The relationship with Lexie’s father from her and Theo really touched my heart since I’m such a daddy’s girl.
I absolutely love Christmas and a Christmas romance is just brilliant. Great.
The banter, the love, I just loved it. I enjoyed needing to get to the next page. The next chapter. It’s my first book by this author but if she needs to send her books anywhere for safe keeping, I volunteer as tribute.

Love a Christmas romantic company with high stakes 🤗 love the stakes and appreciate how the author treated the disruption to the mc’s life

Emily Stone always knows how to break my heart and then piece it back together. This one had more romance than some of her previous novels, and was centered on the romance building.
Luckily, Lexie and Theo's "enemies" to friends to lovers was so perfect and entertaining to read. The way they built a bond after getting off to a rocky start was inspiring. I loved the way they learned to recognize what each other needed and grew separately, and then together.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
Lexie's estranged father dies, and he leaves her half his holiday travel company with the other half going to one of his employees, Theo. There are lots of conditions. Lexie is sure Theo hates her, plus she's conflicted about the inheritance, not talking to her father before his death, and the differences she sees in the close relationship he had with Lexie's half sister.
This moved a little slow for me. It's a good story, and both Lexie and Theo grow a lot and turn out to be likeable characters. For a travel related book, I didn't feel swept away to other locations. There was a little bit, but even those times, it felt like the story was totally focused on the interpersonal interactions above details about the locations and events they were at. I enjoyed watching Lexie's realizations about her father, her relationship with her mom, and how she developed a relationship with her half sister.

𝗔 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗯𝘆 𝗘𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲
𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★★★

This was a sweet story about two individuals who inherit a travel company and slowly develop a connections. Lexie who’s estranged father gives her half of the company and Theo who is an employee, gets the other half of the company. The two must come together to successfully run the business for at least a year before they can try to sell the company or decide if they would like to keep it. I enjoyed the enemies to lovers vibes between two and the challenge to prove one wrong. I also enjoyed the talk of travel and seeing other countries. I found the whole travel part of the story fun and intriguing.

While this was a cute story that had me invested at times, I do have to say this did not feel like a holiday/wintery book. Most of the story took place throughout the year and the only time it focused on the holidays was discussing trips and during the time when the father died then at the very end of the book. Also Lexie was a bit of a frustrating character. She was one of those characters that you want to shake and tell them to snap out of it on numerous occasions. Lastly, I really did not feel any deep connection with these characters or any spark to the story. I feel like this was a sweet story and some may truly enjoy it, it just wasn’t my favorite.

4 Stars

Admittedly, I’ve been in a weird reading funk and this took me quite a while to get into—about 30% honestly. I blame this on myself as once I got into the story I really ended up loving it.

First off, I don’t think this book is overly holiday-esque despite the cover (so cute) & title. It didn’t fully take place at Christmas-time and spanned a chunk of time really. I think you’d be fine to read it not during the holidays!

I really enjoyed A Winter Wish! It was romantic & gave me actual butterflies in my stomach which is such a rare delight. But, it wasn’t just a romance and had a lot of other elements to the story. If you have daddy issues (it me) proceed with caution!

