Thanks to netgalley for the advanced ebook to review.
A fun, festive read, if a little predictable. I am a little confused over some other reviews I've read - it seems there's an epilogue that wasn't part of my arc?! As some readers know the outcome of the wedding?! So that's left me a little frustrated!

Things I liked - I really enjoyed how relatable these characters were. I loved the idea of Christmas and forced proximity bringing two people back together.

Things I didn’t like - I didn’t enjoy that this book seemed to rip off some very key parts of sweet home Alabama. The bar scene was almost a complete copy. I also didn’t enjoy the epilogue with Landon and Norah. The whole book was based off of them being married and in the end he cheated on her ?? Like why! Keep it a happy Christmas book. Or At least have the next book be about them working out their differences....

My favorite character - I really liked Leo. His character was well developed and I enjoyed his personality.

I feel like this is a cute, Christmassy book, but a very typical Christmas book. Unfortunately, I feel like it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, it wasn't exciting, heart-warming, incredible...It was okay...It's not necessarily something I would pick up again. Mostly because it was just so...Well, not memorable.

I wasn't particularly fond of the characters, and therefore, couldn't care less about the whole story. It's not by any means bad, but not something that captured my attention.

But if someone likes easy-going, Hallmark-type of Christmas books, knock yourself out!

I have never read anything by this author but thoroughly enjoyed it. A very feel good Christmas book. Loved reading al, about the traditions the family do each year on the 8 days leading up to Christmas. The main characters Izzy and Leo were very likeable and although it was quite predictable what was going to happen it was still a great read. I could imagine this book being made into a film as it has all the great elements of a great family story.

A fun Christmas rom com that will appeal to lovers of holiday romances and Hallmark Christmas movie-style stories, this book also had more depth than you would expect, with characters exploring grief, change and starting over.

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to City Owl Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review...

Its Christmas time, and Isabella is traveling back to her hometown for the 1st time in 10 years for her sister's wedding but also to take part in her families "eight days of christmas" celebration.
After her boyfriend of 4 years ends things with "I think we need a break" she heads home, only to have the worst luck of running into her high-school sweetheart, leo during a delayed flight back to Denver.
Running into Leo was inevitable but something she did not want to do, and not before she had to. After reluctantly deciding to drive the 10 hours home with Leo, not wanting to miss day one of the festivities, you find out that their breakup was anything but easy.
Throughout the book you see their natural connection blossom again. Knowing that Leo and Isabella are meant to be. But can they reconcile and let go of the past in order to have a promising future?


I loved reading Isabella and Leo's book! Their passion and fire was automatic from the beginning and They had such great back and fourth banter. From page one I was hooked. The way the author developed their new relationship while still expressing the healing and pain from past mistakes was beautiful. This is the perfect book to get you into the Christmas mood and show you that miracles do happen.
This book shows you that time can't heal all wounds, but the power of love and fate may just be enough. The ending left so much more possibility and I hope there are more books in this series.

Okay, I’m not 100% sure, but I am pretty sure that this is my only 1-star review for 2021.

*** MAJOR SPOILERS FROM HERE DOWN ***

What the hell?

I’ve been catching up on romance novels lately and what’s better than a Christmas romance, to get me in the mood for the holidays?

I wish I hadn’t requested this book on NetGalley. I really do. It made me actually mad – mad enough that I had to take breaks to calm myself. Irrationally mad? Maybe…

giphy

Fact #1: The writing was very stilted and sloppy. No body talks like that. Quote: “I want to kiss your face off, Leo Hoffman.” Please don’t.

Fact #2: The characters were awful. Horrible. The two main couples made me gag. At times, quite literally.

Fact #3: There were so many “WTF” moments, that I’m just going to continue with those, to illustrate my feelings toward this book.

