I love seeing other holiday traditions being represented in novels and this one was no exception. This was the first ook I ever read from Amanda Elliot and it was incredible. I know they say dont judge a book by its cover but you abosultely shoudl with this one! I was initially drawn by how mucha Iloved this cover and the writitng on the pages made me love it even more. It was so cozy, romantic and full of yoiur favourite tropes (uh em* ONE BED TROPE*). The slow burn and forced proximity between Seth and Abby is absolutely delicious so this book was a 5 stra read for me!

A reverse grumpy/sunshine, fake relationship romance! This is a must holiday read! I loved that this book represented the Jewish community especially around the holidays. I thought it was a fun read and gave me hallmark
Movie vibes.

Abby Cohen is not feeling particularly jolly even though it's the holiday season. She is worried that her small town in Vermont won't do well with tourists, which means her cafe won't either. The town assigns her the task of putting together a Hanukkah festival since Abby is the only Jewish person on the tourism board. However, the local vendors don’t have any experience with Hanukkah, so she needs to seek help elsewhere.

It turns out one of her customers, Seth, is also Jewish and has the perfect solution. His parents have been begging him to bring his girlfriend to their home in New York City for a week to celebrate Hanukkah. Problem is, he doesn't have a girlfriend. If Abby pretends to be his girlfriend for the week, Seth will help her find all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success.

Reluctantly, Abby agrees. She is mesmerized by New York City and everything it has to offer. Thanks to Seth, she meets many vendors to help make her Hanukkah festival a success in Vermont. The one drawback is continuing the pretense of being Seth’s girlfriend. She loves his family and hates deceiving them.

This book is the perfect holiday romance. It put me in the holiday frame of mind even though it's very early in the season. The mix of romance and Hanukkah is enough to warm anyone’s heart. Seth and Abby are two characters I really found myself caring about. I was cheering for them right from the start. In fact, all of the characters are well written and truly come to life with each page.

The author does a wonderful job of creating a beautiful scenario for a romantic comedy. This would be perfect as a Hallmark movie. Love You A Latke is an uplifting, sweet romance. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.







FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot is a heartwarming fake dating small town romance with a grumpy coffee shop owner heroine & the sunshine customer hero that agrees to help her plan the upcoming Hanukkah festival as she becomes his plus one on his trip home.

Love You a Latke is great for those looking to read…
💙 Holiday Romance
💙 Fake Dating
💙 Jewish Representation
💙 Small Town Romance
💙 Grumpy Heroine x Sunshine Hero

I am always such a fan of the dichotomy of the grumpy meets sunshine situation. I thought this one was done super well as you learn the characters back stories & histories & understand why the way they are. I enjoyed watching this slowburn fake dating situation unfold as well as the growing both characters did.

It was so fun as the characters took their trip to New York for Hanukkah & gor to experience the city during the holiday season. I loved all the activities, the festivities, the family & friend group. I loved the showcasing of so many mouthwatering food & beverages throughout the story that made me constantly hungry. This was such a sweet, endearing & entertaining romance!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Berkley Publishing for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Love You A Latke had my stomach rumbling (and filled my heart with joy). It is a fake dating story about a man and woman in a small town in Vermont who pretend to date for a week at his parents’ place in New York over Hanukkah. This book gave me all the feels. And the descriptions of the Hanukkah foods were off the charts - I want all the latkes and doughnuts. I loved the holiday festivities. I loved the romance. Swoonworthy. I loved all of the family and friend dynamics that all felt so real.

As the only Jew on the tourism board, Abby is essentially guilted into taking charge of the new town festival featuring Hanukkah. But local vendors are unwilling or unable to provide anything close to resembling Hanukkah and, out of desperation, Abby strikes a deal with Seth, the bane of her existence, for his help in exchange for being his fake girlfriend in New York for Hanukkah.
The amount of times a laugh burst out of me while reading Love You a Latke is crazy high. I found it to be equal parts funny and heartbreaking, full of yummy food and found family. @amandapanitch's writing is so easily bingeable and her ability to make grumpy (and relatable) Abby likeable next to sunshine golden retriever Seth is perfect in all of the ways. I especially enjoyed the themes of identity and community and how we can find harmony and appreciation in our differences.
Thank you Berkley & Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Love You a Latke is an enjoyable, well-written, and engaging holiday romance with a few favorite tropes.

