Well, consider this one of my new favorite Christmas novels and probably the cutest new adult Sapphic romance I've read in well...ever. Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick create a sweet, charming holiday town with Barnwich and an adorable sapphic romance with Arden and Caroline. Like a classic holiday novel, it features all the cheese necessary for a holiday romance, but it also has some excellent exploration into identity, self love, explotation of celebrities, family, and religion. I adored all the characters, main and secondary, and thought the twelve date idea was brilliant. It's fun, plus who can say no to the fake dating trope. I love predictability with real sparks at play. While it is a bit young for me, I found myself captivated by the story and immersed in Arden and Caroline's 18 year old selves, my brain embracing high school drama with no problem.

It's cute and cheesy and totally readable. Now, I just want a similar story, but with full fledged sapphic grown ups. Give me messy lesbian drama, please.

Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick have penned yet another lesbian YA romcom that feels like it NEEDS to be a movie. I had a blast reading this one!

This book is the perfect little sapphic romance to read during the holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah (because both are well represented). Childhood best friends to lovers isn't always my favorite romance trope, but this one definitely works and the relationship between the two leads felt lived-in and believable. Even the side and background characters felt real and like they had their own interior lives, giving more dimension to the story. Overall, this one was fun and sweet, just like the holidays.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Make My Wish Come True has all the ingredients for a cozy sapphic holiday romance—small-town charm, festive traditions, and wintery vibes. Caroline is an endearing main character, balancing her loyalty to friends and family with her own dreams and self-doubt. Her tight-knit group of friends adds warmth and humour, and their supportiveness was one of the highlights of the book.

Unfortunately, I didn’t buy the romance between Caroline and Arden at all. After being out of each other’s lives for four years, Arden suddenly shows up with a fake dating plan to rehab her public image, expecting Caroline to just go along with it. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated, and the lack of chemistry between them didn’t help. Honestly, I found myself wishing Caroline would end up with someone else entirely, which isn’t great when you’re reading a romance.

While the story had its heartwarming moments of friendship, family, and community, the central romance fell flat for me. It’s hard to root for a couple when one half feels underdeveloped and the connection doesn’t click. The wintery atmosphere and small-town setting were lovely, but overall, this one didn’t fully deliver for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about two girls, Caroline (who stayed in their small home town) and Arden (who left and is now a famous actress). Arden comes back to town to ask Caroline to pretend to be her girlfriend and to write an article for Cosmopolitan about their 12 dates of Christmas. Caroline is understandably upset since she hasn't heard a peep from Arden in four years. Over the course of the book the girls figure out more about each other and themselves.
I like both characters and each girl is given her own voice and fully fleshed out character. I felt bad for both of them at different points in the book, but I liked their little town of Barnwich, PA. This is kind of like a Hallmark movie where the movie star comes back to find her roots and finds love, but it's a bit more than that.
This is the second book I've read from the authors and it didn't disappoint. I received a free copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a really cute rom-com with lots of fun tropes. Second chance. Childhood friends to lovers. Hollywood drama. Small Town charm. Holiday magic. They're all there and adorable. I liked the characters and romance in this one. It was a very charming holiday tale that was perfect for this time of year.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

Look, I love these authors. I will read anything they write. This book gives Sapphic Hallmark vibes, in the best kind of ways. I usually don’t like YA second chance romances but this one worked.

I will recommend this title to YA readers. I will not recommend it to adult readers (even of YA). I found some of the timeline highly unbelievable, with the teen movie star. It honestly felt like this was an adult book/concept and someone told these authors that their marker is YA and they should age it back down. Other than that, it was a cute sapphic holiday romance. They go on a bunch of holiday themed dates. There's a hot chocolate tasting and a Christmas tree heist, what else is there to say?

4 stars for YA readers, 3 for me personally.

So adorable and cozy! I loved how there are so many fun dates that the two main characters go on. I purchased this for the YA section of the library.

In this sapphic holiday rom com, actress Arden James returns to her small Pennsylvania home town for the holidays in hopes of improving her party-girl image by fake dating her childhood best friend, Caroline. As an aspiring journalist, Caroline has tried to forget her ex-best friend and focus on graduating high school and pursuing her dreams. However, with the promise of writing an article for Cosmo about their “12 dates of Christmas”, Caroline agrees to the fake-girlfriend ruse and reconnects with Arden.

