This was a beautiful easy read with a lovely Christmassy feel to it. Very much enjoyed in the run up to Christmas. If you love a cosy Christmas read with a little romance this is the one for you!

Christmas at the Board Game Café is the fourth heartwarming installment in Jennifer Paige's much-loved series, and it’s as cozy and delightful as ever. This festive tale follows Kate, the quintessential “Little Miss Perfect,” who excels at everything she does but often struggles to let her guard down. Her story is one of community, love, and self-discovery, all wrapped in the warm glow of Christmas magic.

One of the highlights of the story is Kate’s ambitious and creative effort to organize a living advent calendar in the village. Each day in December brings a new festive window designed to attract visitors and breathe life into local businesses that are on the brink of closing down.

The Board Game Café remains the heart of the story, with its cozy charm and sense of community. It feels like curling up with a cup of hot chocolate, surrounded by friends, laughter, and the simple joy of board games.

Paige’s writing shines in her ability to balance lighthearted moments with emotional depth. Kate’s journey is relatable and inspiring, as she learns that perfection isn’t always the goal—sometimes, it’s about embracing imperfections and letting others in. The romance adds a lovely layer to the story, though it’s the friendships and community spirit that truly steal the show.

And let’s not forget Paul! I can’t help but hope he gets a story of his own in the future. A whole book about Paul would be a joy to read, and it feels like there’s so much more to uncover about his life.

Christmas at the Board Game Café is a festive treat that captures the magic of the holidays and the power of community. Kate’s living advent calendar brings the village to life and will leave readers feeling inspired and uplifted. Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to the series, this book will warm your heart—and make you hope for more stories from this delightful world, especially one about Paul

I received an E-ARC with a request for my honest review.

This uplifting, Christmas romance, follows Kate in the town of Essendale, and with Christmas approaching she is feeling lonely.

She suddenly finds herself dating an unexpected man from her friend’s past, but when her ex-boyfriend arrives in town old feelings resurface.

Meanwhile, the local town is struggling getting enough customers, including many of her friends’ businesses so she decides to organise a live advent calendar around the town to bring more visitors.
It is a daunting challenge for Kate, but she is determined to make it work.

Will the live advent calendar be a success? Will Kate find the perfect man for her?

This romance is very uplifting and has a strong community theme throughout as the town comes together to organise the live advent calendar.

There is also strong friends and family support too, which not only assists Kate with her challenge but helps her to work through things from the past which have held her back.

I have never heard of a Live Advent Calendar before, but it sounds like it would bring a lot of enjoyment and excitement in a local area, especially around the magical time of Christmas.

Overall, an uplifting Christmas romance, where Kate sets out to save her town’s businesses.

This is Jennifer Page’s 4th novel and can be easily read as a standalone, but is better read in order as part of the Little Board Game Café series.
This book concentrates on Kate. Amongst her lovely friendship group of Em, Jo and Taylor, Kate is the only single one. She had hoped by now to have a partner and children and when Taylor announces her pregnancy, it makes Kate feel even more lonely and out of things.
Kate is always trying to be perfect and keeps herself busy to stave off her loneliness and insecurities. Near the start of the book, Kate ends up sharing a bed with Peter Ridley – the ex-fiance of her best friend Em, who owns the board game café and is now with Ludek. Feeling this could make things awkward with her friend, she initially hides it, but then confides in Em, who approves, so Kate begins dating Peter.
However, she can’t forget Xander, an ex from years before. They only had five dates, but for some reason, she keeps thinking about him and sees him as The One Who’d Got Away.
It’s coming up to Christmas, which is Kate’s least favourite time of the year. She usually spends it just with her dad, who she’s not particularly close to.
Businesses in the town are suffering, they’ve been quiet since summer and one of the clothes shops has had to shut down. Em asks Kate for marketing advice – can she think of any idea to help all the shops in the town? Away at a wedding, reading a magazine over breakfast, the inspiration comes for a living Advent calendar, involving all the local shops and buildings in Essendale and Hebbleswick in creating Christmas window displays throughout December. But will they like the idea, and will it bring shoppers back to the town?
I really enjoyed this and it’s just my kind of book – a clean, closed door romance. I loved Kate from the start and you really want her to find her happy ever after, so you’re rooting for her all the time and maybe hoping she ends up with one man or another. I also loved her tight-knit group of female friends, who look out for each other and are there when you need them.
Christmas at the Board Game Café is a wonderful festive read, as you’d expect, with all the symbols you associate with the time of year and I loved that aspect of it too, being a big Christmas fan.
Overall, this novel is really well written and engaging. I got straight into it, because of the lovely characters and Jennifer Page has a beautiful warmth in her writing style which shines through on every page. I’ll definitely be reading more of her books. Highly recommended.

