Why I love it:

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While I am a sucker for a Holiday Romance, this book has become the shining star shimmering atop my Christmas Tree of book recommendations. It was playful, heartfelt, relatable, and hopeful. I felt myself falling in love with Quinn and Patrick’s story and didn’t want to finish the book because I didn’t want the cozy vibes and holiday cheer to end! Plus, while it definitely takes inspiration from “The Santa Clause,” it is exponentially better for the simple fact that no Santas were permanently harmed or killed as a plot point.

The book’s chapters are designated with a countdown to Christmas and mostly spans the first year of Patrick and Quinn’s marriage, which starts on the rocks in chapter one. However, you get to see snippets of their entire relationship (which involves a meet-cute and a Santa suit) through a series of memories sprinkled throughout the story. These little flashback moments provide such depth to their individual stories and made me root for them as a couple even more, having seen some of the hardships they had experienced. Also, while I love when spicy scenes are on page, the fact that this book is entirely closed door means that it is accessible and appropriate for a much wider audience, which I adore… because I am recommending it to everyone I know.

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How I see the book and/or the stories in it to support self-care:

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• The North Pole provides Patrick and Quinn an opportunity to reconnect with parts of themselves they felt they needed to change to please those around them, which was such a healing thing to behold. Their journeys to living with greater authenticity and the ripple effect it has on their marriage and the elves they support is pure, unadulterated joy. It really was such an amazing way to convey the magic of Christmas that is rooted in love and good will, which is why the holiday holds such a deep place of meaning in my heart. Seeing others, fictional or not, discover their truth and live in it fully can be an endless source of inspiration and empowerment.​​

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• I really love how Quinn and Patrick's communication is depicted over the course of the story, for better or for worse. They have a lot of moments with honest, vulnerable, and difficult conversations as well as a good number of misunderstandings due to avoidance or assumptions. Seeing both of these on page and the evolution of how these men share their hopes and needs with one another was both confronting and inspiring. Interestingly, there wasn't very much miscommunication, most challenges stemmed from a lack of communication, which in some ways feels much more common but tends to be less represented. While this may feel a bit nuanced to differentiate these two disconnections, it feels important because Patrick and Quinn's growth in this area is about deepening their intimacy with one another and re-calibrating their relational attunement together.

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• Since this is a romance, a holiday romance no less, it’s not a spoiler to acknowledge that Quinn and Patrick get a happily ever after to their story. What is noteworthy about this HEA is how absolutely perfectly Janovsky crafted it to intertwine with each character’s respective growth edges. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the ending is so utterly satisfying and epitomizes what both personal and communal self-care can look like in a relationship, particularly how to find a middle ground that allows for a sustainable partnership.

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“Maybe relationships aren't always a perfect 50-50 split. Sometimes they're 70-30 or 60-40. You have to trust that the other person is ready to pick up the slack, and you have to be willing to do the same when the inevitable time comes.”

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"I wish I could capture this flawless moment. Stick it inside a snow globe. Come back to it when we're old and gray and senile and I need to be reminded that we were once young and hot, wild and passionate."​​