I always love Rachael Lippincott’s and Alyson Derrick’s books, and this latest one, co-authored by the two of them, did not disappoint! This was exactly what I was looking for in a holiday novel, full of Christmas cheer, alongside a fake dating trope storyline. Through the 12 dates, the book also incorporates Hanukkah activities with the Christmas activities, so it’s a perfect read no matter what winter holiday you celebrate. I’d definitely recommend this book for the holiday season!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for my gifted e-ARC!

You can’t help but feel for Arden and how quickly she had to grow up in the rush of LA stardom. I loved reading about Arden and Caroline’s past and present and truly thought it was a beautiful story with all the wonder of Christmas-time thrown in. I’d recommend this is a heart warming Christmas story.

make my wish come true is a ya sapphic romcom set around the holiday season, following childhood best friends arden james and caroline beckett. arden left their little christmas-obsessed town a while ago, and is now a famous hollywood actor, whereas caroline has been spending her time curating the perfect portfolio to get into her dream school and study journalism. when arden has the opportunity to audition for her dream role, she’s confronted with the messy image she and her manager team have created for her on social media. but when they come up with a quick little lie to secure her the role, arden is thrust into a situation where she has to go back to her small town for the holidays and convince her childhood best friend (and mayhaps her former crush… that maybe also had mutual feelings for her… that were never expressed… by either party…) to go on twelve fake dates with her in exchange for getting her writing featured on an important outlet. although faking a relationship for twelve short days seems easy at first with both their dreams at stake, when old feelings start to come up to the surface, things become a little complicated between the two…
okay, first of all, i have to be honest. i read this at the start of october and happen to have what my friends will affectionately call “the memory of a goldfish”, which means, you guessed it, i don’t remember this book as well as i would’ve liked to. BUT you better believe i’ll be trying my bestest to review it somewhat coherently. i don’t know about you, but i actually tend to enjoy fake dating stories (mostly!), but this one just… didn’t make sense? i get that it was a way for the both of them to get closer to their dreams, but you’re telling me you’d accept such an offer from someone who left when you were both so young and then refused to contact you, but then turned up on your doorstep when it was convenient for her?? no! have some self-respect. i might be a people pleaser but even i would say no.
that brings me to arden as a whole… i did not like her. i don’t know what else to say… she was just really annoying and unlikeable. i get why she acted the way she did, but i still don’t think that was what she should have done.
now caroline was a lot better! she was sweet to everyone, and maybe a little too sweet to arden… i loved seeing the interactions between her and her family members, and arden’s grandma too. i liked that being part-jewish in a little christmas-obsessed town was explored (:
as you may have guessed… i didn’t quite feel the chemistry between them, unfortunately. what is the book even doing if i’m not squealing and kicking my feet while reading?? aside from the things i mentioned earlier, it just felt like arden wasn’t putting in any effort… or rather it felt like it was just because she wanted to get the role. the questions caroline asked arden to include in her post about their relationship was cute, but i felt like they were written with the intention of being these little snippets of their romance that were deeper and more meaningful and less artificial, but i think they just failed at achieving that…
overall, i didn’t quite like this one. i hadn’t gone in with the highest expectations anyway, for some reason, but i wish i’d liked it better. i’ve previously really liked forget me not by alyson derrick, which i read just this summer, so i had some hope, but alas. but i’m not opposed to the idea of trying out their other co-authored books tbh!
thank you to the publisher simon & schuster and netgalley for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Make My Wish Come True is a cute, will they or won't they, sapphic romance about two former best friends pulled apart by distance and fame. Arden James is a movie star, living her dream, but when the role she's desperate to have is just out of her reach she comes up with a scheme to prove she'll do anything to get it -- including returning to her hometown and her former best friend Caroline who she hasn't spoken to in years to pretend that they are madly in love. Caroline wants nothing to do with Arden after she broke her heart --but she sees the fame Arden can bring with her and she knows the struggling businesses in town need it and she gets an exclusive to write about their relationship in an article that will surely get her into journalism school so she agrees. As they go on fake dates and Caroline tries to pull out the real Arden, old feelings surface --but can their relationship survive when Arden returns to Hollywood? I appreciated the dual POV and especially the holiday aspects in this book. It wasn't exclusive to Christmas, which was a nice change. This is a great holiday romance read for those who celebrate Christmas and Hannukah and I appreciated how the characters discussed feeling minimized when Christmas monopolizes the holiday season. A lot of the book was a "will they or won't they" so I struggled to feel the chemistry with these two, which is what kept it at 4 stars for me. I would have liked to see more romance, connection, and chemistry here. That said, this is a solid pick for any YA collection and will suit a wide range of romance readers. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

