3.5🌟
Tropes:
●Brother's best friend
●Enemies to lovers
●Pranks
●Christmas themed
●One house

I liked this book but i didn't love it. It all felt very insta-love-y and i don't like that. The connection felt too physical and i couldn't connect to the characters since it was a shorter book.
Still, it was simple, fun and easy read

This was a sweet read! A little trope-y at times but not painful to read because of it.
Nina was well thought out and the interactions with Tristan believable.
3 stars

I absolutely loved the story of Nina and Tristan. It was a believable hate to love story and I enjoyed reading about Tristan and Nina’s war against each other since they were young.
There was some character development with them both and it was nice to follow that journey with them.
It made me feel pretty Christmassy even though I read it in August!
The ending set up some other romances with the other characters, and I am definitely going to read the other books when they come out.

Super cute and fun read for Christmas in July! There was a lot more emotion than I expected to read which was such a pleasant surprise!

Rating: 4 ⭐️
Spice: 1.5🔥
Tropes: brothers best friend, holiday romance, forced proximity, childhood enemies to lovers

Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the eARC in exchange for my review <3

This is the first book I’ve read by Camilla Isley and I was not disappointed!

It’s the perfect book to gear up and add to your holiday szn collection/TBR. And there were definitely some hints at sequels that I’m excited for.

There is something that really gets me about a good enemies/rivals/prank war trope, and Tristan and Nina did not disappoint. I really don’t have many notes or specific things I can point out as elements I enjoyed, because I just felt that the whole SYNERGY of the story was there and worked for the holiday romcom perfection that it was.

The only thing I wish was… and I have never said this before… that I wish there was MORE!!!! More time to draw out the tension, or their honeymoon phase, or more background behind Dylan and Tristan. MORE EVERYTHING! But again, I fully understand the reason for how it was paced and if it was any longer I very well may have found myself saying “less”

This is a very intense love story but had some funny moments with the pranks that were played. A brother’s best friend realises he has fallen for the brothers sister. Wow fireworks happen. But mother knows best. It was a lovely read with a very neat ending. A perfect Saturday afternoon read.

The perfect read for Christmas in july! It's sweet and heartfelt and a tad spicy. Highly recommended!

I’m a sucker for a happy ending and so I loved this book. It doesn’t matter that the ending waas inevitable, the falling in lust and love was the great part of the book. Nina and Tristan spend half the book in a battle of wills, pulling prank after prank on each other, these ere great to read through and also gave a good emotional description of both of them. Nina, offended by every slight and hurt that makes her feel ugly and Tristan abandoned by his real family and looking for surrogates. The fighting is epic and the getting together is quick, hot and steamy. I guess it has to be when staying with your parents. A great, bouncy read that hooked me in and I read this straight through in one sitting.

This Is Not a Holiday Romance is an easy "holiday" read that will be well received by readers looking for a quick enjoyable read. However, it lacked depth, had an extremely predictable plot and unfortunately in a genre flooded with competition was distinctly average with unmemorable characters.

If you're looking for a light read this would do the job however I feel there are much better alternatives on the market currently.

Thanks to NetGalley for the early preview to this story.

This Is Not a Holiday Romance is a light, easy read that might appeal to fans of straightforward contemporary romance. However, its predictable plot, underdeveloped characters, and lack of emotional depth make it an average addition to the genre. Camilla Isley's charming setting and accessible writing style are highlights, but they aren't enough to compensate for the story's shortcomings.

While the novel offers a pleasant escape to a picturesque island, it doesn't provide the compelling narrative or emotional engagement that makes for a truly great romance read. Readers looking for a more substantive and memorable romance may find themselves disappointed with This Is Not a Holiday Romance.

What a cute 4 star holiday romance !

Nina and Tristan have serious chemistry. Can we really believe they never figured that out through all this time ? mmm I don't know, and I don't care. It works thanks to forced proximity and so much "glittery" fun !

The best friend's trope can be tricky (for real, how difficult can it be for a guy to accept his best friend and his sister being in a relationship?) and it's really well done here.

The reader is hooked from the very beginning and cheers for Tristan, the very great guy, and Nina and her complexe.

It's a quick and very funny read that I whole-heartedly recommend.


Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for providing an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

This was an enjoyable read. Isley crafted a compelling enemy-to-lovers, close-proximity, closed-door romance with a lot of playful pranks between the main characters, which added a fun dynamic. However, I had two minor qualms: I usually appreciate an epilogue, but this one felt a bit unsatisfying, introducing a challenging situation rather abruptly. Additionally, there were moments of miscommunication that made me want to shout, "Just talk to each other already!" Despite these issues, the book was still a fun read. Thanks to NetGalley for providing an early copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for providing this book, with my honest review below.

This Is Not a Holiday Romance was in fact a holiday romance but wrapped up in the classic enemies to lovers elements of great banter and light revenge that resulted in great banter - in addition to some high heat.

