one thing about emily stone is shes always going to leave me in shambles 😭

i was a tiny bit hesitant on starting this one because one last gift absolutely destroyed me when i thought it was going to be a cutesy coming back together through a nosy brother second chance HOWEVER i couldnt resist the enemies to lovers situation in this one 😂

this is a relatable and heartwarming story perfect for christmas in july!! its got a bit of darker topics that’ll have you reaching for the tissue box but overall a great story of growth and overcoming different struggles

it was a bit slow to start but once it picked up i flew through it!!

Emily Stone writes romance with substance. This story follows an enemies to lovers romance trope, but it is SO much more than that. Her characters feel very fleshed out, and you can understand the motivations of each one. Lexie, the female MC, struggles with her relationship to her father-now deceased- while being very close to her mother. Theo, meanwhile, was very close to her father (while being distanced from his own parents,) and there's the source of the conflict with the two in the beginning. Meanwhile, other characters like Lexie's sister, her friend, and people from work have their own relatable issues. This story ends with a happy-ever-after but arrives there in a realistic way. I love all the Christmas vibes (especially Christmas in July since I read in the heat of summer) and small travel descriptions. This was a fun book to read with some tough issues to think through. I look forward to Emily Stone's next work!

Lexie is happily working for a family in Austria, when she receives news that her father has died. Her father grants her half sister, Rachel, his home in Bath. To Lexie, he leaves half of his travel business. The other halt going to his employee Theo. However, there are stipulations as to how and what Lexie and Theo can do with the business. Lexie is at first resistant to taking part in the operation of the business, but slowly comes around to the idea.

This is a slower moving book and the story unfolds over months. The story is not strictly for winter or holiday reading.
A decent book, but I have liked earlier books by Emily Stone more.

I received an advanced reader copy of A Winter Wish from NetGalley.

The plot was too predictable and the characters weren't compelling or even likable enough (borderline selfish) to carry. It was overall fine, and I did enjoy some bits, but I'm sure I'll never think of it again now that I'm done.

Maybe I'm too old but I have a really hard time rooting for characters who are just so selfish to the point of taking advantage of everyone around them. And Lexie felt so very selfish to me. Sure, she had a dad who walked out and never walked back into her life in a concrete way, but that was so many years ago. I don't disagree that things can lead to trauma, but there seems to be a tendency to blame others for our shortcomings and for making decisions these days. And there is this thing called free will. Lexie chooses to travel and not get close to anyone. She chooses to not respond to her father. She holds a grudge for so many years. I'm not saying that she didn't deserve to be upset or even angry for as long as she was, but at some point, you need to listen to others and mature.

The fact that this is an enemy to lovers romance, which feels very Hating Game in some ways, doesn't help because it just doesn't live up to the comparison. Theo was fine. And all of the secondary characters were just that: secondary with very little page time. I wanted to like Lexie. I wanted to root for her. But she just felt so one dimensional for most of the book that I could not get behind her in any way.

And yes, I give this three stars. It wasn't a bad read. And there will be many who enjoy the story much more than I did. Because the premise is fun. If you start out liking Lexie, then you'll have a happier time than I did with this one.

The only thing that made me want more was for Lexie to get the other letter ....

Emily Stone = Christmas! I have started looking forward to her Christmas books every year! You are definitely going to want to pre-order this book! It will be your perfect holiday read. Emily Stone knows how to weave characters and situations that are so real. I love this one!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

A Winter Wish by Emily Stone - Lexie loves living a nomadic life. She never stays in one place for too long. Her life is turned upside down one Christmas when she receives a phone call to let her know her estranged father has died. In his will, he left 50% of his business to her and 50% to his executive, Theo. Of course, it comes with a catch - Lexie and Theo have to run the business with each other for one year. At the end of the year they can decide to either sell the company or keep running it together. The problem? From the moment they ran into each other at her father’s wake, they couldn’t stand each other. Through their travels and work, they discover themselves, and even more about each other. A lot can change in a year, but will enough change for Lexie to stay and finally put down some roots?

Overall I really enjoyed this book. As someone who also has a rocky relationship with their father, I found that Lexie’s thoughts and feelings towards her father to be very realistic. Also navigating the relationships that her father had before he passed, was also very realistic and the author made it very relatively. Even if you do not have a rocky relationship with your parent, I think that the author conveys the thoughts and feelings very well. Additionally, the book took place over a years time but the timeline was not dragging in anyway. The characters were well thought out, and grow as the story progresses.

I also love the concept of the company. I do not know if there is a company like this that actually exists but if it did, I would thoroughly enjoy using them. It is such a great concept.

There are a few grammatical mistakes and there were a few times that the company was referred to as P&L instead of R&L but these things are easily fixed.

This was a great read i really enjoyed it! as a person who’s lost a parent i can relate to this story, this was a great story.

