🎄ARC REVIEW🎄

4.5! ⭐
No spice (don't let this stop you!!!)

🍪 One-Bed
🍪 Single Dad
🍪 Forced Proximity
🍪 Marriage of Purpose
🍪 Strangersto Friends to Lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sarah Morgenthaler for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

This was my first book by @sarahmorgenthaler.author , and while I’m not typically drawn to Christmas-themed stories, the plot and tropes sounded intriguing. To my surprise, I found myself deeply invested in the characters and their journey.

The story begins with an unexpected twist: after finalising her divorce, Sienna's best friend jokingly places an ad in the local newspaper claiming Sienna is looking for a new husband. To everyone's shock, someone responds. Enter Guy, a single father seeking marriage to secure medical insurance for his four-year-old daughter, Emma, who is battling stage five kidney failure.

Sienna is moved by Guy’s situation and feels compelled to help, even though she doesn’t expect to experience the Christmas spirit herself. She becomes increasingly involved in their lives, learning about Emma’s condition and supporting both father and daughter as best she can. Meanwhile, Guy, while focused on his daughter’s well-being, also supports Sienna as best as he can.

The emotional weight of Emma’s suffering and Guy’s struggle to maintain hope is profoundly touching. As Sienna grows closer to them, readers will find themselves fully engaged and empathetic toward each character. What starts as a practical arrangement gradually transforms into a genuine marriage filled with love, comfort, and heartfelt moments, despite the challenging journey ahead.

This novel will make you see Christmas as filled with love, miracles and warm cookies (and this is coming from a self-proclaimed Grinch). 🤍🥺

This a GREAT READ. The story is about Sienna's family and how they took care of the wild Idaho land. Just getting off of a divorce her husband did not leave her much but the farm. Her friends, as a joke put out a flyer for a husband for hire and a stranger did apply for the job. She explained that it had been a joke from her friends,. She talked with Guy who was in town doing odd construction jobs because his 4 year old daughter ,Emma was in end stage kidney failure and the town had a pediatric dialysis center. He and Sienna talked and the next day she decided they should get married, so she could help the child and that they did. See how this journey turns out. Does the marriage work out and does Emma get her kidney. I highly recommend this book.

This emotionally intense romance follows Sienna, a divorced rancher, and Guy, a single dad trying to save his daughter with stage five kidney disease. The marriage-of-convenience storyline unfolds quickly due to their urgent circumstances, set against a cozy ranch backdrop during Christmas. Despite the rapid pace, Sienna and Guy’s honesty and vulnerability create a deep, heartfelt connection. While the ending may feel abrupt, it provides a well-deserved, satisfying conclusion after the characters' emotional journey. Filled with laughter, sadness, and love, this is a touching read with depth and heart.

“The Christmas You Found Me” truly made me feel the whole range of feelings on the emotional spectrum.

It starts off funny with a supportive best friend needling their BFF in a manner that’s mildly inappropriate but feels right for a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Sienna meets Guy on the day after her divorce is final, and fate has a funny way of bringing people who need each other together.

This is a single dad, marriage of convenience, insta-love story, which I don’t always love together but it really works. Sometimes life puts people on a twisted trajectory where the unthinkable and crazy options become the only option. Guy does everything he can to be a good dad to Emma, a good parent, and a good human. He just needs someone to look out for him, and Sienna’s going to try and save them both if she can help it.

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you this book could have been 700 pages of these three flawed-but-beautiful humans interacting with each other. From page one I wanted to be friends and neighbors with Sienna, I wanted to play and do crafts with Emma, and I wanted the protection, care, and devotion of Guy. When I finished this book I wanted to give Sarah Morgenthaler a hug.

Welcome back, Sarah. Your readers have missed you.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book!
Admittedly, i didnt know the plot before i started reading. I was torn apart when i realized there was a sick child that was driving most of this. But the author was able to swing it a way that didnt make the whole story sad.
Im a total suck for marriage of connivence. This was a fun twist on it too. Heartwarming and cozy!

First off I would definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings, I don't remember seeing any when I requested this book. There is a sick child in the story. Just thought I'd mention that just in case it's a trigger for you. I really did enjoy this book and it was a quick read for me. I really loved how Sienna and Guy's relationship. The fact that he didn't force her to do anything she wasn't ready was nice. Oh and Emma and Barley were just too cute. But it did feel a bit weird that the story took place over a few weeks and everything happened so quickly. I think had it happened over a few months I would have believed that it was possible. The ending also felt a bit rushed, almost like it was running out of time and had to quickly finish the story. I was also expecting some "spicy scenes" in the book but there wasn't anything. spicy, which is great if you aren't a big fan of it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review..

