Such a cute Christmas romance! It had all the holiday vibes and is a nice, clean read for those of us who don’t like spice.

Thank you for an ARC copy of this book! It was such a sweet read.

The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy is guaranteed to get you into the holiday spirit with 24 days of holiday treats and tasks, a bit of hi-jinks, and romance.

Callie Meyer has had a tough year. She's been a funk ever since her boyfriend of a decade unceremoniously dumped her. The worst part, she still has to work with him. Wait, that's not the worst part. They're mothers are best friends and they grew up living next door to each other and now Callie doesn't want to go home for the holidays for fear of seeing him with his new girlfriend. Yeah, that's definitely the worst part.

Callie's sister won't let Callie sit out the holidays and challenges her to complete an advent calendar full of challenges to "reignite her belief in herself, the holidays, and love."

This was a really fun holiday romance with really well-done pacing, romantic timing, and character growth. It's a joy to see Callie blossom in the light of being seen and loved for who she is by her friends, family, and the green flag of a man that destiny throws her way. The holiday tasks and treats are so nostalgic and they made me think of my own fond holiday memories.

Thank you to Holly Cassidy, Penguin Putnam, and Netgalley for choosing me to receive the eARC of The Christmas Countdown in exchange for my honest opinion. I honestly really enjoyed it and can't wait to share it with my holiday romance-loving friends. Four Stars.

Let me brutally honest. When it comes to Christmas rom-coms I’m an easy mark. I generally won’t if they are formulaic, full of cliches, or have storylines that I’ve seen a million times before. Heck, more than 50% of the movies saved on my DVR are Hallmark Christmas movies. They are my well known guilty pleasure. This is all my rambling way to say that I was predisposed to like Holly Cassidy’s newest book, The Christmas Countdown. But even saying that, I was still surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. Now the idea of an advent calendar isn’t new to me, though the ones I am familiar with merely feature a mediocre piece of chocolate each day. I loved the idea of mixing in days of challenges (service) with rewards. So much so that I’m thinking of doing something similar with my family this year.

So now that I’ve rambled even more than usual, what’s The Christmas Countdown about? If it were up to Callie she’d skip Christmas completely. In fact that is what she is planning to down. Rather than head home with her sister this year and celebrate Christmas with her family, she’s decided she’d rather stay where she is and bury herself in her work. Why? Well it could have something to do with her boyfriend dumping her not long ago, taking up with a new woman and getting engaged. Why would that keep her from going home? Her ex-boyfriend (who she’d been with forever) just happens to be the son of her mother’s best friend and their families have always celebrated the holiday together. Callie wants to give a big bah humbug to Christmas (and love), but her sister isn’t about to let that happen and sets up an Advent challenge calendar with the aim of getting Callie to get back into the spirit of the season…and maybe just find love again. I loved Callie and Marco. Their pun filled flirting was corny, but in an absolutely adorable way. At the time of my writing this review it’s still only August, but this story already has me feeling the Christmas spirit. I’d like to thank Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of The Christmas Countdown.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3NS26XA87W8XW/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This is super cute! Who wouldn’t love a heart on the mend mixed family adventure!
The going home to a small town and evade the ex while meeting someone new is always fun! This book is perfect for lifting the holiday spirits when things don’t go your way in life!

This was an entertaining, well-written book. It was sweet, fun, steamy, heart-warming and kept me reading. I enjoyed this book and will look for more books by this author.

This book is heavy on the Christmas spirit, which I appreciate from a Christmas themed romance. The premise is cute and the advent challenges were cute and helped move the story. The romance felt a bit off, perhaps because I feel like we don’t really get to know the MMC all that well. There’s some personal growth, a sprinkle of plot, and family drama to round it all out. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

This story gave me all the holiday feels in the best possible way! I remember we had our Advent Calendar at home when we grew up and loved counting down the days until Christmas. If you are looking for some delightful, heartwarming and cozy holiday book, you need to pick up this one. I loved every page.

The Christmas Countdown is another one of this year’s holiday themed romances. It takes place in a sweet little upstate New York town that sounds a lot like Stars Hollow, between Callie, a woman looking to reinvigorate her life after her boyfriend of over a decade dumps her just after moving to this small town for his job. Her older sister brings back an old childhood tradition - an advent calendar - to get her out of the house and back into the Christmas spirit, and maybe open herself up to the idea of love again. Except that her sister is then called away for an extended business trip just as the calendar begins and she needs someone to help her complete her daily challenges. Enter cute, single baker Marco. He becomes her partner when her sister manipulates him into joining her. And they have instant chemistry and very much enjoy their increasing time together. But Callie is still gun shy about getting back into another relationship and tries to friendzone Marco. This book is like a Hallmark Movie Channel holiday movie in book form. Nothing too serious or heavy, light and fluffy, with a saccharine sweet ending.

