*** I received an e-ARC of this book from Avon and Harper Voyager through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review***

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The main characters were both so relatable. Bee felt like she was not good enough in her professional and personal life. Clover was struggling with the loss of her mother, a broken proposal, and being true to herself. The women decided to switch houses shortly before Christmas to get away and gain a new perspective. They both wound up with a new outlook on love, family, and holiday spirit. This was a cute easy to read story with likable characters. It should definitely be added to your holiday reading list!

✨ Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley.

What a wonderful Christmas book. I love to read Christmas books. I loved the romance and the characters. If you haven't read this book yet, you should.

📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 Sometimes a book just really resonates with you. I lost my mom eight days before Christmas and the magic just seemed to fly out the window for me. Had I not had to hold it together for my four kids, jumping on a plane and switching places with someone else for the holiday would have sounded like perfection. Thank you Georgia K. Boone for showing that there are all kinds of ways to grieve and approach the holidays when things are difficult! I’ll Be Gone for Christmas is a beautiful and light holiday tale that handles some difficult subjects in a graceful and relatable manner. Sometimes healing comes in the most surprising ways…A wonderful read that cannot wait to revisit at Christmas time!

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Review is posted on Goodreads and the final review will be posted on instagram closer to the publication date!

I was so excited for this story because it was pitched as a queer The Holiday, which is one of my favorite holiday romcoms. The synopsis sounded adorable so I definitely wanted to give this a try.

I did think this was very cute and fluffy. Did get me into the holiday spirit. I thought both romances were equally romantic and each given the same amount of time in the story.

I think were the story falls short is that we don't spend enough time with each character individually. I felt the reader hardly knows the main characters by the end.

Besides that, I did find this to be a fun holiday romcom that will give leaving you feeling warm & bright.

Adored this book!! It will definitely put you in the holiday spirit. To sum it up and quote Dee, “Super gay. Much Christmas.”

I’m almost sad that we didn’t get more time on each story, because both blossoming relationships were super cute. And I could use a book on all of Clover’s San Fran friend group.

Love the theme of “your best is good enough,” and that a parent figure can be proud of you just for trying. Wish that Bee and Beth had had some resolution with their parents, but glad they were able to connect over their commonalities.

Thankful to have received a copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!!

Good concept but I failed to make any real connection with the main characters. There was so much hope for Bee but the author didn’t reply take the time to develope her.

Just overall disappointed.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

this book is receieving a lot of mixed reviews but honestly it is exactly wht i needed after a hard fantasy worlds. a great pallete cleanser and a great storoy 4/5 stars

I have a soft spot for house-swap holiday rom-coms, especially when they're queer — so this scratched that itch, even though I read it in the almost summer! San Francisco tech gal Bee Tyler heads out to the Stars Hollow-y Salem, Ohio, a town straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie to holiday in the home of Clover Mills. And Clover is off to San Fran. Bee has a kind of frenemies relationship with her sister, but Clover starts falling for her immediately. While Bee gets a buzz in her bonnet over Knox, Clover's ex-fiancee. It goes exactly how you expect it to, but that doesn't make it any less sweet and satisfying. I can't wait to read this one again when the holidays roll around.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager / NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and provide an honest review.

This one was a bit of a let down for me.

I really enjoyed the idea of the book - being almost forced to get away after being burnt out and just run down from life. I think in a sense we can all relate to that story line. What didn’t work for me was the lack of depth to the characters. Everything felt extremely surface level and made it hard to connect which leads to a surface level read for me.

I felt like once i put the book down it was very lack luster and not very memorable. I enjoyed the idea of the book and was hoping for a bit more than what we got!

This was such a cute, fast paced holiday read. I loved seeing how throughout the storyline the characters were finding themselves and romance at the same time.

Only downfall in my opinion was that with two different couples it felt like the focus was on one more than the other. I would have liked to have had equal depth for both.

Overall really enjoyed and would definitely recommend for a cute holiday read.

This was a fun house swap story with loveable characters who are finding themselves. I think this book could have been a little longer honestly and had more romance, but it was still really cute and cozy.

One of the things I struggled with when it came to this book was connecting to the characters. Because of this, I couldn’t really enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

<b>The Good</b>
I love and relate to both of these main characters. Bee's story was so relatable to me. Not feeling like enough while also wholly burnt out. I liked her rediscovering her passion with her parents belittlement. I loved seeing her find herself and explore her sexuality and the lesbian community in San Francisco. Clover's story with her mother and Knox is so heartbreaking. Her mother didn't accept her and after her death she begins to understand her sexuality which leads to her breaking off her engagement with her lifelong best friend Knox. The two romances in this were sweet. I liked Clover and Beth's dynamic. Beth was hard to grasp as a character but she's Darcy-esque in the way she comes off as rude when she isn't trying to. Bee and Knox have good chemistry. They are so cute and they have fun together. Knox obviously is going through alot after his relationship with Clover so I understood his hesitation and the push and pull. Beth and Bee's relationship was also interesting. Beth view's Bee as free and not caring when Bee cares so much. Bee see's Beth as the perfect child while Beth is dealing with their parent's homophobia.

<b>The Bad</b>
At 90% I was so worried how these plot-lines were going to be wrapped up. It didn't feel rushed per-say but I was wishing for something more big and dramatic than what happened.

<b>Tropes:</b>
— Holiday Romance
— Small town vs Big City
— Grumpy x Sunshine

<b>Horn Level:</b> 1/5🌶️
<b>Format:</b> Ebook

<b>The Rating</b>
I give this book a <b>4/5🌟 rating.</b> This is such a sweet holiday romance with a lot of heart!

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Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon and NetGalley provided an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

I had high hopes for this book, but I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t connect with the main characters and I found myself rushing towards the end.

I ended up enjoying this book but only so much because I wasn’t the biggest fan of Bee and Knox. I felt like Clover and Beth were written very well and their characters were developed nicely along with their chemistry but can’t say the same for the other two. Unfortunately because of that I ended up not enjoying the chapters that were focused on Bee and Knox and they felt more like side characters to me.

this was okay, didn’t hate it but didn’t love it! this was a cute house swap rom com story that i think many will find cozy!

The Holiday is one of my absolute favorite romcoms, so I was really excited to receive an ARC for I'll Be Gone for Christmas. I really liked the characters in this book. It was nice to see Bee and Clover work on themselves and figure out what they wanted in life. I also liked their love interests! For what we saw of both of them I felt like it was pretty realistic.

However, I do think this book could explore each individual relationship a bit more. This was not a particularly long romance novel at just about 200 pages so I definitely think there was space to have more romantic interactions between both couples. I feel like we were just starting to get to understand their relationships. I still enjoyed the book, but fitting two romance story is the length that it was made it feel like there were a few scenes that were missing.

Overall, this was a cute, fun and quick read!

I'm always scoping out sapphic books, so I was really excited for this one. Unfortunately, I'm just in a reading slump right now so this one didn't grab me right away.

I really liked Clover and Beth (individually and together). I wish there had been more active romance, or more active build up of the romantic relationships. I love a romance where the characters are also working through something, but the story felt a bit unbalanced and the working through something was repetitive for both Bee and Clover.