This story is super low in angst, high in fluff, and absolutely brimming with holiday cheer— there’s an idyllic small town setting, a quirky and welcoming extended family (they’re presented in the novel as somehow over-the-top zany but either my standards are skewed or they’re just really nice, a tad sarcastic, close with one an other, and deeply invested in Christmas traditions) and a sweet, warm, insta-lovey connection between Warren and Reed. I loved the premise of the 24 dares that are not-so-secretly dates set in motion by the kind of overly invested, meddling relative who’d be a nightmare in real life (boundaries are not, even mildly, a thing) but is charming in fiction, and I appreciated the sweetness and acceptance the two offered each other, and actually quite liked the fact that problems and potential problems basically magically solve themselves through earnest discussions and general good will. (I will admit, however, that this does occasionally go a bit overboard for me: I cringed, so hard, when one MC cheerily assured himself he could help the other with a debt problem by encouraging him to get a job that pays more). Warren and Reed, like everyone in the town they inhabit, are marshmallow soft and candy-cane sweet, and it’s hard not to be charmed.
*I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.