I’m trying to figure out if my reaction to Make the Season Bright is a personal taste issue or not - certainly, I got a sinking feeling as our POV changed in the second chapter, and I realised this was likely a second chance romance. However, there are some romances following this trope which have bucked the trend, and which I have adored. I also enjoyed Herring Blake’s other work, and was completely in the mood for a festive romance, and so I continued on.
By the mid-way point, I was finding it really hard to sympathise with our main duo - particularly Brighton. Despite their many years of history together, there was sometimes a lack of depth to the connection between Brighton and Charlotte - an issue exacerbated by the constant miscommunication (or lack of communication at all) which sometimes made the book an actively frustrating reading experience.
That said, I found the supporting cast (right down to Snickerdoodle the dog!) to be really engaging, and their interactions and humour pulled me through the book. The ending was heartwarming and felt satisfactory, leaving this a mostly enjoyable and quick read.

I absolutely love a good gay romance, and Make the Season Bright has all the sapphic drama, joy and queer family that I would expect. Brighton and Charlotte have a good amount of chemistry, which is helped by a slowly developing backstory that explains their complicated and messy past. The use of music and their shared expression of love through this art form was also well done and well thought out. And I also especially loved their friendship group, which felt realistic and wholesome - especially Wes and Sloane. They have a rather sweet romance that counterbalances the more over the top love of the main protagonists well.

What I didn't really like was the logic behind the initial breakup, and how Charlotte could even begin to forgive Brighton. What she did, in my eyes, was irredeamable. I genuinely don't think their relationship would last long term. The implausibility that they could somehow end up spending Christmas together also required me to suspend my disbelief a lot. And at the start there's a lot of talk from Charlotte regarding some imagined Christmas curse that then fizzles out and is barely mentioned for the rest of the book. It could have been removed entirely and would have made no difference to the overall plot.

So overall a mixed bag. Good amount of drama and tension, but the story itself had a lot of plot holes.

Loved this so much!! The perfect Christmas rom com and it has The Holiday vibes!! Definitely one to pick up this Christmas season

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for the review copy

I wasn’t sure if I’d love this or not as second chance romance is not my favourite trope, but I will read anything Ashley Herring Blake writes.

My main issue with second chance romance is that the thing that caused them to break up is usually pretty solid and they should stick to that, and then they get back together without fixing what caused them to separate in the first place which puts them on the same train to the same ending in my opinion.

A thing that helped here was that they were very young when they got together, causing them to make unwise decisions and not communicate to each other properly. I feel like they still didn’t communicate the best in this book, but I loved to see them learn from this and grow. They didn’t do a “so many years have passed so we have nothing to work on”, and I really liked that.

I loved how Christmassy the book was, too, it was a recurring theme. A lot of Christmas romances I’ve read this year only mentioned it a couple of times and that was it, but you’re never in doubt about what time of year this book takes place in. I wanted those Christmas vibes!!

Overall, loved it

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I will say though that I’m not sure I’m convinced they will last. Although they did decide to work through their issues, and no relationship is without its faults, I’m not sure how either person would be happy outside of where they are currently happy, which is what broke them up in the first place. I think they want something similar but different from their lives, so I’m not sure their magnetism to each other is really solid enough to keep them going their whole lives.

I can live in hope, though, as I do hope they work it out in time

It was a very good romance, but not my favorite from the author. I had a bit of a hard time accepting the romance in this second chance romance, without much talk when they first got back together. I get where all the communication issues are coming from, but I perhaps would have prefered a bit more of a talk before the steamy scenes :')

I still enjoyed the character growth of Brighton and Charlotte, and the small moments they got together, both cute and funny. As always from this author, she gives us a really great friends group with each having their own character, importance and their romance ; so I really loved that part! I also enjoyed the fake dating idea which for once was done well haha.

Overall it was a very good romance, cute and steamy and all about music, in a very seasonal wintery vibe!

Really enjoyed this second chance romance. This gave all the holiday, heartwarming hallmark vibes I expected from this. Full of angst, sweet spice and al little bit of grumpy sunshine mixed in. I really enjoyed the MC’s Brighton and Charlotte, and really liked that we got to see their back story. I absolutely loved the Christmassy holiday vibe.

Thank you for the ARC in exchange for this review.

“She was light and air and water, while Charlotte was solid earth.”

I wasn’t entirely sure if a festive winter read was going to tickle me. I’m in a summer Christmas region, and the focus on snow and Western imagery has been boring me. But for whatever reason, I requested Make the Season Bright, and I am quite happy I did so.

This absolutely qualifies as a cozy queer romance. It has plenty drama and trauma, a good dose of smutttt, and a really fun lovers-to-enemies kind of plot (love those reverse tropes, mh).

This queer novel is about queer love and like; not about angst and The Closet - and I love that. As much as there are still many spaces in the world that are not queer-affirming, Make the Season Bright is just so warm and welcoming and takes the emphasis off of the characters’ sexuality, and onto their life/love dramas.

Well recommended for some Christmas love and drama.