Review is late because life got busy. But I just finished this book and loved it so much! It was such a cute sapphic romcom. The ending was just great. The writing was phenomenal. I was sucked into this book so quickly and didn't want to leave. Clean, closed-door romance. Cozy vibes. Lovable characters. Small town girl and big city girl, high school crushes, small town romance, angst, romance, Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations. I mean, what more could you ask for? 4/5 star read for me and I would definitely recommend!

I absolutely loved every minute of this one. It was the perfect read to start December and the festive season with.

I LOVE a good fake dating plot and the estranged friends to lovers added a whole extra, wonderful layer to the story.

Both Caroline and Arden were such wonderful characters. So full of love and pain and ambition and fear, both expressing it in different ways.

I highly recommend if you’re looking for something to add to your holiday TBR.

This was a super cute hallmark ish YA, I love these authors and throw them together and it just equals joy. I love a cutie holiday read also. I will say I had a little hard time believing everyone was so accepting at the school, but maybe that’s how schools are better these days? I guess HS was 20 years ago now eeek. I love for small town vibes and the cute grandma, I wish the romance would’ve hit a tiny bit more maybe it felt rushed a bit, overall I will definitely recommend this book especially for pure holiday joy.

The perfect YA Sapphic book for the holiday season!

Let me start off with one thing I absolutely adored: the conversations about celebrating Hanukkah during what is usually seen as the "Christmas season," especially in a town known for its holiday festivities! Just a couple pages in, Caroline talks about the liminal space between these two holidays and identities. Her mom is Jewish, her dad is Catholic, and she grew up somewhere inbetween. The holiday season is full of traditions from both sides - her grandma's brisket, the town tree lighting, latkes, Christmas caroling, menorah lightings, ugly sweaters, etc. Especially in a small-town with a focus on Christmas, it's still something she has to balance. As someone with a similar family makeup, I felt understood. I felt like I could see myself and I was able to share this experience with someone else, even a fictional character. I know I'm not the only one with these experiences, but being able to read it and feel it was truly a joy.

Onto the plot: Caroline is in her Pennsylvania small town for another holiday season. There's always something going on this time of year - a hot chocolate competition, the annual tree lighting, caroling - outside of her regular responsibilities of school, managing the basketball team, and working at Edie's Diner. Arden is in LA, auditioning for another role, but this one feels like <i>her</i>, and she would do anything to get it. Even if that "anything" involves lying to the director, getting on a plane to her hometown she hasn't returned to since she left for Hollywood 4 years ago, and asking her ex-best friend (who she stopped talking to around that same time) to be her fake girlfriend.

Cue a scheme where they both get something out of it - Arden gets to be a candidate for her dream role and Caroline gets to write the article about their relationship, a great highlight for her Columbia application. But it's not just as easy as a quick article and they'll get what they want. They need to be seen together and Caroline needs to learn who this new Arden is. They spend the days leading up to Christmas going on date after date, leaning into the holiday traditions of their hometown, and learning each other again.

I truly enjoyed this book and it's such a nice ready for the holiday season!

Once again, my local authors (Pittsburgh-er here) have co-written a cute little trip around Pittsburgh and a very sweet holiday romance that combines winter holidays in the character's mixed experiences with them. Joyful and sapphic, Make My Wish Come True feels like coming home in a holiday story.

Sapphic fake dating to lovers, but with Netflix Christmas movie vibes? Yes please.

This was a fun holiday read, but I did struggle to believe Caroline and Arden as teenagers. The plot of this book felt much more new adult, particularly because Arden has been on her own in LA since age 14. If the characters had been aged up by about 4 years, I think the plot would’ve made a lot more sense. If you can suspend your disbelief in that regard, I recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

Adorable and perfect Christmas read. Arden has a reputation in Hollywood that needs to be changed. What better way than fake dating your ex best friend for a cosmo article?! They agree to go on the 12 dates of Christmas and Caroline will write an article about it to help Arden’s rep. This book is so cozy and fun!