This might be my favorite Hanukkah romance ever!! I loved that the characters were more on the secular side (like me!) because I found their journeys throughout the story very relatable. I loved that this grumpy/sunshine story featured a lady grump! Fuck gender norms!

All of the tropes throughout this story worked together perfectly to create a joyous story with a lot of depth. I loved Abby's backstory and the way she handled her trip to NY with all of the trauma she had there and I loved the way Seth supported her throughout it all. I found it really fitting that Abby's relationship with her parents didn't have a resolution - it felt very reflective of real life and I appreciated that,.

I will also say, Amanda Elliot is always making me hungry in her books! The descriptions of latkes and lattes had my mouth watering the entire time. If you're in the market for a non-christmas holiday romance, give this book a shot!

Many thanks to Berkley for the digital ARC via NetGalley. Let's dig into my review!

I have been craving a good slow-burn romance with plenty of tension, and at long last, Love You a Latke delivered. The fake dating, only one bed goodness gave plenty of time for the attraction and affection between Abby and Seth to grow in the best way.

This is a single POV romance, which always works better for me as a reader. I loved seeing Abby grapple with realizing that maybe Seth's positive attitude wasn't so annoying anymore, and watching her second guess the feelings she feels growing between them.

The banter and chemistry between the lead characters is phenomenal, and I love how Abby finds a sense of community with him as he helps her connect to the traditions she thought she lost when she went no-contact with her parents.

Also, the descriptions of all the delicious food they taste on the way to finding the perfect vendors for the Hanukkah festival? Immaculate.

I did find myself wishing for a bit more of a satisfying resolution for Abby's struggles with her past and her family, but the book does tie that plot line up in its own way.

In all, I adored Love You a Latke and think it's an excellent love story about sticking up for yourself and your dreams while also finding a sense of connection and community around shared values and traditions.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a solid winter holiday romance and to those who love delicious food and drink descriptions peppered throughout a slow-burn romance with a hint of spice.

Thank you to Berkley for sending me my new favorite Hanukkah romance in exchange for an honest review!

Read if you 🩷:
• ☀️ Grumpy x Sunshine
• ✡️ Jewish Representation
• 🏙️ New York City during the Holidays
• 🍪 Drowning Gingerbread Men
(when they deserve it!)

Abby Cohen is juggling a holiday nightmare: organizing her small Vermont town’s first-ever Hanukkah festival with almost zero support—except for Seth, her overly cheerful, most persistent customer. When he offers to introduce her to vendors in exchange for posing as his fake girlfriend for a family Hanukkah celebration, Abby reluctantly agrees. But between latkes, snowy adventures, and Seth’s relentless charm, she starts to wonder if this “fake” relationship might actually be warming her heart for real.

I’m so glad I saved this one to read during Hanukkah because this has to be my favorite romance surrounding the holiday yet! I love how Amanda Elliot has Abby call out inappropriate suggestions towards Hanukkah in the most hilarious ways. It was a spectacular way to bring up the subject without feeling too preachy to any non-Jewish readers. The author also respectfully captures the emotions and concerns of those with estranged parents. While I am not in this situation myself, I appreciate how she details Abby’s thought process in these scenes.

And Abby and Seth’s chemistry? Absolutely off the charts! This one nails so many of my favorite tropes: Grumpy x Sunshine, Cinnamon Roll Hero, AND only one bed! The list just keeps going. I also love how their friendship grows and the way they support each other throughout the story.

Although last night was the final evening for Hanukkah, if you’re looking for wintery vibes and New York nostalgia, be sure to pick up “Love You A Latke”!

This was such a fun read and with Hanukkah quickly approaching, I wanted to spotlight another holiday read.

Such a clever twist as the only Jewish business owner is chosen to create a Hanukkah festival to compete with the Christmas festivals of neighboring towns.

Abby enlists her most annoying customer to help the festival showcase Jewish traditions. She’s fighting with the town that is convinced that having the name along with twinkling lights and Santa will work.

Grumpy/sunshine and fake dating are two of my favorite tropes and done well in this holiday read. I should add I am not Jewish, so I can’t speak for authenticity, but I didn’t notice any glaring issues. I loved the representation and easily fell in love with Abby and Seth. I couldn’t get enough of them. Their story is both heartwarming and sweet. And I loved how much they grew in such a short time.

I’m a fan of having more than just a romance and this also dealt with finding your roots and forgiving past trauma. There was a lot going on but it was woven together well.

Overall a fun rom com for someone of any religion.

This is a fake dating for a family Hanukkah party. But also a grumpy sunshine or black cat and golden retriever energy. He’s so unphased by her and continues with his good mood while she tries to get him to be a little less chipper in the morning at her cafe.
But after they were sharing a bedroom and so much time together they were starting to look at each other differently.
I agree with Abby there shouldn’t be any Christian or pagan symbols in a Hanukkah festival, then it’s something else. And it should run on the days that Hanukkah does. Hanukkah was late this year starting on Christmas night.

This book is fantastic! I thought it did a great job at showing the ways that our American culture expects people to accept all the Christmas traditions while ignoring others. I loved the fake dating and the slow burn of the relationship. Though it was slow burn the chemistry was built so well that it kept me turning the pages!

This ended up being a cute Hanukkah rom com. I loved reading about Abby and Seth's Hanukkah New York adventure complete with slightly blackmailing someone into fake dating. It was fresh and new. With it being a Hanukkah rom com which is something newer to to market it didn't have that over the top Hallmark feel that seems to get every other Christmas rom com. I know I for one am looking forward to more Hanukkah rom coms.


I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

I loved this book! It’s the perfect holiday rom-com with small-town vibes, a couple to root for, and all the Hanukkah vibes!

