Old friends Shelley, Lena and Pearl have reached their limit with the festive preparation that has always fallen to them, and five days before Christmas, they’ve booked a mini break at the Highlands without their families. It's exactly what they have imagined until they're snowed in. They're forced to re-examine and confront their real reasons for needing to escape.

This book is such a heart-warming read, perfect for the Christmas season! The setting is just perfect - the Highlands with snow and a B&B.

We have three middle-aged women - Shelley, Pearl and Lena as the main characters with their husbands, in-laws, children and the B&B guests as side characters. All the characters are nicely written with their required depths. Nothing too dramatic or overly written.

If you're looking for a holiday romance, this is not it. It is more about self-growth. I like how these three women were troubled and each of them was coping with their own problems before Christmas and how they came out stronger after the season.

Although the ending and the plot is slightly clichéd, it suits the Christmas mood with a festive-hopeful vibe.

Overall, this is a good Christmas read. If you love Sarah Morgan, Lucy Diamond and Veronica Henry, you'll love this too.
𝓜𝔂 𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Thank you NetGalley @netgalley and Boldwood Books @theboldbookclub for this ARC. This review contains my honest opinion about the book

A cute read. I love Fiona Gibson’s wit and charm which come with her books.

Three old friends Lena, Shelley and Pearl plan their pre Christmas escape. They were so relatable. Although Shelley always deserved better.

Fiona Gibson- your books are always a joy. It’s a cosy yet real life read for these autumn evenings.

This book is hilarious! I was chuckling my way through it from the very first page, and my husband kept looking at me like I’d grown another head!

Shelley, Pearl and Lena are three middle-aged women, going through what many middle-aged women do at Christmas and beyond. They’re buying presents, wrapping presents, food shopping, cooking, baking, decorating Christmas trees and still doing the normal run-of-the-mill things such as the washing, the ironing and feeding their family! Phew, I’m exhausted just thinking about it all! Then they get the opportunity to leave all that behind for a few days before Christmas and hole up at a B&B in Scotland. Well I’m sure you can all guess what happens, yep, they get snowed in and have to spend Christmas there.

Fiona Gibson is a brilliant author. Her books make me laugh all the way through and as soon as I saw the title of this one, I knew it would be the same; The characters are brilliant and we get to see how important friends are to each other and how good friends will stick by each other through everything,

‘Tis the Damn Season is a lovely book to sit down with in the lead-up to the holiday season, so why not grab a copy and immerse yourselves in these ladies’ lives for a few hours.

Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Rachel’s Random Resources for the opportunity to read ‘Tis the Damn Season by Fiona Gibson.

In this fun and exciting holiday romance novel, readers join old friends Shelley, Lena, and Pearl who are at their holiday season breaking point and book a last-minute holiday without their families in the Scottish Highlands. As their holiday plans change and they get this well-earned escape, getting snowed in has definitely derailed their holiday plans and led to some unsupervised chaos at home. Forcing them to improvise and confront their reasons behind this spontaneous holiday, Shelley, Lena, and Pearl must make the best of their new holiday situation and their lives back home before they return -- and if they do, how will their lives change? With fantastic, charming characters and some interesting perspective switches throughout the novel, readers get immersed in Shelley, Lena, and Pearl’s stories and the struggles they go through during the holiday season and at other times in their lives. With brilliant character development and a series of chaotic holiday tropes, Gibson has done a fantastic job bringing these characters and this narrative to life. For readers looking for a fun holiday romance novel with fun tropes and some chaos and a happy ending, Gibson’s latest holiday novel is exactly what these readers need this holiday season.

A nice festive read. Struggled to put this novel down. A great story by Fiona Gibson. Would recommend

A festive, fun and cute read! This will get you ready for Christmas!
I'm a big fan of Christimas romance books - so not a suprise that I liked this one too!

December, I'm ready!

This book took me a lot longer to finish than I would have liked. I almost gave up on it a few times, but by halfway in I was hooked. I wanted to know how these three women made it through their trip. Then I learned more about them and their love lives. I was suprised, upset, happy, all the emotions going through this book with these women. Having this story follow three seperate women in different areas of their love lives, on a holiday no less, made me feel a little less alone in certain feelings and moments. I feel this book can be empowering in a way depending on how it is interpreted by the reader. Would definitely read this again to see what else I could gain from their stories.

