Such a delightful holiday romcom!

This book was so cute and enjoyable. I absolutely devoured this book. I really enjoyed the author's writing and could not put this down. Kim Churchill did a wonderful job bringing Douglas' story to life.

Elena and Lawrence were total opposites but had the best chemistry. I love rivals to lovers trope and it was done to perfection here. I had so much fun watching these two interact. We get the rivalry plus some angst which is always a plus. There were definitely a lot of "aww" moments between them. I liked the reversal of the male main character being the baker as well. Lawrence was so lovable too. I could relate to Elena.

The small town and holiday vibes were done well too.

This is the perfect book if you love Hallmark Christmas movies.

Cute story that gives all the holiday and Hallmark movie feels. If you enjoy a good hallmark movie then this is the book for you.

Elena works for a cookie conglomerate and comes into conflict with hometown baker Lawrence. Their attraction is off the charts, but there is no way that they can act on it, right? I liked Lawrence and his grandmother. Elena is okay when she is herself and not thinking too much about her father. The evil boss thing lasted entirely too long, and I forward skipped when the chapters were about her at work. The narrator did a good job with the humor and in differentiating the characters.

Lawrence owns the bakery in New Hope and has been doing well since he opened, but with the chain cookie store, Sparkle Cookie, opening on Christmas Eve he’s afraid he’s going to be run out of business. Elena is the VP of Marketing for Sparkle Cookie and her goal is to see the New Hope store thrive. Tasked with going to New Hope to promote the opening of the franchise and smooth the small town complaints, Elena falls in love with more than just the small town. Will Elena and Lawrence be able to make a relationship work or will their respective jobs ruin them before they have the chance to begin?

The cover of this book pulled me in and I got the Hallmark Christmas romance I was looking for in this book. This is a sweet small town holiday romance that will be perfect for fans of Hallmark Christmas movies. I thought this was a cute, sweet romance that was the perfect way to dive into my holiday romance reading. I enjoyed the characters and liked the reversed gender roles where Lawrence was the baker and Elena worked for the big corporate company. As I was reading this book I could easily see it playing out as a Hallmark movie on my screen. If you are looking for a sweet, clean holiday romance to get in the holiday spirit this is a great book to try!

The Christmas Crush
by Noelle Douglas
narrated by Kim Churchill

***Five Christmas Stars***

Small Town Boy vs Big City Girl

Elena is career focused, it's been drilled into her by her family. It was also stated about eleventy billion times during the book that Voss' are Boss'. Elena works for a giant cookie chain, her boss is a d*ck, and she's pretty cocky herself.

Lawrence is a small town bakery owner. Obviously worried about his future when the giant cookie chain moves into town.

Elena and Lawrence do NOT get off to a good start but a little talking and a pretty decent crème brulee go a long way to finding some common ground.

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this story!

#TheChristmasCrush #NoelleDouglasAuthor
#KimChurchillNarrator #ChristmasRomance
#SmallTownBoy #BigCityGirl #Cookies
#BakedGoods #CremeBrulee #FiveStars
#NetGalley #DreamscapeMedia #Competition
#Rivalry #EnemiesToLovers #FamilyBuiness
#ReadThisBook #ReadAllTheBooks #ALCReview

A cozy winter romance with an enemies-to-lovers trope? Count me in. I loved the pacing of this book and the characters. They were complex in a good way (not cheesy at all), and even though I could guess the "situation" that happens between the characters, I still loved the way it played out. It is honestly the perfect, cozy winter read.

Plot
Elena works for a national cookie chain opening a store in New Hope, PA. Lawrence is the local baker, whose cookies are to-die-for but who is not very good at marketing them. Lawrence and Elena’s rivalry turns sugary sweet when they begin to fall for one another. But can they make their relationship work? Will they both be able to succeed? Or will one of them win the cookie wars by breaking the other’s heart?

Why Kirsten likes it
This sweet enemies-to-lovers romance was like a Hallmark movie in a book. It was entirely predictable but that’s just what I was in the mood for.

What a fun Christmas romcom!

Lawrence is a small town baker specializing in cookies. Elena is a marketing VP of a big cookie company chain, Sparkle Cookies. When Sparkle plans to open in Lawrence’s small town, he wants to stop them from taking his business but Elena is determined to open and show off her hard work.