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group— Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A Winter Wish is Emily Stone’s latest stand-alone Christmas romance. Her stories are set in England, and they are more character-development stories than romance
Lexie’s parents split when she was eight years old, and she later learned that he had fathered a child with another woman. Lexie always felt awkward around her seven-years-younger sister, Rachel, and resented her because their father stayed with her mother for most of her childhood. Although Lexie has a college degree, she primarily works at seasonal jobs in various countries because she doesn’t like to stay in one place for more than a few months. Her latest job is as a nanny for a wealthy family staying at a ski chalet in Austria, and she spends her free time entangled in a relationship with a handsome ski instructor, Mikkel.
When Lexie is informed of her father’s death, she returns to her hometown in England for his funeral and discovers that he has owned a successful travel agency for the past five years. She is shocked to learn that her sister, Rachel, has inherited his cottage, and she (Lexie) will be half-owner of the travel agency if she participates in managing it for one year. This news greatly upsets Theo, a handsome but grumpy young man who inherited the other half-share and has been running it alongside Lexie’s father.
The tropes that are used in A Winter Wish have been used so many times before, but they feel fresh when skillfully woven by this author. Lexie experiences significant character development in this story, exploring her past relationships with her father and Rachel and forging new and better relationships with her mother and Rachel. Interestingly, neither of Lexie’s parents lectured her about settling down and getting a steady job, seemingly content to allow her to live a wanderlust life. This positioned Lexie to be able to take on assignments for the travel agency and be engaged in their mission. The descriptions of the scenery made me want to book a trip to Spain!
On the romance side, Lexie had to decide that her fling with Mikkel was meaningless, and she needed to invest in real men who are interested in a future. Theo had good reason to resent Lexie’s nonchalance about her father’s death and inheritance, and it took a little while for his grumpy façade to fade. The reader knew all along that her father engineered this whole thing.
I enjoyed this emotional Christmas romance. It’s what I call a British cozy romance due to its slow pace and low angst. The interesting characters, family dynamics, and beautiful descriptions of scenery make this a story worth reading!
I received an advance review copy (ARC) from NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine/Dell Books for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What makes me love Emily Stone's books is that she usually has a head-turning plot twist. Just when you think you're getting a happy ending, boom something happens. This book didn't have one of those and I missed it. This wasn't a bad book by any means, I just never got invested. I found myself wandering away from the book. I didn't get invested in the characters until pretty deep into the book.

While this is labeled as a Christmas read, I didn't think that was necessary. It is a small part of the book. This book takes place over a year, whereas most of her books have been centered remotely around Christmas so it felt very secondary to the story.

I enjoyed the focus on traveling, getting to see multiple location settings, and seeing these two characters get put in difficult situations abroad. One of my favorite side plots was Lexie finally getting to know her step-sister away from all the other family's preconceived notions. I also liked how Lexie looked back on her past with her dad in a new light and saw her parents as flawed adults, not just mom and dad.

Read if you like enemies to lovers, holiday, travel romance. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book is out now.

A Winter Wish is another Emily Stone masterpiece. And luckily this one didn’t bring me to tears like all the author’s previous books (looking at you Always, in December). This one is about Lexie, who not only learns that she just lost her estranged father, who left when she was a child, but also that he left her half of his travel business. As if that wasn’t enough, he left the other half to a man she never met, who she is forced to co-run the business with for the next year. Immediately the pair get off on the wrong foot, setting a contentious tone for the upcoming months. But when they’re both posted on the same trips to the south of France and then Spain, their reluctant togetherness forces them to slowly get to know one another. As the months go on, they find themselves drawn together more often, eventually developing feelings. But as the year comes to a close, is Theo still willing to share half the business and is Lexie willing to give up her nomadic lifestyle and finally settle down into the life that her father crafted? Heartwarming and heartfelt, but without the emotional gut punch of some of the author’s other books, this is another holiday masterpiece!

I just really love Emily Stone’s writing. She does enemies to lovers so well, and I have yet to read one of her books that didn’t get my eyes at least a little misty. This book was no exception. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A Winter Wish is the story of a woman who inherits half of her estranged father’s travel business and has to grapple with her emotions and feelings surrounding that, given their fractured relationship. And she has a wish jar that she brings with her everywhere - a tradition from when she was a kid and her dad still lived with her. Welp. This book hit me wayyyyy too close to home. So close that I wasn’t sure I would even get through it. But I am glad I did. It was emotional and sweet with a charming cast of characters and a sweet romance. I loved the different trips they went on. I loved the dynamics of the employees. I just loved seeing her find herself and learn to let go of the past and move forward. All the warm fuzzies. Even if it made me cry more than once.

Ok, this book does take place during Christmas but it's not a true Christmas romance. It's more like a let's figure out why your crappy father decided to repair his relationship with you after he died. It was good but when you're wanting a Christmas romance, this isn't it. It's a great woman's fiction story of everyone coming to their own relationship/life realization book.

Lexie and Theo are forced to work together when she is left half of her fathers company and the other half has been left to the top executive at the company. The only stipulation in her fathers will is that they have to run the company together for a year before deciding what to do. As they are working together on a trip in Spain, they find that they may like each other more than they thought.

