Goose Reads 2023! (Closed)

Week 50 - Christmas Break

Week Fifty - December 10th - December 16th

Title: Christmas Break

Author: ChristmasRomance / YvetteRussell

Genre: Romance

Number of Chapters: 25

Completed? Yes

Link (Added as an in-line comment): 

Blurb:

Overachieving college student Celeste Brighton is excited to spend Christmas cozied up with her first love, Jared. Christmas has always had a special place in her heart, and she can't wait to share it with him. That is until Jared asks for a break... right before Christmas! With her plans--and heart--shattered, Celeste needs to find a way to get Jared back to recapture the perfect Christmas she had planned. But how?

Guarded lone wolf Sterling Holt has never liked Christmas. He's never had one of those 'perfect' holidays like they do in the movies--all he's had is bad memories, and so he'd much rather keep himself distracted. When a distraction comes in the form of a brokenhearted girl begging for his help in her to get her ex back, it sounds too fun to refuse--until he learns that means becoming the Perfect Holiday Boyfriend.

Goose's Thoughts:

Welcome to Week 50 and we step into a fake-dating story that is the perfect read for the festive season!

This is the sort of Christmas story that you could read whilst curled up under a blanket with a steaming mug of hot chocolate to keep you company. There is just so much Christmas spirit in this story from it's overall setting, to the budding romance, and watching Sterling come to love the holidays. Everything about it embodies this time of year and I loved how similar it was to those Hallmark movies we all watch every year. 

Sterling has to be one of my favourite characters and I'm definitely a sucker for the 'tough exterior, soft inside' sort of characters. From the moment we meet him, we're shown that there is something behind the mask he wears. Evelyn captures the pain he feels and his hard shell he's cocooned himself in expertly, but she also pulls him out of that state in a slow, realistic way. We see him unfurl himself and come to life around Celeste, embracing the holiday season and really starting to enjoy himself.

I also loved seeing Celeste come into her own throughout the story and finally push the jerk to the curb. Although there were moments she annoyed me, I loved following her journey and seeing her confidence grow alongside Sterling. These two characters really helped to pull each other out of the darkness they find themselves in at the start of the story. 

The fake-dating trope is perfectly used within this story. Celeste and Sterling seem like two very polar characters but they work really well together and Evelyn really captures that slow burn between the two of them. I loved watching them slowly fall for each other and figure out their relationship whilst pretending to date each other in order to make Jared jealous. The slow build up into their relationship was so well done and felt very realistic. 

If you're looking for a cute, Christmas romance story that looks like it could be a Hallmark film, then this is the story for you. Sterling and Celeste are two great characters and watching them fall for each other was brilliantly well done. Evelyn uses the fake-dating trope to her advantage and it works really well in this setting.

Thank you for writing such an amazing story, Evelyn!

-Goose