youre-welcome-glove

~ W T F ~

Isabella: from the very first second, highly unlikable. The second scene we see her in, she’s pulling a Karen on a guy at the airport because a snow storm caused her flight to be rerouted and the guy told her she’ll have to fly on the next day at the earliest. Yeah, Isabella, by all means, force the guy to stop the snow, you got it!
“Izzy” calls a voice from the queue where she’s doing her Karen, and she’s like “Oh noes, that can only be the love of my life, no one but him and my family calls me Izzy”. Bitch, literally everyone, except for your New York boyfriend, calls you Izzy.
Isabella has not been back to Colorado in 10 years – she hates herself for it, Leo, her high school ex and the abovementioned “love of her life” hates her for it, her family hates her for it. Everyone feels distraught that she left them and made a life for herself and became a writer for The New Yorker (how that girl would work in The New Yorker, I have no idea at all). I haven’t been back to my home country in several years and I challenge the person who’s going to make me feel like trash for staying somewhere else where I’m more comfortable. Her family is just seriously awful about it, they constantly tease her, make mean comments about her, and they all find it hilarious to see how sad and hurt she gets. I really hate the idea of these super toxic families where you are not allowed to be your own person because you have a duty to be a part of your family and you constantly owe them your time and attention. How ’bout you all back off? Or go die, I don’t care.
Norah and Landon – respectively Isabella’s sister and Leo’s brother = THE WORST. Isabella is going home for the first time in a decade to be her little sister’s maid of honor. Her little sister is marrying Isabella’s ex, Leo’s little brother. Norah is so very meddlesome, constantly trying to put Isabella and Leo in super uncomfortable situations “to get them together”. Man, if I had to see some ex of mine and someone was trying to force something to happen, my blood would boil. But what’s worse is that Norah and Landon have the most codependent relationship I’ve seen – in real life or in media. Isabella confides personal things in Norah, who, after swearing she won’t tell anyone, immediately goes to tattle to Landon and then her lame excuse is “we don’t keep anything from each other”. First of all, WTF? Second of all… WTF, it’s your sister. They are also so attached to each other, that when Isabella organizes a bachelorette party for Norah, Norah asks Landon to come with his friends to the same bar to have their party there as well, because “We don’t do things like that without the other.” – ????????????????? You don’t have bachelorette parties apart? You can’t have fun for one night apart? More so, you can’t have fun apart because the reason for this particular fun is exactly to be apart for just one night? And what’s more, Norah’s like “Chill, Isabella, they’ll sit in the opposite corner of the bar and we’ll have our parties separately”, and then 3 sentences later, she’s sitting in Landon’s lap. So, WTF.
yuck-gross

5. Isabella and Leo: I don’t even know where to start with this one. Each and every one of their interactions is annoyingly formulaic – they start by being rude with each other, then he says something too mean, she gets all teary, he’s like “damn, she bit her lip, she’s so hot”, or “damn, that ass”, so he forces half a smile, to which her response is “I missed seeing him smile”, then they make out and then they’re like “Nope.” Sometimes Leo goes:

the-room-you-are-tearing-me-apart-lisa

…because she refuses to tell him why she dumped him by not coming home for Christmas. To which she responds with “I can’t tell you!!!!!!!!!”. /End of scene

The reality is that she did come for Christmas that one time after graduation *GASP* and Leo’s mom told her that she won’t allow Leo to move to New York to be with Isabella, so Isabella went to New York alone and never came back. I mean, it must have been real love if your boyfriend’s mom telling you “No” is enough to dump him. And additionally, Leo is so butthurt that she never came to see him, but guess what, he NEVER thought to go see her in New York. His explanation: “Because he always knew his home was Pineridge”. That is why. That is it. He never set foot in New York, because apparently if you go to another city, you immediately change your home address to that city.

nick-young-confused-face-300x256-nqlyaa

6. This whole scene where Isabella finally tells Leo that she dumped him because of his mom happens during the aforementioned bachelorette party, after which Leo is super upset and he just drives off and goes to his home in the mountains. He has no contact with anyone and it all happens in the span of however long the drive from the bar to his house is. Then suddenly his dad shows up in his house – it’s obvious that it’s out of nowhere, because Leo starts explaining why he’s there and that it was a sudden decision. His dad is like “I figured” – how? How exactly? Your son goes out to a bar with his brother and you just know that he left suddenly and went to his house? And okay, even if Landon told him Leo left, what happens next is even more ridiculous – the dad’s like “Isabella is telling you the truth, she did come back here”. And I’m like WHAT THE HELL. How did his dad know that Leo and Isabella just had this conversation like 15 minutes ago or something??? He didn’t. That’s how. I hoped and prayed that there will be an explanation, that maybe Isabella called him, but Leo then tells Isabella that he spoke with his dad and she knows nothing about it. So, no one knew that that conversation took place. No one called the dad. But the dad knew to go confirm that the conversation was based on truth. I’m guessing either just bad writing, or the dad was working for the FBI.

