The Nightmare Before Kissmass is a romcom that mixes the vibe of Red, White, & Royal Blue with The Nightmare Before Christmas. It tells the story of Coal Clause, the Prince of Christmas, who used to love the holiday until his dad turned it into a PR facade. Now, he's being pushed to marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess. However, things take an unexpected turn with the arrival of the Prince of Halloween, leading to a competition for Iris's hand in marriage. Meanwhile, the two-holiday princes have a secret love affair that could disrupt everything around them. This sweet, sexy, and messy Christmas story is a compelling read, and the audiobook narration adds to the enjoyment. I highly recommend it to other readers!

This was such a cute book! I loved it!

The romance was sweet and loving and sexy. There was only a tiny bit of angst, the problems were really just the situation they were stuck in. Mostly it was just them being so cute together. Also being so hot together, because the sex scenes were so lovely and full of just as much sweetness and care as the rest of the relationship.

The sibling and friendship relationships were sweet too.

I was a bit worried from the description that the third person in the marriage arrangement might be getting hurt, but no, she’s best friends with Coal and doesn’t actually want to marry him either, and she’s supportive of Coal and Hex.

There was also a nice hopeful story about someone enacting change and standing up to his abusive, controlling dad.

The holiday stuff was fun! I’m not actually a big Halloween person, but this author made the Halloween stuff sound so cool. A+ aesthetics. I was always a Christmas person, but I think I wanna go hang out with Hex and his court.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration by Ellis Evans was wonderful! He did such a perfect job of bringing Coal to life. It sounded natural and conversational and engaging and really suited all the voice and personality the character had.

Overall, I had a great time listening to this and loved both the sweet romance and the hopeful story!

Looking for your next 5 star read? Then preorder this one because I cannot get enough of it. I feel like I need to get everyone to fall in love with Hex and Coal with me. The banter, the snark but also the prose.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas has me pausing so I can write down lines in notes. Audiobooks are fantastic but I need the physical trophy so I can highlight all my favorite lines. Chapter 16 will be completely highlighted. I gave up trying to remember each line. Sara Raasch this book is literary gold. I’m in love.

Where can you find this book? It comes out October 8th and honestly it’s a travesty you can’t get it sooner. I need friends to chat about this one with. We can make t-shirts and make it our next fall obsession.

When it does come out I think you should buy it in both the audiobook and paperback because the narrator Ellis Evans is perfect. The paperback because shelf trophy🏆

Don’t believe me? The hook for this book is accurate:
Red, White & Royal Blue meets The Nightmare Before Christmas in a sexy, quirky rom-com where the golden-hearted Prince of Christmas falls for the totally off-limits Prince of Halloween.

Thank you MacMillan for my ALC. I adore it. I’ve been telling everyone they need it.

I honestly wanted to not like this one because it seemed cheesy but I needed up really enjoying it. There was a lot of witty banter and downright hilarious moments. I thought the author did a great job with trying in the holidays and giving meaning to what they do. It was definitely a unique twist on holiday joy, too!

Very cute holiday book. I can easily see it being made into a rom-com holiday movie. Fast paced, family drama, romance and competition what more could you want.

This is specifically about the audio version. The man who narrates the book has a very nice voice and has a lot of emotion when speaking. It was very wonderful to hear and I feel like his voice fits the main character well.

Alright, I was a little hesitant to read this one but I'm really glad I did. I'm a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas so I had very high expectations for this. While it didn't quite meet by ridiculous expectations, it was honestly really cute and funny. This is a ya queer romance perfect for spooky season. The plot was engaging and fun, full of holiday games and challenges. I enjoyed the funny banter and laugh out loud moments. I especially like how the Halloween magic reacting to cursing. The romance was pretty adorable. Ellis Evans did a great job with the audiobook narration too.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this! It was quirky and fun. The dialogue was hilarious and as funny as it was, it balanced the sweet and emotional very well. College age, new adult - with a solid handle on the erraticness of young emotions.

Coal and Hex are both amazing leads and I loved getting the glimpses of their strong, but shy personalities and was honestly surprised how the charactesr flipped the script on what I initially expected them to be like.

The writing is an amazing mix of in your face debauchery and lyrical prose and you'll be laughing one moment and then reaching for the tissues next. The idea of different Holiday Royalties and how they interacted was really neat and it was executed so well.

I listened to the audio and the narration was done really well. This is a must buy!

"We are Joy in the darkness - We are Christmas" ::cries::

I thoroughly enjoyed this rom-com! Not only is the premise unique and fun, but Sara Raasch's writing style continues to delight! The main character, Coal, has a distinct voice that is very relatable. The pairing of Coal with Hex worked so well. Each had their loveable traits along with flaws to overcome.

I was hesitant at first about the cheeky holiday stereotypes and the “Prince of Christmas” main character, but then!! I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of feeling, the family and found family relationships, the grief rep, and the queer joy.