The holidays are approaching but Abby isn’t in the best mood: (1) she’s struggling to keep her cafe afloat; (2) a certain sunshiny customer, Seth, is annoying: and (3) she’s accepted a position to plan a local Hanukkah celebration but she’s short on resources and support. When she seeks help on social media, she discovers that there is one other Jewish person in town….Seth. He’s willing to help her in exchange for her attending Thanksgiving with him in New York City as his fake girlfriend. He needs to get his parents off his back and Abbey can’t afford to turn down his help or his contacts. A deal is struck. Possibilities for complications abound! Can Abby pull off a community Hanukkah celebration? Can she possibly work with Seth and endure Thanksgiving with his family?

I love enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, and fake dating tropes and the wonderful possibilities they present for witty dialogue and hilarious circumstances. One bed is thrown in for good measure! The author doesn’t disappoint! Heavier themes are present, but overall Love You a Latke is entertaining and engaging. Because this is a romance with tried-and-true tropes, we know there will be an HEA….but getting there is so much fun!

I was pleased with the amount of Hanukkah content in this story. As someone who is an outsider and not Jewish, I enjoyed the food, the customs/traditions, and the learning. The Hanukkah content is substantial but not overdone. I appreciate the intentionality and that Hanukkah isn’t simply a backdrop to the action. This might be a clumsy explanation, but I hope you get the idea! If you are an “own voices’ reviewer, please add your thoughts in the comments.

You will love the rural, small-town Vermont setting, the festive Hanukkah celebration, and the aroma of delicious food. New York City adds its own charm. Vivid descriptions place you right into the story.

Abby. is an admirable and likeable character. She cares about her business and her community. She’s a good sport during the fake-dating portion of their agreement. Seth is a sweet and thoughtful guy who follows through on his commitments. I wish we had heard some of the story from his point of view.

I enthusiastically recommend adding this to your holiday TBR! Fans of the tropes mentioned who love a well-written romance and engaging storyline will adore Love You a Latke. Closed-door romance (with some sexual references and inuendo) and limited profanity.

Content Consideration: Abusive parents (in childhood)

Thanks #NetGalley @BerkleyPub #BerkleyBuddyReads for a complimentary e ARC of #LoveYouALatke upon my request. All opinions are my own.

✔️ Fake Dating
✔️ One Bed
✔️ Golden Retriever/Black Cat
✔️ Holiday Romance

What a delightful holiday read! While it is a romance with an HEA and everything, I loved that this one is also about the FMC feeling whole and recapturing the love and comfort she was missing when she left home as leaving her toxic parents kinda also meant leaving her Jewish community behind.

While I enjoyed the romance and yes, of course I'm all about the fake dating and one bed of it all, my favorite parts were seeing Abby feeling the love from Seth's parents.

My one ding on this book is that steam is very low - kissing and makeouts on page.

Steam 🔥
Banter 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
Swoon 💕💕💕

This was so cute!! Oh my gosh this is one of my favorite holiday books I've ever read. I loved that it wasn't Christmas-themed. It was a nice change of pace. We could definitely use more Jewish representation in the romance genre so I love that the author decided to include that. The grumpy/sunshine dynamic really worked for me. It was absolutely adorable to watch this ray of sunshine walk into her shop every morning and try to brighten her day. Having the main character of the story be more cynical kept the story from ever getting too cheesy (which can be a pitfall for holiday romances). This was cozy and heartfelt without crossing the line into corny which I very much appreciated. I really loved that the conflicts weren't dragged out too long and the fake dating helped bring them together without adding too much unnecessary drama. Their banter was fantastic and I absolutely believed that they were good for each other. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author!

I was happily surprised by this Hanukkah romance. This was possibly the first romance novel I’ve read about a Jewish couple, which is interesting because I try to read diverse romances yet this was the rare romance where I felt represented.