Very entertaining, yet filled with some difficult moments for the characters as well.

This book is light-hearted (mostly) and describes what sounds to be an idyllic holiday in the Scottish Highlands, right around Christmas time (not jealous or anything!). The ladies are simply lovely, and it was an enjoyable journey reading how they navigated their respective challenging times at Christmas.

Fun and quick to get you into the Christmas spirit!

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this delightful book. I loved it! I loved the friendship of Shelley, Lena and Pearl. I loved how they put themselves first and have such a wonderful time finding themselves. A great holiday read.

It has been a while since I last read a Fiona Gibson novel and at the moment I'm struggling to work out why. For this was really funny, and a thoroughly entertaining story.

I loved Shelley, Lena and Pearl's escape to the Highlands right before Christmas, as they reached their limits with their home situations. And what an escape it is, given they end up running the B&B for a few days!

We also get chapters from a couple of their other halves so we can see what is going on back home, and wow I did not like Shelley's husband, what a cocky git he is!

This is the sort of escape that I think many people wish they could do at a hectic time of year, especially if it feels like the Christmas preparations are rather one sided. There are many memorably funny moments in this book, including a situation with a tub of celebrations!

This is just a really enjoyable book that is a real tonic in the run up to Christmas.

Thank you to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

A Christmas book set in the highlands is exactly what I needed! This was a lighthearted cosy read and it was laugh-out-loud funny in moments. I cannot wait to read more of Gibson's work!

This was my first Fiona Gibson book, and I absolutely loved it! As someone who can never resist a good Christmas read, Tis the Damn Season! did not disappoint. Shelley, Lena, and Pearl’s decision to escape the holiday madness for a mini-break in the Highlands had me laughing from the start. It’s festive, funny, and filled with heartwarming moments as the women reflect on what really matters. Big thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review!

'Tis the Damn Season by Fiona Gibson was a fun and festive escape. Lighthearted, without the cheesy Hallmark movie vibe. Multiple POVs, but very well done and added a lot to the storyline.

4/5 stars. I very much enjoyed this book and recommend it for a great cozy holiday read. Looking forward to discovering other books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Fiona Gibson, and Boldwood books for the opportunity to read the ARC. I was not required to leave a review, and all opinions expressed are my own.

A great holiday season excape, to get us in all the christmas mood! Light and cozy and really enjoyable

What a delightful story! We follow a group of friends who, at the eleventh hour, decide to embark on a getaway before Christmas, entrusting their families to handle all the arrangements. These women are exhausted and feel undervalued, so they hope this trip will provide them with the opportunity to reevaluate their lives and find greater fulfillment. The author strikes a perfect balance between humor and drama, making this a truly enjoyable read during the holiday season.

Such a cute Holiday Romance. Iff try made me swoon and laugh. Definitely a book to add to your winter. TBR!!

What a well written and balanced book! As you follow 3 middle aged women through this journey and see the real struggles they face in their personal lives, one that many women can relate to. It makes you laugh and brings humor to the reality many can understand.

I liked the three story lines and was able to relate to all of them at one point or another. The getaway was spectacularly described and now I want to go to the highlands!

This book wavered between.a 3 and 4 for me so I will round up to 4 stars. This book is about 3 best friends who are all around 50 years old and all have their own reasons to dread the Christmas holiday. These women get a chance to escape to the Scottish countryside just before Christmas and they take it. Throughout this book, we read about the lives of these three friends but also their significant others, their children, and the lives of the other guests and the owner of the bed and breakfast. This book was very realistic about the struggles of marriage, parenting, divorce, and loss but also gives insight on what it takes to survive it all. Life is about connection and lasting relationships rather with a spouse or a best friend. At times this book moved slow for me but overall I found it a good read.

This follows the story of three overwhelmed friends who decide to ‘take a break’ just before Christmas ‘to catch their breath’. What happens after is a series of adventures, misadventures and surprises.

This was enjoyable and a perfect holiday read. It is a classic be careful what you wish for. I love how relatable the plot and events were. There was no sugarcoating of any of the experiences of the main characters.

The characters were real as they can be and you can’t help but immerse yourself in their lives and situations.

This was a celebration of friendship, family, self care and moving on. There is the description of the picturesque landscape of the Scottish Highlands which will make you want to visit.

The ending was nicely wrapped up and I would recommend this to women’s fiction lovers.