📚ARC Review 📚

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Eve works for Live, Laugh Travel as a writer and when a promotion is up for grabs, she’s going for it. When her boss gets tickets to Noelville, a small Christmas town, she thinks this will be the perfect opportunity to show her what she’s worth. However, when she gets to her seat on the train, she sees her work place nemesis, Will, there. After learning that their boss set this up, they are both out to write the best article ever. This will be a challenge since neither one of them likes the holiday. While there, Christmas isn’t the only thing they fall in love with.

This was such a cute novella. I enjoyed the town of Noelville and how the setting was described, sounds like a perfect Christmas town. I also liked the enemies to lovers trope and their banter. It is definitely “Hallmark with Snark" as described.

This book will publish on December 1, 2023. This will be a perfect short book to get you into the Christmas spirit. Be sure to add to your TBR list! Thank you to NetGalley and Victoria Editing NetGalley Co-op for my advanced readers copy. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for making this book available!

This a really cute and festive short read.
I enjoyed the Noelville, such a perfect Christmas village.
I love enemies to lovers trope and enjoyed all the banter, but I felt like the romance part was a little rushed.

The tagline for this book is "Hallmark with Snark" and it is the most accurate description - giving you all the fluff and happily ever after with a smidge of sass.

Rivals/enemies to lovers is my favorite trope and this Christmas novella was executed perfectly. The town of Noelville is such a silly concept but kept me thoroughly entertained and laughing. Also, the banter was bantering.

3.5 ☆
This is like reading a Hallmark movie. A great feel good romance to get into the holiday spirit. It is a novella so the transition from rivals to lovers feels a little rushed at parts. Overall it's still a solid romance

I give It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas a solid 3 stars. This is a light, quick read with the familiar enemies-to-lovers trope, set against a holiday backdrop. The premise is fun: two characters who both despise Christmas are sent by their boss to write about the Christmas festivities in the town of Neolville. As they are forced to spend time together, sparks fly, and their growing attraction adds a nice layer to the plot.

While the enemies-to-lovers dynamic can be charming, I found the chemistry between the leads a bit rushed, and the pacing felt a little uneven at times. The holiday setting provided a cozy atmosphere, but I would have liked to see more development in both the characters’ backstories and their evolution from enemies to lovers.

Overall, this is a pleasant enough read for those who enjoy lighthearted romantic comedies with a festive twist, but it doesn't quite go beyond the basics. It's a good choice for a quick, holiday-themed escape, but not necessarily a standout in the genre.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC! This book gave me all the warm fuzzy Christmas feels and from the very first page I was transported into a magical (sorry Eve and Will) wonderland that brightened this cold November evening.

I settled down to read this novella with a hot chocolate and a heated blanket and thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in a festive story. There is romance, festive cheer and holiday spirit and I had a smile on my face for most of the book. This is just the read that I needed in the run up to Christmas and has gotten me so excited for the season to come! ⛄️❄️

3.25⭐️
My favorite thing about this book was the setting. Two writers go to this unbelievable Christmas town to write an article on it, and the town and setting was adorable! Really felt immersed in Christmas with it. That said this is a novella so it’s quick. We don’t get a lot of background with the characters and the romance wasn’t the most swoon worthy to me. There is a bit of suggestiveness around them “shacking up” at the end also that I didn’t feel needed to be there. All in all this was okay. The setting was Christmas magic, the romance and plot was just meh for me.

This Christmas novella was a quick and heartwarming read. Just as the synopsis suggests, it truly feels like you're reading a Hallmark movie. It's a charming frenemies-to-lovers story. This novella is a perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

Thank you NetGalley for a prerelease of It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas.

This was a super cute story. Bitter rivals, who both share a dislike of Christmas and holiday cheer find themselves in a Christmas wonderland to write the story of a lifetime. Little by little, holiday cheer melts their cold hearts for the holidays and each other.

If you love Hallmark movies, you need to add this story to your holiday reading list.