Nina and Tristan find themselves trapped together for Christmas which sees their prank war, which Nina has escalated to get back at Tristan for his teasing when they were younger, hit its zenith. I loved the characters (as in every Camilla Isley book) being more than just on the surface. While Nina was a little hard to handle at the start of this book as soon as things hit their stride I grew to love her and Tristan (and their romance).

You can’t go wrong with a Camilla Isley book, and while this took place at Christmas it’s the perfect read year round because it’s truly more about the characters and the exploration of their relationship, past and present, than it is the setting that brings them together.

I have to admit it took me some time to get into this story because I was kind of annoyed with Nina. She took some time to grow on me. She seemed pretty immature in the beginning. I do think both her and Tristan were at first but Nina took the cake for being the worst. But when they finally stopped with the pranks and hating and got together I really enjoyed her. Together these two make a cute pair. A good enemies to lovers story. It was a quick read of me. The story takes place around Christmas time but it doesn’t focus a lot on actual Christmas. Over all a great story. Any story my Camilla Isley is a great story to me!

A cute Christmas romance, with brothers bestfriend and eninemes to lovers. Funny moments and great tension. A nice short read that gives you just enough for the Holiday feeling.

Nina Thompson has one Christmas wish: to avoid her brother’s obnoxiously handsome best friend, Tristan, like the plague. From the moment he humiliated her as a teenager to their escalating revenge schemes, Nina and Tristan’s relationship can only be defined as an all-out prank war! And there is yet to be a winner.

But it just so happens the ghost of Christmas present has other ideas. When Tristan unexpectedly crashes her family’s Christmas, Nina’s dreams of a peaceful holiday vanish faster than Santa up a chimney. Determined to end their rivalry for good, she braces herself for one last prank-filled showdown.

But when they find themselves snowed in, with no way of avoiding each other amongst the holiday festivities, they discover their heated exchanges have been masking a different kind of sizzle. Caught in a snow globe of holiday romance, they decide to let their fiery chemistry burn bright—but this is absolutely and unequivocally nothing more than a secret fling destined to melt with the snow, this is not a forever romance…

This was such a treat to read! Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, and this was fun and funny all the way through! The chemistry between Tristan and Nina was hot, the side characters were amazing, and the plot pulled me through this very enjoyable holiday gem!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

This Is Not a Holiday Romance is a new romance story from Camilla Isley. It's packed full of a few classic tropes (enemies to lovers, brother's best friend, forced proximity) and combined with the Christmas setting it will make a great holiday read!

Nina Thompson has an ongoing feud with her brother's best friend Tristan. Believing his teasing from her teenage years is rooted in malevolence, Nina has always taken revenge upon him as often as possible. But now that the pair are unexpectedly snowed in together at her family's home for Christmas the prank war escalates to a new level, followed by a very startling realisation that they are actually attracted to one another.

Determined to keep their newfound feelings hidden from Nina's brother, the pair's exchanges become heated in a different way now. But will this just be a holiday fling, or is it destined to become something far greater, and what will happen when their secret romance is revealed?

A fun romance story, but also featuring some real discussions on friendship and families.

I enjoyed every part of this book! This Is Not A Holiday Romance by Camilla Isley was great.
This book is a perfect beach read. The characters were likable and made me want to be friends with them all.
Nina and Tristan have known each other almost their whole life. Tristan is best friends with Nina’s brother. She had to tolerate him no matter how much she wanted to avoid him when he was around.
When he showed up for the Christmas holiday at Nina’s family’s house, she just knew that the holiday was not going to be fun. She did not look forward to having to tolerate him. But she would do the best she could just to make the time pleasant for everyone.
The more they were around each other the chemistry between them was so strong that as I was reading it jumped off the pages.
I loved how they interacted and when things changed, they both knew they had to hide it from her brother.
This is a fun, easy and enjoyable book that I recommend it to everyone who wants an escape from the world around them.
Thank you NetGalley, Camilla Isley, and Boldwood Books for the ARC of This is Not A Holiday Romance. This is my personal review.

Despite the title, This is Not a Holiday Romance is indeed a holiday romance, and a great one at that. I loved it!

Thank you netgalley for the chance to read this.
I love Camilla Isley's books. They are always quick, fun, easy reading, and just adorable. Her characters are well developed but not overly complicated, which I've always loved. This one is no exception. Easy 3 stars for me.
Nina and Tristan have known each other much of their lives: Tristan is her brother's best friend and the bane of her existence. They have spent alot of their lives playing elaborate jokes on each other, which I found really funny and completely believable. But after seeing her naked and being stuck together over the Christmas holiday, they both quickly realize their 'enemies' status is really just heavy attraction.
Do Tristan and Nina transition really quickly from enemies to instalove? Yup: its a little whiplashy, but I honestly don't care. When I read a holiday book I'm typically looking for that syrupy sweetness, and this completely delivered. Its PG, maybe PG-13 at most, and the 'third act breakup' did not last long, which is great. I really loved their banter and some of the supporting characters: maybe a solo story for Dylan is on the way?