This romance is just perfect in every way and the perfect cozy romance to cuddle with during the holiday season. I loved this tender marriage of convenience and I truly felt the main characters slowly fall for each other. While this romance will definitely pull at your heartstrings, it is full of love, faith, romance and wonder. I’m thankful that this author picked up her pen and gave us this beautiful Christmas novel after suffering her own heartbreak. I hope there are many more. Thank you to #Netgalley and #Sourcebooks for this ARC - the opinions are all my own.

This is a nearly perfect romance novel. My only complaint is that the whole thing happens over the course of two weeks (except the epilogue.) If it had been two or three months, I would have found it much more believable. These people are in an impossible situation and everything goes perfectly for them. I can get behind that because it's a romance but I just couldn't believe that it could happen that smoothly in 14 days.

So with all that being said, this book is an absolute delight. It has just about everything I love about the genre. There's no steamy scenes, which was a disappointment but I'm willing to overlook that because their relationship was ideal otherwise and their focus was elsewhere.

This book is about a sick kid and it's heartwrenching. So if that's a trigger for you, this might not be a book you choose. I will say it is handled beautifully and is ultimately hopeful.

The mixture of sadness and joy and humor is so well done.

I highly recommend this one.

Make sure you have tissues at the ready for this very emotional, and endearing book!

There’s a whole list of CW for this book, so please be mindful before reading.

The writing in this book is absolutely spectacular, the author does an amazing job of describing the ranch, and has bumped Idaho up in places I need to visit.

I’m a big fan of single parent romance, and when you throw in a marriage of convenience, the author did a fantastic job creating this story. It’s fast paced, and you feel like these characters just fit together. Sienna is a hard working strong woman, and Guy is willing to do absolutely anything and everything to take care of his daughter.

This was a very emotional book, touching on different types of grief. This book absolutely broke my heart, but it gave so much hope and love with it.

[Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion]

CW: parent with Alzheimer's, divorce, child illness

As a fan of Morgenthaler’s Moose Springs series, I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her latest book, and it did not disappoint. From the very first page, I was immediately lost in the story, but this one hit differently compared to her other books. If you’re thinking, "Oh, another lighthearted holiday romance," you’re in for a surprise. This book is so much more.

It’s beautifully written, and I’m not sure my words can fully convey how wonderful this book is. Be prepared—this story is emotionally heavy. I laughed, I ugly cried, and I found myself completely caught up in its emotional roller coaster. There’s a constant tension throughout so you're just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The plot starts off with a humorous twist—Sienna's best friend places a joke ad in the local newspaper to help her find a new husband after her divorce. Guy Maple actually answers the ad. His 4-year-old daughter, Emma has stage-five chronic kidney disease and is on the transplant list, but Guy needs to prove he can afford the anti-rejection medication. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to save his daughter, even marrying a stranger.
While this is, at its core, a romance, the relationship that develops between Sienna and Emma is heartwarming. As a mom of a four-year-old myself, I couldn’t help but fall in love with Emma and root for her. She’s a sweet, brave child facing incredibly difficult circumstances, which makes the stakes of this story so real and emotionally gripping.

Both Sienna and Guy are wonderfully developed characters. Sienna is navigating the aftermath of a brutal divorce while slowly losing her dad. Guy is a single dad doing his best for a child with a serious illness. Together, they learn that it’s okay to lean on others, and that showing vulnerability doesn’t make you weak—it makes you human.

Book Review
The Christmas you Found Me by Sarah Morgenthaler

📖 you know this author form the Tourist Attraction series , read the end notes…. This book is soo much more than a simple holiday love story

Triggers Tropes and Thoughts
✅ Childhood illness, kidney failure
✅ Recently Divorced eoman needs a ranch hand aka husband
✅ Small mountain town complete with coffee shop, a bakery and a ranch full of horses and animals
✅ Forced proximity
✅ Protector and Cinnamon roll
✅ Christmas time- a time for miracles
✅ Strangers to lovers
✅ Whirlwind marriage
✅ Single dad needs wife ( and health insurance)
✅ Dementia, elderly parent
✅ Found family

Characters
FMC Sienna Naples- independent, stubborn, after her recent divorce she has become used to being and alone and fighting for everything she has
MMC Guy Maples- former architect now construction worker and handyman, he would do anything for his daughter
Emma- an adorable brave 4yr with kidney
Failure

Tag line- when Naples met Maples….

