Unfortunately, this was one of the worst books I read in 2023. These just may not be the authors for me. I read another one of their popular books and didn’t care for that one either. I thought I would give their holiday book a try, and it did not work out at all for me.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did a great job, but I almost DNF’d this around the 50% mark. I had so many problems with it. If I were reading a physical copy of this book, I would’ve stopped reading. But since it was an audiobook, I forced myself to power through it and see what happened. I did increase it to two times the speed just to get through it. It wasn’t worth it. I should’ve just stopped at the halfway mark.

First off, there was way too much language. I don’t care for vulgar language and crassness. It just feels like lazy writing. The way the characters spoke was cringy, immature, and lacking intelligence. I also didn’t like the main character at all. I couldn’t connect to her. I thought she was really whiny and annoying. She only cared about her own happiness, not any others. The rest of the characters were one-dimensional, flat, and boring. No one stood out. There were also a lot of characters to keep track of. It was especially difficult to keep everyone straight via audiobook.

The romance was done poorly and wasn’t convincing at all. I tried really hard, but couldn’t buy into the main couple actually being in love with each other. There was zero chemistry. This is also an open-door romance with some pretty spicy scenes. I prefer closed-door romances, so another turnoff for me. I did fast-forward through those scenes in the audiobook. It felt more like lust over love. They moved very quickly from flirting and liking each other to jumping into bed together. I prefer a little more of a slow burn with some cute pining, wooing, and tension buildup. 

I was extremely disappointed at how terribly the Groundhog Day trope was executed. I adore that movie; it’s one of my all-time favorite romcoms that I watch every single February. So I know the trope inside and out, and this couldn’t even compete on the same level. There were maybe three loops or time jumps in the entire story. I expected much, much more. I wanted to see many different scenarios play out and see some life lessons learned along the way. We didn’t get that in this book. Most of the time, the time-looping didn’t even make sense. The plot felt all over the place and messy. I didn’t even really understand the point of this book.

I wouldn’t call this a woke book, but it has wokeness in it, which induced some eye-rolling. There are obviously liberal-leaning comments made and some checkboxes marked off, which is a huge turnoff for me.

Overall, the whole story was super boring. Honestly, most of the time, while the audio played, I half listened to it because it could barely keep my attention. There’s not a lot happening. It’s not funny. There are hardly any action sequences. There are some holiday activities, but they are boring. It didn’t feel Christmasy at all for a holiday book. 

Poorly written and not worth your precious time. Do not recommend at all – skip it and find a much better Christmas romance book!