This was a cute story between two enemies who were forced to work together when they didn't want to. The tension was built up great and the work trip to Spain revealed their true feelings for each other. Such a fun, cute read.

book did resonate with me more than I thought it would because of the fact that Lexi's father had unexpectedly died of cancer. She hadn't spoken to her father in years as he left her mom and her for another woman and was not as present of a father as he should have been. My own father died of cancer and also passed away without me having seen him in a couple years. My relationship was better with my father but he also left my family for another woman. With all of this going on I could relate to some of the emotions Lexi felt in this novel. There were some parts when I was a little frustrated with Lexi and her inability to see the other side of things especially when it came to her half sister. I was rooting for her and hoping things would turn out well.

This is the third book I have read by Emily Stone and I always enjoy them. In this novel there was a lot of travel and I loved all of the different settings. The business mentioned in this book is a great idea and I wish it was real so I could travel with them. Overall, I enjoyed the different characters and the romance.

Thank you to Dell Books/Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for this ARC.

A Winter Wish has just a smidge of melancholy, a splash of serendipity and a dollop of emotions, It's the perfect cozy book to curl up with by the fire to get you in the festive spirit. I thought it was just lovely.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the eARC.

A Winter Wish by Emily Stone was the exact holiday romance I was looking for. Hallmark Channel esque but a little more for me. What a lovely read.

3.5 stars

I had been putting off reading Emily Stone's work, as it's the more emotional type of romance that I don't gravitate towards, but this one wasn't too much of a tearjerker despite the heavier themes of parental abandonment and death. I struggled a bit with the pacing, where it felt like it too a very long time for anything to happen despite the storyline being condensed into one year's time frame.

Lexie has always lived the life of a nomad, never spending more than 6 months in European location and temporary job. When her estranged father Richard passes away and unexpectedly leaves her half of his holiday tour travel company, she finds herself tethered for one year back in England per the will's stipulation with her new co-owner, Theo. The two butt heads immediately, with Lexie wanting to sell the company after their year is up and Theo wanting to make something of Richard's legacy. Lexie has a hard time coming to terms with working with people who had a very different view of the man who abandoned her and her mother for a new wife and family, though over time she discovers that in his own way, he still tried to honor their relationship by building a company based around their holiday traditions. Knowing his death was impending, Richard tried to manipulate Lexie and Theo together, feeling they would balance each other out, but their relationship felt forced and lacked sparks, with Lexie being an emotionally closed off runner. I do enjoy anything with a European travel theme, so it was interesting to read about that aspect of the story, but otherwise this was a very bland romance that tried to pull at your heartstrings but came up short.

A beautiful story of dealing with grief after losing a parent, a parent that hasn’t been in your life for years.

Lexie dealing with the grief of losing her father not just once but twice in her life felt so realistic and I appreciate that from the author. However, she really avoided conflict so much (I get it girl) but it got so annoying, especially at the end.

I liked Lexie and Theo together but we barely got to see them fall in love. It all just happens in a span of a year and I wanted more of that.

Overall, a good holiday read for the season. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Emily Stone has established herself as a dependable and creative author of the Christmas rom com, and A winter wish doesn’t disappoint. When Lexie’s estranged father dies and leaves her half of his successful travel agency, with, of course strings attached, she is confused. To benefit from the value of the company, she must attempt to participate in the business for one year. The catch is, her father left the other half of the company to Theo, a young man who has worked in the company shoulder to shoulder to Lexie’s father. He’s smug and angry and grieving in ways Lexie can’t imagine. In fact, she’s grieving the father she knew before he divorced her mother, and those memories complicate both her ability to accept the gift, and Theo, as she learns more of who her father, Theo—and herself—really are.
There are great settings in lovely cities that will not only make you swoon with romance but want to book tickets with the agency! A Winter Wish was released on October 16, 2024. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House/Ballantine for the review copy.

I absolutely devoured this book. So so good. I plan to read again in December.
This one is a bit of a gut punch because she is estranged from her father. So much is processing her grief while dealing with his inheritance.
It’s an enjoyable yet poignant holiday treat. Highly recommend.