Oh man, this story. Where do I even begin? It was a cute holiday romance. I did love all the Jewish and Hanukkah references, the food descriptions were relatively well done, and there were actually a few things I learned about the Jewish culture that I never knew before. Though I'm usually not one for a romance book with zero smut, I pushed myself to finish this book, despite my insides screaming at me to stop.

Anyway, I digress, I will say, there were a few things about this book that bothered me, which is why it only got a 2.5 rounded down to 2 since half stars don't exist on Goodreads/NetGalley, and I believe the things that bothered me about this novel deserve the three star deduction.

First: “Rachel wanted to tell people the truth about what she did for a living, but coming out wasn’t that easy. She couldn’t just stand up on the bima, like Mickey had done at his bar mitzvah all those years prior, and tell everyone the truth.“ --- In case you’re a little lost, though this does happen in the very first chapter, the main character is comparing her telling people she writes Christmas themed romance novels to her friend coming out as gay. I was honestly so taken aback by this comparison that I really had to push myself to continue. As a bisexual, the fact that coming out was compared to basically telling people Christmas is your favourite, really hurt. Coming out isn't easy. For some, its traumatically life changing - for the author to compare it to something so trivial, made me feel shame for Meltzer.

Second: The MC joked about being a part of IOF and killing Palestinians and it was supposed to be flirty banter. Nothing about IOF killing Palestinians is funny. The author deserves to take a good long look in the mirror and think before using genocide as "witty, flirtatious banter" SMH.

Those were my two biggest concerns, and why this book won't get recommended by me, or even purchased and added to my shelf. I refuse to support an author who can easily and without hesitation write these things.