7. The wedding day: Norah and Landon are getting married. Landon gets super drunk before the wedding and starts badmouthing Norah’s skills in bed and how shitty her family is, in front of his brother. He even says so to Isabella, ya know, Norah’s sister. An hour later, he’s somewhat upright, standing at the alter and his brother’s like “I’m so proud of you!” – tell me, please tell me, about which part exactly are you so proud? That he’s getting married to a girl who has issues with and whose family he dislikes? That he’s getting married to that girl about an hour or two after he was saying all of these things about her behind her back? Yeah, husband-to-be of the year. Jesus.

I will finish here. This is not nitpicking, just everything that was immediately wrong.

I thought to myself, am I taking this too seriously? I mean, it is just a romance novel, Dostoyevsky has not dropped the sequel to Crime and Punishment. But then I remembered that not 2 days ago I finished a romance novel that was sooo good that I read 300 pages of it in one sitting, and it was funny and charming and touching and it had an amazing build-up, incredible chemistry and good writing. And I realized that the genre does not make the book, the author does.

A lovely festive read which I enjoyed. One to curl up with and get into Christmas. 4 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this e ARC

I love Christmas reads and this did not disappoint! I enjoyed the plot and the characters were so relatable. This was a quick holiday rom-com that I would recommend to anyone who wants to get in the spirit

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

How have I never heard of this author before!?!? She gave me all those rom com Christmas feels that I needed so bad!
Definitely heading over to kindle to see if she has any more books.

Eight Days of Christmas is a cute romantic Christmas story about Isabella and Leo. The two were once high school sweethearts but college and family obligations broke them apart. They have not seen each other in 10 years but that all changes when Isabella’s younger sister and Leo’s brother decide to get married over the Christmas holidays. Isabella travels back to her home town of Pineridge, Colorado for the festivities and cannot believe how her feelings for Leo have resurfaced. Will Leo and Isabella reconnect or continue on their separate journeys. Grab a copy or Eight Days of Christmas, publisher October 19th and find out.

Thank you NetGalley, Starla Dekrufy and City Owl Press for my advanced electronic readers copy in exchange for my opinions and honest review.

5-stars for Eight Days of Christmas
This is a new author for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it's not only well written, but I felt relatable. I was hooked from the beginning to the very last page, I actually wished it was longer which I haven't thought about many books. Leo and Izzy fit together perfectly, their chemistry is amazing and their banter addicting, you just can't help to root for them. While I did wish the book showed more into their future, I still can't not definitely recommend this spectacular book Eight Days of Christmas, thoroughly loved and enjoyed it. I am secretly hoping though that there will be more books in the Pineridge series and the readers will find out more about Leo and Izzy and their relationship, if any, in the future, after all, I can't imagine any reader wouldn't want more from these two characters. Don't miss this one, it amazingly awesome!
Even though I did receive an advanced review copy of this book, I am voluntarily leaving my own unsolicited, voluntary opinion with this review.

I liked the premise of this story. Overall, I enjoyed the writing and the story but at times it moved slow. I found myself skimming through certain parts because they were anticlimactic.

This was a fun and quick Christmas read. I enjoyed the story, but it was a little too heavy on the “lack of communication” at times. I know it’s a major plot point, but it felt a little over the top.

I’m hoping there will be more about her sister and Landon though… I definitely feel like there’s more going on there!

Ten years ago Isabella Whitley left home leaving Leo Hoffman heartbroken with no explanation as to why she left. Now her little sister is getting married on Christmas day and Isabella comes home for the wedding and to enjoy her family's 'Eight Days of Christmas ' celebration.

Immediately she is forced to face Leo who wants to know why she left but she isn't ready to tell him right away because it's her sister's week. She is constantly thrown together with Leo during the week's festivities and discovers all the feelings she had for Leo is still there.

Isabella has a decision to make. Go back to her life in NYC or stick around and try to pick up where she and Leo left off?