I have loved The Little Board Game Café series, and now we have a Christmas instalment.

As the festive season approaches Kate is feeling more lonely than normal, despite having a great group of friends and a successful career. In an attempt to fill this void she sets out to try and help the local businesses build trade by creating a living Advent calendar across the two local villages. As the plans come together she is not expecting her ex-boyfriend to arrive and be the creator of the final window display. Will Kate overcome her past to find love this Christmas?

We have met Kate in the previous three books in this series as the friend of Em, Jo and Taylor, but now we get to find out her true story. Despite being deemed the dating guru amongst her friends Kate is single and lonely. We learn over the story why she’s been holding back even though she has been on many dates.

The idea of the living Advent calendar is wonderful. The displays that are revealed throughout the book sound lovely and I loved the fact that we were in suspense of what the final window was going to be until the big reveal.

I loved this book, discovering each advent display, enjoying the festive spirit, catching up with the previous characters and returning to Board Game Café have had me smiling throughout.

Board games, Christmas and romance, the perfect combination. Pick this book up and enjoy with a glass of mulled wine.

WOW! How is it even possible the author has four books out already in the Little Board Game Cafe series? I've read and loved every single one of them. This one is Kate's story, and I think it's my favorite, but I probably said that about all of them because I loved them all. I think it's the most emotional of the series but not in a bad way. There are so many things going on and I don't think this isn't a spoiler, but the book has a lovely happy ending.
I still wish there was a board game cafe near me in the states, it's sounds like such a fun way to spend some hours. I love the characters that we got to visit from previous books and meeting new characters was a blast too.
Kate has been friends with the board game cafe owner since early school days and now that winter is here business is not only slowing down in the cafe but around town in general. With dark approaching earlier there just doesn't seem to be the draw from the business there was in the summer. Marketing guru Kate overhears her friend lamenting about lack of business during this cold and dreary time and knows she has to do something to jump start business for the cafe but also around town. The plan she comes up with is genius and in such a short amount of time. A lot of the time is spent talking about this plan and its marvelous final results and I loved every minute of it.
I was so glad to see Kate had cleared up a big misunderstanding she had with her father, and it has brought their relationship closer. There is also a possibility of a romance brewing for Kate with two very different personality types. There were some laugh out loud moments in the book and some awww moments too. I also enjoyed learning about some Polish Christmas traditions too and even looked up a few more to learn more about it.
A very well received book, I enjoyed it so much!

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

A warm cosy festive read from the village surrounding the beloved board game cafe which I wish was real. It was lovely to meet characters from the previous books and catch up with their news on their lives and businesses. The plight of the high Street shops struggling is reals it was lovely to see an inventive way to help this fictional town. I related to perfectionist Kate and Xander was the ideal book boyfriend even if she disagreed.

Christmas at the Board Game Café by Jennifer Page

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Kate seems to have it all – wonderful friends, a successful career and an idyllic life in the quirky Yorkshire town of Essendale. But under the surface Kate's lonely, and she longs to feel part of a family – especially during Christmas.

With the holiday season fast approaching, and the town desperate to attract more visitors, Kate conceives a brilliant an enchanting living Advent calendar. Each December evening, a captivating window display will be unveiled across town. With local businesses struggling, including her best friend's board game café, she's feeling the pressure.

But Kate's picture-perfect plans take an unexpected turn when her ex-boyfriend arrives in Yorkshire, insisting on creating the Christmas Eve display. Can Kate trust him to deliver a show-stopping window? And can she finally put the past behind her and embrace the future she's always dreamed of?

My Opinion

I have followed this series from the beginning and so far, I have been amazed with what Jennifer Page has written. With this book I really enjoyed reading the descriptions of all of the windows on the living advent calendar. As this is set in the run up to Christmas you can expect it be a lovely, festive book. Essendale is such a great community and I have enjoyed every visit. If you haven’t started this lovely series yet, what are you waiting for?

