TBR Challenge – It’s a Party!: Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

My choice for December’s TBR Challenge book is Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake, in which ex-fiancées end up stuck in the same house for Christmas holiday fun. I chose the book because it has professional musician characters; the two women protagonists play violin (Charlotte/Lola) and guitar (Brighton). Charlotte is in a string quartet whose members are also all queer, and dare I guess they will have their own books later?

Aside from the various queer relationships, this was a pretty standard “city people go to small town for Christmas holiday and do All The Christmas Things and fall in love,” or in this case back into love after a youthful relationship with each other went badly south. There’s one massive coincidence in that Charlotte, who lives in NYC, and Brighton, who lives in Nashville, each knows one of the two sisters who invite them to Colorado for the holiday, but I went with it because that is not what this story was really about, lol.

Once in Colorado, they learn their hostess has signed them all up (two daughters, the main couple, and the other three string players) for a holiday dating event called “Two Turtledoves,” which involves such fun things as horseback riding, a cooking lesson, and decorating cookies. This is a terrific idea and it should be a real thing if it isn’t already, it doesn’t even have to be a dating thing, just a series of events you could sign up for like getting a concert subscription.

Anyway, spoiler alert, Lola and Bright get back together! And resolve their insecurities that kept them apart! What a great ending! Yes, I am a sucker for the occasional Holiday Romance. I enjoyed this book and will happily read more by this author.