Overall
I cried…. And then I read the acknowledgments and cried more
A heart wrenching story that is filled with love, humility, friendship, courage, tears and hope❤️🥹
If you believe in Christmas miracles and happily ever afters then you will want to read this book.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher @sourcebookscasa for my digital ARC in return for an honest review. Opinions expressed are my own.

So many emotions from one book! I've never had a book make me cry - but this one did just that!

The Christmas You Found Me is heartbreaking, heartwarming and emotionally heavy all in one. Sienna is newly divorced, Guy is a single father to a beautiful little girl Emma who is currently in kidney failure, needing to be on the kidney transplant list and being able to show they can afford her medication. Sienna meets guy (after her friend Jess decides to play a joke with an add in the local newspaper with a husband to hire ad), and eventually the come to an agreement on a marriage of convenience - they get married and Guy and Emma get to be added to Sienna's health care.

This story was beautifully written, and as I said definitely brought tears to the eyes. The character development throughout was top notch and I loved that the spice level was extremely low - showing off pure romance.

A beautiful Christmas story with a beautiful Christmas wish ending!

I’ve been waiting for a new Sarah Morgenthaler story and this was worth the wait. Readin the story of Sienna, Guy and Emma was a roller coaster ride of emotions. I found myself laughing and crying throughout the story. The characters were well developed and their banter felt natural and realistic given the circumstances. I love the definition of the marriage as one of purpose vs convenience, it made the story even more credible. I look forward to more from Sarah in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you're a big fan of Sarah Morgenthaler like I am, just know this one hits differently than her others. It's very emotionally heavy, but in the best possible way. My heart is still aching! The ending, along with the acknowledgments, brought me to literal tears. It's a truly special story, and I hope others will give it a try this holiday season.

It's a marriage-of-convenience romance following Sienna, a recently divorced rancher, and Guy, an exhausted single dad desperate to save his daughter, who is battling stage five kidney disease. Considering the timeline, this romance develops faster than I'd typically like, but the heightened emotions along with the cozy ranch setting at Christmas made me absolutely melt into their story.

I loved how open and honest Sienna and Guy were with each other. Married without truly knowing one another beforehand, they didn’t have the luxury of time for typical misunderstandings. So yes, it was fast paced—but with a life on the line, there was no choice but to be emotionally vulnerable from the start.

I found the ending a bit abrupt and perhaps too simplistic in its happiness, but it's a romance at heart. After such intense events and all the tears (seriously, have tissues handy), the blissful ending felt well deserved and deeply satisfying for these characters.

I was kindly provided with the ARC of this book by NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca editors in exchange of an honest review, thank you!✨

10000000000/5⭐️

OH MY GOD 🥹🤍

This is THE best book I’ve read in my entire life, I literally got nothing else to say besides is just PURE PERFECTION 🥹🤍
I was sobbing, SOBBING!!! I knew it was a HEA but man, I was sooo terrified something bad would happened.

Thankfully that wasn’t the case because Siena, Guy and Emma (with Barley, Legs, Lulu and all the other animals) are perfect happy and my heart is full and I want to read their story again like yesterday because is so beautiful and is so real and is I just can’t stop thinking about them❤️‍🩹

This book is definitely my new and absolute favorite 🤍✨

It was a surprise when I got approved of this title, and I was very much looking forward to this reading.

I almost threw my Kindle out of the window, like twice. It was very book and horrific at the same time. This book made cry and smile and cry again. It almost ruined me, and I totally recommend it.

Some of the topics in the book hit home for me, so that was something extra I really did not count for, but I’m glad it was there.

I really don’t have many negatives about the novel other than it was a bit frustrating that, outside the main couple and the absolute angel of a kid, the rest of the characters were not flashed out, and we only got them as props to help the story going. I guess that is a very general issue, especially in contemporary romance.

However, that did not take away from my enjoyment (and suffering) of the book. The pacing was nice, things went fast, but it was on purpose and the whole atmosphere was lovely. A very December story.

Now, I truly adored the couple, but I loved them separately as well. All the hardships made them incredible people.

I don’t want to go in too deep with the details because this is a simply, yet beautiful story that it’s better to go into with little knowledge of it.
Just make sure to have the Kleenex ready.

I've been eagerly awaiting a new novel from Sarah Morgenthaler for ages it seems and this was a cozy, emotional roller coaster ride of a holiday marriage of convenience Christmas miracle type love story sure to delight Hallmark holiday movie lovers!!

