Counting Down to You by Emily Stone

5*

Every Christmas season, I eagerly await Emily Stone’s newest book. Although they all have some pretty deep topics, the beautiful romances manage to balance out the emotional impact. In Counting Down to You, it is grief over the loss of a best friend. Ali is still in mourning when her boss insists she take a sabbatical, so she chooses a ski town in France, one mentioned by her late friend Robyn in a personalized advent calendar that was their holiday tradition. With its daily handwritten prompts, she assigns challenges that help Ali navigate the grief and open her life to new possibilities. She serendipitously meets Leo Brooks in London and is surprised later to find he is the manager of the resort where she has taken a temp job to help stave off time to wallow. Aside from the romance, the calendar is my favorite part of the book, a physical manifestation of a loving friendship and an aid to help with the grief process. If you love Christmas stories with a bit of angst and a bunch of emotion, I highly recommend this steamy, slow burn, grumpy-sunshine romance. Let the countdown begin!

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Ballantine/Dell through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan

4*

The Book Club Hotel is, at its heart, a story of enduring friendship between three college roommates approaching their forties, but it’s also about the power of love in all its forms: romantic, platonic, maternal, and familial. As a bibliophile, I also appreciate that it’s about sharing books and how an annual tradition that Anna, Claudia, and Erica share began twenty years before when they decided to swap books of their preferred genres and then discuss them.

For the first time, after postponing their summer gathering due to the devastating break-up of Claudia’s 10-year relationship, they decide to meet close to Christmas. The surprise is that take-charge Erica has chosen a quaint Vermont Inn run by the young widow and single mom Hattie rather than the typical urban boutique hotel, and this uncharacteristic move has her friends worried. Claudia has just lost her job as a chef in CA and Anna is feeling anticipatory grief about her twins leaving for college, so it’s inevitable that their week will be full of some hard conversations, surprising revelations, and much soul-searching. Morgan deftly juggles all four women’s stories and the emotions they struggle with while navigating the unpredictable path of love.

Morgan is always dependable for gifting readers with a Christmas story with warmth and heart. In The Book Club Hotel, she’s offers up three different romances including friends-to-lovers and a long-term marriage that affirms that enduring love does exist while also acknowledging, through Claudia’s story, that there is power in loving yourself and focusing your attention on your passion rather than on a person. Treat yourself and pick this one up.

I received this ARC from Canary Street Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are strictly my own.