What an adorable Christmas addition in the Ever After Street Series!

I love a good enemies to lovers story that’s for all the wrong reasons, and Franca and Raff’s road to romance was funny and entertaining throughout the novel. They are rival shop owners of year-round Christmas stores competing against each other, located on Ever After Street.

This is a cute Christmas story to add to your TBR list this upcoming holiday season!

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC of this novel; all opinions are my own.

4 ⭐️

ARC Review:

This is a truly heartwarming enemies to lovers book.

The main characters are rival shop owners of year round Christmas stores. Throughout the book they revive the joy of Christmas in each other and bring back the love they each had for their craft and life in general.

I really enjoyed this read; Raff is such a wonderful character! I loved both his & Franca’s humour, but mostly how good natured he is and the fact he is proudly in touch with his emotions. Also we need to talk about how amazing his family is!

My first book by Jaimie Adman’s, but I would definitely read more.

0/5 🌶️ rating

Favourite quotes:
He might be a con-artist, but at least he’s a con-artist who reads.

‘I’d rather eat peanut butter straight from the jar than worry about gaining an extra few pounds. Life’s too short to count calories.’

‘Sorry, I’m a hugger.’ He steps back sharply and holds both hands up in a surrendering gesture. ‘If I see someone in need of a hug, I can’t help myself. Even if they’d probably impale me with a giant nutcracker if they had full use of both hands.’

Crying doesn’t make anyone weak. You don’t always have to be tough and standoffish. It’s okay to need help sometimes

‘I can be nice sometimes, when I’m not busy being an arch-nemesis.’

He throws his arms out and turns in a circle. ‘It’s the craft room of dreams!’

‘Be careful, you’re getting dangerously close to suggesting we have something in common, and it might be against the rules of the universe to have anything in common with your arch-nemesis.’

I’ – he lets out a fed-up sounding sigh, and when he catches the wood this time, he doesn’t toss it again – ‘have nothing left to give.’

It’s my personal mission to support any shop with such a good pun in its name.’

‘Christmas is the time of year to remember what we’ve forgotten and feel like a kid again. You’re never closer to your younger self than you are at Christmas. The years melt away and it’s okay to be young and silly and believe in magic again.’

Maybe I’ve accidentally swallowed a mouthful of sawdust because there’s no way I’m thinking again about Raphael Dardenne being attractive. Sawdust, that must be it.

‘I can’t go for dinner with your family! I can’t hold utensils, Raff! I can’t use a knife and fork! I can’t eat in public! Dardenne public, at that!’ ‘Oh, don’t worry, we keep our horns and cloven hooves hidden at meal times.’

‘Oh, good, it’s “let’s talk about Raff’s love life” time again,’ Raff says good-naturedly. ‘And we’ve only had this conversation three times so far this week, but God forbid we let Franca leave without the full Dardenne experience.’

The existence of a pulse makes you the perfect candidate for my family to embarrass me in front of.’

‘Sorry, I did warn you – I’m a hugger and a crier.’ ‘If only more men were. C’mere.’

‘The world needs more men who aren’t afraid to show their emotions. I know you’re the strong one for your family, but you don’t need to put on a front with me. Life isn’t easy and it gets really tiring trying to pretend that it is.’

‘And I couldn’t possibly think less of you than I did before, so the only way is up.’ His adorable giggle turns into a full-blown guffaw, and somehow, his fingers are still intertwined with mine. ‘A surprisingly comforting thought.’

‘I don’t want you to go, Raff.’ ‘For years, you’ve wanted to see the back of me.’ ‘And now, I quite like seeing the front of you.’

‘I’m not sure if you’re a genius or seriously sleep-deprived…’

‘I think the fumes from your ceramic kiln have scrambled your brain… in the best way possible,’

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that Maltesers always taste better from a box than from a bag.’

‘Have you read The Hunger Games?’ Raff whispers into my ear, and I nod. ‘It’s like the beginning of that where they can all run to the centre point and grab any weapons they can get, except no one gets horribly murdered in this version.’ He glances behind us. ‘Unless anyone takes that chocolate reindeer. Then all bets are off because that’s ours.

‘Haven’t you eaten enough?’ Erin looks at the quickly diminishing pile of gingerbread on Trisha and Sofia’s cake board. ‘There’s no such thing as enough, Mummy! It’s Christmas!’ Something else we can all agree on.

