Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆/5

We’re reading The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss for the Three Friends Book Club this month, and oh how I enjoyed this book. It was exactly the fun, flirty holiday book I needed in my life.

Kate Turner isn’t looking for love—I mean, who has the time? Plus she’s happy with her career, her friends, and her family. But when her best friend signs her up for a Twelve Dates of Christmas event she decides to make the most of it and see what’s out there.

So many romance books are marketed as rom-coms these days when really they are more family or relationship drama with a side of romance, but this one was frequently laugh-out-loud funny. I adored the dialogue (both inner and spoken) and the characters were wonderfully written (even the ones you ended up hating).

Twelve dates, twelve opportunities to find true love…or complete disaster. Like I said, this was exactly the book I needed right now, and I think you’ll definitely want to sneak this read in before the month is up if you haven’t already!

And if you’re an audiobook listener this one is magic. It’s just under 10.5 hours long and is narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden, who has a fabulous accent and you might recognize from The Lost Girls of Paris. You can grab the audiobook here, or click the button below for a physical copy.

Synopsis:

When it comes to relationships, thirty-four-year-old Kate Turner is ready to say "Bah, humbug." The sleepy town of Blexford, England, isn't exactly brimming with prospects, and anyway, Kate's found fulfillment in her career as a designer, and in her delicious side job baking for her old friend Matt's neighborhood café. But then her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. Twenty-three days until Christmas. Twelve dates with twelve different men. The odds must finally be in her favor . . . right?

Yet with each new date more disastrous than the one before--and the whole town keeping tabs on her misadventures--Kate must remind herself that sometimes love, like mistletoe, shows up where it's least expected. And maybe, just maybe, it's been right under her nose all along. . . .