I love the Bright Falls series so I was excited to get stuck into this. Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat. It is a cute festive read with the perfect cutesy christmassy small town setting. The scene setting was beautifully done.

My main issue with the book was Charlotte. I hated her and it made rooting for the couple difficult. She was self absorbed and a terrible friend. Sloane deserved so much better. All of that would be fine if she learnt from her mistakes but she didn't show any growth. Even at the end when she's apologising to Sloane she still doesn't ask how she's doing and makes it about her. I was actually more interested in the side characters. They seemed like a lot of fun. I loved Bright though and she showed so much growth, she deserved better.

I would give this 4.5 stars. The perfect holiday read to pick up this December!

Make the Season Bright is an incredibly fun and festive holiday romance! This book is perfect for everyone who loves a good second chance romance and wants to see festive activities in a charming small town.

I loved how both characters had their clear flaws and miscommunications, but it always felt grounded and realistic. Their secrecy about their past added a fun bit of tension to the situation. Ashley Herring Blake just always knows what she's doing.

This was such a fun read! I loved all the characters and settings, from being at home in the shared apartment to the cosy town, the locations really helped make the book.

Whilst I do like a good second chance romance trope (which I thought was handled really well with the reconnecting!) I'm not a fan of miscommunication and whilst some of my favourite books have this trope, in this book it was just a little extra infuriating with some of the situations, although I was still rooting for them!

That aside, I did really enjoy this story and following everyone's character arcs. Such an emotional and lovely little festive read.

I love the second chance trope in romance books but if I was left at the altar during my wedding and then met my ex-fiancee 5 years later who then proceeds to gaslight me into thinking I was the problem despite her own lack of communication, would I really want to give said person a second chance?

Suffice to say, I did not like this. Both characters are unlikeable (Brighton especially I'm sorry) and it was hard for me to root for them being together when the reason for their break up was that one got left at the altar during their wedding day and was gaslighted when they met again by the altar-leaver despite HER being the one who left? Don't get me wrong I think BOTH are at fault because their poor communication skills but Brighton keeps saying stuff like "well you didn't see me/you didn't see the person in front of you" to Charlotte instead of actually telling the reason made me so annoyed.

I truly loved the concept of this but alas. One thing I enjoyed was the friends dynamic though.

This was a lovely and emotional festive read. After finding out how Charlotte and Brighton’s engagement had ended, I expected to dislike Brighton massively, but Ashley does a great job making the characters whole so we’re able to see how they got to that point. This then makes it easier to see how much they still love each other, that so much of their first ending was down to circumstance and fate brings them back together.
I loved seeing Charlotte open up to people after years of closing herself off and I loved seeing Brighton work for what she wants, to realise she’s worth putting herself and her dreams first.
I also loved the surrounding characters, seeing them all fall in love too and seeing them all get their happy ending. And I loved that combination of family and found family, perfect for the holidays.

It seems to be my Ashley Herring Blake phase this year. I've read a lot written by her this year.
I couldn't believe my luck when I got approved for a digital ARC of her Chritmas title "Make the Season Bright" on NetGalley. Since I'm struggeling with regular eBooks or books at the moment, I put a hold on the audiobook of this one at my library and I enjoyed that one when it was available.

Sure enough, I didn't think this was all that Christmas-y at all, but it was a good romance nonetheless. Charlotte and Brighton were interesting characters I didn't grew tired of hearing about, listening to their thoughts and what they went through. It's easy for the reader to connect with the story - either Charlotte's part of Brighton's. Music is a big theme in this book and also finding yourself. I kind of expected it to be more like a Christmas-movie considering the beautiful cover, which it didn't deliver. As mentioned before, Christmas is hardly a topic in this story, but the time of year it takes place in.

It was pretty sweet, not my favorite book of all time. However, I had a good time listening to the audiobook for "Make the Season Bright" and kind of like the pun in the title (Bright as in Brighton, haha). It was everything you're used to from an Ashley Herring Blake book and the spice was spectactular, I got to admit. If you're a fan of this author anyway, this one is something you don't want to miss. If you're new to the author's queer romances, I think this could be a good start, since I thought the topics and tough times the characters have to go through are a lot more relatable and very deep.

This was such a cute Christmas romance. It really had so many elements to make it one of my favorite seasonal reads of this year, but despite the gorgeousness of the setting and the love I had for that merry band of sort-of-friends, I could never quite get behind the fact that Brighton left Charlotte at the altar. I think I would have rooted for them a lot more if it had been a different kind of break-up.
It was queer, fun, hot, and full of the tropes that make Christmas romances delightfully expected, but it failed to completely hit the mark in my case.

At the time of writing this review (November 16th) it’s been two days since I finished Make the Season Bright and I’m still not sure what I thought of it. The concept sounded right up my street but it wasn’t executed quite as well as I’d hoped.

Charlotte and Brighton, to me, had zero chemistry. It’s way easier to make relationships believable in books because you’re writing the chemistry, you’re not relying on actors to make it believable. But for some reason I just couldn’t imagine them being together. Even the ‘spicier’ scenes felt forced and I feel like they were only in this book to try and make you think this relationship works. It was such a let down. I’m yet to find a sapphic festive romance with a couple I like.