Rating 4/5

I absolutely adore this series and couldn't wait to return to Essendale to visit the café and catch up.

It's a heartwarming fun and joyous festive fiction with a romance waiting to be unwrapped and an amazing living advent calendar.

The characters and the community are delightful and it's great to catch up with old friends and become acquainted with new.

Since starting this series I have visited several board game cafés and am definitely going to try squeeze a visit in on the countdown to December. Board games for me are synonymous with my memories of some great family Christmases playing board games after lunch.

An enjoyable, cosy Christmas read.

I absolutely loved this wonderful Christmassy, warm, cute and entirely lovable read. I couldn’t get enough of it. And you going into it I’d like it as I love the first book in the series, so I pretty much assumed it was a sure. win for me and I’m delighted to say I was correct.

This is so full of so much fun, it’s just a wonderful read at the best time of year if you need cheering up read this if you need a festive boost you need to read this and if you just want a damn good read then read this. In fact, why don’t you just read this book? You won’t go wrong trust me it’s fantastic.


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

It was an absolute delight to be back in Essendale and spending time with friends once more. Kate’s always been there in the background – focused, driven, a bit pushy, a loyal friend – and, at last, we get to learn more about her story. Behind that front, she’s hurting – everyone else is coupled up and getting on with their lives, and with Christmas just around the corner she’s dreading spending it alone. Well, other than the obligatory (and always difficult) visit to her father – what she saw of his relationship with her mother rather shaped her life.

But when she comes up with an idea to breathe some life into the struggling business community and try to draw in the visitors – a living Advent calendar, with each business decorating a window in an original way, with a nightly unveiling – it gives her the project she really needs to take her mind off her own problems. If only she could sort out a display in the window of Alessandra’s – in prime position, but currently boarded up and looking neglected. It would be a far better finale for Christmas Eve than the rather tired nativity scene the vicar’s insisting on – and with news that the property’s changed hands, there might be some possibility of success.

After what might have been an unwise fling, she’s fallen into a bit of a relationship with Peter – but he’s her best friend’s ex, and although he’s considerably sweeter than she ever thought he was, it just doesn’t feel right. And she does still rather hanker for a previous relationship that went wrong – it was her decision to end it before it really started. But now she’s begun to see her ex – or at least, she thinks it might be him – in the unfamiliar setting of Essendale, and it throws her off kilter a little.

I really mustn’t tell the whole story – the advent calendar, and each new reveal, gives it its shape, along with so much of its Christmas sparkle. Some of the ideas are absolutely inspired – and some of the marketing ideas don’t go quite as they should, but those mis-steps are exceptionally funny, and it all just endorses the fact that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. And it seems that the window at Alessandra’s might just be possible after all – but Kate finds it particularly difficult not having any input, and fears it might be a disaster.

But this is very much Kate’s own story too – coming to terms with her past, putting her experiences into perspective, rebuilding relationships and hopefully finding her future path to happiness. There’s the loveliest focus throughout on friendship and community – if you’ve read the earlier books, there’s the opportunity to catch up on recent developments in everyone’s lives, but you’d have no problem at all reading this one as a standalone if you really wanted to. Family too, in all its complexity – and a particularly moving and convincing romance that both warmed my heart and brought a tear to my eye (and that was even before I saw that final Christmas window…). There’s a strong thread of humour – with a few particularly laugh-out-loud moments – but this is quite an emotional story too, all so beautifully handled, and with real warmth to the story’s telling.

And then there’s the important question – is it all Christmassy enough? Oh my goodness, I couldn’t have asked for more… I loved it! This was most definitely one of my favourite Christmas books this year, and I really couldn’t recommend it more highly…

(Review also copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

While Christmas in the quirky Yorkshire town of Essendale may seem idyllic on the surface, Kate can't help but feel lonely, wishing she had a family or loved ones she was close to to spend the holiday season with. As the town's resident marketing guru, Kate gets sucked into a campaign to attract more visitors to the town with a Christmas advent calendar. Still, navigating the calendar, a new relationship, and the re-emergence of the ex who got away make the holiday season even more complicated.

I really liked the eventual MMC Xander and wished we had even more of him and that he was the sole love interest from the beginning. The town was portrayed as the perfect small town, and the Christmas live advent calendar was the perfect campaign for the town.