I enjoyed the characters and the premise of the book, and I felt like it had great potential, it was just very disappointing with how it played out, some of the dialogue felt a bit flat, and I had issues connected with the characters as they didn’t seem real. I couldn’t feel any chemistry between the main characters in a romantic form, but we got to see them grow a friendship together. I’d be interested to see how the author handles romantic chemistry in a longer form of writing, as I think novellas often struggle to provide romantic chemistry whilst staying “clean”.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish

This cozy, feel-good romance is like stepping straight into a holiday movie complete with the banter of two workplace rivals. While I appreciated the novella’s short and sweet pacing, a few things held it back for me.

The idea of a Christmas-themed town was cute, but Noelville leaned a little too hard into the over the top holiday magic. Think gingerbread overload. However, the banter between Eve and Will (our workplace rivals) was snarky and funny at times, even if their romance was a bit cheesy.

This book gave major Hallmark movie vibes, with all the charm and predictability you’d expect. This is a spice-free, wholesome, lighthearted holiday story. If you’re in the mood for a cheesy but cozy rivals to lovers novella to get you into the holiday spirit, this might be the perfect quick read for you!

This story was absolutely adorable! Eve and Will are coworkers, which gives their relationship a solid foundation right from the start. It made their connection feel natural and believable. Since they’re both writers, their playful rivalry brought a lot of fun energy to the story, with plenty of witty banter that kept things lighthearted. The chemistry between them was spot-on, and the whole vibe had that sweet, heartwarming charm you often find in Hallmark movies. It was the kind of story that made you smile and left you feeling good. Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the copy!

This Christmas romance is a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours meeting Eve and Will, two writers who are thrown together to write a story.

Unforunately the two of them are rivals and dislike each other very much. They also dislike Christmas so to find themselves sent to Noelville where every possible cheesy aspect of the season is happening all around them is additional cause for misery. However they have to make the best of things in order to write their articles and slowly their relationship with the season and with each other begins to change.

It is a very clean romance, more of a romcom really as the dialogue is frequently amusing. Short but sweet and an enjoyable read.

This was SO CUTE and so funny and not a totally cheesy holiday romance. I loved this so much! And a Canadian Author to boot (more please!). Well done.


Many thanks to Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op for the chance to read and rate this ARC. the BEST holiday romance I have read to date.

Eve and Will both work for Live, Laugh Travel as writers, but a promotion is coming up and they are both going for it. However, when their boss gets tickets to Noelville, they both think they are going with her until they turn up on the train and see each other.

But as they both dislike Christmas and each other this assignment is looking harder than expected.

Told through the point of view of both main characters we see how they find what they have in common in their dislike for all things Christmassy, but it's soon the magic that will bring them closer together at this special time of year.

This is a cosy Christmas novella which is a quick and easy read to get you into the Christmas spirit,

This fun, quick read was a Hallmark movie making in the progress. I loved the characters and the storyline. Highly recommend!

I enjoyed reading this book it really was like a Hallmark Christmas movie as a book. Two travelwriters who are rivals and not really into Christmas are sent to Noeltown - where Christmas is celebrated year-round- the week before Christmas. Of course they keep running into each other and the more they interact the more they decide the other is not as bad as assumed...
Very entertaining and full of all things Christmas.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Julianna Keyes was the perfect read to put me in the holiday spirit. If you enjoy a clasdic Hallmark Christmas movie, you will love this quick, fun read.

Eve and Will are rival travel writers who are sent on an assignment to the town of Noelville to discover the true meaning of Christmas. For all their differences, the two share a cynicism for the magic of the holiday, but will the charms of the town convince them that they might just be exactly what the other needs to be swept up in the spirit of the season?

A quick, quirky and charming read that is guaranteed to have you ready to hang your stocking.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for an ARC.

Loved it!! It's basically a Hallmark Movie as a book!

Eve and Will were absolutely hilarious and the whole setting too! It's perfect to cozy up with a hot chocolate and enjoying the colder temperatures.

I would watch it as a Movie too!!

Thank you Netgalley!