I don't even know what this was trying to be. We definitely didn't get enough of the history to care about the present, and when the two ostensible MCs hadn't had any page time together by nearly halfway through the book, I was really skeptical I could be swayed to buy this as a romance. It has a 'mysterious magical character' who asks both characters to make a wish and then later no one knows who they are talking about. ('Why, there hasn't been an old woman in a red dress here for over FiFTy yEArs' 🙄)
I remember quite enjoying another short holiday read from this author, which is why I picked this up, but this was just kind of choppy and unemotional. I didn't feel anything for either character, except that Cook should have forgotten about trying to win over Toby. (Oh, and there was a couple featured that was clearly from another book, but this is supposed to be a standalone *sideeye*. If this whole short was to make me slightly interested in reading that book, bc this one had no flavor, seems like a weird way to do it, but . . . turns out I have that from a free promotion, so there's an outside chance I'll read it.)