This was really fun to read! I loved the Nightmare before Christmas vibe and the fantasy world where all the holidays had their realms and special magic. The main characters were adorable, and the supporting friends equally endearing. A special shoutout to the author for bringing the importance of Dia de los Muertos into the Halloween story. I would definitely recommend this to readers of romance and fantasy. This was a feel good book that I think anyone would enjoy!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Nicholas doesn’t know what to do with his life when he doesn’t feel the Christmas spirit anymore. Literally, he will be the next Santa Claus when his father retires or passes it along. And it’s not holding its appeal anymore. He keeps doing everything wrong, according to his father. It doesn’t help that his father is making him marry someone he doesn’t love. He is still thinking about the mysterious man on Halloween.

It’s pretty funny that the prince of Halloween, Hex, is the mysterious man. It’s fated between them. Unfortunately, they are both bound to complete their marriage. It’s not going to hold much because Hex and Nicholas are falling in love with each other.

This book was such a fun, easy read. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was what I needed. It’s too cute for words. I truly adore how much Nicholas truly cares for everyone, and it takes a toll on him. He wants to change things, but he is finding it hard when he doesn’t have the support. Thankfully, he finds support when he sees Hex again.

Nicholas and Hex may not be ideal since they are both heirs to different seasons. But they were always meant to see each other. They have undeniable chemistry between them. You just know that they belong to each other.

While Nicholas and Hex being together is too cute for words, the drama surrounding them is out of this world. It literally kept me entertained with the drama. It was like watching a reality show. I definitely recommend reading it if you enjoy reading about queer romance with bits of nightmare before Christmas vibes and the forced proximity trope.

With a title like that, how could you not read it!?! The characters were so fun to read, and the whole book was cozy, spooky, and fun. Absolutely will reccomend to all my spooky readers.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy!!! So holiday romances can be steamy and a lot of fun. Romance, smut, coming into yourself, and just feel good with a side of scheming. Throw it into a pot for a good old fashioned time with some chaotic bisexuals.

I really loved the premise of this book, as someone who loves Halloween and The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the end, I thought the book was just fine. It's a single POV (Coal) and I think the story would've benefited from a few chapters from the POV of Prince Hex. I just would've loved to have some insight into what he thought about Christmas and about the Christmas Prince.

I wasn't expecting the amount of holiday politics that was in this book. It was an interesting take and something I haven't seen in a holiday book before (and I've read a lot of them). There just seemed to be a lot going on with the fake engagement, Coal being a mess, Nick hiding his own feelings for the Easter Princess, and Santa just being a jerk. Sometimes the balance between all of that and the romance wasn't quite right. When it came to the romance, I feel like Coal was more focused on how Hex looked, and what he wore instead of seeing the big picture. While the book was open door, it was still pretty tame since the author never truly described the sex scenes. It was just a lot of "his hand on me" and wording of that nature. This is supposed to be an adult romance, but overall, it didn't feel that way. This could easily be a YA book.

All in all, I thought the book was OK. It took me a bit to get into it. I did like the text messages between everyone but at times the book came across as clunky with some repetitive lines and wording that just didn't flow well.

A sweet and fresh take on the contemporary Christmas centered romance genre. Essentially each holiday has a corresponding royal family that harnesses the joy experienced by people during said holidays in order to perform magic. Again the premise of this book is really unique, I like all the characters quite a lot and the political machinations were interesting to watch unfold. This book takes the real world issue of Christmas slowly encroaching on other holidays and and turns it into a political drama with a forbidden romance between the prince of Christmas and the prince of Halloween thrown in.
I really liked the characters relationships with one another; love a good friendship triad. The plot itself is told over the course of the month leading up to Christmas Eve and the relationship between Coal and Hex develops very quickly. Our boy Coal is ready to jump Hex after their first meeting before even knowing his name. Not a bad thing overall, and I think fans of traditional contemporary romance will love how fast things get intense between Coal and Hex. This is being packaged as Red, White and, Royal Blue meets Nightmare Before Christmas and usually I’m not for these types of tags but this one fits. I would also add that it gives a little bit of a Rise of the Guardians (animated film from 2012) vibe; Coal reminds me a lot of Jack Frost from the film. Looking forward to Kris’s book next!

Biggest gripe? How often ‘pulse’, ‘pulsed’ and, ‘pulsing’ were used in the book. It was a lot. I think maybe another pass by an editor could have fixed this.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas is every bit the the light, fun, Christmas romance you would expect with a title such as that one.

With its enchanting characters, whimsical setting, and heartfelt message, Sara’s latest novel is sure to cast a spell on readers of all ages. Highly recommended for anyone in search of a cute sweet adventure!

This was just kind of fine, not actually terrible but not actually that good either. I feel like the tone was all over the place - I know RWRB is the main comp title but I think that book did a better job balancing the political stuff with the romance than this one. The idea for holiday kingdoms is fun and some of the visuals were great but I felt like we were either focusing way too much on the kingdom politics or on the romance, never quite in the right ratio. I think this is a book that might have benefited from a dual POV rather than only being in Coal's head. Hex didn't end up feeling very fleshed out despite all his infodumping about his backstory once they get together.

A joyful romp of a romance! Felt like I was inside my favorite holiday Disney movie, complete with all the feels and joy!

