I started off getting confused reading this book. I feel like it jumped around a lot and wasn’t the easy to read Christmas book that I was looking for. It did have a good story overall but was slow to get there.

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

I like the idea of this book because it’s a female grinch Sutton and a single dad Gus who loves Christmas but at the heart of the story it is more Sutton becomes the nanny after an incident. The story was a cute Christmas story I didn’t have a connection with the book like I thought that I was going to.

A great Christmas read. I would totally recommend Confessions of a Christmasholic you will not regret it.

I have a love-hate relationship with Joss Wood's Confessions of a Christmasholic, a story about a down-on-her-luck traveler who finds herself virtually penniless and homeless amidst a charming Christmas village. It is there that she meets a local grumpy widower dubbed Mr. Christmas, who only pretends to love the holiday to honor his late wife's memory. There are some things that really worked with this novel, and others that really didn't, making this a mixed bag of a read that I enjoyed for the most part, but can't quite say that I loved.

Sutton Alsop has landed broke and broken in a small English village thanks to her best friend who stood her up for their 30th birthday trip of a lifetime, leaving Sutton to foot the bill. After paying for both her and her friend's share of the trip, Sutton is left without a penny to her name. Stranded with no way of getting home until her friend pays her back, Sutton plans on squatting in a home in a quaint Christmas village when she runs into Mr. Christmas, aka Gus, a Grinch of a man who bedecks his home in swaths of Christmas lights only because the town expects him to carry on his late wife's love of the holiday. Taking pity on Sutton, Gus invites her to stay with him and his twins for the holiday. As Sutton and Gus grow closer as Christmas inches nearer, they find themselves falling for each other. Can Sutton warm this Grinch's heart in time for Christmas?

Admittedly, I do not read a lot of romances, aside from the occasional rom-com, because I find them to be cheesy and unrealistic. However, I do make the exception for romances set during Christmas because usually the joy of the holiday can off-set any overbearing romantic storylines. Confessions of a Christmasholic has all of the tropes that you would expect in a traditional steamy romance - there's definitely a heavy dose of insta-love, and a preoccupation with sex - however, it also has a pretty decent plot, even if it is a bit underdeveloped. The storyline kept me interested as I turned the pages amidst eye rolls over the overtly sexual and dramatic behavior of the two main characters.

What I didn't like about this novel was the love interest, Gus. I frankly found him to be toxic to both Sutton and his twins. He traverses through the novel constantly being irritated by his kids, snapping at them and acting like they are a hindrance to the life we really wishes he were living. I worry about the future version of the twins, having grown up in a clearly hostile household. As for Sutton, his relationship with her is just about sex, yet he sets her up time and again to be indebted to him without a substantial partnership between the two. I worry about Sutton, as well, who is doing too much too fast with a guy whose personality and temperament is questionable.

After a rough night of drinking her problems away, Sutton finds herself broke, cold and face first in front of the largest Christmas display she has ever seen. The home belongs to Gus, aka Mr. Christmas, who is also a single good-looking dad. Chemistry runs rampant between these two characters and makes for a good and spicy Christmas rom com!

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for providing me an E-ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the cutest story. I got into it and listened to the Spotify playlist while reading on Kindle with my Christmas tree in the background -- would highly recommend with a glass of wine. I am not a normal romance reader, but maybe I should be because I just previously listened to a 28-hour high fantasy audiobook and found this delightful as a follow-up?

<I>Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Fun cute holiday read! It made me laugh and smile plenty!!
There was a lot of repetitive context that I didn’t feel needed to be repeated time and again. That’s about the only thing that took away from the relationship building. I wish there was more back and forth convo.

Would definitely recommend to someone looking for a cozy Christmas romance.

I am normally a sucker for Christmas books and felt so bad that this year I haven't had the chance to read any until this one, which was more than I expected.

Besides a "classical" love story, where she's broke and meets the charming man who supposedly loves Christmas, this book is also spicy.

In three words, I would describe this book as heart-warming, silly, and sexy which deserves a chance if you are into Christmas books.

Lastly, I would like to thank Joss Wood - the author, Harper Collins UK - the publisher and NetGalley for offering me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was perfect little read to get into the festive spirit for Christmas, This may be my new holiday romcom of choice which I will read each year.

This is aa cute romance. Gus is widower with two young daughters, his small town calls him Mr. Christmas because he owns a Christmas store. Sutton hates Christmas and drunkenly trashes Gus’ display. She ends up helping Gus with his kids and begins to appreciate Christmas a little more as they get to know each other.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

please note that the trigger warnings and topes/themes may contain spoilers
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
HEA: yes
spice: mild kinda open-door spicy scenes
TWs:parental abandonment, death of spouse (recounted), emotional manipulation, cheating (recounted, not MCs)
standalone: yes
final thoughts: this was a medium-paced Christmas read that was easy to read. There were some great tropes and some good scenes with anticipation that kept the story moving forward, however I didn’t feel like I connected to any of the MCs enough to “care” more than a 3 star read. It was by no means a bad story or writing but the cover and description made me imagine a silly holiday romcom with spice but instead we got some heavy topics, odd side characters that didn’t add a lot of value to the story (though some were really great!), a FMC I didn’t find myself rooting for, and a MMC who I didn’t understand his motivations.

read this book if you love

🏝️ forced proximity
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 found family
🎄 holiday themes
👩‍👦 single parent
💓 slowburn
🏡 small town
🤫 hidden secrets
😳 forbidden lovers (single dad/nanny)

A really sweet and funny Christmas romance but had lots of depth to it. It was perfect for these cold nights and I was rooting for them from the moment they met

A cute Christmas read
Hated the friend
Loved the MMC and his kids and ex wife's family
Loved the FMC
Not sure any of the characters could really be considered christmasholics tho...


