Each year, I look forward to the latest holiday related novel by Jenny Bayliss, and this one didn't disappoint. This book features a middle age main character who is facing an empty nest during the holidays, but gets pulled into the building of a community center and producing a holiday theater program filled with many interesting characters and a sweet love story. I am a Bayliss completist and look forward to the next book!

✨Book Review: Kiss Me at Christmas✨

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This started off as an arc book for me, but my reading time has been interrupted a lot more recently by my beautiful 6 month old. I don’t know about you, but the Christmas season for me starts November 1st. My tree comes out, the carols start playing, and I dive into Christmas books!

Kiss Me at Christmas is adorable! Harriet is missing her daughter who won’t be home for the holidays, stressed in her teaching/pastoral career, and unlucky in love. After meeting James in a local pub, their paths cross again unexpectedly at the old, rundown theater where her students have been hiding while ditching class. Now the entire gang is responsible for cleaning up the theater in time for a final Christmas production of A Christmas Carol before the theater will be sold.

This story really exemplifies the spirit of the holiday season as the entire community comes together to save the theater, and Harriet and James’ relationship has a few setbacks before becoming one of the loveliest couples I’ve read about. Their dialogue was so well-written!

Don’t let this season go by without giving this book a chance!

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Finally, a holiday romance with a couple around my age! I loved the extended family of Harriet and the revelation you find out about James. This novel gave me all the feels, especially since she is dealing with her daughter not coming home for Christmas for the first time, making her usually holiday cheer dim considerable. Plus, this has the most original meet cute, after the first steamy chapter, I have read in a long time. The Famous Five are just like the kids that I used to teach so this brought back memories of my teaching days. If you love an older couple romance for the holidays, this is the book for you.

Kiss Me At Christmas is a cute Christmas story, but it didn't capture and hold my attention like I wanted it to. Harriett drove me insane for most of the book, and I struggled to finish it.

3.5/5 stars

In typical December fashion, my book club (Literary League) reads a Jenny Bayliss book and I know I will get to escape in a setting that is dreamy with amazing characters and a heartwarming story!

Set in England Harriet is a single, 40-something mom, upset that her daughter is away during the holiday season when she has a one night stand with a man named James that doesn't last just one night.

She returns to her daily life as a teacher, when she finds herself covering for a group of misfit teens who sneak into an old theater. She's tasked by the elderly (not so nice) owner with putting on one final Christmas show to avoid prosecution. The catch? James is her lawyer. Harriet must work with James to find out how to make this play go on and keep track of everyone.

This group is so entertaining and I loved seeing the friendships grow. This wasn't my favorite of Bayliss' books but it was still enjoyable and left me really enjoying the 'found family' troupe and main characters later in life.

Really couldn’t get Into this one. It’s more of a found family story with a bunch of theater kids and not a holiday romance, I thought it was a bit boring and slow.

• a single teacher upset her kid is away for the holidays bails out a group of misfit students in exchange for putting on a christmas play at an old theatre, along with the help of her one-night stand
• fun & very eclectic cast of characters who all get roped into helping with the christmas production, though only a select few got significant development
• harriet’s moaning about how sad the holidays were felt trite & exhausting after 400 pages
• feel good, fluffy, ‘this is the true meaning of christmas’ type of book

It pains me to give a Jenny Bayliss book anything lower than 4 stars but this book just wasn’t my favorite. To be honest I thought Harriet was a crumby FMC. She’s very antagonistic to James through most of the book but not in a flirty, “I’m-secretly-pining-for-you” way so it’s hard for me to believe they end up together. To be fair, the secondary plot takes over most of the store so I wouldn’t even call it a romance novel, more like Christmas literature.
The book also drags on in spots. Truly, Bayliss is a gifted author when it comes to world building but it’s not necessary to describe every single location in detail.

2.5 stars.

When a woman has to direct her one night stand in a Christmas play, what could go wrong?

This book was charming and heartwarming. Finding love and Christmas spirit makes for a great story.

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN group for the ARC.

Reading the latest Jenny Bayliss holiday novel has become a tradition. Kiss Me at Christmas is the 2024 release. I found the title and cover to be a little misleading. This isn't a boy meet girl at Christmas typical romcom. The romance is really secondary to the ensemble of quirky characters working to save the local theater. I really loved how one building brought so many people together in so many different ways. Honestly, recalling the story, I don't even remember the romantic lead's name. This book would have worked just as well without that subplot. The allusions to The Christmas Carol were a bit heavy-handed but I still enjoyed the story. I found Harriet's rated G swearing was cute too.

Small details that bugged me: the book blurb says the daughter is in Manhattan when she's in Cooperstown NY over 3 hours away and on the same page (loc 309) Harriet has become a slob since her daughter left AND then she looks around her too-tidy home.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. I am required by law to disclose this. #KissMeatChristmas #NetGalley

The holiday season is approaching, and I’m so not prepared for the holidays at all this year!