I DEVOURED this book. It was exactly what it promised to be: a light, fun holiday romance. It was a little on the nose at times - Coal, Kris, Iris, Hex...But it was HYSTERICAL. I loved all their fashion choices, and I loved seeing Coal come into his own as a member of the royal family and as the crown prince of Christmas. I loved all the character's relationships, I loved the storyline, and the resolution. I had so much fun with this book, I definitely intend to buy a copy and reread it twice a year.

I am ALREADY handselling this book to everyone who has spoken to me - I expect to have multiple preorders because this was just so fun. What a great way to kick off the holiday season!

The Nightmare Before Kissmas was really highly anticipated. I love the cover and the idea of the story, but I struggled to get into the writing style. I really wish that this style had been refined more before being published. I can see where the author is trying to be kitschy and blend urban fantasy with this fantastical holiday world, but the blending isn't seamless.

The narration is really odd and clunky. While it smooths out somewhat, it really starts off pretty rough. The main character, Coal, has already done something we know nothing about and is sitting in a bar drinking his woes away. Starting off in this part really skips over the action that already happens and doesn't become exciting. Raasch hints at what happened over and over, but it's all through Coal's narration. The narration in itself is really incongruent. The dialogue between Coal and the other characters (Kris, at first) reads like it's just interjected between Coal's stream of consciousness. It almost feels like Coal's breaking the 4th wall the way he keeps jumping in to respond to and over-explain each piece of dialogue, thought, and action. The fact that there are no speech tags in the beginning really adds to this as well. It comes across as "*record scratch* - yeah, that's me, so let me tell you how I got here." But then the audience isn't actually told anything about what happened.

I can appreciate that Raasch is trying to create a character that's a bit funny and self-deprecating, but Coal takes that a bit too far without actually giving us much substance. The author circles around what Coal did and WHY he did it, but Coal's motives aren't clear. He did something because he didn't like that Christmas was one day and made no real impact? I thought maybe he was upset about how commercialized Christmas has become, but I don't even think it's that deep. So Coal just randomly giving out gifts and money doesn't make sense to me -- why would he do that? Did he just want to have a second day of Christmas? Is that a meaningful difference compared to ONE day of Christmas? It feels watery and unstructured. It's supposed to be the catalyzing incident for the story, but I just don't get his motive/rationale.

Coal is too self-deprecating across the board. In his own mind, when he talks to Kris, when he refers to Iris probably hearing from Lily (who we have no idea who she is at this point) that Coal is a screw-up, and then again when he meets our love interest! He just info-dumps the same circular, self-deprecating info onto Hex. Hex is supposed to take this as cute, but it's really just frustrating for the reader because we're hearing the same info AGAIN. Maybe it's because Coal's motive and frustrations aren't clear (because he never comes out and says WHY he did what he did and WHAT he was trying to change), but Coal seems immature and whiny.

I'm currently struggling with this book, but I think the Christmas World/Holiday World idea is really cute. The PR aspect is a nice spin on other holiday fantasy stories we've seen before (such as Tim Allen's The Santa Claus 2 where the Holidays meet at a "board meeting."). I just wish the PR aspect was clearer from the beginning and Coal's actions/mistake was made to try and combat that more strongly (rather than just give out more gifts and money).

This was such a cute read. I loved this so much and couldn't stop smiling as their romance blossomed. I loved how their holidays helped to show their differences but also helped bridge them together because it was so cute. It would be so good to read during the holidays, but honestly, it also is great to read even when it's not the holidays. It was a great romance and I thought it was so cute

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch was a delight to read - MM romance that was quirky and fun! Coal is next in line to be Santa - he's supposed to marry his best friend, Iris (the Easter Princess, obviously!), but he has a run-in with a hot stranger. Said stranger is Hex, the Prince of Halloween. A competition began, and the banter was top-notch. Super fun!

Look does the world building make a ton of sense? No, not really. Is there magic that also is just for giggles? Yep, totally. Did I have a lot of fun and really enjoyed myself? Definitely. I'll read the next one too, hell, I hope there are even more after that, it's just fun and I liked the holiday puns and why not, let these prince boys kiss.

Very strange tone, I feel like this book never really quite got it's footing. Very odd character choices, odd sentence structure, repetitive lines, and boring prose. I was really hoping to enjoy this but found where there should be heart there was humor, and where there was humor it never quite hit.
It felt extremely childish and then suddenly wanted to be sexy, and I just couldn't click with it.

This was a fun read that delivered on the promise of campy holiday coziness. I enjoyed the unique worldbuilding and the political tensions between the holiday "courts", and I was enchanted by the romance between Coal and Hex. I found Coal to be hilarious and loveable, and I was rooting for him and his HEA.

This book was so adorable & fun and delivered more than it promises. I went into it with expectations for a fun romcom with nods to Nightmare Before Christmas and I got all of that and a seriously satisfying world building all centered around holiday kingdoms, rivalry, politics, AND a tension filled romance between 2 princes??

I loved this story, I loved the characters and the drama and I am fully invested in book 2! I can’t wait to read more about these characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bramble for this book to review!

This book was so much fun! This is the perfect mix of steamy and funny and I fell in love with the characters and the romance.

GAY HALLOWEEN TOWN STFU.
Red, White & Royal Blue meets The Nightmare Before Christmas in a sexy, quirky romcom where the golden-hearted Prince of Christmas falls for the totally off-limits Prince of Halloween.
It's Gay, it's Christmas, it's Halloween, it's PERFECTION.