I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kate has a wonderful life living back in her childhood home, a stellar career and wonderful friends. The only thing missing is a man to complete the picture. Since her last relationship, Kate's love life has been stale and she allows her friends to convince her to sign up for 'The Twelve Dates of Christmas' - 12 blind dates scattered throughout December. What could go wrong?

"Kate had to admit that her regime of pyjamas, toast and telly by 7:30 every night was not conducive to establishing a satisfying sex life. And as much as she'd like to meet someone, she was a bit too happy in her own company. Kate had become her own best date."

This book is incredibly well-written, and was such a joy to read. It delivered not only some Christmas spirit and beautiful images of a snowy village but also some laugh out loud moments during the first dates, as well as some relatable content because most of us have been on a first date or two and when they go bad, they can go really bad.

I really liked Kate as a character - I loved that she had such a great history and she felt like a really thought-out, fleshed -out character, as did everyone in this book to be honest. I love how she had really had a great life so far - she had been educated, she had travelled the world, and she now had a great job with WFH flexibility and a beautiful home. She was content but also 100% ready for the next chapter in her life - love, marriage and babies. And it was just really nice not to follow a character whose life was a ginormous mess, which can often be the case for a contemporary!

Also side note but I love that it was stated that Kate was a size 14 (UK size) as while this is an average size for women, too often it feels like female characters in contemporaries are a tiny size 8. Kate had some boob and bum and I loved it.

It was 100% obvious from the start where the story was going to go, and at first I wasn't happy but the relationship did eventually charm me, and win me over so by the end I was happy. I was partial to the hot fireman though.

The dates were fun to read about, and one of the only unrealistic things was that they were all so good-looking - and three of them ended up still in love with their exes (a theme in this book). But I love that it was clear Kate could still be sexually attracted to her dates but it didn't necessarily mean a happy ever after.

My favourite thing about this book was the village - it was so wonderful, and honestly, I wish it was real so I could either just live there or spend Christmas there. An idyllic setting with The Pear Tree cafe, the group of Knitting Sex Kittens (I NEED one of their Christmas jumpers pronto) and local farm produce. And not too far from London either - what a dream! I wanted to dive into the pages and plop headfirst into the village of Blexington.

This book would make a fantastic movie, but it's also a fantastic book. I definitely recommend!