This was a lighthearted, entertaining read. Kate, now 34 years old, is looking for someone to be ‘the one’. Hence she has signed up for 12 dates. The date venues are varied, as are the men she meets. Kate is a very creative person and the reader is taken on some of her thought processes and inspirations for her designs. Kate is also an enthusiastic baker and works through her recipes. Kate has two best friends in her village, Laura and Matt. Some of their back stories are told, also village life. There were some very vivid descriptions that formed a picture in my mind. This is a story of friendship, love and humour. It is a story to read curled up in a warm wrap with a mug of hot chocolate. It really left me with a feel good factor. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Twelve Dates of Christmas is a great feel-good romantic comedy novel. It has all of the elements of a superb Christmas novel, and even though I read it in September, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it for any time of the year. Great to snuggle up on the sofa with a hot drink and escape into Kate’s world.
Kate is single and not really looking for a partner; but badgered by her best friend, Laura, she agrees to sign up to the Twelve Dates of Christmas. As the name suggests, a dating agency will arrange twelve dates with twelve different people, completing twelve different activities in the run up to Christmas.
Sounds simple - so what could possibly go wrong! Will Kate survive the twelve dates? Will she make it to Christmas? Will she possibly even find her Mr Right?
This book is so well written, it fast forwarded me to Christmas, the sight of snow, the aromas of mince pies, mulled wine and warm elastic bands around a postman’s wrists!
Highly recommend this entertaining read.
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Omg, I am such a sucker for Christmas and for this book. I love,love, love.
Kate is soooo lovely. I just, love her. She is such a good heroine. She is smart, funny, beautiful and super bossy.
She has it all, except love, but she isn't shy about it. She knows what she wants, and goes for it.
I knew that she will end up with Matt, but love the banter.
Such a cute story. Thank you so so much for this read.
This is a 4 stats for me.

Right, is it December yet?!

This charming book has really got me longing for Christmas. Jenny Bayliss paints a dreamy picture of Christmas time in a tiny village. There’s snow and mince pies, Christmas lights and carols. It sounds fabulous!

And then there are the dates... they turned out to be rather amusing, well, for the bystander at least. There’s tears and drama, and that’s just from the dates themselves.

This book shows that sometimes love finds you in an unlikely place, and the humour and heart-warming moments made this a really enjoyable read.

Right, I want to put my tree up now and it’s only September!

The Modern Day Speed Dating... Loved It, A Should Read Christmas RomCom ❣️

Loved this book, the sort of book you should curl up and read, with a good drink and devour (book 😉) in one sitting ❣️

The twelve dates of Christmas is a dating app that's been created by promising twelve dates in twelve different locations in the run up to the Christmas. Laura has encouraged Kate to sign up, Kate had looked into this previously, but was not letting this slip to her bff. Each date there are options for each type of event, after choosing an activity all Kate needs to do is turn up, the rest is all sorted. As anticipated, the path to find true love does not run smoothly... Most dates for one reason or another are memorable for Kate, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

Kate lives in a small village with two bff's nearby, when dates go wrong village talk shares those embarrassing moments even though Kate may not have wanted it common knowledge, but her love life seems to be the talk of the village.

The book is told from Kate's perspective throughout, shining a light on, her friendships with Matt, whose been a friend with their ups and downs since childhood; Laura, and her parents. It's filled with humour, and hope to find true love with a perfect festive setting. A definite should read.

When Kate's best friend Laura tell her about the Twelve Dates of Christmas which is being held over December at Bletchley Manor by a large dating site, Kate is convinced to join . As now in her thirties she has a career , her own cottage in a Kentish village, friends but no-one special in her life.
When the first date comes she finds herself being stood up which doesn't do a lot for her confidence but carries on going to see whether or not she will find someone special.
This is a seasonal romance which is easy and enjoyable to read with a nice theme to it. Very enjoyable

This was a really lovely romance. Although I read it in September it had a gorgeous Christmassy feel to it. It was fun to read Kate’s exploits during the 12 dates and about her life and whilst it was quite obvious who she would have her happily ever after with it was nice to join in her journey to get there. It was a really well written romance and a joy to read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read a preview copy of this book I think it will do really well. It certainly deserves to and I will definitely be looking out for more books by this author. Her gentle true to life humour and expertly written characters were a joy to read.

This is a gorgeous debut novel, I really liked how well rounded the characters were and the lovely village setting. Although the dating scheme sounded far fetched it featured some fabulous sounding date settings and the author managed to make each actual date have a different defining characteristic leaving the whole concept actually plausible. There weren’t a huge amount of surprises in this but it’s a definitely cosy winter winner with a good dose of festive spirit.

A beautiful christmas love story, as with most of these books you can pretty much guess the outcome but the journey is fun and eventful!

Kate is a very warm and loveable character and the village of Blexford seems to be such a lovely place with tight knit community made of friends. That makes the story very pleasant to read. I really enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the winter scenery.
The main character is bright, funny and hapilly single but her friend thinks she needs a man. She finally gives up and sign up to a Twelve Dates of Christmas campain. 12 dates means 12 different men to choose from. How exciting!
The Twelve Dates of Christmas is very light and happy story. Perfect Christmas read full of snow, mince pies and mulled wine. Kate's encounters with men made me laugh so hard.
If you're a lover of Christmas romance you'll definitely like this one.

I liked the premise of the book and Kate going on twelve Christmas dates but I found that I had guessed what was going to happen early on in the book. I found there was too much backstory at the beginning and therefore the predictability turned me off a bit. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book for an honest opinion.