Recently divorced and lonely Sienna Naples is the sole owner of her family ranch and isn't feeling very festive this Christmas season. When single father Guy Maple answers her joke of an ad, Sienna impulsively agrees to marry him in order for Guy to be able to prove he can afford the anti-rejection meds his daughter needs if she is able to get the kidney transplant she desperately needs to keep living.

Sienna can't falling in love with Guy's 4 year old daughter Emma and the feelings go both ways as these three quickly form a family over the holidays. While this story takes place over a few short weeks, which feels rather FAST, if you can suspend your belief on the odds of this ever actually happening in real life, the story is sure to make you swoon, cry and sigh in contentment!

Great on audio and my new favorite 2024 holiday read so far. Highly recommended for fans of high drama, closed door romance with tons of emotional depth. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Between requesting a copy of this book and deciding to pick it up to read I forgot what the description was, so it was something of an emotional shock to discover The Christmas You Found Me is not just a sweet single-dad small town Christmas romance.

While it has a lot of delightful, warm and cosy Christmas vibes, the central story revolves around a small girl and her father desperating waiting for a kidney transplant. I cried a lot through this book.

Marriage of convienience is one of my all time favourite tropes, but it usually works better in historical romances. Marrying for health insurance is probably one of the only believable premises for a modern marriage of convienience and I thought she did a fantastic job of exploring what kind of complexities this could involve, in particular the dynamic of desperation and gratitude.

I really enjoyed Guy and Sienna navigating emotional honesty and vulnerability and the way it was a subversion of gender expections through the story.

I liked the town setting, and various characters in the story, particularly Seinna's friends. I would definitely read more books set there.

I did think it was a little weird that the book mentioned mulitple times her family were big on the idea of taking care of the land, not owning the land because it was stolen from the Indigneous people during colonisation. But they did keep the land. They didn't do anything to give it back, or pay rent or anything.

While not something I've personally experienced, the health and medical elements seemed well balanced between Emma's experiences of everyday life and the suffering and pain as her kidney failure progressed. While they did often tell her how brave she was (which can be a bit too inspiration porn in stories with chronic or terminal illness), on the page she was depicted as a typical four year old, who as grumpy and frustrated as often as she was sweet and thoughtful. The joy and sadness of being her parent was also richly explored.

I thought it was ultimately a sweet Christmas romance that was a beautiful home for an exploration of mulitple facets of grief, from watching a child suffer through a terminal illness, to Sienna's dad deterioriating from demintia to Sienna working through the emotions of her painful marriage being over. Just really thoughtful and poignant, and when I read the author's note afterwards about the author losing her husband it seemed heartbreaking obviously this was how she'd been able to write such a richly complex book about love and grief.

This is definitely not the average lighthearted rom com and when you read the acknowledgments, you understand why. It’s beautifully written from the heart and full of emotion. The author deftly balances the difficult issues of loss, illness and divorce with moments of whimsy and fun. It’s a slow burn romance, focusing on how Sienna and Guy support each other and Guy’s seriously ill daughter Emma whilst also dealing with the death of a parent. There is something so raw and poignant about this story, that I just know it’s going to stay with me a while.

Sarah Morgenthaler’s new novel is a tender and loving story of newly-divorced Sienna, single dad Guy, and Guy’s daughter Emma, who is chronically ill and needs to have a new kidney. Sienna’s family has lived on their Idaho ranch for generations and she fought with everything she had to keep the land after her divorce; Guy has been moving from town to town in need of a job to be able to afford Emma’s medical bills. When an ad in the local newspaper brings the two grown-ups together they decide to do everything they can for Emma. Even if that means they need to get married, for insurance purposes.

This book was unlike any other fake dating or fake marriage book I have ever read. The story is filled with sadness but also with laughter and so much love, and nothing feels rushed, as Sienna, Guy and Emma – and all the animals on Sienna’s ranch – take careful steps toward each other and start becoming a family. Sienna is still raw after a difficult divorce but Guy gives him all the time and space whenever she needs it, whereas Sienna gets to know quite soon what it means to be the single parent of a chronically ill child, something that has been Guy’s reality ever since his daughter was born.

I don’t have the words to say how good this book was, or to describe all the emotions that went through me while reading, except to say I read this book in a day because I just could not put it down. I cried my eyes out more than once but I was also filled with so much warmth and happiness while reading this beautiful book, and that feeling still lingers.

Welcome back Sarah Morgenthaler, and thank you so much for writing Sienna’s, Guy’s and Emma’s story. I received an advance copy, for which I am eternally grateful to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.