Book Review: Faking Christmas by Cindy Steel
A sweet, Hallmark-esque Christmas story with an enemies-to-lovers romance, check out my full review of Faking Christmas by Cindy Steel below!
Book Information
Olive does NOT want to go on vacation for Christmas with her family to cabins in an idyllic winter location. She especially doesn’t want to be paired up with her ex-boyfriend while there. So, when her sister asks, Olive says she’s been seeing someone. Not just anyone, she says she’s been seeing her arch nemesis and co-English teacher at the school that she works. His name is Miles and what Olive doesn’t know is that his family owns the vacation destination where her family is currently staying. Not only that, but now she has to really pretend to date her enemy since he’s actually there with her, and Miles is more than willing to pull her out of her comfort zone in the best of ways.
Review | Heidi Dischler
This is one of those “my brain can be turned off while I listen to this” kind of reads. I really did enjoy it and loved the chemistry between our love interests, but there isn’t a whole ton of depth to it.
So, the characters were absolutely flawless. The thing I love about romance novels is that they typically have to be character-centered instead of plot-centered. While I love a good thriller, they often fall flat when it comes to characters. So seeing the depth in Miles, Olive, and everyone around them was super refreshing. Not only that, but the banter and teasing and flirting between Olive and Miles was BEAUTIFUL and SO much fun. That’s the kind of romance I like to see. Even the side characters get development (the touched out, pregnant, and tired sister, Chloe? 100% relatable).
The other thing was all of the fun excursions that Miles and Olive got to go on. Sledding? Mistletoe kisses? Polar plunges? All checks and it makes it a truly romantic Christmas novel. There’s fake dating, enemies-to-lovers, and a bit of a forced proximity. Not only that, but it was a clean romance (WHICH IS SO HARD TO FIND NOWADAYS). This is definitely a cozy, stay-in-your-jammies kind of read.
Now to what I didn’t like. I say this about a lot of lighthearted romances, so I honestly think this is just a preference thing and not a truly bad thing. These types of stories lack depth and I want a lot more depth to stories than I think most people do. This is a typical, low-budget Christmas movie type of book and I want a little something more than that most of the time. Not only that, but I feel like the pacing was just really slow at times and I lost my focus A LOT. Again, I think this has a lot more to do with preference than the actual book itself because it really was a good story.
Overall, this is a fun, romantic, enemies-to-lovers, Christmas story that will make you want to sit by a fire and drink hot cocoa. It may not make you want to do a polar plunge, but you’ll definitely be more in the Christmas spirit after finishing it!
Source: Audiobook from Libby Public Library
(P.S. You can read tons of books—including ones written by me—by trying a free trial of Kindle Unlimited!)