‘I don’t think any family is perfect, but they’re yours, aren’t they? Every family is individual and there’s no right or wrong, they just are.’

‘Yay!’ He presses a kiss to my cheek from behind and then groans. ‘Can you pretend that you didn’t just hear a fully grown adult man utter the word “yay”?’ I laugh and tilt my head back until my lips find his jaw and brush against it. ‘Trust me, I will never forget, but you have my assurance that I will never tell anyone about this oversight in your manhood.’

‘I’ve never had an arch-nemesis, but I don’t think that’s quite the way you’re supposed to look at someone you hate.’

‘It’s time to move on. Away from nutcrackers, Christmas, and any kind of magic.’ ‘You never believed in magic anyway.’ My lip wobbles and my voice breaks. ‘I did when I was with him. I believed in everything. Enchanted snow globes. The magic of Christmas. Santa.’

Find someone who makes you feel like a Christmas tree when the lights have just been plugged in, and when you do, hold onto him tight, and when things get difficult, you bloody well fight for him too.’

I think this is my favourite Jaimie of Admans so far. So magical. You have old and new characters. Fran and Raff falling in love is a beautiful story with twists, family secrets and the magic of Christmas Ever After. I love the snow globes and nutcracker. You just escaped into this book. I did not want to finish it. Brilliant

Wow!! Absolutely amazing. A fantastic addition to the ever after series. Found it hard to put down as was wrapped up in all the love, magic and Christmas inside this book.

Thank you Jaimie Admans, Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

Just finished reading this... I'm shattered as I couldn't go to sleep without knowing what was happening 01:41
Superb!
Felt completely enveloped in the world of Ever After Street and completely invested in the characters by the end of the first couple of chapters!
Thank you for a great read Jaimie Admans

Thank you to netgalley to allow me to review this book ....... And since the summer weather has been so bad it was just lovely to curl up and get lost in this story. I loved this book and it's the best Christmas enemies-to-lovers I’ve ever read! A Nutcracker shop owner struggling to keep her business going is looking for her Christmas miracle in all of the wrong places! Having to compete for her place on Ever After Street with the magical snow globe maker ends in a disaster that might end up being the most magical thing this Christmas. Highly recommend this book.

Christmas Ever After is the Hallmark Christmas Movie that I need to be made immediately! This story was such a cute enemies to lovers story between a Nutcracker Shop and a Magical Snow globe Shop owners who have both lost their Christmas spirit.

I adored reading the love story between Franca and Raff who were two Grinches locked in a battle to be the last standing store on Christmas Ever After. I was amused by all the ways that Raff uses to try to help Franca after her accident to show her that she important to the community and helped her find the magic of Christmas again.

Just like all the other Ever After Street books, Jaimie Admans brings all the great fairytale and Christmas puns in the store names and really brings to life a street that I wish I could really visit! This story really brings out the sense of community with all the shop owners and how they are really there to support and encourage each other.

I really enjoyed that all the characters from Ever After Street were featured in this one and really brought Christmas into this series! I really hope this is not the last time we will be visiting Christmas Ever After and Ever After Street!

This was a wonderful addition to the Ever After Street book series, which is one of my favourites. I love this author’s writing, and always feel really engaged with the characters, who always seem like everyday people with a little twist.
This particular love story focuses on what happens when you have made an enemy out of somebody you don’t know, and what happens and changes when you do get to know that person and their family. There was nothing about this story I’d change, I loved it all!

Jaimie Admans has done it again!
Now I know I sound like a broken record when I comes to Jaimies books, BUT!!!
THEY ARE AMAZING!
Her newest that is available on Netgalley right now is no exception.
The characters are so brilliantly that I just fall in love with them from the very beginning 💕
This story revolves around on of Jaimies most favourite things... nutcracker.
The main characters both own shops in Christmas ever after, this is around the corner from Ever After Street, Franca runs the Nutcracker store and Raff runs love is all Around which makes and sells the most beautiful sounding snowglobes ever!
They are arch enemies but for all of the wrong reasons.
I will not spoil the read for anyone, but all I will say, is that I am now ready to get out my Christmas decorations, make a hot chocolate and put my Christmas tree up!

Thank you Jaimie for yet another amazing read xx
Easy 5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion

What a festive and fun Christmas story!!! I loved it so much!!! Jaimie Admans loves all things Christmas and it SHOWS. The setting and atmosphere of the story were absolutely perfect. I wanted to go to all the Christmas themed shops, especially Gnome for the Holidays. (I also loved the punny names of all the stores!)

