Holly and Nick Hate Christmas

by Betsy St. Amant

When a Christmas-hating woman’s brother sets her up with a fellow Grinch and it backfires, she decides to out-Christmas her date by kicking off a festive battle of wills in this inspirational enemies-to-lovers holiday romcom.

Holly Sinclair has hated Christmas for as long as she can remember. Who names their Christmas baby Holly in the first place? She was teased mercilessly growing up. Holly Berry, Holli-days, Holly Jolly . . . not to mention the fact that her birthday is often totally overlooked amidst the season.

To make matters worse, instead of getting the promotion she was expecting, Holly’s been downsized—which is just fancy holiday talk for fired. Now Holly has to go home single, unemployed, turning thirty, and only a tinsel strand of faith. Bah, humbug.

Holly’s big brother, Ryan, has dragged his best friend, known holiday-hater Nick Kinsley, home with him. But when Holly discovers that Nick’s here to be her pity date, she decides the best revenge is to play along . . . and Christmas like she’s never Christmas’d before. Commence Operation: Naughty List. The fact that she’s attracted to Nick is totally not the point. She’ll teach him a lesson, one ho ho ho at a time.

The holiday grows more complicated when Holly and Ryan find out their parents asked all the siblings to come home for Christmas this year, but refuse to say why. The rest of the Sinclair siblings descend, each with their own sleigh full of secrets. Rumors spread as everyone tries to guess the reason for their parents’ demand—and Nick turns out to have a secret of his own. Will this be a Christmas to forget? Or will Holly and Nick discover there is so much more?

My review of Holly and Nick Hate Christmas

I loved this so much! It’s way more than a 5 star read for me. It’s got the cozy, Hallmark-y Christmas vibe that I love, and it has my favorite trope…fake dating! It doesn’t start out that way though. It only becomes fake dating after being a brother’s best friend trope.

When Holly’s brother convinces his Christmas hating best friend Nick home for Christmas, Holly, who also hates Christmas, thinks Nick really wants to spend time with her. When Holly overhears what she interprets to be a conversation about Nick being a pity date for her, she goes full on revenge mode. She pretends to LOVE Christmas and tries to get Nick into the spirit too.

I adored the characters in this book! In addition to Holly and Nick, there’s Holly’s parents, her brother, sister-in-law, three sisters, one “surfer-dude” sister’s boyfriend, a niece, and a nephew. And they are all extremely well-written. They just jump off the page and become very real! They also cracked me up! There is so much mad-cap chaotic humor, and it had me laughing out loud many times.

The plot is well-developed with lots of twists and turns and surprises! Like I said, it becomes a fake dating trope (my favorite!) part way through, and like every rom-com should, it has a happily ever after ending when Holly and Nick change from enemies to lovers. There’s a lot more to the story that you’ll love discovering on your own.

If you love clean rom-coms with great characters, lots of humor, and inspirational aspects, you’ll love the endearing Holly and Nick Hate Christmas! I highly recommend it!

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.