Cole (Nicholas) the Christmas Prince might have been a bit of a playboy, but he does truly care about the future of the holiday. His father has this plot to marry him off to the Easter Princess (who he likes but doesn’t love). Then enters the Halloween Prince, Hex. He is as darkly sexy as you’d imagine, and he just might have the hots for Cole, too. They hatch a plot to save the Easter princess from a loveless marriage, and make the Christmas king see that his power-hungry plans aren’t what makes the season joyful.

I will say this ended kind of abruptly?? So I really hope there’s a sequel. I came to love all the young royals from each holiday and the Red, White and Royal Blue type antics from these young adult holiday heirs.

This audiobook was so much fun! The narrator is fabulous and I would listen to anything he reads again. The story had top tier banter and authentic inner voice. I enjoyed the creativity of it too. Pacing was good, but the first half did have a bit more momentum. But I still enjoyed this one and will recommend it for sure. Thank you so much for the audiobook preview!

2.5 Stars

I was really looking forward to listneing to this book and at first I was having a good time but then it turned too much to Christmas trying to take over the Joy from the Winter Holidays. Also there was way too much talking when it came to the steamy scenes.

I was hoping for a fun Gay romance and this was just not it for me

I love this book so much that I've read it twice! Once via a physical ARC and now via audio. The premise of the book is just perfection - I mean, c'mon. The Christmas Prince falls for the Prince of Halloween?? Tell me less. I usually get pretty grumpy when a book is compared to RWRB because I just feel like it never lives up to my expectations. However - this book really and truly did!!!

This book is so funny - if you liked Alex in RWRB I think Coal is really similar in some ways but also distinctly himself! This book is also full of banter between Coal and Hex as well as many other characters. And though this book is funny, it does also tackle some tougher themes that make it feel really well rounded. Coal is so sweet and cares so much, even if others can't always see his true self behind the facade.

I loved the narration by Ellis Evans and would absolutely listen to his narration again. He really brought all the characters to life, which is really important in a single POV story.

I'm really excited to see where this series goes and could not recommend this enough!

Thank you @macmillanaudio for the ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book....was unlike anything I have ever read and I mean that in the best way possible. I instantly fell in love with Coal. His internal dialogue was so insanely funny that I was in tears within minutes of this book (and throughout the rest of it, too). I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of Coal kissing someone drunkenly the night everything blew up for him and not having any idea who he was until he met him under very different circumstances. Watching Coal and Hex start to really form a connection and bond amidst being set up against each other was everything. The description of this being RWRB meets The Nightmare Before Christmas is so insanely accurate so if you love those things....you should definitely read this book.

Now on to the narration. I have only ever listened to Ellis Evans in one other book and LOVED his voice so I was beyond excited to see that he was narrating this book as well (the main reason I went for an audio ARC vs e-arc). He did an AMAZING job as Coal. I feel like he so perfectly conveyed his humor and the dialogue and it made the experience of reading this book that much better. 5/5 stars for the narration alone.

I will be posting a review/edit of this soon on my instagram page @_readtherainbow

This is a very entertaining story that is inspired by the traditions of Christmas and Halloween. The play on these holidays is cute and I enjoyed the personalities of Hex and Coal and the way they fell for each other despite their families being enemies. I also enjoyed the secondary characters and I'm hoping they get their own story. The audiobook was a delight to listen to and the narration by Ellis Evans is perfection.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and is now one of, if not my #1, favorites. It is the perfect mix of Red, White, and Royal Blue and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Truly everything down to the names of the characters was fantastic. I was hooked from the first sentence of the book. No notes!!

I loved this book so much. Like listened to it all in one sitting, couldn't stop smiling and giggling. I'll be forcing all my friends to read this ASAP.

I loved this book! It's cute, funny, and sweet but it's also has a small plot of overthrowing a misguided holiday monarch.

I love Coal and Hex! They are so sweet and spicy together - the anguish of their longing just got me.

But honestly, I really want a book about Chris and Iris - because I'm convinced that they are perfect for each other (whether they are or not is yet to be determined).

Conceptually cute and spicy, in execution however... This story involves so much talk of school and child abuse and parental manipulation that it is hard to see the characters as adults. The book reads like a YA novel which made the spice uncomfortable for me to read.

Also a little uncomfortable with how white and colonialist this book feels. The first 50% of the book is western Christian holidays with zero reference to other seasonal holidays from around the world. In the second half we get vague references to Dia de Los Muertos, but it's almost referenced as an extension of Halloween and not really given much detail. The story is presented as royalty, but also businesses? But it reads more like a mafia romance about white colonialists trying take over everything else. There is an unsettling vibe lingering over a lot of the book which made it hard for me to read.

The cute parts are very cute, but the vibes are off if what you're looking for is a low stakes holiday romance.

This was a perfectly cute contemporary romance with a fantastical setting. It felt like Red, White, & Royal Blue so I think it would be perfect for fans of that book.

Because of the fantastical setting, the plot can get a little more outrageous and the villain can be much more nefarious than in a Contemporary novel. And for obvious reasons, they spend more time talking about holidays, the feelings they give you, and participating in various holiday traditions.

I thought the Christmas puns were funny, but feel a little betrayed that we didn't also get Halloween puns.

The audiobook was exceptionally well done and I think I might've DNFd if just reading the book, but the narrator was charming and kept me going.