Make You Mine This Christmas

Fab light hearted read, couldn't put it down, loved the storyline and the characters were brilliant especially Hev and Christopher, and Ambrose with their wise words and sarcasm

Hallmark romance , Christmas decorations , reindeer , snow fights and a life completely spun round in a cluster of white lies for the greater good. Everything happens for a reason , even if it seems utterly bizarre at first.

What happens when your life is just spiraling down, you have no one to spend Christmas with and you have been dubbed someone's girlfriend but don't come clean? Well a cunning plan is what Haf thought. She pretends to be Christopher's (a friend she just met) fake girlfriend and agrees to spend Christmas with his family. She gets not to be alone at Christmas and he gets everyone off his back. Finally not setting him up with more random dates. What Haf didn't expect was a Christmas in the Hampton's (not literally) and his sister to be hot, hot , hot.

This was a very enjoyable book, which at times had me laughing out loud. I love the main MCs back and fourth banter. I really liked the side characters you met who, even though being well off (rich) come across like down to earth, nice people and not the typical stereotype,

I enjoyed the chemistry and how tastefully it all pans out. There was no really big drama which normally I find in books like this.
The pace was perfect and it just left me feeling good.

Lizzie Huxley-Jones thank you for the extra comment of Haf's autism at the end. I'm sorry that at some point in time you had the chaos Haf was feeling (or something similar) at the start of the book. I do hope you have had a happy ended we all deserve.

Thank you Hux, for this great read and I will look forward to anymore WLW books you release.

If your looking for a holiday romance I suggest picking up 'Make You Mine This Christmas'

Make you mine this Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones.

Thank you Netgallery for a ARC e-book copy for an unbiased review.

Well that was a total blast! Hallmark could learn a thing or two on how to write a queer Christmas movie from this book. Once I started, I could not put it down.

That opening sequence with Haf's parents and technology? Let's just say a lot of us have been there, and I was hoping the rest of the book continued in a similar vein. I wasn't disappointed. If anything, the book hit its stride and just got better.

Is it full of tropes? Yes. God, yes. But done in such a way they didn't feel stale or boring for me. And it's all the better for it.

Was it full of the feel good factor? Yes. Totally. I realised about a 3rd of the way through I was genuinely smiling! If a book it making you subconsciously smile, then it is definitely doing something right.

Was it laugh out loud? I did totally laugh out loud. More than once. Drawing looks from both our cats and my husband, who then shrugged as they saw I was reading as I carried on sniggering to myself.

On the note of my husband, we are both bi (he is also trans) so the representation was great to see.
I was also glad to see how disability was represented. As someone with multiple chronic illnesses and disabled myself, it was heartening to see it broached in a way that meant it was there in an extremely realistic manner.

The e-book and audio book come out ahead of the printed version (I haven't checked but wonder if the issues publishers have had with paper shortages have delayed the print version?)
Whatever the reason, pre-order this if you want a fun, delightful, queer rom-com book, as this one is for you!
Even if you're not LGBTQIA+ I feel this book could easily be read by others outside of the community, and that is probably as good an endorsement I can make about it. Because although it is written with specific groups in mind, it is good enough to be read beyond that.

But don't make the mistake I did of beginning to read it later in the day. 3am was not a fun existence for my eyes, as I desperately clutched my tablet, trying to continue reading that last 12% of the book.
Make sure you start on a day where your schedule is clear, and start early. So you can savour this in one sitting.

I was sad to see this one end. I didn't want it to end. But unfortunately end it must, so here I am writing this review and wondering how quickly I can read it all again.

Bravo Lizzie. Bravo. A book that will definitely become part of my regular read again pile, particularly once Christmas approaches.

5/5 stars was easy to give.

This was a very warm Christmas read with some brilliant characters who break stereotypes very well to create a Hallmark type read in a totally modern style. It’s incredibly rare to have mainstream reads like this and I admit I found it took a bit if getting my head around Ambrose’s pronoun purely because it’s an ingrained thing that ‘they’ is plural however it’s fantastic that the author didn’t feel the need to explain this and we do need more norms like this. Haf was a great character, kind hearted and has learn to be unapologetic about who she is yet there’s still parts of her that dragged her down which added great balance. I loved Ambrose especially the cheeky polls, they absolutely deserve a book of their own, I’d love to find out more about them. Overall this is a very uplifting read, especially great for Christmas but good all year round too. 9/10