By: Jenny Bayliss
Blurb:
When it comes to relationships, thirty-four-year-old Kate Turner is ready to say “Bah, humbug.” The sleepy town of Blexford, England, isn’t exactly brimming with prospects, and anyway, Kate’s found fulfillment in her career as a designer, and in her delicious side job baking for her old friend Matt’s neighborhood café. But then her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. Twenty-three days until Christmas. Twelve dates with twelve different men. The odds must finally be in her favor . . . right?
Yet with each new date more disastrous than the one before–and the whole town keeping tabs on her misadventures–Kate must remind herself that sometimes love, like mistletoe, shows up where it’s least expected. And maybe, just maybe, it’s been right under her nose all along. . . .
Review:
I didn’t read all of The Twelve Dates of Christmas before I set it aside. I read about forty percent, and I feel like that’s enough to write a review.
I read the back of the book blurb before I began reading, and I almost wish I hadn’t. It gave away who she would wind up with, so the entire premise of twelve dates meant nothing. It was frustrating and annoying to know what was going to happen and that most of what I was reading meant nothing for the overall romance.
Kate was in her mid-thirties and had never settled down with anyone. Her longest relationship had been for four years and had ended long before the story starts. The book starts right before her first date on a Christmas themed blind date marathon. She’s paid a lot of money to go on twelve dates before Christmas in the hopes of finding the perfect person. Each date that I read had something “wrong” with them. One guy was a no show, one guy was gay, one guy didn’t want kids, one guy was hung up on his past girlfriend, and another guy was as well. It was ridiculous.
In case you couldn’t figure it out from the blurb, Kate winds up with her friend Matt. They grew up together, had a thing during college that ended poorly, and he was in a long term relationship with another woman. Still, Kate rejects every man she was presented with, and Matt’s girlfriend realized he was in love with Kate. So it all worked out beautifully.
I was not a fan.
2/5
Dynamite Review 