I have some super mixed feelings for this book. On one hand, it looked so promising, and it has delivered on some of those promises. I loved the setting, this quaint, friendly little town, and the plot about saving it from the trap of corporate greed. I liked a lot of the side character. I enjoyed the general wintery second chance vibe and the faint sounds of Taylor Swift's 'Tis the Damn Season playing at the back of my mind as I read. :) The prose was fun and expressive. Based on many of the book's ingredients, I should have liked it a lot.

Unfortunately, I think the problem is I absolutely failed to connect with the main characters. Morgan just... didn't seem like a very pleasant person to me? There's some explanation of why she's so shaken at the beginning to even hear about her hometown and why she alienates the people from her hometown, including her father, so hard, but not nearly enough, and even with the extra details coming up over the course of the story, it feels like she's overreacting. She presents herself as this neat, creative, organized, independent person who can't believe her career imploded over one drunken mistake, but she doesn't really act like this neat, organized person. And while she does exhibit some growth and become more tolerable as the plot progresses, I don't know, it's just not enough for me to find her likable and relatable enough to root for? As for Rachel, the LI,  I just didn't feel like I ever got to know her enough to get a feel for her as a character, which is funny, considering Morgan sure thinks and feels about her a lot. But it's like... there's Morgan's POV, and then there are Morgan's memories of Rachels back when they were both teens, and only then is there the real Rachel.

I guess this is one of those cases when the leading characters make or break a story for me, and it's honestly a pity Morgan and I didn't click to such extent. Because there are lots of nice moments and vibes here. It's basically a cheesy queer Halmark movie of a book, reasonably well-crafted and full of holiday-flavored hope—all things I genuinely love around this time of year.