Would have loved a longer ending or epilogue

Confessions of a Christmasholic:

Sutton Alsop hates Christmas. So much so, when confronted with a house that looks like Santa himself vomited Christmas all over it, she accidentally (drunkenly) destroys every fairy light, fake reindeer and candy cane in sight. Unfortunately for Sutton, this house belongs to none other than Gus Langston, single dad and owner of the village’s year-round Christmas shop – aka Mr Christmas himself.

But Mr Christmas has a secret only Sutton knows…

With the two of them forced together for the holidays, the sparks between them are hot enough to melt even the coldest of hearts!


This book was absolutely brilliant! I normally can really struggle with Christmas romances because they can be overly festive (where everything about the book is Christmas related) However with this one the Christmas related events and items were very muted and in the background so they didn’t take over the plot. I found myself laughing out loud constantly throughout as we had the plain realness of toddlers and the chaos they bring and also Sutton was just unapologetically herself and she was sooo relatable.

I really enjoyed the exploration of grief and the guilt that gus faced with regards to this, I think it was explained beautifully and it really captured the essence of how grief affects everyone. It was really interesting to see how he dealt being left as a single parent and taking on the responsibilities of his deceased partner. I couldn’t imagine a situation like this one.

I love a grumpy x sunshine trope and this one was PERFECT!!! The chemistry between Sutton and gus was absolutely delicious- it made me kick my feet and giggle because I was so excited. The spice was also so hot and I liked that it wasn’t repetitive and we could see the real feelings show in those moments as well.

Overall, I’m really surprised by this book and I’m so glad that I read this! It completely blew my expectations out of the park and I will be reading more by this author. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book!

This one wasn't great.
I really tried because I love christmas so I really wanted to love this book.
The heroine was a lot. I've seen reviews saying this was a reverse grump sunshine- it wasn't. He was grumpy for sure. Their chemistry just wasn't there. The book lacked pacing and it just fell flat as a read.

It felt like a weird mix between closed door and open door romance. Overall the one wasn't for me.

Thank you netgalley an the publisher for the ARC of this book.

Sutton Alsop despises Christmas, and one drunken night, she accidentally wrecks a Santa's-grotto-level house, not realizing it's owned by none other than Gus Langston—AKA Mr. Christmas. With him being the local holiday cheer champion, sparks are bound to fly as they're stuck together during the festive season.

Okay, "confession of a Christmasholic" threw me a curveball. I was expecting a classic holiday romance, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me. The setup—Christmas hater meets Mr. Christmas himself—had promise, and I usually love a SunshineXGrumpy trope, but the execution left me unsatisfied.

Plus, the side characters were there, but they didn't really get their moment. It's like the story missed chances to really dive into the characters and their world.
The book had its cute moments and holiday spirit, but it left me wanting a bit more depth and complexity. If you're into light, no-fuss holiday romance with a heavy Christmas vibe, this might be it for you!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

This might be my first romance read without a happily ever after, and with just a happily for now. I got to the end of this book and in the absence of an epilogue I genuinely have no idea if I think these characters will end up together permanently.

This book was a decently good read, with wonderfully flawed children, funny parts, and a decent amount of tackling grief. There was also great chemistry and steamy scenes.

But the ending of this book really left me wanting more.

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐️⭐️💫
𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗟: Rated R / 2-4 descriptive sex scenes, may have harsh language.
𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦: past death of spouse, past parent abandonment, end of friendship
𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗦: 4/5 - Tackled some seriously tough topics.

3.5 stars. Love a Christmas book and enjoyed the reverse grumpy sunshine trope as well as single dad and nanny trope. Enjoyable book and would recommend to anyone looking for a fun Christmas read.

Such an enjoyable story, with a very memorable opening chapter between Sutton and Gus. After all you don't see someone punching an inflatable santa every day.

But thanks to this, it leads to Sutton ending up as a nanny to his adorable 4 year old twins. And Gus who present a Christmas loving persona to the world, is less keen on it in private, and Sutton has never experienced a British Christmas. However she agrees to give the twins the best festive period she can.

And thus we have all manner of fabulously festive activities going on, and the twins are fabulous Not only that there are two pets a dog and a pig that I think, thinks its a dog.

it was just a really entertaining story, and I loved getting to know both of our lead characters. Learning Sutton's circumstances including her rather toxic friendship, and also discovering just why Gus is a single father, and outwardly appearing to love Christmas, is really a pleasure to discover.

I had a great time reading this festive treat.

Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I enjoyed this one, but didn’t love it. I really enjoyed grumpy Gus with his sense of obligation to his small town’s Christmas. However, Sutton was a pushover who let her “best friend” walk all over her, and it felt like it was brought up constantly. The Christmas spirit in this book was high. I loved the feelings of family (both relations and found family) that came throughout the story. Gus’ neighbors and his mother-in-law were great characters that I liked more than Sutton herself.
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for honest review.