I adored this Christmas romance! It was perfect and would make a nice addition to a winter TBR.

Callie is still trying to figure out life after her break up. The holiday season approaching, not in the mood to be festive, her mood is even more soiled when she finds out her ex is engaged, just months after their break up. Callie can't face her family or her hometown for the holidays (her ex is her childhood neighbor.) So to help get her in the holiday spirit, her sister creates an task/treats advent calendar.

I loved the tasks that her sister set her up to do, and i feel like it helped Callie get out there and meet some new people (even some love interests.) this was just a really cozy feel good read, and it was clean romance which was a nice addition!

I enjoyed reading The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy. You will fall in love with all the characters. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy Reading!

If you’re ready for a book that will give you all the festive feels, look no further! This is the perfect #feelgood #meetcute! I adore Callie & the #adventcalendar theme! Told each day from December 1, I loved getting to follow along with her as she embarked on “advent”ures to brighten up her holidays & on her journey to self discovery!


Thank you, Holly Cassidy, Regina Andreoni, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Penguin Random House, & netgalley, for my advance #gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

This was such a cute, light Christmas RomCom! If you are looking for holiday RomCom with closed door this is one you might enjoy.

I felt that the pace was off on this one and it was really slow. I just wanted a lot more and didn’t get what I was expecting.

Many thanks to GP Putnam Sons and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy! Cute, sweet, and cozy holiday read! I love the use of an advent calendar to move the book along - it felt like something that would genuinely happen, which I really appreciated. The characters and their challenges felt realistic enough, yet still whimsical.

I would recommend this behind closed doors romance to anyone who wants a cozy read with a plot!

I really adore Holly Cassidy's Christmas books. This one was such a fun premise, and I really related to Callie. However, the miscommunication toward the end really bothered me plus her parents are pretty awful. I enjoyed seeing a healthy sister relationship where the fought but made up, and as someone who has two sisters this was refreshing to see! Plus mine would never make me an advent calendar full of activities to do - I loved this plot!

I think I'm slightly burnt out on Holiday arcs bc at times I'd get bored, but I think that was on me not the book so going to give this one 4 stars since it was full of all the Christmas activities. I just wish I read it closer to December!

Thank you to NetGalley and GP Putnam's for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Solid Hallmarkie Christmas Romance That "Officially" Has The Weirdest Personal Story Ever For Me. This is one of those damn near prototypical Hallmark Christmas movie type romances, and that alone will tell most people whether they're going to like this or not. Obviously, with how much success Hallmark has with these types of movies every year (and with so many of the romance authors I've worked with over the years now getting chances to write some of these actual movies), there is quite a considerable market for exactly this type of story, so kudos to Cassidy (and the actual person behind her) for branching out into this realm. Here, Cassidy even manages to introduce a few wrinkles not *always* seen... but this also ties into the personal story I have to tell.

For those who don't care about my very weird personal history with this book, what I said above is everything you need to know. It was really good for its type and had some interesting wrinkles, and is absolutely worthy of your time if you like these types of tales. Very much recommended.

Now, for the weird personal tale:

As I was reading this book in the week before release in October 2024, I *absolutely knew* I had read this tale before. To the level that it was an exact duplicate of the tale I knew I had already read, which I recognized 100% from one particular scene, among others. As I've known the actual person behind the Cassidy pseudonym online for many years now and have read and reviewed many of her books under her real name, I knew such blatant plagiarism simply *was not* possible. Not the author I've known for so long. And yet... I *knew* I had read this story weeks earlier, back when I last reviewed this author's 2024 release under her real name.

And yet... I had *ZERO* record that I had already read this book. Which is statistically damn near as close to zero as you can get, as I have *extensive* record keeping about literally every book I read in *numerous* different places.

I have an Excel file where I have three different sheets containing different data about every book, and I mark each sheet as I complete a given book. I download the cover to my phone and then create two separate images - one with my Hardcover.app profile on the side and one without - with my rating of the book on both. I then post the one without in a Facebook group on my personal profile where we keep track of all the books the group reads. I then Facebook Messenger my reader profile both images. I then save both images in a particular folder on my computer. Then I begin to actually write the review in Hardcover.app. I then copy the text of the review into Goodreads, BookHype.com, BookBub.com (if the book is there), TheStoryGraph.com, NetGalley.com (if the book came from there, as both the earlier book under this author's real name and this book did), my blog, and at least two separate Facebook reader groups, and I'm trying to get better about making it at least three. (My own group there, Reader Garage, as well as at least Readers Coffeehouse and I'm trying to get better about My Book Friends). I then finish out my review on my blog with imagery and some links, then post the links from my blog to the Hardcover.app review and to the NetGalley review. I then copy all of the other review site review links into the NetGalley review and submit that. Finally, I place the link to my blog review in my LinkTree and get the Hardcover version of the cover image out on my Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Blog Page. I then share the Facebook Blog Page post publicly on my reader profile there.

