It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, and everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

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!