Abby is the owner of a small café in Vermont. Born in New York City, she cut ties with her abusive parents long ago. She doesn’t know any other Jews in Vermont, until she gets “volunteered” to create the town’s first-ever Hanukkah festival. She needs help turning Hanukkah traditions into a fun but also meaningful event that will support the town’s small businesses. She teams up with her annoying customer Seth, who she discovers is also from a New York Jewish family.

I love a romance that’s about a lot of other things at the same time. This book is about Abby’s connection to her faith and her culture, how she feels about her religion, and how far she needs to go to assimilate with the (non-Jewish) Vermont community that she loves. Abby also has a traumatic childhood that keeps her from opening up to people. I found Abby’s emotional journey incredibly moving.

The romance was well developed and I appreciated the flaws and complexities of both characters. Nothing felt too simplistic, though I would have liked to see Seth developed a bit more. I appreciated that he had some issues, but considering how supportive his family and friends were, I would have liked to better understand his character. I did like the switch of having a cheerful, outgoing guy and a grumpy girl. If you don’t love dating tropes, this book throws together quite a few: fake dating, enemies to lovers, holidays, cooking, and falling-in-love-with-the-family (that last might not be a real trope).

This was a satisfying romance that addressed what it means to be a modern Jew in a place without a large Jewish community. As Abby explores what the religion and its traditions mean to her, she realizes it’s not just this “New York” part of her that she had to leave behind.

As I’ve hosted a Latke Party for years for my non-Jewish friends, I loved all the references to Jewish/holiday foods, prayers, and symbols. I could really relate to the way Elliott describes what it feels like to be “other”, especially at Christmas-time, and the way Hanukkah is always basically turned into Christmas by well-meaning non-Jews. I also related to the way Elliott writes about Abby’s nervousness about anti-semitism.

I look forward to reading more Jewish romances! A few authors I’ve seen recommended are Rachel Lynn Solomon, Heidi Shertok, Jean Meltzer, Felicia Grossman and Elissa Sussman. Have you read any of these, or can you recommend others?

Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Berkley Publishing Group. This book publishes October 8, 2024.

I enjoyed Amanda Elliot's prior two books so when I saw Love You A Latke I was excited. This was a great book set around Hanukkah with a sweet fake dating element that has you wishing there was a local Hanukkah Festival so you could try all of this delicious food!

I'm not Jewish but I've liked reading more holiday romances that aren't just Christmas the last few years and I love how this book shared a lot about Jewish faith and I especially liked seeing Abby fight for the Hanukkah Festival she knew she deserved to put on instead of a watered down version.

Abby and Seth were adorable together and I liked that his friend group was super welcoming and that his ex and Abby became friends! The food deceptions were the best in the book (like her other books) along with the NYC and Vermont settings.

While there were a few serious elements to this book and in their romance, I liked seeing Abby grow and realize how much she missed her Jewish community and traditions.

Highly recommend reading Love You A Latke this December! Thanks to Berkley Romance for my advanced copy. It came out this week - October 8th!

Despite being not Jewish, I love a Hanukkah romance!! This one definitely didn't disappoint. The swoon was off the charts, the side characters were excellent, and I was rooting for the main characters the whole time. I would definitely read more about these characters and their world!

More Hanukkah romances please! Loved, loved, loved Love You a Latke and it is the perfect holiday read and can someone put together a Hanukkah market, because I need to visit one now!

Café owner Abby is asked to put together a holiday market and Hanukkah gets the spotlight, even if people think you can just throw some blue and white lights on a Christmas tree and call it a Hanukkah tree. Needing help to put the market together, she asks her customer Seth, but Seth needs something in return, for her to be his fake girlfriend as he celebrates the Festival of Lights with his family.

I loved the fake dating trope in the story and how welcoming Seth's family was to Abby, especially with Abby's issues with her parents, it was nice for her to have them to spend time with. The Jewish representation in this was absolutely fantastic and I cannot recommend this book enough!

Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot is a wonderful holiday contemporary romance about Hanukkah. It’s about how Christmas overshadows Hanukkah, how it’s a relatively minor holiday, and how Jewish people find happiness if their holidays or traditions are recognized or acknowledged. But woven throughout is a sweet romance.

