medium-paced
emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

2.5 stars. I wouldn't have finished this if I had been reading the physical book, but I listened, so it was tolerable to listen to while I folded laundry.

The Somerville family invites you to celebrate their second wedding in this perfect snowy Christmas read, perfect for fans of Robyn Carr and Debbie Macomber.

Susan Mallery’s new novel is a delightful and well-written book about two sisters and their struggles with love. The Somerville sisters, Reggie and Dana, have been unlucky in love, but this changes when Reggie goes home for her parents’ second wedding. 

As Reggie and Dana find themselves caught up in the magic of falling in love at Christmastime, the sisters realize that they might be ready to make a change, and the perfect family Christmas is just what they need for a new beginning.

The Christmas Wedding Guest is a light, easy read; the writing draws you into the story, and the characters’ struggles with family and love pull at your heartstrings. Such a perfect Christmas read for those who love romance and holiday vibes.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harlequin through NetGalley. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

You can also find my review at Comet Readings

Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings

Two sisters are back home in a small town in the state of New York as their parents want to plan the wedding that they never had. One sister, Dena, is in the early stage of a pregnancy that she conceived while single via IUI and is ready to enter parenthood even though the right man hadn't come along. The other sister, Reggie, is returning to this small town for the first time after a horrible ending to an engagement and was avoiding the small town gossip, but wants to be near her family during the holiday season.

I have said this before but the addition of the Christmas season to a romance book, just fills my heart! In this book, there are two romances for the price of one. Each sister has the chance to fall in love and of course there are ups and downs, but we all know how a romance will end! While I had to remind myself that I was reading fiction as you have suspend belief a bit, it is all for the sake of a great read.

This wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. I appreciated the additional layer of depth the author put into the character's backstories, but some of what these people were saying or doing made me cringe SO MUCH. For example: having full-on conversations with a dog as though it is answering back AND DOING THAT WHEN RANDOM PEOPLE ARE AROUND. Also, spoiler warning,
Spoilerboth guys deciding they're going to propose to the girls after being with them for like what, a couple of weeks? WHO DOES THAT?! I can understand that it's less of a hurdle for the highschool sweethearts, BUT STILL.


So final verdict, ⭐⭐,5 ish stars.

⭐ 3 ⭐
I had high expectations for this one. I love the cover and was intrigued by the plot
While I liked this book, there were some things that irked me.
FIrst off, I don't get the title. It's very loosely tied to the plot. Also, when I read the synopsis, I expected a magical Christmas wedding to be in the forefront. This was not really the case.
The 3rd person narration in this book did not work for me.
What I did like were the characters. Both Dena and Reggie were awesome. I liked the family dynamic between them. I also am a sucker for a second chance romance, so the romance between Reggie and Toby was a treat.
Micah was also amazing, but I didn't like the instalove between him and Dena.
All in all I really wanted to love it, but too many things stopped me from doing so.

3.5 rounded up. I was really excited for this one and wanted to love it so much, but it just hit the mark for me. I’m not sure if it was the narrator or that I didn’t get a ton of Christmas vibes from it, but it fell a little flat for me.

This was so boring. It was about successful and put-together sisters who have a great relationship with each other and their parents. They help their parents with projects and planning their vow renewal ceremony. They have a great group of friends and they do charity work together and wrap presents together and are very put-together together. All the characters talk the same in a very mature way. They eat a lot of cheese plates and tell one another that they are/will be a great friend/sister/mom/girlfriend/man/husband etc. The only conflict is that these very mature sisters don’t have boyfriends! Until they do have boyfriends. No! Fiancés. Immediately. The end. I had to do so much skimming, I was bored out of my mind. It was all wholesome and Christmas-y but in a bad way? I feel like it was so boring because it did not feel realistic AT ALL. We don’t read Christmas rom-coms for the realism, but at least there has to be some facsimile of relatability, right? Ugh.

I don't have a great track record with Christmas books but I gave it a shot. I say this because although this isn't for me you may still enjoy it if you like Christmas reads. I had a hard time liking these characters. I actually enjoyed the main character's sister more than her so I was happy when the book started spitting in between the two. Her story was more appealing but not by much. You have the past lovers trope with one sister and the other enjoys being independent but just might be falling for a complete stranger that comes to stay at their cute little whimsical Christmas town. We follow the two love stories that are predictable and just like a Christmas Hallmark. I just found that Hallmark vibe books don't do it for me.