Book Review: The Twelve Dates of Christmas

By Becky Gulc

‘At thirty, Claudia's life is stale and the romance with long-term boyfriend, Seth, has disappeared. Determined to inject some festive spark back into their love life, Claudia and Seth go on their first date in a very long time. But when the night ends in disaster, Claudia suddenly finds herself facing life - and Christmas - alone.

Life alone is exciting, scary and full of soon-forgotten exercise regimes and ill-advised attempts at crafting sexy underwear. It's also filling up with dates, surprisingly. With best friends Penny and Nick at her side, a surplus of festive markets, mulled wine and Christmas tunes, Claudia attempts to face all this change with gusto. One thing's for certain: this year, Christmas is going to be very different...

This is the story of Claudia and her twelve dates of Christmas. Hilarious, uplifting and romantic, it's a story about losing love, finding love, and discovering what's been there all along. Expect Christmas sparkle, butterflies-in-your-stomach romance and a lot of very funny moments in The Twelve Dates of Christmas.’ (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon UK.)

I do love a Christmassy book and whilst some books marketed at Christmas time don’t feel that festive, this book for me really delivered. I’m very much feeling Christmassy now, even though it’s still only October!

The Twelve Dates of Christmas is a book which had so much warmth and humour to it, I instantly liked Claudia as the main character, and for her long-term relationship to come to an end in December, I really felt for her! Cue the twelve dates...these weren’t all necessarily what I would think of as ‘dates’ as such but I liked the premise of these to move the story along and give it that extra Christmassy feel which was delivered in abundance. Some of these dates, particularly the ones at Winter Wonderland and the ice rink were both cringe worthy as well as laugh out loud funny...just perfect.

There are plenty of characters to love in this book. Claudia’s dad is such a sweetheart and Nick and Penny are great friends that anyone would be lucky to have. I have to say Nick is probably one of the stand out male leads in a novel I’ve read for a while, so likable and he clearly just adores Claudia.

Although yes it did seem predictable I didn’t care at all, I loved the whole story! The closing chapters were very fitting and just what I wanted as the reader. A very funny book and a perfect Christmas read.

Thanks to Little, Brown for the book in exchange for an honest review. Visit all the stops on Lisa's blog tour!