I found it so hard to get into Make the Season Bright. The pace was so slow and the first half of the book really dragged. The second half wasn’t really much better but by that point actual events were happening so it at least felt like you were getting somewhere.

One thing I did were the flashback scenes as they gave some insight into Charlotte and Brighton’s relationship and how it came about. However, as I didn’t like them together, I think these worked better from a friendship point of view, which most of them were. The one set on their wedding day was probably the best as it gave you the most insight into their actual romantic relationship and why it didn’t work out.

I also thought the characters were pretty complex (even though I hated Charlotte) and the LGBTQIA+ representation was great. Pretty much every character in Make the Season Bright was queer in some way which was really nice - especially the aromantic representation, that’s not one you see very often.

I’m going to leave my review here as anything else I’d have to say would be negative and there’s enough of that in this review already. My last qualm with this book would be it lack of festivity. I didn’t get Christmas vibes at all, this could have been set at any time of the year and nothing would change.

Rating: 2.5/5

A fun Christmas romance movie in book form.

I knew very little about this book going in, only that it was a sapphic Christmas romance written by Ashley Herring Blake - possibly I'd never looked at details, possibly I'd forgotten. Having really enjoyed the experience of reading with no knowledge, it makes it somewhat harder to write a review and choose which bits to highlight.

Charlotte is a violinist in New York, and is having all the career success she ever dreamed of. But she won't admit to anyone, not even the other members of her quartet, why she thinks December is cursed and wants to avoid Christmas. One of the quartet takes matters into her own hands and invites the whole group home for Christmas. Meanwhile, in Nashville, Brighton is working in a bar and feeling sorry for herself, after being kicked out of the band she helped form. After plans with her parents get cancelled, her friend decides to drag her to their family home for Christmas. The only problem is that Charlotte's friend and Brighton's friend are sisters... and 5 years ago Brighton left Charlotte at the altar.

I have really been enjoying second chance romance this year, but it's a trope that's so easy to do badly. In this case, though, it was done so so well. The reasons for what happened 5 years ago, as they were slowly revealed, made perfect sense. And they also really fit with the opportunity to return to the relationship after the characters had grown up a bit more.

If you prefer your romance books to have 'normal' and 'realistic' plotlines this isn't for you. In the best spirit of Christmas movies we have, aside from the whole managing to end up in the same house thing, a series of Christmas-themed dating activities for singles in the town. It's honestly amazing, and fits the setup so well.

The queer rep in this book is sensational, and completely normalised within the story. It's so nice to see this type of rep included as standard, without it being a big deal to the characters.

And I have to mention the steamy scenes (partly so those who only read closed door know to avoid). I loved how we got a flashback/memory scene while Charlotte and Brighton were still dancing round each other in the main timeline. And all the scenes were both hot and beautiful.

I had such a good time reading this book - with the biggest grin on my face throughout. In case you couldn't guess, I highly highly recommend it, and am planning to make it an annual Christmas read.

I feel like you can’t really go wrong with a christmassy romance because you kind of know what you’re getting into…it was warm and fuzzy, cute and queer.

The plot was fairly simple with the main focus being on the second chance romance, the characters, and their relationships. It did have some pretty spicy scenes here and there, so if you don’t like any spice in your reads…this one’s not going to be for you.

The found family trope is a favourite of mine and gets me every time, so naturally that was my favourite aspect of the book.

I definitely recommend this one if you’re just looking to cosy up with a fun, fast, festive, queer, read this holiday season!

Ashley Herring Blake can do no wrong, and also has the uncanny ability to make me want to read a book about every single character she's ever written. I loved our character's growth, pining and emotions; I loved that we gradually found our what had happened with their broken engagement and we come to root for them both. I inhaled this book and all I want is for it to become the next series please!!

What can’t Ashley Herring Blake do?!
If she was to tell me that she wrote the phone book, I’d read it and thank her for her awesome work!

I have so many of this author's books on my tbr but never actually got around to reading them as I don't normally gravitate to cheesy romance books but this was a refreshing change to my normal reads. A pleasantly queer romance, taking every shade of the rainbow flag and melding it together under a Christmas tree. I am rather a scrooge, so I am glad I read this book out of the festive season, to still enjoy the cheesy romance without feeling the holiday pressures of it. I enjoyed the romance between the two main characters, and my only real gripe is feeling that the 'fake dating' aspect of Charlotte and Wes didn't feel like it mattered much, they barely even decided on a plan before actually purusing their respective love interests, so felt somewhat unnecessary. I also feel like more could have been done with the secondary characters as they did all feel underdeveloped and simply there to add more queerness (which in itself isn't a complaint) and I would have preferred more interaction with them to give them purpose in the story. Very easily Elle and Manish could have been merged into one character and still be removed without affecting the story, whilst the climax having a focus in the failings of Sloane and Charlotte's friendship didn't pack much of a punch as it didn't seem like Sloane was really her friend more like she was pitying a colleague.