The book focuses on Abby and Seth, begins in Vermont, moves to New York City for only eight days, and then returns to Vermont and the Hanukkah Festival, which Abby singularly organizes and showcases all things Hanukkah.

I love how Abby and Seth grow both individually and together as they finally move to being friends and then become more. They craft a small support network and find their way to each other instead of constantly pushing each other away. They learn they have much to offer each other and can accomplish and achieve more with each other’s help. Abby’s eyes are opened to what being a part of a family, a community, and even making friends is like.

The story has a good flow, and many stories are woven together. I liked Seth’s friends’ group and how they had fun in so many different ways and included Abby seamlessly just because she was with Seth. There is closure, but there are still some loose ends. The epilogue was a nice addition, as were the thought-provoking discussion questions.

Love You a Latke is a lovely holiday romance filled with plenty of Hanukkah and Christmas festivities set in a small Vermont town and bustling New York City. A grudging friendship turns into more when Abby and Seth show their true selves to each other. Grab a coffee or other warm drink and sit by a toasty fire with a good book and maybe even someone you love.

I rated the book 4.5 stars but rounded to 5 stars here and on other sites.

I LOVED this book. Elliot has such a great way of sharing Jewish culture in such a relatable way and it was so cool to see myself in a holiday novel.

Abby lives in a small town in Vermont where she is the only Jew. She is a café owner and every morning there is an over the top sunshiney man who comes in for coffee. When the town volunteers her to put together a Hanukkah festival, Abby realizes she needs the help of another Jew. Turns out, Mr. Sunshine is Seth, the only other Jew in town. He’s willing to help her, but only if she spends the 8 nights of Hanukkah in New York with his parents, convincing them that she is his girlfriend.

Sometimes fake dating can be very annoying, but this one is done right. They don’t fall in love too quickly, and build a nice friendship base. As someone who isn’t highly involved with the Jewish community, but grew up Jewish, it was cool to see Abby go through similar things. She hasn’t taken part in her Jewish faith in years, but slowly realizes how much it means to her. I also appreciated how Elliot pointed out the way gentile culture views Hanukah and Judaism.

I also adored all of the relationships. I liked Seth immediately and his friends were so fun. I was worried that his ex-girlfriend was going to be a bitch, but instead, Elliot makes her and Abby unlikely friends which I loved. There is a good balance of Christmas and Hanukkah and I honestly don’t think I could’ve imagined a better Hanukkah novel. I would love to see this as a Hallmark movie.

You don’t have to be Jewish to love this novel. Abby and Seth had great chemistry and Elliot’s writing is fun and relatable. Elliot hits it out of the park again, and I continue to look forward to her next novels.

Love You A Latke by Amanda Elliot is an enjoyable, reverse grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, forced proximity, Jewish romcom that is sweet, full of humor, heart, and holiday spirit. It’s a book that will warm you from the inside out, much like the best latkes do. Trigger Warnings: difficult family dynamics, emotional abuse.

Abby Cohen moved from New York City to Vermont with her boyfriend Connor. Following their breakup, she decided to stay and opened up a coffee shop; not wanting to move back to New York and her estranged, verbally abusive parents. The tourism board decided to host a Hanukkah festival to attract more visitors, as the larger neighboring towns already hosted Christmas events. Abby was asked to run the festival, scheduled to take place after the holiday. As Abby started planning the event, the recommended vendors viewed it as a Christmas event with only minor tweaks, such as adding blue and white decorations; which Abby knew wouldn't do. She found help from one of her customers, Seth Abrams, the only other Jewish resident of the town, her annoying customer during his daily coffee visits.

Seth agrees to help, but only if Abby will go with him to his parent’s house during Hanukkah and pose as his girlfriend. In exchange, he will introduce her to all the vendors to help her make the festival a success. Over winter adventures in Manhattan, doughnuts, latkes, and a warm, loving family atmosphere, Abby slowly realizes that Seth, her fake boyfriend, and his family, are opening up her abused, shuttered heart; as well as reconnect with her Jewish heritage and the traditions she once loved.