They immediately are rivals but soon begin to see good in the other person. When a cookie competition comes around, they work together to create the best Christmas cookie!

This book has all the traits of a sweet Hallmark Christmas movie! I enjoyed the two main characters and their banter. They were very sweet together. There were a few fade to black spice moments.

This book has two POV but it’s written in third person. I listened to the audiobook version and it had one narrator. I enjoyed the narrator’s performance.

This book releases on October 8th! Thank you to @bnwritesnreads, @dreamscape_media, and @netgalley for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an early copy.

This story was so cute and for me, completely unexpected. I didn't see them working together with their differences but in the end it all turned out perfectly. This is a great Christmas themed story to get you in the holiday spirit!

The Christmas Crush was everything I would expect from a sweet holiday romance. It starts off with a bit of a rivals to lovers trope. Elena is an ambitious executive who is tasked with bringing Sparkle Cookies to a small town, New Hope, in Pennsylvania. Lawrence is the local bakery owner and competition for Sparkle Cookies. Their rivalry and romance unfolded leading up to the Christmas Eve grand opening of Sparkle Cookies. Their story is full of sweetness in so many ways, from the delicious cookie flavors, to the hot bakers dog names sugar and the relationship between Lawrence and his grandma. I’m always game for a T swift reference and listening to all to well on repeat is so relatable (IYKYK). This book had me also wanting to start on ALL the holiday baking and try some new cookie flavors myself.

Also loved the narrator

Posted to Goodreads and will post to IG closer to pub date

Elena works for an established cookie company, sparkle cookie. Sparkle cookie is looking to establish a new branch in a small town. The small town has a beloved bakery run by Lawrence. Now Elena and Lawrence are competing for the best cookies in New Hope. Their feuding becomes flirting in the enemies to lovers romance. A very nice cozy Christmas book that gives you all the feels.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story is as sweet as a Sparkle Cookie and as cozy as a New Hope, Pa., winter in the middle of a snowstorm. Is it at times a little too Hallmark sweet? Depends on your mood, but if you go into this read looking for exactly that, which I did, it’s perfect.

Elena Voss is a rising marketing star at a cookie franchise definitely based on Crumbl, but instead of pink the color is lavender. Their mass-produced, premade cookies are coming to the small town of New Hope, and their arrival typically results in smaller neighborhood bakeries going out of business. Like the one that’s been owned by Lawrence Higgins, a beloved local boy with piercing blue eyes who is built like an Adonis. Naturally these two develop feelings for each other, yet Elena has a job to do if she wants to impress her bosses and earn the bonus that could make her financially independent and prove she didn’t mess up by not going into the family law business. Can they find a way?

The story is really cute. I enjoyed Lawrence‘s relationship with the grandmother who taught him to bake, Elena‘s relationship with her rotten, credit-stealing boss, and a couple of the twists this took along the way. It got just a tiny bit heavy-handed at times with life lessons, such as Elena needing to become her own person rather than constantly trying to emulate her father’s “Vosses are bosses” mantra, and pointing out how the two responsible parties in a disagreement needed to meet in the middle to come to forgiveness and understanding. It is more flirty and suggestive than steamy, making it largely wholesome. But I love a cozy Hallmark movie and I was happy to sink into this small town, feel-good story for a while.

This is the book equivalent of a warm hot cup of cocoa on a cold winter day, and will be a great holiday season read. It publishes Oct. 8. Thank you #NetGalley #DreamscapeMedia and #NoelleDouglas for this advance audio copy!

What a sweet, sugary, “sparkly” Christmas romance story!

🛑🛑 Delving into the storyline here, so if you don’t want an outline, stop here! 🛑🛑

Meet Lawrence. He’s a small town guy with rugged good looks, strong family ties (including spending time with grandma), and a love of baking (especially cookies, which he learned from said grandma!). He owns the local bakery and the community knows that he bakes with LOVE! And they all love him! ❤️

Meet Elena. She’s a city girl who’s from a strong family with big aspirations (and expectations) for her! She’s trying to make her way in the world, and landed a good job in a horrible company. A company that is now opening a chain bakery in the same town as Lawrence’s bakery…
The expectations from her boss are even worse than those of her family…but she’s up for the challenge. She’s going to make this the best bakery in town…no matter what it takes.