That said, Kiss Me at Christmas is the perfect first read to get anyone into a winter mood. The story focuses on Harriet whose daughter has decided to stay abroad through the holiday. Ordinarily, our MC, Harriet is a holiday enthusiast, but without her daughter, she debates celebrating the season. A one night stand and run in with the law later, and she is forced into the holiday season while helping her students to put on The Christmas Carol and reinvigorating a once derelict town cinema.

This story focuses less on the romance and more on giving and community. I loved Harriet’s philanthropic personality. I also adored the feel good vibe this book gave off. It’s not particularly fast paced, but it’s a charming, wintry read to get anyone into the mood for the holidays.

Thanks to Penguin Group Putnam for an advanced readers copy.

While this wasn’t my favorite Christmas book that I have read this year, it was still cute and will get you in the holiday mood. I did enjoy having an older FMC and one that is going through the emotions of empty nesting. Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for the advanced reader copy!

I was super excited to jump into Christmas books this year. This book was a cute story with the Hallmark Holiday vibe. While I enjoyed the story, there was a lot of fluff that fell short for me.

It was a fast holiday read with cozy and uplifting feels.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC. #KissMeatChristmas #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review. I enjoyed this Christmas romance that focused on community and togetherness. I enjoyed seeing Harriet grow in herself and find love while helping the community theater.

Ok, THIS book is what I'm looking for in a Jenny Bayliss Christmas novel! So much to love here - 40s female and male MCs, a bit of a twist on a classic A Christmas Carol story, a small town community that works together to help others, finding yourself in a post-empty nest, and on and on. This book will totally warm your heart!

Bottom line: So, so sweet! Highly recommend!

Quick and Dirty
-small English village
-one night stand/forced proximity trope
-community of quirky characters
-older FMC facing empty nest

From the publisher👇🏻
White Christmas meets Nora Ephron in Jenny Bayliss’ latest wholehearted, ensemble-cast holiday extravaganza.

My thoughts👇🏻
Y’all, I will read anything this woman writes. Not only is she my favorite Christmas book author, but she’s also one of my favorite romance authors. Hear me out: I don’t read a ton of romance, so for me to say that is something. I’ve read enough over the years that a straight-up romance is NOT my thing. I need something more substantial, more plot, more characters, more at stake. And Bayliss brings it every single time! Harriet is caught up in her emotions, fear of what life will be like next year when her daughter leaves for college, and has a wine-soaked evening that ends in some stranger’s bed. No big deal…at least not until she ends up at the police station on charges of breaking. Now she’s face to face with her one-night stand, who happens to be the property owner’s lawyer. Her punishment was resurrecting the once-opulent playhouse and performing a holiday play featuring the rag-tag bunch of students she was covering for. Over the next several weeks, Harriet helps create a safe space for those kids to explore their talents, connect with their community, and build something greater than themselves. And in the meantime, she’s learning something about herself, too. Life is more than just working until you drop.

I enjoyed this one from Bayliss! It’s a terrific read for anyone needing a sense of community and eager to escape into a well-rounded romance that’s not just 🍆. Plus, for us 40+ gals, I saw myself in this character (even though I don’t have kids), which means a lot.

I highly recommend all of Bayliss’ books if you want a holiday book that’s more than Hallmark!

This book was just okay to me. The plot was cute and whimsy but I struggled to get through it. I liked the character development throughout the book and one subplot made me cry. It was great at adding in that feel of Christmas!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

This was a fun heart warming Christmas love story and it 1000% put me in the festive spirit! I loved Harriet and how much she cares for her students. Every kid deserves to have someone like her in their life and she was such an enjoyable character. I loved how awkward she was at times and how she reacted around James. This book definitely had some funny moments (my favorite was “The Lonely Farts Club”) and I’m glad I chose this one to kick off my Christmas season.

Kiss Me at Christmas was a warm hearted hug of a book with the only down side being it was a little long and drawn out. I really loved the community and found family of the book, the happy endings all around for multiple people and it did have a love story. I think the romance was perhaps the weaker part of the book and everything else was better, i liked the different community groups, the teens, the families, etc. I do recommend it and enjoyed reading it.

This book was the sweetest, coziest, most heartwarming delight! This was the Christmas spirit bottled up in book form. Sure, it was a bit overly sentimental at times but it left me feeling so happy.

I love that our female main character, Harriet, is a single mom in her 40s. She is fiercely independent, a little stubborn, and fights for those she loves. The male main character is a man who is constantly trying to be the best version of himself. These two have disagreements and misunderstandings but they both apologize and repair when needed. It was so refreshing!

The ensemble cast of quirky misfits was what really made this story a winner. I loved Eveline’s
Scrooge character arc. This is full of wonderful, flawed characters and it’s set in a small English village (my favorite setting!).

This was such an enjoyable read. I love Jenny Bayliss’s books. She manages to make them cozy but keeps them from being overly cute.