Holly and Nick Hate Christmas
by Betsy St. Amant

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Christian Christmas romance

Holly was born on Christmas Day and named for the holiday. Nick’s childhood was rigid and not very loving, and Christmas was when he noticed the coldness the most. Both are now adults that hate Christmas and all its trappings, so when Holly’s brother Ryan, who is also Nick’s co-worker, sets them up on a date for Holly and Ryan’s family’s big Christmas party, it seems like a match made in Heaven. Right?

What do you get when you stack childish people on top of secrets and lies? A happy ending, apparently. When Holly finds out that Nick had to be convinced to be her date, rather than agreeing with gusto, she decides he should be tortured. So she proceeds to force Christmas festivities on him, even though she’s been told he hates it as much as she does. Considering that she has some real pain and even trauma that has led to her dislike of Christmas and has every reason to believe he would have the same, she decides to twist the knife anyway. Why? Because he agreed to be her date. How dare he… Then, when Holly and Nick talk and maturely decide to bury the hatchet, Holly convinces Nick to turn around and prank Ryan with her, because he was in on the terrible plot to give Holly a date for the Christmas party too. So they pretend to be madly in love to annoy Ryan…who set them up in the first place. Then when that plan comes to its merciful end, there’s another plot hatched for an equally immature reason… you probably see the trend by now. Meanwhile, Nick has a secret about Holly’s own parents that they asked him to keep from the rest of the family (5 total adults children). And in a scene right out of A Very Brady Christmas, it turns out each of the other family members has been hiding a big secret too (except Ryan). 

Alongside all of this mess of deceit is a message that apparently many reviewers found too religious/Christian. But frankly, I was displeased at this having a Christian label on it. For one thing, the romance involves so much physical attraction, noticing of broad shoulders or muscles, heated touching, etc. for my taste, especially in a Christian book. For another, though the message of the true meaning of Christmas is mentioned near the end, it’s incredibly shallow and only really a reminder for characters to focus less on themselves and more on God and others. But frankly, I have no idea if any of these characters are actually Christians or if they just live the “Christian culture,” meaning that they try to live “good lives” but aren’t actually saved and following Jesus. There’s a tiny bit of conviction about all of the secrets and deception, but again, it all just felt so shallow. I don’t need a major Christian message in my Christian fiction, but this one felt like it was trying to have a message that didn’t really hit home for me. Maybe because it just felt shoehorned in near the end.

The book is billed as “enemies-to-lovers,” which doesn’t make much difference to me, but for those who might have been led to consider this book because of that—that really isn’t accurate. Holly might be angry at Nick, but he doesn’t see her remotely as an enemy. And frankly, she has to keep reminding herself to be angry at him, because she keeps getting distracted by his hotness. So clearly, there wasn’t much in this book that I’d recommend. I actually kind of liked some of the family dynamics, but overall, it was a miss for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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