Holiday Recent Reads

 Christmas Fling by Lindsey Kelk (2025)

Through a series of unfortunate events, Laura finds herself pretending to be Callum's girlfriend over the holidays at his family's home in the Scottish Highlands.  Their feelings for each other start to grow, leading them to wonder how much is real and how much is fake.  I tend to enjoy Lindsey Kelk's books.  They are heartfelt and humorous and just have this ease to them.  They flow nicely and nothing feels too hard.  Christmas Fling was no exception.  I loved watching the growing feelings between Laura and Callum, and the way she stood up for him against his family, despite barely even knowing him, was touching.  When Laura's friends show up at the gathering, the story went a bit off the rails for me; I could have done without the extra characters and drama, but overall, this was a decent holiday read.  4 stars

Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman (2025)

Grace and Henry both lost their spouses earlier this year, and now that the holidays are approaching, their mothers scheme to get them together.  Neither feels ready to date, but could a growing friendship blossom into something more?  This sounded quite different from my normal holiday reads, so I was excited about this story, and a lot of it worked for me!  I liked how Grace and Henry bond over holiday movies, which I think is something very relatable.  I enjoyed how they come to rely on each other, without even realizing it.  I found myself gravitating more towards Henry - Grace was a tad too blunt for me, and not as funny as she thought she was.  But Henry, his struggles, his sadness, all of it, felt so real to me.  Watching him work through his grief and finally see a light at the other side was so touching.  Like I said, Grace was not as likable a character for me, and a revelation about her deceased husband felt very unnecessary, but I did appreciate that her journey was different from Henry's, especially in light of the fact that she had two children to care take of.  4 stars

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