This is one of my favorite holiday novellas!
It's so unique and fun.

I read the ebook last year and was excited to listen to the audiobook.
🎧 audiobook thoughts - Isabella Turner did a fantastic job bringing this story to life. Her narration added to and enhanced the story for me.

📖 story thoughts:
I totally adored this Christmas novella 🎄
The banter was spot-on and it was just super fun overall!

I definitely wouldn’t call this a second chance romance , since Birdie Mae is 11 when they first meet 😂 I love that they both had such an impact on each others’ lives without even knowing it.
While it’s nearly impossible they’d actually meet up again like they did, I loved Nicolas & Birdie Mae’s history & present stories.

It’s a challenge to tell a full story with a novella, but this one got it right!

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for my #gifted ALC.

3.5 stars

A cute Christmas Novella with some cheesy moments.

Birdie meets Nick briefly as an 11 year old trying to sneak a letter into Santa’s pocket at the mall. An encounter she’ll never forget.

Years later she’s heading to a Christmasy small town looking for inspiration on writing her newest spicy Santa book. She encounters Nick again and her world is briefly flipped upside down.

I loved the chemistry between Birdie and Nick. They each carried emotional baggage that had affected their past relationships and I loved watching them work through it together.

Her apology tour was a little cheesy for me.

Romance Content: 2 Open-door scenes

Thank you Net galley for this advanced copy. I expected a cute Christmas story with the title and cover but the story didn’t hook me in. It has a Groundhog Day feel and a tad too graphic for me. The story line was cute just not for me.

This was an enjoyable holiday themed novel. I thought the narrators did a wonderful job bring the story to life. I thought the author did well tackling deeper emotional trials while maintaining levity.

I love the time of year when Christmas novellas drop!
The Fake Santa Apology Tour was a cute, quick listen and I enjoyed it. However, it definitely felt like a Hallmark movie which I know some people are super hesitant about (but not me!) I wish the chapters had varied in perspective but I understand why they didn't; that's just a personal preference.
It was definitely something fun and light-hearted. I'd recommend it to anyone trying to get in the Christmas spirit (especially if you like the idea of a flirty bartender but make him look like a hot Santa.)

Thank you to Dreamscape Select and Julie Olivia for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review!

this audio was cute cute cute! I love Julie’s writing style. it’s all the vibes of a Christmas shortie. whimsical and sweet and steamy! loved it.

3 Stars I don't think I've ever heard the word "Santa" so many times lol The Fake Santa Apology Tour is a fun holiday novella and one of the most interesting Christmastime stories I've read. I liked the characters, but because it is a novella we didn't get too much into their backgrounds. I would've loved to have explore more about why Birdie Mae had a love of Santas and for more time to see them fall in love since it was rather quick. A fun read!

It started with a crazy concept but it all made sense and I loved the originality of the storyline!

We follow Birdie Mae as she rights all the wrongs to her santas of Christmas past. After being cursed with bad christmases she has had a spate of temporary flings with men that dress up as Father Christmas. It seems to be her “thing” and let’s not yak someone’s yum 🤣

Turns out the Santas she dated were pretty young and hot under the costumes !

She meets Nick, the store elf who cursed her all those years ago and they both head on a journey for Birdie Mae to clear the negative Santas out of her system.

The storyline was crazy but I was on board!

Filled with festive fun and romance, why the hell not !


The tea ☕️

🎄- festive romance
🏘️ - small town
❤️ - opposite’s attract
🦊 - silver fox MMC
#️⃣ - age gap
🌶️- 1.5/5

I can not even begin to tell you how adorable this book was! Just incredibly darling. Loved every page! Highly recommend.

Julia Olivia is my queen of cozy, feel good reads- so having her have a Christmas book is basically a cozy explosion! And this was so cute, and such fun premise. I mean a spicy Santa-niche romance writer who only dates Santas and a man with some Santa vibes who actually HATES Santa? You know it's gonna be full of banter and fun.

Heroine Birdie is aficionado- not only does she write spicy Santa books, but she exclusively dates men of the Santa variety...mall Santas, stripping Santas, actor Santas, you name it. So when she meets Nicholas, the sexy older bartender with Santa white hair and beard, a man who now loves Christmas, he could be a great catch. Except....the man hates Santa.