So there are a LOT of places that *some* record of me reading this book back then *should* have existed in some form. 25 by my count, 26 counting the My Book Friends group.

And YET, I found record that I had read this book in just *ONE* of them - It had been removed from the Excel tab where I remove books as I complete them. Even this isn't conclusive, however, as I've been known to make mistakes and cut the wrong book from time to time over the years.

But y'all, I *KNOW* I read this book, and I even remember having the plan back in July, when I read the other book under this author's real name, that I would read this book immediately after - along with then doing the same thing with another author who had two books releasing around the same time as both of this author's books. (IIRC, the other author's first book released a week or so after "Cassidy"'s first book, and the other author's October book released last week, a week before this book.)

So what I *suspect* and *believe* happened - yet have almost exactly zero evidence of - is that I did in fact read this book back then. It is the only thing that makes sense with everything that I know to be true about everything surrounding this very weird experience. I then noticed that I simply had too many books releasing in August to follow through with my plans for working the other author in a similar manner, and clearly I somehow forgot to go through my review process for this book back then. I honestly have no idea what caused such a lapse, but such a lapse happening is the *only* thing that actually makes sense with everything else I know.

So there you have it. Even the "machines" of the book review space, as some authors have called me over the years, have our breaking points. It seems that August 2024 - whose books I did not fully clear until September 30, with my review of James Rollins' Arkangel - may have been too close to my own for comfort. But at least I'm on the back side of that, and some new opportunities are arising as I begin to slow down the ARC work that has kept me so busy for so many years now.

Hopefully y'all will continue to follow me on these new adventures... and hopefully you'll continue to follow Ms. Cassidy under both this identity and her real one. :)

Completely and no doubt a new Holiday favorite! “The Christmas Countdown” surpasses my expectations with Anita giving her sister, Callie an Advent calendar hoping to turn around her Grinchy attitude.
What could be more Christmassy than a Tree Farm, hot cocoa and a romantic twist? I loved Holly Cassidy’s adorable plot bringing this ugly sweater and holiday pun filled novel to life.

A delightful read kept me turning the pages. I needed and wanted more of Callie and Marco! Loved the fun and festive Advent treats and tasks inevitably turning Callie’s holiday spirits around and into full swing. Such a joy of a read.
I highly recommend this as a sure read on your Christmas read list. Thank you @GPPutnamssons @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions and views are my own.

Callie is determined to be a grinch for the Christmas season since her longtime boyfriend broke up with her and is engaged to someone new. She's now living with her sister Anita who revives a childhood tradition of an advent calendar. Each day Callie is challenged with either a task to get her in the holiday spirit or a treat. Callie meets Marco when doing one of the tasks and he becomes part of her advent challenges when Anita has to go out of town. The boyfriend who jilted her is in the picture for the entire book as they worked at the same company and he lived next door to her growing up. Good story.

The Christmas Countdown is such a cute, funny romance, seriously the Excel shirt! Do they actually make that? This is the perfect Christmas love story, there’s no spice but so much humor and feel good story line. Highly recommended.

All Callie wants to do is be a Scrooge this year; her sister has other plans.

Callie always loved Christmas until her boyfriend broke up with her. First, she moved to a new city to be with him, and then he dumped her for someone else. Now, she is living with her sister, Avoiding her ex, and hoping to hide from Christmas. Her Sister will not let that happen. She has a very elaborate plan: a Christmas Countdown. Too bad her sister has to go out of town and can't be there.

Now, if only there were someone to help Callie complete this Countdown. Maybe she just met someone like that. Enter Marco. The perfect Hallmark Leading Man. A baker with a heart of gold. Enjoy this Cozy, Fun Holiday Read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in return for an Honest Review.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #PenguinGroupPutnam for the book #TheChristmasCountdown by #HollyCassidy. Callie is trying to get over her decade long relationship with Oliver. The breakup has caused her to be a Grinch this year about Christmas. Her sister, Anita, has made her an advent calendar to try and bring the spark back to her life. While on one of her advent outings, she meets a handsome baker, Marco who is getting over a relationship also. Can their hearts thaw and find love again?