This book follows Franca, a woman who owns a shop that specializes in custom homemade nutcrackers. After an accident leaves her with broken fingers, she must work with her nemesis Raff. who runs the nearby snow globe store.

I’m not sure I’ve read an enemies to lovers story by this author but this one was so cute! I liked that Franca was the grinchy character, while Raff was absolutely full to the brim with Christmas spirit. It was a fun change and I liked seeing Franca find her joy in the holiday again.

This is a must read for anyone who loves Christmas books. It was adorable! I really wish Ever After Street and Christmas Ever After were real places because I would totally go there!

a cozy, little read for the holidays{ i will definitely be reading this again when december rolls around!

Franca y Raff tiene su negocio en el pueblo de Christmas ever after, ella hace cascanueces de madera y el hace bolas de cristal.
El negocio de él tiene algo particular y es que se supone que puede hacer que las almas gemelas se reconozcan, sólo es necesario que ambos toquen la mismo tiempo una bola de cristal y si los muñecos se mueven significa que es el/la indicado/a.

Franca no lo soporta porque sus padres se casaron por tocar las bolas de cristal, se creyeron el cuento de las almas gemelas y todo terminó mal. Piensa que es un estafador.

Ella lo detesta, él no se deja y le regresa lo que ella ñe haga, siempre están peleando, entonces sus compañeros al estar hartos de tener que aguantarlos hacen una competencia para que uno se quede y el otro se vaya.




No me encantó cuando al principio, pero conforme pasaban los capítulos la historia me envolvió.



Quedaría muy bien como película.



Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have had a tradition since lockdown of reading Christmas books in July and what better book to start this off with than this one. This is the 4th instalment of the ever after street series but could be read as a standalone although i recommend starting at the beginning especially if you like a fairytale

This instalment introduced us to Franca and Raffs stories and also saw the return of our favourite characters from previous books in the series and the The over arching theme was how everyone is not always as they seem at face value and how sometimes something wonderful can come out of an unpleasant situation. This was the perfect cosy read and was full of twinkling magic with the beauty of nutcrackers and snow globes thrown in which as a lover of both of these things made this an extra special read and loved the descriptions of them and of the other festive delights in the book. I could almost taste the Terry’s chocolate orange hot chocolate while reading. This is the perfect feel good read for curling up with during the festive season and I will definitely be re reading it then. This series is the equivalent of a hug in book form.

I was excited to read at the end that there is going to be another book coming covering the story of the mermaids treasure trove and I can’t wait for that

Awwww! The best Christmas enemies-to-lovers I’ve ever read! A Nutcracker shop owner struggling to keep her business going is looking for her Christmas miracle in all of the wrong places! Having to compete for her place on Ever After Street with the magical snow globe maker ends in a disaster that might end up being the most magical thing this Christmas!

There is something about Jaimie Admans. She makes me cry. All of the Ever After Street books, so far, have made me cry - happy tears though.

This is a stunning book to give you festive feels, and the magic of Ever After Street sweeps you off your feet. Fran & Raff are incredible. I already had a love for snow globes but now I want a home full of them and of course nutcrackers!

This is just the perfect winter romance and I already cannot wait for the next Ever After Street book!!!

Holiday must for Enemies to Lovers fans!
🌟🌟🌟.5

I very much love the setting and how Christmas and holiday focused it was, but the MC’s attitude kept pulling me away from the coziness of the book.

Perhaps I’m not into EtoL as much as I thought it was… or the conflicts and ‘comebacks’ felt very immature. Just not something I legit picture a business owner doing or else I’d be worried.

I def think this would rank a 4-5 🌟 for those that are suuuuper into EtoL

Regardless, it kept me entertained all the way through and I def wanted to keep reading, just kinda annoyed at them and started on the wrong foot.

I love Christmas romance books just as much as I love watching movies on the Hallmark Channel. Christmas Ever After was a fabulous book! A five star read!

When I saw that this was enemies to lovers? I signed up immediately! This was the perfect little Christmas book! I ate it up and enjoyed every moment between these two!

This book was so romantic and I enjoyed it so much, I would definitely recommend reading this in the winter because the vibes are so good! I adore the two main characters and the connection between them! Lovely book and I can't wait for others to read when it releases