back to her hometown of Fertsville, Pennsylvania. When she arrives she sees none other than the first (and only) love of her life, Roman Torres. Will they make it together or will Aspen return to LA freshly heartbroken for the last time?

Ugh the Taylor references were so good. I know it’s literally based on a song of hers but I was still freaking out over every little detail. I loved the story and Aspen’s character growth. Really the only thing I have to complain about was the romance between our main characters. I feel like there wasn’t a whole lot of chemistry between them even though we got a past and present timeline. Yes, they were definitely friends but they never really felt like more than that. If there had been more chemistry with Aspen and Roman I could definitely have seen myself giving this an easy 4-4.5 stars.

3/5 stars! thank you netgalley, the author & publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

this was a nice, easy light hearted read and i adored most of it. i would’ve preferred some things be more fleshed out, but it was overall a sweet story and the childhood best friend trope was done really well. i liked aspen and roman’s relationship, they definitely had chemistry and brought out the best in each other. the flashbacks and flash forwards were also done really well.

some aspects fell flat to me, and i wish the characters themselves were developed a little more independently. this book was super dialogue heavy with a lot of telling and minimal showing, which could’ve really elevated this to the next level.

overall i enjoyed it as a debut novel and look forward to what else this author puts out!

tis the damn season (queue taylor swift) flips back and forth between the then and the now of aspen and rome’s love life. aspen has found herself back at home after she went from being hollywood’s sweat heart to homewrecker in the press. every time she’s home she reconnects with her first love, rome. i liked this book, i think i enjoyed the flashbacks more than the now and it felt like it went on a little longer than needed but overall a good read.

3.5⭐️

I so wanted to love this book but unfortunately i couldn’t really connect with the main characters💔
However I appreciated the dual timelines that gave us more insight on the nature of characters’ relationship. The TS references were also very cute and the chapters were short making the book easy to read. Considering that this is a debut novel, i will definitely give a chance to the next book from this author!🤗

Thank you to netgalley, the author and the publisher for a free earc, all opinions are my own!

What an adorable YA Christmas-season romance!

Definitely check content warnings for sexual abuse and rape.

I loved this dual-timeline story, and loved the characters’ growth between the timeline of the past and present storylines. I especially loved that they learned how to communicate (a total pet peeve in romance when they don’t!!)

The characters were definitely a little wordy, and it annoyed me when Roman kept calling Aspen “mi cielo” instead of literally anything else the entire time, but overall, the story, plot, and characters worked well and I was left with the warm fuzzies after reading it!

I thought that this book was so cute, fun, and sweet. I loved the chapter headings were formatted and loved that each chapter had a little song that paired with it. The Taylor Swift references were also adorable. I went into this book expecting it to give Hallmark Christmas movie vibes, and it definitely did and gave me pretty much everything that I was thinking it would. I feel like this is a really good palate cleansing/innocent little Christmas romance book and I would highly recommend.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and Kimi Freeman for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Now, let's get into the review.
'Tis the Damn Season follows Aspen, a pretty famous singer and songwriter living in LA. Unfortunately, she finds herself in the middle of a scandal and has to go back to the small town where she was born. There we meet Roman, who was her first love in school, and they find themselves enveloped in staging a children's Christmas show. It's basically a low-stake, more character-driven (even though there are some plot twists here and there) healthy romance story.

Tropes: Friends to lovers, (kind of) forced proximity, (kind of) second chance, it's always been you.
Trigger warnings: Death of a loved one, rape, bullying. (They are not discussed in huge detail, but they are mentioned and form part of the history of the characters)

What I really loved:
- Writing was easy to follow and understand.
- The book has a playlist, and each chapter has its own song. (I really enjoy listening to music while reading). And just in general, this book is threaded with love for music.
- Dual-timeline (We med Aspen and Roman as they are teenagers and fall in love and as adults, when they reconnect).
- Normally in books where the hero and heroine were lovers and stop communicating for years for some reason, when they reconnect they are enemies. In this case, Aspen and Roman were still friends, and I enjoyed it.
- The chapters were short. Each chapter was changing between the past and present, which made it a more dynamic read.
- In many books where hero and heroine are separated for whatever reason, it's a misunderstanding or a pretty unworthy reason. In this case, I feel like their separation reason is a valid one.
- I loved Leila's character and I am interested in her possible brother's best friend love story.
- As a person that speaks Spanish, I really loved that Roman called Aspen mi cielo.

Things that could be improved:
- I don't feel like there was enough development on why Roman fell in love with Aspen. They basically start dating in chapter two of past timeline and Roman just comes up to Aspen and asks her on a date. They never talked before, and they didn't have any friends in common, so for me, Roman approached Aspen out of the blue and without any reason. It might have been interesting to see his POV even.
- I feel like for it being a Christmas novel, I could use some more Christmas spirit. The present timeline of this book is between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the past one is all over the place.
- I feel like in the past timeline, in the beginning, Aspen was a little bitchy towards Roman, even though he didn't deserve it. I guess it could be justified by her not trusting anyone since she was bullied.
- I feel like some of the plot points could be better developed. I won't be mentioning which once exactly because of the spoilers, but I do mention them in my Goodreads review with a previous spoiler alert.