This story was sooo good. I truly fell in love with Lexie and Theo. I loved the fact that we were able see both Lexie and Theo start to open up to each other and have those hard conversations with each other which lead to them better understanding each other. It broke my heart for Lexie when she also had those tough conversations with Rachel and seeing how Richard could have tried harder to be in Lexie’s life. I would have loved for the story to be in dual pov because I would have loved to see when and how Theo started falling for Lexie. There were so many instances where I would have loved to know what was going through Theo’s head. All in all, I truly enjoyed this book and gosh I wish I had besties like Fran and Ange.

This was ok, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters and felt that the plot moved quite slowly.

I was looking forward to this one because I’ve been a big fan of Emily Stone’s previous work. This one went a different direction, and overall was enjoyable, but missed the spark her previous works held. I felt the heartfelt and tragic storyline that is the spine to her books was lacking an emotional punch, which allowed the romance to take a more prominent role. And the romance was incredibly well done, I do wish we’d gotten Theo’s POV throughout!
Overall it was a fun and sweet read, and I can see it being a big hit with my patrons closer to the holidays. Thank you for the opportunity to read this ahead of release.

This one gave me all of the Christmas in July vibes that I needed. What a great opportunity to be able to check this one out before it is released. I enjoyed it and hope that it becomes a holiday hit this year! Thank you for the opportunity.

Put forth as a Christmas / holiday book, this is more a story of second chances, letting go of the past and looking toward the future, finding yourself, and an enemies to friends romance. When Lexie's dad Richard dies leaving her half ownership of his travel company, she struggles to grieve the dad who deserted her when she was young for his new family. Lexie is a free spirit, a commitment phone, and has a wanderlust heart. But to receive any benefit from selling the company for the much needed cash, she must help to run it for one year along with Theo, the man who inherited the other half. Theo despises Lexie whom he thinks didn't care at all about Richard, thinking that she doesn't deserve the company from a man who was like a father to him. However, thrown together, warm feelings grow, things get steamy and each begin to rethink about first impressions. I love how Lexie and Theo both evolved in this story, embracing Richard's mantra of "you can't change the past but you can change the future". As Lexie learns more about the travel agency and Richard's motivation behind it, she begins to rethink about who her dad really was. Truly, this would be a great book to read anytime of the year, it's not just a holiday or winter book although it is about celebrating holidays. Slow in some places, lots of steamy parts, still the characters are delightful and multi-dimentionsal. A good read but a bit predictable too. Many thanks to #netgalley #emilystone #awinterwish #randomhouseballantine for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Emily Stone has quickly become one of my favorite authors in the last few years. I compare her books to Josie Silver and Emily Henry — full of emotion, which are my favorite. If it’s going to make me sad, I’m going to read it. Imagine my surprise when I was approved for her newest book, coming out in October. My very first eARC!

“I can find another job I love. But I won’t find another you.” SWOON

A Winter Wish is a slow burn, workplace, enemies-to-lovers romance, but it’s deeper than that. There’s a journey of self-discovery, struggles with self-worth, and grief. I loved Lexie and Theo — from their brokenness to getting to know one another to falling in love — the holiday destinations (and really the whole of R&L Travel), and the festive setting. This felt different from Stone’s other books. I can’t put my finger on what or why tho. Regardless, I still enjoyed my time stuck in this book.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group — Ballantine, Dell and NetGalley for this eARC.

The only thing better than a romcom is a romcom with substance. A Winter Wish is the first book I have read by Emily Stone. I was immediately drawn to Lexie and felt like I understood her. I felt like I was her friend, and the story was just her talking to me and telling me her feelings.

I don’t want to give a summary of the book because it easy is to find a synopsis. I will say that the writing and storytelling flowed well for me. I wasn’t left wondering at any point about something I thought was not described or explained enough. Lexie’s relationship with her dad was complicated to say the least. Anyone who has ever had a complicated relationship with a parent will definitely be able to feel the mixed emotions Lexie has about her dad. Not only do we get a fun enemies to lovers story, but we watch Lexie work towards finding direction in life. We get to see her heal the relationship with her half sister, and grow to understand her father a little better.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House-Ballantine for the Arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

A Winter Wish was a good enemies to lovers Christmas time novel. This 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.

I received a free copy of, A Winter Wish, by Emily Stone, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. When Lexie learns her estranged father has passed away, she does not know what to think or feel. Lexie is surprised she is left half of her dads travel business with the other half going to her dads coworker, Theo. Lexie and Theo have great chemistry, I liked how Lexie grew throughout this book.

Thank you to the author and publisher for this ARC.

I thought with the title, it would be a magical realism book, but I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t. This was a slow and cozy book, even though the story takes place over a year or so and not necessarily only in the winter. I love books that take me to new places and through the writing I got to explore different places with the characters.

This enemies to lovers, slow burn touches on other topics as well: grief, forgiveness, family dynamics.

I find British writing to often be a breath of fresh air, just a bit slower and calmer than American authors and this book didn’t disappoint!

Emily Stone writes such touching and emotional holiday romances. Her books are perfect for anyone looking for a well written tear jerker that will tug and your heart strings and give you all the feels. Beautifully written and relatable characters.