I wasn't able to pick this one up this past holiday season with unexpected chaos in my life, but I am excited to get to it next holiday season!

⭐️2.75/3

While I didn’t like this book per se, I think I genuinely enjoyed it? I just don’t think I enjoyed it in the way that I was meant to. For what it’s worth I couldn’t put the book down and I sped right through it. Unfortunately, I just ended up loving every other character besides the main two and every other plot point besides the romance.

For me Penn fell into the “literally just a guy… hit him with your car” category, I think the book would have really benefited from his POV. And Annie I don’t even know. She was all over the place and not in a fun way. I love an oblivious FMC, but she really just took everything several steps too far. Being in her head for 300+ pages was ROUGH.

I felt like I was reading like 3 different books at once, and there were so many characters, but somehow they all stood out enough to keep track of which isn’t always the case. I saw one review that said it felt more like a TV show with everything going on, and that’s the perfect way to describe it. But Annie & Penn were so insufferable I was rooting for all of the (female) antagonists from like 40% onwards. Bunny and Sophia (and even Melissa in that last scene) were truly iconic.

I just got second hand embarrassment from certain parts so bad that I almost DNF’d multiple times, but it was like a car wreck. I couldn’t look away. All that being said, there was still something charming about this book, and Lily Joseph's writing style. This book promised everything I normally love and delivered on none of it, but maybe it delivered what I needed? It was silly and quirky and didn’t take itself too seriously, and despite everything there was just something slightly addicting in this that I can’t quite put my finger on. I ended up having a good time.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Bookouture for the ARC!

It was a cute romance book with the perfect Christmas setting! It was a cute "enemies-to-lovers" and "opposites-attract". Really recommend this book!

What can I say I just really enjoyed and loved this story it was easy to read, did it in one sitting I may have to re read it as I felt like it just happened so fast. Lovely character development and easy to follow characters

This book had an interesting premise that had me so excited to read. However it felt like to much there was a romance, a mystery, and so many side characters with there own plot lines. I wouldn't have minded the side characters so much but I wasn't a fan of about half of them so it felt a little unnecessary.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

This is the wittiest book ever and perfect for fans of enemies to lovers.

The book follows Annie who is used to being single and thus her whole business revolves around making single women feel seen. While on the other hand is Penn who just needs to go home with a girl and not be that guy and fate is weird so when these two decide to share a shop and save on rent. Sparks fly or is it hatred..enjoyed it ..loved it and recommend it.
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Pretty good but I felt like it dragged. I had to work to pay attention.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

For the first year ever, I’m very much in my Christmas romcom era - and I’m loving it!

Annie and Penn are both so likeable, and I loved seeing them flourish as the book went on. Their romance felt very real as well, nothing felt forced which I feel is sometimes the case with Christmas romances.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the arc. 🫶🏻

This was a really cute enemies to lovers/fake dating/forced proximity, Christmas Rom com!
I really liked the vibe and the different settings.
I also wasn't expecting some of the friendships to form!
I also really liked that this was a HEA, and everyone had a happy ending.
This was overall a feel-good Christmas book with a small bit of spice!
The only thing I didn't like was the FMC at times. I felt that she was a bit of a Debbie downer and didn't communicate or listen when she should have.
I really liked the MMC.
I would definitely recommend this!

DNF @ 70%
I REALLY tried to finish this, but it just wasn't for me. I was hopefully I was going to love this as it was such a good premise - forced proximity/enemies to lovers.
However, I really disliked the main character. She was extremely childish and took no one else's wants into account. I found there was 0 chemistry between the main character and love interest and felt it went from 0 to 100 with no build up. I did like what we seen of Penn & thought the story would have benefited from having his POV.

I think this book would have its audience, but unfortunately it wasn't me.

Thank you to NetGalley & Bookouture for the arc in return for an honest review.

Dnf 50% i just don’t understand where is the chemistry, it just feels like a dialogue and that is it
I tried multiple times to continue this book but it doesn’t feel right
But i have to say the enemies part was quite good

I was so excited about a fake dating Christmas book, and while both of those things are part of the story, there wasn’t enough of either for me. Annie and Penn’s story is interesting, but their animosity was a little too dragged out for me before we got to the meat of the story. So I supposed pacing was my main issue, and the drama at the end was a bit too over the top for me. But I did enjoy this book, and I think other people will too.

