Monday Minis: I’m Dreaming of a White…October???

I’m not usually a big seasonal reader - and I'm reading the wrong season lol - but give me all the sweet, Hallmark holiday, HEA, romance vibes right now!

These two check all those boxes and were pretty flipping adorable.

First up…

The Twelve Dogs of Christmas (Pine hollow #1) by Lizzie Shane ~ Goodreads Ben, an overwhelmed single dad (Uncle to his orphaned niece) has a meet cute with Ally Gilmore, a photographer who heads back to her small hometown to take care of her aging grandparents and to help save their animal shelter of misfit canines after funding is cut off right before Christmas.

This book was just adorable and heartwarming. Ally and Ben get off on the wrong foot (& he’s quite the grumpster at first) but end up having this slow burn friendship/romance while they both learn to put their trust in community, friends, family and each other. It was just the sweetest but also had a lot of great life messages. And puppies!!

This seriously needs to be made into a Hallmark movie! 

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren ~ Goodreads “One Christmas wish, two brothers, and a lifetime of hope are on the line for hapless Maelyn Jones in In a Holidaze, the quintessential holiday romantic novel by Christina Lauren, the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners.”

That summary suggest a love triangle vibe but that’s a bit misleading so no worries there. 

Mae Jones always spends Christmas with her (divorced) parents with their family friends in a cabin in Utah. Her best friend is Theo while she secretly pines for his brother Andrew, who sees her as a little sister.

After a drunken kiss with one of the brothers, Mae’s life is thrown into a tailspin – and a Groundhog Day scenario where she keeps reliving the trip until she can figure out exactly what the universe is trying to get her to do to make things right.

This was pretty hilarious. Each restart produces a different set of problems for Mae but she does her best to heal her friendship with Theo, get the man of her dreams and save the cabin and figure out what to do with her life.

The whole cast was great, the setting was fun and Chistmasy with a touch of magic.

My one teeny-tiny complaint would be that I didn’t think one character was given enough depth and it weakened the story a bit but otherwise it was absolutely delightful and fun!

Are you reading holiday stories yet? Or is it #TooSoon?