"Eight Days Of Christmas" by Starla DeKruyf is an ABSOLUTELY MUST HOLIDAY read!!! I LOVED EVERYTHING about this book especially the beginning angst car ride vibes from Isabella (Izzy) and her former childhood friend and highschool sweetheart Leo. Izzy and Leo's past may be filled with love, hurt, and secerts, but now Izzy is Home for Christmas to see her sister marry Leo's brother. She must first survive the family's traditional Eight Days Of Christmas FUN... from making Snowmen, Sleigh Rides, Tree Decorating, Gingerbread House making, all mixed in with Snow Angels and Christmas Kisses! Izzy and Leo have a chance to overcome the past angst and rekindle a Spicy Second Chance Romance!! Starla DeKruyf brings us HOLIDAY HAPPINESS with Eight Days Of Christmas!! 🎄☃️

💫THANK YOU to the Author, City Owl Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an Honest Review!!

#EightDaysOfChristmas
#NetGalley
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What an adorable second chance romance debut! I can't wait for more from DeKruyf!

Isabela Whitley has stayed away from home for far too long, especially since her family is big and tight-knit, a bit invasive, and a ton of fun. They've created a tradition called the Eight Days of Christmas where each day they have a specific Christmas task to accomplish. It will make your heart grow three sizes, seriously...adorable.

But when Isabela returns home after a decade because her sister is getting married, she finds that the neighbor and her ex, Leo Hoffman has basically been adopted into her family and now she gets to spend the holiday with him in awkward, annoyance. Let the antics ensue!

There's additional conflict from a recent kinda-sorta ex-boyfriend, but the whole tone is light and fun.

Pick it up if you love Christmas romance novels that actually involve Christmas, HEAs, second chance romance, small town romance, and snowy winter scenes.

Isabella Whitley hasn’t been back to her hometown in 10 years, but her sister is getting married on Christmas Day so she goes back, knowing there will be no avoiding her high school love Leo, as it’s his brother that’s marrying her sister. She has given no explanation to him or her family as to why she never returned so there are secrets waiting to be spilled and emotions are running high. The book’s title comes from the Whitley family tradition of partaking in a winter activity every day leading up to Christmas and to her shock and anger, Leo has not only been invited to join her family in these activities, it seems he has effectively taken her place in the years she’s been gone. For the sake of both of their siblings, Isabella and Leo decide on a somewhat shaky truce for the few days she’s in town, which leads to a reemergence of feelings, and finally an answer as to why she has been avoiding him all this time. There are so many tropes at work here (forced proximity, second chance romance, childhood sweethearts) that I’m surprised they all work but they do. Leo and Isabella are the stars of the story and as such are the most fully realized characters, but Landon (his brother) and Norah (her sister) play a fairly large role as well. There are some moments that I wanted to yell at the characters to be adults and to say what they want but as in life, that's a hard thing to do. The emotions in this book felt real to me and the reason why Isabella has stayed away for so long wasn't over the top for the sake of the story, so the rekindling of her romance with Leo felt natural. This book does a great job of making me nostalgic for simpler times where Christmas didn’t seem to slip by in the blink of an eye and it made me long for days off spent baking cookies, making snowmen, and drinking hot cocoa. If you’re looking for a book that captures the fun that Christmas can bring, you won’t be disappointed here. As far as the love story goes, there are no surprises here but it’s a sweet one with a cute rom-com grand gesture at the end that is very fitting to the story. Overall, the story was charming and a good addition to this year’s Christmas themed romances.

Thank you to Netgalley and City Owl Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the first book I have read by the author, and I really enjoyed it. Centred around the Whitley family and their special family Christmas traditions. Isabella Whitley has avoided family christmases for the past 10 years, and made excuses every time the festive period comes around. Once she landed in New York, ten years ago, which had been her childhood dream she has never looked back. However this year is different, her Sister has decided to get married so Isabella has to return to Pineridge, Colorado and join in the festivities.

It all goes wrong from the start, her plane is re-routed due to bad weather and she comes face to face with her ex boyfriend Leo, the one she left behind to go to New York. The pair obviously still have a lot of feelings for each other and questions unanswered. Can they get along for the eight days of Christmas for the sake of the family?

This is a great book, filled with family, love, friendship, second changes and of course that warmth that only the Christmas season can bring. I would love to be part of the Whitley family and join in their traditions.

This was a sweet second chance romance story. Isabella returns to her hometown at Christmas time for her sisters wedding. This brings her into close contact with her ex Leo. There are a lot of feelings still there as well as anger. They have to spend a lot of time together the eight days before Christmas and the wedding doing holiday traditions. As past hurts are worked through and their true feelings revealed they rekindle things in secret. Of course Heather’s are things that happen along the way to cause trouble before they can have their HEA.