3.5 ⭐️

This is an odd little book. I loved Lily Joseph’s The Near Miss very much and I did enjoy reading Stuck Together. However, I do think there was too much going on in this book — and what we were told on the cover is such a small part of what the actual story is. I don’t think my expectations based on the blurb were met with what I actually read.

As with The Near Miss I thoroughly loved the writing and the characters — but in this book we had too many storylines and developments. It almost felt like a watching a TV show where every episode had a different theme. So, there’s a lot going on.

Our MMC Penn is a bit of an insufferable tool for half of the book and FMC Annie is stubborn and comes across as self righteous more often than I’d like but Joseph’s charming writing makes up for a lot of the things that didn’t pull me in as much as The Near Miss did.

I can see readers putting the book aside for a while to pick it up again later because of the number of different developments. So it might not be a “gonna read this in one sitting” book. But the epilogue was great and it’s what brought the story to a nice end.

Yes, an odd little read but it was entertaining and mostly enjoyable — when Penn and Annie weren’t particularly insufferable or self righteous 😬 Will I read the next Lily Joseph? Try and stop me! Her writing is delightful!!

I love forced proximity and Enemies to lovers, so this book was made for me! I giggled through the whole book as I loved the humour and the characters. But the story as such was nothing extremely new.

The perfect cute, cosy rom-com for this time of year. I mean, forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, AND Christmas all in one book? Um, yes please!

What a cute little romance!

A perfect cozy read for dreary winter days. I liked that the romance aspect followed the predicted route, while the story added just a little mystery element.
Overall, I enjoyed the story, and appreciated that it wasn't too full on Christmas.

A cosy christmas rom-com, that was enjoyable if a little predictable.

Other reviewers didnt seem to enjoy the 'whodunit' element, but I thought it added something a little different - although I had guessed the culprit very early on, there was still another element to the reveal that I hadn't been expecting.

I agree with others that it would have been good to get some of the narration from Penn's perspective.

3.75 ⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 1 semi-open door romance scene🌶️
A holiday read if you’re looking for a hallmark movie vibes. Enemies to lovers, forced proximity, hidden identity, and fake dating tropes included.

Annie falls head over heels for Penn the first time they meet at bar during one of his gigs. But when both Penn and Annie sign up to share a pop up shop space during the holidays, Penn turns out to be a little more than cold towards her. Penn with his broody artist music shop, and Annie with her eclectic set up of random gadgets and household items, the two more than clash on styles.
No matter how off putting Penn is, to both her and the other tenants of the building, Annie can’t help but still feel a crush towards him and wanting to make things work. That’s until she runs into Penn at a protest of a hunting party, a party in which Penn’s family seems to be hosting. Turns out Penn’s the heir to a lord, and he’s in need of a fake girlfriend for the holidays. Who better to do him this favor, than his co-store owner nemesis.

This was just like a hallmark movie. Lots of festive feels, the ambiance and scene setting put you right into the holiday spirit. Personally I found Annie a little whiny and annoying when it came to her finances. She’s dealing with her and her parents financial issues and the way she’s so put off by accepting help made her react at times a little childish. I get not wanting to feel like “charity” but at some point you have to acknowledge that your parents are grown adults and you don’t have to completely take on their load. It’s okay to get a little help when offered. I love LOVED the Jean Luc bit with her side of the store and overall enjoyed her character the other non financial worrying percent of the time. Penn was okay, I wanted a little more from his character. We see his depth when it comes to his family issues but I would have liked to see him romance Annie more. The first half of the story is mainly the two bickering and bantering in their shop and I found this to stretch on longer than necessary. I wanted more romance or at least tension leading up to romance. The fake dating trope, I would have liked to see more of but it didn’t take place until a little after the halfway point. Theres plenty of other plots going on to speed up some of the slower parts too. A secret shop sabotage had me guessing the whole time. Then there’s a couple twists at the end that really carried out to a grand finale. Definitely had some laugh out moments throughout too. Overall a good read, it just took me a while to get into.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Who I think would enjoy this book: People who enjoy british humor like I do. People who enjoy forced proximity and enemies to lovers.

DNF at 66%. I may try to revisit this one later but I need to put it down for now.

I really wished that I enjoyed this book more than I did. I really liked the premise. Forced proximity, enemies to lovers and fake dating are all of my favorite tropes but this one seemed to fall a bit flat for me. The beginning of the book took a long time to get to the plot. The characters had a brief interaction and then went back to not liking each other. I felt like the chemistry was difficult to find with these characters.

Loved this book. It’s great to see what happens when you take a chance, when everything feels like it’s falling apart around you