Abby has been tasked with creating a Hanukkah festival to help attract tourists to her small town in Vermont. Not knowing where to turn, she recruits Seth. Seth agrees to help if Abby will come to NYC with him and pretend to be his girlfriend. The thing is, Abby doesn’t like Seth…

I loved how Amanda managed to include conversation on what Hanukkah means. Plus, our main characters Abby and Seth are great! Furthermore, this one’s got all my favorite tropes:

💛grumpy-sunshine
❤️fake dating
💕enemies-to-lovers

I really enjoyed this holiday themed book. I thought it gave a realistic view of being Jewish in a Christian dominated world around the holidays.

Abby runs a coffee shop in a small Vermont town. When the town's tourism board decides that they need to bring more visitors to town and the best way to do so is with a Hannukah festival, Abby seems like the person to put in charge. After all, she's the lone Jewish person in town. Except, she soon finds out that she's not - her least favorite customer, the eternally sunny Seth, is also Jewish. Abby needs the festival to be a success to help boost sales at her shop, so she makes a deal with Seth. He'll help connect her with vendors for the festival if she comes to NYC with him and pretends to be his girlfriend for a week. During that week, Abby gets to experience a loving Jewish community that was largely missing from her own childhood and the time spent with Seth brings the two closer together. Can they pull off the festival and maybe find love in the process?

I found this to be an utterly charming holiday novel. I loved the reverse grumpy/sunshine and found family/community aspects of the story. The way the author shared Abby's growth as a character throughout the story was very well done. I'm not well-versed in Jewish traditions, but the author did a great job of making the story accessible for those not familiar with the history and culture of Hannukah.

Overall - 4.5/5 rounded down
Spice - 1/5

If you like:
😘Fake Dating
🕎 Hanukkah Traditions
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Found Family
🔀 Opposites Attract

I definitely recommend checking out this Hanukkah read from Amanda Elliot!

I loved how their fake dating came to be with Abby getting nominated in her small town to put together a Hanukkah festival while all the locals really wanted it to be a Christmas festival, but wanted to use Hanukkah as a ploy to get more people to visit their small town to boost business for the small town business owners… but from this, where does the fake dating come in… well, Seth is the only other Jewish person in their small town, and he offers to help Abby get vendors in place for the festival, on one condition, she spends Hanukkah in New York City with his family as his girlfriend… because he thinks if he brings a nice Jewish girl home, it will get his parents off his back.

I loved how Abby was annoyed by Seth and Seth found her surly personality charming underneath her rough and guarded exterior and how they both had some things to work through including the reasons they both ended up in their small town as native NYC’ers.

Overall, it was a cute holiday read, and while it wasn’t my fave from Amanda I still really enjoyed it, especially as she brought light to the way Jewish people are treated and expected to dim their culture to be more palatable to the masses. And with the hard couple (read that all) years that it has been for the Jewish people, I think the small moments that bring to light how poorly people treat their Jewish community members was a needed touch to the story telling.

Thanks so much to Putnam for my ARC in exchange for my review!

An incredibly cute book that guides the reader on the Jewish culture/religion without too much hand holding or simplifying. It was a cute story and the forced proximity/fake dating was wonderful. I think my favorite aspect of the story was how probable it felt while still being magical. Not everything had to be tied up and resolved, but the meat of the story was satisfied and left me lingering in what might be in store for the characters without feeling like I was missing a part of it.

A better than average romance story with an emphasis on building communities & families, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

3.5 out of 5. Love that we got to read about another holiday, and we should have more varied holiday books to choose from. I also loved that since a bit part of the story was about setting up a Hanukkah fair, it was pretty educational on the customs which i really enjoyed. I was very annoyed at the amount of time that was spend describing her headaches, especially the use of Hurricane Categories for it. (maybe its because im in Florida and I dont want that many reminders of Hurricane Season?). A very cute inclusive holiday romance that you will enjoy.

LOVED this one!! Such a cute holiday read -- a little confused as to why the first 30% was all about life in Vermont and then abruptly spent the next 70% in NYC but overall I really enjoyed this one!

A very fun holiday rom-com. The characters were likable and there was little angst. A nice weekend read.

A deeply felt romance that offers a nuanced and emotional take on the Hanukkah story. TW: emotional abuse.

This was such a fun read. As someone not jewish, I feel like it was really interesting and I loved learning more about the culture and the holiday of Hanukkah! And the characters were so fun, love a black cat, golden retriever. highly recommend this holiday season!

I loved this! It's got fake dating, it's got forced proximity, it's got found family- chef's kiss! It was just so cute and I loved seeing Abby grow and open herself up. It has the perfect blend of cute romance and emotional depth.

This was such a cute holiday read! I enjoyed learning more about Hannukah and the various customs involved in its celebration, especially all of the different food! The premise of this story was so fun and I loved following Abby in her quest to plan the perfect Hannukah festival in her small Vermont town, while also fake dating her most annoying (is he really tho?) customer.

I enjoyed watching Abby slowly learn to embrace her Jewish culture again after feeling cast away from the community when she left home as a college student. Her relationship with her family really tugged at my heartstrings, but I loved to see her embraced by Seth and his parents.

Minor spoilers here…

Though I gave this four stars, I wish the romance had been MORE. It felt very surface level which wasn’t very convincing. The ending also wrapped up far too quickly, especially the run-in with her parents. I wanted to see more festival planning and wished the fake dating aspect had been evenly paired with the existing storyline instead of becoming the main feature. I also wish Seth hadn’t fought Abby’s battle with her parents on her behalf. I wish we had seen her stand up to them which would have provided her with closure.

All in all, this was still a fun read! Thank you to Berkley for the advanced copy!