This novella is so fun and sweet- and like most Julia books has a charming and impactful emotional layer to it as well. This is not overly spicy (and it's a super slow burn), but the romance and banter and humor and heart are all so delightful. It's full of small town antics, some Christmas magic, and that trademark Julia Olive quirky charm.

The audio is a great listen. The book is all mostly one POV (with Nicholas getting one chapter at the end), so the single narration works well for this one (though I'd love to have heard Nicholas' voice lol). Isabelle Turner brings lots of humor but also a lot of heart to the performance, and really beautifully brought this fun romcom novella to life.

This is a wonderful holiday book! Full of Christmas fun, cheer and love. I'm so glad I got to read it!

Many thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Select for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly this was a fun little novella! I wasn’t sure what exactly to think when I read the synopsis but it was fun! I think the novella length was also perfect for this story.

I could see this being a hallmark or Netflix holiday movie as our FMC goes around apologizing to fake Santa’s about her ex boyfriends who were all fake Santa’s. And our MMC helps her do it. I also thought this was a good reminder of how the same experience/interaction can vastly affect different people like it did here when our MCs met 20 years ago.

This one is out now and available on hoopla and maybe Libby? Thank you to the author, netgalley, Penpal PR and dreamscape for my gifted copy of the audiobook. All opinions are my own.

This was cute. A fun twist on the usual Santa smut. I enjoyed the setting and how they both kept their cards close to the best so to speak. The ending was absolutely adorable. I’m glad it wasn’t any longer than it was and the narration was done well.

I loved this Christmas novella by Julia Olivia. It’d been on my list of Christmas books to read since last year so I was so excited to receive the audiobook of it. Julia Olivia is one of my auto-buy authors and this one was another beautifully written rom-com. The perfect way to start the holiday season.

"Yes, here he is, old Saint Nicholas with blue eyes and dimples ready to slay harder than a knight after a dragon."

If you like lighthearted, funny, and emotional holiday romances with a touch of forced proximity and miscommunication, this is the book for you!

"The Fake Santa Apology Tour" gave me an enemies to lovers trope, which is a trope I love to read, again and again. With its quirky, laugh-out-loud, and slow-burn spicy romance, this novella might be the perfect addition to your holiday reading list.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to listen to the book. This was a cute holiday romance centered around our protagonist who has a thing for only dating Santa's and only around the holidays. Fresh off a long term Santa-ship, our protagonist is quickly snowed in in a small town where she runs into someone she met twenty years ago and has blamed for the awful Christmas's she has had since. Somehow he gets her to go and sit on all of the Santa's laps in town, and she uses these opportunities to "apologize" to her exes. And a holiday romance wouldn't be complete without a third act near breakup and a redemption story.

This was a cute and quick read.

This is a delightful holiday rom-com that perfectly blends Hallmark vibes with a spicy twist. The story follows a quirky heroine who only dates fake Santas and her swoon-worthy match, Nicholas—a charming silver fox with plenty of holiday grump.

The audiobook, narrated by Isabelle Turner, takes the story to another level. Turner’s performance perfectly captures the heroine’s quirky charm, Nicholas’s irresistible gruffness, and the humor of the small-town characters, making it a truly engaging listen.

If you love quirky romances with great humor and just the right amount of heat, this holiday read (or listen) is a must!

Rounded up to 3.5, I definitely enjoy Julie Olivia's way of world building and branding character arcs. This was humorous in the way that a person serial dating men who act as Santa is a wild concept and I'm here for that, but I do think the FMC was just slightly on the side of being a bit much when it came to her laurels. The trajectory of her growth was good to see but it felt like she was set on being stinted regardless of whatever happened. But the chemistry and the love scenes were definitely fire (i.e. the string light bondage hello? amazing).

This was a kind-of-cute story about a girl who hates Christmas but loves Santa.
It's a strange kind of trauma the MC had, but it made the dynamic between her and the love interest a little more fun.

I absolutely loved the novella when I read the ebook so when I got the opportunity to listen to the ALC, I knew I had to check it out. I enjoyed the ALC just as much as the ebook. Nick and Birdie Mae have such a cute and sweet story that is goes through all sorts of feelings and stages in such a short amount of time. The way Nick helps Birdie Mae process her internalized grief and some of her issues is truly wonderful. They help each other in ways they don't ever see coming. The narrator was also a great choice for this novella and I can't to listen to more Julie Olivia books come alive. Her writing is made for audiobooks! It's quippy and romantic and all around incredible.