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binreads's review against another edition
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I have lots of thoughts...My main qualm with this book was that I wish it didn't repeat itself so much. By the third act, I was skimming at that point because it was so overkill. Also, it's all basically a trauma dump. For a book called Season of Love....I expected a bit more joy but god it's so sad.
I was more interested in the side characters like Hannah, The Matthew's and Cass than the main two! (I'm actually am intrigued to read the second book set to come out Fall 2023 about Hannah and Blue)
Unfortunately, I really disliked Noelle and made it difficult to read her parts. She's way too overly judgmental and I found she had almost no redeeming qualities. Miriam was alright but nothing about her really made me root for her. I also found her artist career completely unrealistic?
Hated the 'fade to black' before the intimate *spice* moments, I feel like I might've understood Noelle and Miriam's relationship more deeply.
I'm going to mark the rest as spoilers because I'm about to go into DETAIL:
Wow, where do I start...Noelle and Miriam have so many issues, I think they both needed some serious therapy or some more time before committing to this relationship.
Noelle from the start is very judgemental of Miri, but never took a MOMENT to think "Hey, this girl left her entire family and hasn't come back for years. That's strange. Something traumatic must've happened to her for her to do that." Especially with Noelle's background with her parents' being alcoholics, herself being a recovering alcoholic, and all of her own trauma she has experienced, you'd think she would not judge people so quickly.
I found her incredibly rude and just an outright hypocrite. When they find out Miri's father is trying to ruin everything, and Miri has that moment where she wants to run again, why didn't Noelle just give the girl time to THINK???? Her father was horrible to her, she knows this and yet blames Miriam for being scared, and her first thought going back to what she knows which is to run. Uh, hello she left for YEARS and didn't speak with her literal family yet you think she'd immediately be cured from her traumatic past and stay for someone she's known for a few months?? Noelle ultimately only thinks for herself and what outcome benefits her.
Miriam was more digestible. Her art selling for thousands of dollars at the end made no sense to me though because wasn't Tara taking care of her financially? I still don't understand the whole fiance thing, what was the point of all that? It added nothing to the story. I feel like her and Tara being partners would've left the same impact. Or if Miriam was just single to begin with. But speaking of Tara, she was actually a very interesting character and I'm sad she was just washed down to a ridged person.
Noelle and Miriam's love story was all over the place, started out bad and felt rushed. Miriam leaves her so called fiance and has already for the most part moved onto Noelle within a day. Which again, Noelle suddenly is head over heels for Miri after totally being a horrible person towards her.
Also, did anyone else think Cole was gay? Was he straight? Did I miss something?
I loved Miri’s cousin Hannah and the little insight we get into her complicated relationship with Levi. God, that ending with them!?!?!? Why couldn't we have gotten more of that!!!!! That's why I wanna give this next book a chance!!!
I also did not for the life of me understand the whole abusive father angle. Why would he hate his daughter so much just because she didn't want to go into his business? And for him after all these years to still actively try and harm her future? The whole drug scheme? Ziva's character felt so surface level and maybe that's the point of her character but if so, why would she still be invited around when she actively didn't do anything to help her own daughter?
Cass seemed great and I blame nothing on her.
Overall the story is about saving the Carrigan's, but it spends waaaaaaaaaay too much time on that for it to be solved so quickly in the end.
I was more interested in the side characters like Hannah, The Matthew's and Cass than the main two! (I'm actually am intrigued to read the second book set to come out Fall 2023 about Hannah and Blue)
Unfortunately, I really disliked Noelle and made it difficult to read her parts. She's way too overly judgmental and I found she had almost no redeeming qualities. Miriam was alright but nothing about her really made me root for her. I also found her artist career completely unrealistic?
Hated the 'fade to black' before the intimate *spice* moments, I feel like I might've understood Noelle and Miriam's relationship more deeply.
I'm going to mark the rest as spoilers because I'm about to go into DETAIL:
Wow, where do I start...Noelle and Miriam have so many issues, I think they both needed some serious therapy or some more time before committing to this relationship.
Noelle from the start is very judgemental of Miri, but never took a MOMENT to think "Hey, this girl left her entire family and hasn't come back for years. That's strange. Something traumatic must've happened to her for her to do that." Especially with Noelle's background with her parents' being alcoholics, herself being a recovering alcoholic, and all of her own trauma she has experienced, you'd think she would not judge people so quickly.
I found her incredibly rude and just an outright hypocrite. When they find out Miri's father is trying to ruin everything, and Miri has that moment where she wants to run again, why didn't Noelle just give the girl time to THINK???? Her father was horrible to her, she knows this and yet blames Miriam for being scared, and her first thought going back to what she knows which is to run. Uh, hello she left for YEARS and didn't speak with her literal family yet you think she'd immediately be cured from her traumatic past and stay for someone she's known for a few months?? Noelle ultimately only thinks for herself and what outcome benefits her.
Miriam was more digestible. Her art selling for thousands of dollars at the end made no sense to me though because wasn't Tara taking care of her financially? I still don't understand the whole fiance thing, what was the point of all that? It added nothing to the story. I feel like her and Tara being partners would've left the same impact. Or if Miriam was just single to begin with. But speaking of Tara, she was actually a very interesting character and I'm sad she was just washed down to a ridged person.