The food descriptions made my mouth water, but the slow burn, fake dating story was delightful. I might have shed a few tears watching Abby open her heart. I enjoyed all the fun references to the delicious and calorie-rich foods of Hanukkah. As a Jewish person who has spent much of her life in distanced from other Jews, this book made me feel seen in ways I hadn’t even realized I’d been missing. While Abby's backstory adds some seriousness, this is a light, sweet book that can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter which holidays you celebrate.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
#NetGalley #Berkley

My current favorite latke topping is accomplished by treating it like a bagel: a dollop of whipped cream cheese, an ounce of homemade gravlax–sweet, salty, and tinged with lemon, pepper and and juniper, crunchy with scallions and tangy dill, and popping with the surprise of the occasional briny capers. Love You a Latke is that perfect tasty bite with a rich Jewish foundation (the latke), a contemporary twist on traditions (the gravlax), a complex and prickly protagonist (the capers), a traumatic past (the dill), and fluffy romance with a closed-door consummation (the whipped cream cheese).

Grumpy coffee shop owner Abby is beleaguered by her struggling business and mounting bills, a too-sunshiney patron, her estrangement from her family, recovering from a painful breakup, trying to fit it as the only Jew in small-town Vermont. It’s a lot, and when Lorna, the president of the local small business association, saddles Abby with organizing a Hanukkah festival to drum up tourism, she can’t find a way to say no; to add insult to injury, the event is scheduled to take place the week between Christmas and Hanukkah, which isn’t even when the holiday will fall in the story’s timeline (note for those not in the know: the Hebrew calendar is lunar/solar, which means Hanukkah's date shift every year; in 2024, Hanukkah begins on December 25).

Desperate to find event-planning assistance from other local Jews, she registers for a Jewish dating app… only to match with Seth, her annoyingly positive daily customer. He agrees to help–if she’ll come home to New York with him over Hanukkah to pose as his girlfriend. She enlists the now-retired previous owned to cover the shop, and heads to New York with Seth, only thinking as they near the destination to determine his parents live in a different neighborhood (and attend a different synagogue) than her estranged parents.

The city is a whirlwind of bar crawls, mouthwatering Jewish and Israeli fusion food, inventive cocktails, a synagogue cookie decorating contest, a photo scavenger hunt, warm family time and building relationships with Seth’s loving parents, who are thrilled he’s with someone, and more importantly, someone Jewish-both Seth and Abby’s last partners were not Jewish, and Bev, Seth’s mother, defines very concretely why that’s something she wants for her son. In a funny scene, Bev insists it’s not a problem at ALL for them to share Seth’s childhood bedroom, a privilege not afforded to his previous partner; he’s secretly relegated to the floor… until he isn’t.

Abby suffers from headaches that intensify or recede dependent on her stress levels (not identified as migraines). Details about her childhood emerge slowly, building suspense while demonstrating how something she thought she got over simply by leaving it behind affects all of her relationships. Seth, who has his own baggage, is instrumental in helping her work through her shit and loves her in spite; in turn, she helps him get closure with his ex-girlfriend. Abby is warmly accepted into Seth’s group of friends, and they grow to become friends, and then maybe something more. Abby leans in and pulls back, unable to be vulnerable due her trauma.

Abby falls in love with Judaism as much as she falls for Seth while getting back into a more culturally observant groove. Elliot conveys the realities of being a Jew as Abby looks for the emergency exits in every Jewish space she enters, corrects well-meaning people that she can’t invent a Hanukkah mascot for tourists to take photos with, and stands up to Lorna, who wants to culturally appropriate Hanukkah for tourist dollars, without actually honoring the minor holiday “Can’t we make it less … Hanukkah?” asks Lorna, when she really means, less Jewish. Scenes like this shine over the occasional didacticism that prevented this from being a five star book for me–I’d rather read a conversation about why non-Jews are cast to play Jews than have Abby wax on about it as an aside. (I get it, and agree, though!)

