Book Description:
When a Christmas-hating woman’s brother sets her up with a fellow Grinch and it backfires, she decides to out-Christmas her date by kicking off a festive battle of wills in this inspirational enemies-to-lovers holiday romcom.
Holly Sinclair has hated Christmas for as long as she can remember. Who names their Christmas baby Holly in the first place? She was teased mercilessly growing up. Holly Berry, Holli-days, Holly Jolly . . . not to mention the fact that her birthday is often totally overlooked amidst the season.
To make matters worse, instead of getting the promotion she was expecting, Holly’s been downsized—which is just fancy holiday talk for fired. Now Holly has to go home single, unemployed, turning thirty, and only a tinsel strand of faith. Bah, humbug.
Holly’s big brother, Ryan, has dragged his best friend, known holiday-hater Nick Kinsley, home with him. But when Holly discovers that Nick’s here to be her pity date, she decides the best revenge is to play along . . . and Christmas like she’s never Christmas’d before. Commence Operation: Naughty List. The fact that she’s attracted to Nick is totally not the point. She’ll teach him a lesson, one ho ho ho at a time.
The holiday grows more complicated when Holly and Ryan find out their parents asked all the siblings to come home for Christmas this year, but refuse to say why. The rest of the Sinclair siblings descend, each with their own sleigh full of secrets. Rumors spread as everyone tries to guess the reason for their parents’ demand—and Nick turns out to have a secret of his own. Will this be a Christmas to forget? Or will Holly and Nick discover there is so much more?
Narelle’s Thoughts:
I enjoyed reading Holly and Nick Hate Christmas, a delightful romcom set in Ohio. The story opens two weeks before Christmas when Holly loses her marketing job in Detroit. She’s a Christmas Day baby who hates Christmas, and she’s not looking forward to her milestone thirtieth birthday. Holly’s brother plays matchmaker and convinces her to attend their family Christmas celebrations at the family farm in Ohio with Nick as her date. Nick is Holly’s brother’s best friend and work colleague who hates Christmas.
Nick refuses to spend the holidays with his dysfunctional family. He’s setting up a nonprofit and talking with Holly’s parents about the possibility of buying their farm to build a teen camp for troubled youth. Holly’s parents don’t want their adult children to know they’re considering selling the farm. Nick reluctantly agrees to keep their secret and he embraces the opportunity to visit the farm for Christmas.
Holly and Nick’s meet cute at the farm is awkward and adorable. Their romance is sweet and I loved how false assumptions and misunderstandings, combined with family drama and secret reveals, created numerous problems for Holly and Nick to overcome. I appreciated how the importance of truth, and the consequences from not being honest and truthful, were highlighted and explored in the story.
I recommend Holly and Nick Hate Christmas to contemporary romance readers who like brother’s best friend, matchmaking and fake relationship Christmas romcoms with depth that include family drama and relevant faith elements in the story.
Many thanks to Waterbrook and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.