Noelle and Miriam's love story was all over the place, started out bad and felt rushed. Miriam leaves her so called fiance and has already for the most part moved onto Noelle within a day. Which again, Noelle suddenly is head over heels for Miri after totally being a horrible person towards her.
Also, did anyone else think Cole was gay? Was he straight? Did I miss something?
I loved Miri’s cousin Hannah and the little insight we get into her complicated relationship with Levi. God, that ending with them!?!?!? Why couldn't we have gotten more of that!!!!! That's why I wanna give this next book a chance!!!
I also did not for the life of me understand the whole abusive father angle. Why would he hate his daughter so much just because she didn't want to go into his business? And for him after all these years to still actively try and harm her future? The whole drug scheme? Ziva's character felt so surface level and maybe that's the point of her character but if so, why would she still be invited around when she actively didn't do anything to help her own daughter?
Cass seemed great and I blame nothing on her.
Overall the story is about saving the Carrigan's, but it spends waaaaaaaaaay too much time on that for it to be solved so quickly in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Addiction
mesulkin's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship
internationalreads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, Grief, Sexual content, Child abuse, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
kshertz's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Oh I loved it! A queer romance on a Christmas farm?! An artist and a lumberjack? A love for sexy butches? As a tall thicker sober person I fell in love with Noelle. I have never seen myself reflected in a character so much. To be the object of desire like Miriam? It meant a lot to me. It was new and different. They were flawed and mature. They worked through their shit together and independently. More Kringle would be all I wanted. I loved it. I even forgive it for not having really any smut (very closed door).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse
rrubin97's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
It was a bit too caught up in its own cuteness of queer Jews at christmas. Plus she had the financial system all wrong and it annoyed me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Classism
qraveline's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
bi_n_large's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Abandonment
Minor: Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Misogyny
ezwolf's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I am so happy to say that I really enjoyed this book! Jewish and sapphic are always books I want to give a chance, but I feel like I've been let down in ones that have the combination, this one did not fail though.
I was wary at first because of Hallmark-esque description of it, but soon found out that while it was set at Christmas and the story IS about saving a Christmas tree farm, the book sticks to its Jewish roots (as a caveat I will not that this is Ashkenazi Judasim). I was also interested by the cover art which seemed to imply a plus size half of the queer couple and there's not enough of that either. I was very pleased to find out that Noelle, Miriam's love interest, is in fact a fat butch and it is greatly appreciated by myself and Miriam.
The way that the book is about a Jewish character and her family (and love interest) trying to save a Christmas tree farm, but still manages to have such a great discussion of Judaism and there's never any spoken hate or dislike or Jewish holidays or a preference for Christmas instead, in fact there's even a moment where Miriam talks about being at her limit for Christmas-y things. And the discussion of the fact that Christmas is in fact not secular and no we are not arguing about it!
There's a non-binary rabbi (this is minor, so don't go into it just for that, but it was still worth the note!), good discussions of the spectrum of being queer, positive discussions of recovering from alcoholism and emotional abuse, and also a healthy break up/post-break up relationship! And so many more things I didn't cover that I am very appreciative of from this book.
I am sticking to my four star review, but I also wanted to include some of the minor things that I noted as dislikes but in the end didn't change my love for the book:
1. Some random foot notes at the start of the book and then footnotes are never used again.
2. The references, most of which I had to Google (though the last one I did about January 6th and epiphany was funny in the weirdest way).
4. Some random parenthesis while already in third person POV.
5. The use of "tribes" in reference to Avatar the Last Airbender bending abilities, but then later having a discussion about why white people shouldn't use tribe was a bit of a weird turn around.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
I was wary at first because of Hallmark-esque description of it, but soon found out that while it was set at Christmas and the story IS about saving a Christmas tree farm, the book sticks to its Jewish roots (as a caveat I will not that this is Ashkenazi Judasim). I was also interested by the cover art which seemed to imply a plus size half of the queer couple and there's not enough of that either. I was very pleased to find out that Noelle, Miriam's love interest, is in fact a fat butch and it is greatly appreciated by myself and Miriam.
The way that the book is about a Jewish character and her family (and love interest) trying to save a Christmas tree farm, but still manages to have such a great discussion of Judaism and there's never any spoken hate or dislike or Jewish holidays or a preference for Christmas instead, in fact there's even a moment where Miriam talks about being at her limit for Christmas-y things. And the discussion of the fact that Christmas is in fact not secular and no we are not arguing about it!
There's a non-binary rabbi (this is minor, so don't go into it just for that, but it was still worth the note!), good discussions of the spectrum of being queer, positive discussions of recovering from alcoholism and emotional abuse, and also a healthy break up/post-break up relationship! And so many more things I didn't cover that I am very appreciative of from this book.
I am sticking to my four star review, but I also wanted to include some of the minor things that I noted as dislikes but in the end didn't change my love for the book:
1. Some random foot notes at the start of the book and then footnotes are never used again.
2. The references, most of which I had to Google (though the last one I did about January 6th and epiphany was funny in the weirdest way).
4. Some random parenthesis while already in third person POV.
5. The use of "tribes" in reference to Avatar the Last Airbender bending abilities, but then later having a discussion about why white people shouldn't use tribe was a bit of a weird turn around.
Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
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