Unfortunately, overall, this book fell incredibly flat for me. The FMC bothered me and she was just so negative throughout the majority of the book that it took away from the plot. She was not a very supportive friend and seemed more consumed with herself and her own feelings than others. While she was occasionally aware of her short-comings, she did not seem to have much of a desire to grow for the bulk of the novel. I did not care for the romance between her and Peter at the beginning of the book, and that whole plot line felt strange to me, especially given how much I liked Xander's character.

While this book was put forward as one that you can read as a standalone, I almost wonder if I would have enjoyed the book more if I had read the other installments and had more background. I would maybe give some of the earlier installments a chance, but they definitely aren't at the top of my TBR and I wouldn't recommend this to others unless you've already read and loved the other books in the series.

Thank you to Aria & Aries and NetGalley for a e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lovely feel-good festive read. Cute idea behind the boardgame cafe setting too!
This was my first read by this author but I would definitely read more by her

I absolutely loved this book. I’ve been waiting for Kate’s story for a while and it didn’t disappoint. I really hope this isn’t the last one in the series!

It was good to be back at the board game cafe, this time over the festive period.
This time we follow Kate and the ups & downs in her life, especially after her ex returns to town.
A really Christmassy-feeling story & a perfect setting for a second chance at love.
This book can easily be read as a stand-alone but the previous books in the series are equally as good and worth reading.

This was a super cute read! I loved the excitement of wondering what each of the windows would be as well as the blossoming love story between Xander and Kate. Although, Kate’s perfectionism was a bit annoying at time I really enjoyed the story! I plan on reading the rest of the series!

Christmas at the Board Game Cafe is the second book that I have read by this author and it might be the last unfortunately, which is a shame because I really liked The Little Board Game Cafe. This story never pulled me in like the first one in the series. I also didn’t like the main character. I found Kate to be very quick to judge, and unwilling to give people a chance. The fact that she did that with her own father for years was very troubling to me. I think that is the main reason that I couldn’t get into this story, because I couldn’t get past not liking the main character.

This was the first book that I have read in the series, and it was a very cozy Christmas-y vibe. I think I would have enjoyed it a little more if I read it closer to Christmas time, but overall it was cute! The main character in the story is Kate. She ends up dating her friend's ex fiancé after attending her wedding. They don't necessarily have any explosive chemistry, but they get along well and Peter treats her really nice it seems.

As the story progresses, Kate's ex moves into the town she lives in. She starts to think about him more and more while dating Peter. She realizes that Peter is also still in love with her friend. They both decide to split up on good terms and stay friends.

Kate decides to host an advent window throughout their small town to try to attract some business for the struggling town. Everyone who wants to is allowed to participate and create their own window. Kate starts to spend more time with her ex Xander as Christmas approaches and they grow closer. Kate has some child hood trauma that she has to get through before deciding if she can accept Xander and be in a realtionship with him.

My favorite part of the book was probably the references to actual board games. I am a huge board game fan, so hearing about the characters playing certain board games was relatable and I thought it was neat that they weren't just made up games.

The only negative I have is that I didn't like how she was so interested in Xander while she was dating Peter. While she technically didn't cheat, you could tell she was very lustful. I think Kate and Xander's relationship is great though and I much prefer them together. Overall, this was a super cozy read and I enjoyed it! Thank you to Netgalley, Aria & Aries, and Jennifer Page for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 ⭐️
Whilst this was cosy and festive, it wasn’t much of a romance book.
The main character Kate I found difficult to like, and whilst she grew on me a bit towards the end, overall I wasn’t a fan of her. She has 2 love interests in the book, both of whom are rather dull and uninspiring.

Ignoring the ‘romance’ the story is nice and Christmassy- the living advent calendar is a great idea and I enjoyed reading about the different windows created by the locals.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Kate doesn't like Christmas but wants to help her friends' businesses and the town to survive outside tourist season, so organises a living advent calendar.

Kate features in all the previous Board Game Cafe books and this is finally her story. I'm glad she seemed to learn from her behaviour in book 1!!

I just wasn't that invested in the book - I don't know if it was reading a Christmas book in October or whether I just wasn't in the mood for it. If you've read the series, you should enjoy this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.