The setting and descriptions, especially of the food, from creative holiday-themed lattes to decadent fillings for sufganiyot (fried munchin-like donuts, sometimes filled with jelly or Nutella, then rolled in powdered sugar) and toppings for latkes (sadly, no recipes). If Amanda Elliot wrote a cookbook, I’d totally buy it. Pick this one up for Hanukkah gifting, or a stocking stuffer to give a non-Jewish friend an eye-opening look at the Festival of Lights.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #LoveYouALatke via #NetGalley, courtesy of Berkley Press.

“Therapy doesn’t mean you’re broken.”

Cranky small town Vermont coffee shop owner Abby Cohen is a transplant from the big city. And Jewish. So when she’s nominated to design and plan a Hanukkah festival for her town as a way to attract tourists, she runs into the familiar problem of people thinking simply putting up a tree with blue lights on it makes it Jewish. Wanting to find authentic vendors with kosher options, she plans to head back to the city…and would you just look at that. The ever cheerful and annoyingly optimistic Seth, who frequents her coffee shop, needs a fake girlfriend to bring home to his Jewish parents in said city. Let the drama begin!

This fake dating romance also hits on some heavier topics dealing with religious feeling, familial drama, and past traumas. But it does it in a tender way that flows organically with the story. I feel like I have learned quite a bit about the Jewish religion reading this book, making it both an entertaining and educational read.

As someone who has suffered from migraines for decades, I loved the “Category” portion for Abby’s headaches. A slight annoyance…tension Category 1. A devastating freak out?? Category 5! I want to use this scale going forward. 👏🏻👏🏻😆

“Hanukkah festivals are different. We need different things, different foods, different setups. You can’t just put blue and white lights and a Star of David on a Christmas tree and say it’s for Hanukkah.”

Thank you to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing, and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I will always read a holiday book, no matter the holiday. As soon as I started this one I knew I would relate to Abby. Abby lives in Vermont and is struggling to keep her coffee shop afloat. The last thing she needs is Sunshine Seth coming in everyday and trying to make all kinds of conversation. This grumpy/sunshine reversal was exactly what I needed.
When Seth and Abby strike a deal that she will pretend to be his girlfriend for Hanukkah and he will help her plan a Hanukka festival to help her business, she didn't realize just how much she missed her community. Being back among other Jewish people and having that sense of home is something she hasn't felt in years. So, maybe Seth is joy personafied but maybe he will bring joy back to her life.
I thought Seth was the sweetest and even if we didn't get his POV, it was clear that he was half in love with Abby as soon as we meet him. For me, it is the little things that really set your person apart from all the others that come along and these two just fit. I thought there were a few instances I really would have liked his POV, but I also did enjoy watching Abby open up.
Thanks to Berkley, Amanda Elliot and Netgalley for an early copy.

Love You a Latke is a cute Hanukkah-themed holiday romance. Amanda Elliot creates a story that focuses on identity, with fake dating and amazing food descriptions thrown in.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Abby loves running her struggling coffee shop in small town Vermont. Sure, her customer Seth is always annoyingly cheerful, but she can get past it. Until the town’s tourist board volunteers her to put on a Hanukkah festival, since she’s the only Jewish member. While searching for other Jewish assistance in the area, she discovers that Seth is Jewish too. He agrees to help her if she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend and come home to his parents’s home in New York to celebrate Hanukkah. No problem. But as Abby and Seth get to know each other better, and Abby gets caught up in his family’s traditions, can they keep this dating scheme fake?

The romance between grumpy Abby and sunshine Seth is adorable. It’s clear to everyone except Abby that Seth is really into her at every point in the story. But Abby’s hesitation, and difficulty with trust and vulnerability make sense as readers get to know her history. This story is a closed door slow burn, which makes sense for these characters.

I really like the way Jewish-ness is incorporated into the story. Being Jewish represents different things to different people, and Abby’s Jewish journey is relatable. And, it’s always refreshing to read a holiday-themed book that doesn’t revolve around Christmas.

If you are a fan of Hallmark holiday movies, but want some Jewish rep too, Love You a Latke is a holiday treat. It has grumpy/sunshine fake dating, with entertaining family moments. Amanda Elliot is a new to me author, and I’m looking forward to reading some of her earlier books.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.