Fuzzy, Festive Romcom....
Kate Turner signs up to a festive dating app offering twelve festive dates with twelve single and eligible men - will she find her Mr Right for Christmas or will she find herself in the process? Enjoyable, fuzzy festive romcom with a likeable protagonist and a colourful cast of supporting characters. Predicable? Yes maybe, but this is fiction after all and offers some perfect festive escapism.

This was a very cosy, fun and gentle read that would be perfect for when it's a little gloomy outside and you want to escape for a little while!

It's always important that I connect with the main character, and Kate was all-round great and her friendship with Laura was super relatable. My favourite part about this book though were the dates itself. The Twelve Dates programme is something that I would probably sign up for after much goading from friends and too many wines, so I loved hearing about the imaginative activities and different characters that Kate got to experience. I also really enjoyed the community in Blexford which seemed really effortless and lovely.

A really love, cosy and fun festive read that I would definitely put on your TBR list this Christmas!

I love the outline of the book. Single Kate signs up to a dating venture that involves twelve different dates on the run up to Christmas. Each date is organized by the company and was a fun and interesting idea with very different characters. If someone isn't actually using that business idea, they should be!

There's a lot of village life flavour here, and all the characters had great personalities, including memorable side characters in Kate's friends and family. I felt like I had a full sense of Kate's life, and really wanted her to get lucky in love with one of these twelve men.

Unfortunately I found the book too predictable. It's hard to say why without giving spoilers; but let's just say I'd guessed the ending about 10% of the way through the book, before the dates had even taken place. I know romance isn't about the twists and turns, but it almost felt like most of the book was just wasting time before Kate realized what I already knew, which made the ending more anticlimactic for me than satisfying.

Kate is on twelve dates of christmas, hoping to find the one to settle down and start a family with. She meets a variety of men along the way, and some dates go better than others.
An entertaining read.

Freelance fabric designer and part-time cake maker, Kate lives alone in her childhood home in the village of Blexford. As she is single she has been persuaded by her best friend Laura to sign up to a dating app called the Twelve Dates of Christmas. This exclusive app matches people with their ideal date and plans the date and activity for them. Each applicant will have 12 different dates with a 'perfect' stranger in a prestigious setting during December.

We follow Kate's dates that include dancing, eating, drinking, and culminates in a Christmas movie. Each date has varying degrees of success or disaster. The story also focuses on the relationships that Kate has with other villagers in between her dates.

I did feel there was a little too much unnecessary history on minor characters at the beginning, but then it flowed well as the story got going. I hope this means that there will be more books from Blexford featuring other characters in the future.

  I loved the premise of this dating app, the community feel of the village, and all the arts and crafts that the villagers got involved in. A fun festive read.

This will appear in my social media and blog post of festive reads for Christmas shortly after the release date.

Absolutely loved this festive love story ❤
Perfect Christmas reading!
Kate has been convinced by family and friends that she should try the 12 dates of Christmas, offered by a dating app, rather than hiding out at home with her TV and cocoa! It takes over her December with a series of 12 dates, from ice-skating to cocktails.
I was absorbed into the story and characters within a couple of pages. Well written, realistic, feel good, basically all you need from a fabulous yuletide caper!
Cannot wait for Jenny's next book! So enjoyable-thank you Netgalley

Christmas in August, now I can't wait for gingerbread lattes and mince pies.
I liked the synopsis but when I started to read the book, it was a bit hard to get into, I couldn't really engage with the story and the writing style that sometimes felt a bit factful without any emotions. I enjoyed the descriptions, Kate's work, the little village they live in but there's no chemistry between the characters. It's a cute story but I missed the sparks.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good British rom-com, it’s a bonus if it’s set at Christmas! So when I saw The Twelve Dates of Christmas, I couldn’t wait to get started.

The outline of the book is great. It pulled me in just from the synopsis. Kate signs up to a new dating venture where she attends 12 different dates on the run up to Christmas with partners matched to her.

The first 10% of the book, unfortunately, took me a few days to read. I just could not get into the story, the writing style or the characters. I kept attempting to read, manage a page or two and give up. However I continued trying and once I got to the 50% mark I felt engaged with the story and invested enough to finish the book.

The story is really predictable. I am a huge romance reader, so I’m fully accepting that the ‘happy ever after’ ending is predictable. However, I guessed pretty much all of the storylines in this book. It would’ve been great for the author to throw a few curveballs in.

The writing was incredibly descriptive and this detracted from the storyline for me. Pages upon pages of descriptions of snow, leaves, trees...it was too much. I also felt that the author focussed more on describing Kate’s Mini or Richard’s SUV than on describing their date/chemistry. Chunks of storyline were skipped (I love to read about chemistry and build up between couples) in favour of describing the interior of the Manor House/ preparation of a mince pie/ contents of a Christmas garland/ painting a flower.

Overall, despite my moaning, I actually quite liked this book. The characters were interesting, there were funny moments, and I liked the idea of the twelve dates events. I just would’ve preferred less description of scenery and more description of the dates/dialogue with Matt.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 📚

I loved this story – it was a heart-warming Christmas escape and I loved every page

The plot was well developed and it was a lovely romantic read with a twist.

The detail in the book was very good as were the characters and they all worked really well to make the book a really strong read that was full of feelings.

It is 5 stars from me, I thought that it was a great Christmas story - very highly recommended – a fabulous festive read!