This is marketed as a Red, White , & Royal Blue meets The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's missing the hoiliday character team element from Rise of the Guardians. Cute MM Christmas romance! Cheesy at times, but expected giving the description and still cute.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This was an adorable read, and I enjoyed all the main characters and side characters immensely! I would read more in this series. The narrator did great as well.

There are times where I give this credit for trying to make it slightly more complex than a Christmas romcom, and other times where I can't take this seriously because the writer seems to be unable to actually call a penis a penis and just refers to it as "me" throughout the sex scene in a weird attempt to keep it rated PG-13 while making Jack Frost cumshot jokes. Very twee, very junk food guilty pleasure sort of thing, and I'm sorry but good god Kissmass as a title makes me die inside. The narrator almost perfectly gives the young gay twink voice that I got originally for this. Again, perfect junk food stuff.

I have enjoyed Raasch's fantasy books, so I was interested in her foray into a new genre.
The concept of the holiday realms intrigued me, and I have to say it made for a very interesting world. This world served as a full backdrop to witty, humorous, and charming characters. Coal and Hex's relationship was very cute and definitely made for fans of Red, White, and Royal Blue!

* MM Romance
* Arranged marriage
* LGBT
* Holiday Themed

This book was SO SO SO much fun. I found my self laughing out load a few times. This was so great, from the cute cover to the sweet romance this book had me. I don't read a lot of MM romance but if they are all like this sign me up! I can totally see reading this all year round but great for the winter / holiday season. I was also shocked to find out that this is the same author who wrote Snow like Ashes, I read that a few years ago and after this book I am now a fan of her work and look forward to what she writes next.

I LOVED this story. It was such a fun time and I usually don’t enjoy audiobooks but this one really kept me engaged and I couldn’t stop listening!!

oh boy do I love a silly gay book - especially a holiday one! This was such a fun read and I would recommend it!

The Nightmare Before Kissmas is the perfect fun and spicy Christmas audiobook! Loved this peek behind the curtain into holiday royal family’s lives!

I would rate this somewhere around 2.75/3 stars. A cute read for the holidays but was unfortunately not my favorite, but unfortunately I think this is a personal problem as I have not been able to enjoy romance books for the last few books so take my review with a grain of salt. I liked how they kind of made Santa seem sort of bad in this story, and how they tried to focus the holidays being more about joy and connections rather than things. Overall had some good themes and a decent romance. Would still recommend for a holiday read!

This was not the book for me. I just could not get into it. Loved the idea behind the story, but just didn't get into it.

Fun holiday story. I loved the LGBTQ rep, and looked forward to including this in my holiday book recommendations. Thank you to the author and publisher for the ARC!

This is quite the divisive book, but I personally fell head over heels for these disaster MCs. It was honestly so cute it gave me heart palpitations.

I read this in the bowels of newborn life - mostly around 1am - and it was a lifesaver. It also means I haven't really kept up with or heard why it's polarizing. But I found it to be delightfully dramatic yet low stakes, hilariously messy, and full of tension & chemistry.

It's definitely not a book that takes itself too seriously. And it really leans into the quirky holiday themes. And I literally never get tired of following a disaster bisexual MC.

The audiobook was fantastically narrated. This is my 3rd audiobook by this narrator (although this may be a pseudonym?) and I find his voice to be so easy to listen to and follow. Was definitely great company while I up feeding/rocking baby at all hours of the night.

In a time where we're bombarded with emotional, heavy stories - this romance is a perfect reprieve. And I can't wait to devour as many books in this series that Sara Raasch gifts us.

Thank you net galley for this audio arc.
The Nightmare before Kissmas is suppose to be an adorable queer romcom between the Christmas prince and halloween prince. Instead it was a slow pace romance (which is fine that was the good part) that was heavy handed with political discussion on capitalism through the lens of Christmas. The book seemed to be doing way too much for its premise. I will say the romance between the Christmas prince and halloween prince was cute.

A delight of a holiday novel that absolutely had me laughing and bushing and feeling all the feels. I really enjoyed the story, the characters, and the narration.

This book is a bit of a mixed review for me. I enjoyed the fact that this book is more of a political drama than a romance. I usually get bored with rom-coms because they don't have enough drama. However, I think the author probably needs to work on her political intrigue plotting. Most of the actual in depth parts of the political intrigue fell apart under any sort of scrutiny. The holidays needed to addressed based on their months not their seasons because Northern and Southern hemisphere have directly opposite seasons. This seems a basic oversight. Also the line between Fall and Winter was basically nonexistent in this book which again, seems weird. Thanksgiving was referred to as a Winter holiday but that's just not correct. The politics in general were not very political intrigue because Coal was not calculating enough to actually do anything well. If the book had been Hex's POV as he tricked Coal and the others to help him gain political favor and then along the way maybe he grew to care for them or something that would have been a better book. But we basically have someone with all of the easy resources and backing be confused about how he was ever going to win politically when he was already winning public favor and noble favor. It was just annoying and frustrating to watch them twiddle their thumbs and not scheme. The romance was both fun and annoying. Due to a lack of communication drama occurred which always annoys me. It also had a third act breakup for pretty much no reason except to stirr up drama. Also annoying. Now, my review is coming off quite negative. I say all of that to say that Sara has great potential. I just saw it put not to the best use in this book. I would love to see future works by her to see if she realizes her potential. This book was just not hitting the mark for me, but I could see with some minor tweaks how we could turn a plot full of holes and unnecessary drama into a very interesting political intrigue with some betrayal in love if we had just played our cards right. Always pains me to see potential wasted, but alas.

I loved this book so much, I read it twice! I really loved the characters of this book, they each captivated the spirit of their holiday! The Nightmare Before Kissmas was the equivalent of a cute holiday movie that I would absolutely watch on repeat all year long. I would have liked to see a Hex POV, but it didn't take away from the story or my rating so it wasn't a make or break deal. Also, I never thought I would be so mad at Santa Claus! Overall, this book was a cozy holiday romance, and I absolutely adored it!

This was a cute holiday palate cleanser. The shop was perfect! The romcom vibes were 10 out of 10. Only reason I didn’t give it. Five stars is because it was a little cliché.

DNF

I went into this expecting some resemblance to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I was disappointed. Instead, it focused heavily on goofy holiday politics and a romance that focused more on physical attraction than I typically prefer. Ultimately, I decided not to finish it and dnf’d pretty early.

I think this book is definitely meant for a certain demographic of readers: romance, sci-fi, slow-build. However, I found this story pretty boring and I had a difficult time staying engaged. I feel like there was a lot of political discourse between the holidays and the romance was lacking. Perhaps if this story had multiple points of views instead of just Coal’s, it would have been more engaging.

Honestly, what kept me going was the narrator. Personally, I feel like I probably would have DNFd this book if I was only reading a physical copy instead of listening to the audiobook.

I truly had the lowest expectations, and I was blown out of the water. I was pleasantly surprised by the world building and the political plotlines. I think that it being a romcom is honestly second to the actual plot of the book which was about Joy and like family. I think that overall it was incredibly fun and fresh while still feeling familiar.