And then, Lawrence and Elena meet!

This one will give you ALL THE FEELS as you go through day to day scenarios with them! You’ll be rooting for Lawrence and his sweet, homey family and neighbors. And then you’ll be rooting for Elena with all the high expectations she needs to meet! 😮

This reads like a Hallmark movie, but then it also goes off the rails at different points too! Loved how it brought out so many emotions in me! And loved how I was rooting for not one, but both of the main characters, at different points in the story!

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!

🎄 Unexpected meet cute.
🎄 Strong family ties on both sides, but VERY different backgrounds.
🎄 Strong work ethics from both.
🎄 Small town vibes, friends helping friends, families helping families…plus, there’s a dog 🐕 and a cat 🐈‍⬛ too!! ❤️

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #DreamscapeMedia for an ARC of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!
****** RELEASE DATE IS SET FOR 10/8/24, so about 10 days from now. Look 👀 for it then!! ******

#TheChristmasCrush by #NoelleDouglas and narrated nicely by #KimChurchill.

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Cute holiday romance. That's all I'll say. Like will I ever reread this book? No. It was just there as a holiday romance.

I got an alc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I went into this book looking forward to some romance and spice. I was a bit disappointed as there wasn't any spice. The characters seemed flat to me. Good overall story but it seemed to be lacking somethings.

I did like the narrator and will listen to more of their work.

Thank you to Net Galley, Noelle Douglas and Dreamscape Audio for the opportunity to preview this title, the opinions expressed are my own.

Basically a Shop Around the Corner/You've Got Mail retelling.

Elena works for the Sparkle Cookie chain, who is opening a new store in Lawrence's hometown. Where he owns and operates a cookie shop.

The characters were flat and didn't have any chemistry. It made for a pretty lackluster read.

Kim Churchill narrates the audiobook. The narration was fine.

I received an advance audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this one from start to finish! The audio was so fun, and the MMC owning the small business he took over for his grandma was so swoony! A must listen for sure!

The Christmas Crush is a cute holiday-themed story. Lawrence is a local baker who owns a bakery in New Hope PA. A chain bakery is coming to the town and Lawerence is nervous and does not want them to open. Sparkle Bakery sends over someone from corporate to ensure the opening is smooth so they send over Elena. Lawrence and Elena are instantly attracted to each other but start off as rivals.

This is called an enemies-to-lovers romance and I guess that’s true since after their initial meeting they did not agree with each other but there was really no enemies part here, they went to lovers too quickly. One day it seemed Lawerence wanted nothing to do with her and the next they were together. I didn’t mind this because I liked both characters so much that I wanted them together quickly.

My biggest complaint with the book was the conflicts felt so forced. Especially what comes up towards the end of the story. I felt the characters went a little backward in their development.

My favorite part of this book was the epilogue. This will have spoilers but I feel I have to talk about this because I appreciated it so much. Scroll to the end to avoid any spoilers. So many books like this have the same epilogue. It’s always one of two things, either the female lead is pregnant or there is an elaborate proposal after only a few months of dating. I appreciated that this story went two years into the future for Lawerence's proposal. Relationships are hard work and it was nice to finally see one that took a reasonable amount of time to move on to the next step.

The Holiday Crush is a great book to get your holiday season started!

Thank you so much NetGalley for allowing me to read an early copy of this book.

What a cute book, a little cheesy at times. This is definitely for someone who enjoys Hallmark movies. I read it between fantasy books so it was definitely an easy read. I enjoyed the setting (Christmas time) However, I did struggle with it for a bit. The first half was very slow paced. Also, the characters didn't seem to have a connection past the physical one. I also, don't enjoy instalust, it's just not for me. I didn't feel the characters had much of a development.

Overall the book was cute but not much depth to it.

Ever wish you could have a Hallmark Christmas movie with just a dash of more spice? I found it! This charming book is the perfect holiday rom-com. I want to champion Lawrence & Elena forever. Their story was messy and not true to the recipe for a romcom, yet it was the most delicious outcome. The narrator did such a fantastic job that I have pre-ordered the book in all formats. Glad tidings, indeed!