All in all I would recommend this book for those who like low-stake, wholesome Christmas romances. Me personally, I will be on lookout for more from this author.

If you're looking for a romance read packed with Taylor Swift references - this is it! With everything from the title and playlist to more subtle hints it's clear this book is written by a swiftie, and I'm all here for that 🙌

In this second chance romance you get to follow Aspen; an A-list celebrity with a bad reputation, as she temporarily moves back to her home town and spends time with her ex boyfriend. I was hoping the story would be a bit more angsty considering that's the vibe in the TS song it's named after, but it was a pretty lighthearted read. I was also really bothered by how mature and emotionally evolved all the characters were! Everyone was unreasonably good at communicating their feelings and it just didn't feel believable.

All in all an okay read, but some parts felt a bit forced and just too much. I'm still giving it a quite generous rating due to all the Taylor Swift references!

‘Tis the Damn Season by Kimi Freeman was such a cute romance book. I loved that it was told in dual pov.

Aspen, a famous singer, returns to her hometown. She reconnects with her high school sweetheart, Rome.

I enjoyed the dual timeline, as the storylines came together to reveal the past lives of both main characters. The romance and story felt YA, as an adult reader, I didn't love it. Teenagers are a more approachable audience for this book in my opinion.

I think that it did need a warning about the rape, that hit me a little harder than I expected since I went into this thinking it was just a romcom. I was blind sighted by that.

Overall I think this is a good read for a YA audience.

This was a wonderful debut novel. I loved the subtle (and not so subtle) Taylor Swift references. I loved the small town vibes and the setting around the Christmas play. However I do feel like some of the story went a bit quickly because of the short chapters, sometimes it jumped around a little too much and it wasn't as clear what was going on, it would have made sense to put shorter chapters together to make it more cohesive. The book also starts with a lot of drama right at the start which was quite the beginning and it also wasn't clear for a very long time why there was this much drama which made me question too much. I liked Aspen, she was a bit immature for my liking, she was in her early 20s but she felt like a 16 year old from time to time. I absolutely loved Roman/Rome he was so sweet and nice, he was the perfect man for Aspen and they work well together. Ella was the sweetest little side character in the Christmas play, I smiled so much when the characters interacted with her. And even though we didn't see much of Leila, I liked her as a friend for Aspen, at first I thought she was an undercover journalist trying to get a story by pretending to be friends, I'm glad she wasn't. I loved the little nods to Taylor Swift songs and I feel like including them worked well, it wasn't too on the nose.

One thing that has to be mentioned is trigger warnings it would be good to add them at the beginning because of a section about rape.

Thank you NetGalley, Kimi Freeman and the publisher for this review copy, all opinions are my own.

This book was a cute story idea and I like the Taylor Swift inspiration. The idea of a small town girl who becomes successful, and still has her true love back in her hometown was a great premise. I also enjoyed the holiday vibes.

The main characters just seemed really immature. I know they were in their early 20s but the amount of drama and the way they react to the situation’s was frustrating and felt more like how high school aged people would behave. This is the reason for my lower rating. If you are into a romcom with a bit of Hollywood drama, then this might be for you.

I Was caught up by the title (Taylor Swift references are so easy to track haha And the narrative was pretty compelling and fluid between the pages. The story is divided by back in the past and then in the future but that doesn't impact in the reading. It's very precise and well constructed text. The characters are also well developed and credible, and the story has some relevant content about delicate issues in Our society. Well done!

A book inspired by a Taylor Swift song is obviously good.
The trope isn't the most original but it's doing its job. I like the whole star thing getting back with an ex she never got over.
Aspen is a bit of a cliché but it's well written.
It was nice, slow and funny.

I found this one a tough one to finish. I think because I love Taylor Swift so much, I built up expectations for this too much in my head. Usually I really enjoy flashback and flash forward stories but this one just wasn't it for me.

DNF @ 51%. I felt like this book at so much potential. But I was just so bored of the characters. In the flashbacks scenes, I really enjoyed them, Pen and Rome were adorable. But in the present scenes, I have no idea what's going with them. Reading present scenes. I just didn't feel that romantic chemistry that I did in the past scenes. Usually try to go at least half way through the books to see if my interest is peaked but that unfortunately didn't happen with this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review. Definitely a light-hearted read but not my cup of tea! The synopsis sounded promising, but my expectations fell flat. The plot was fine, nothing too remarkable and I wasn’t a fan of how the ending was written. I thought the dialogue was a little too simple. The only thing I outright disliked about this book was the characters. I thought they acted very stereotypically to the roles they fulfilled (ex: Aspen as a big star from a small town who couldn’t possibly be understood by anyone from said town). I didn’t feel any connection to the characters and I felt that they could’ve been developed a big better. That being said, I think this was pretty good for this being the author’s first novel. The Taylor Swift references were definitely my favorite part!
2.5 stars