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The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss was another COYER book club pick. I’d had it on my TBR for awhile so I was glad when it was chosen. I wasn’t sure if I was going to really like this book. Bayliss is a new author for me. I am so glad that I finally read this. It might even make it into the holiday re-read TBR pile. It was the perfect amount of Hallmark with a lot of laugh out loud moments.

Right off of the bat, I knew who our end goal was. Any romance reader will tell you it isn’t about the ending but the journey to get there. This book is a perfect example of that. I knew who would be the man at the end of the book but I didn’t know how we’d get from Point A to Point B. It was a hilarious trip and one I look forward to repeating.

I could really empathize with Kate. She seems to need big life events to decide to make changes. Kate has a very nice life and she really doesn’t want to do anything to mess it up and yet she’s lonely. The Twelve Dates of Christmas seems like a nice way to put an end to the loneliness; even if she has to take some teasing from her best friends.

Oh these dates…..I can’t even begin to tell you which one was my favorite. I had a favorite date who would never have worked out for Kate. I had a favorite worst date, and I knew from the beginning not to trust one of the dates who made a repeat appearance. The nice thing about that is that while I knew not to trust him, I didn’t have the right reason for not trusting him.

I adored watching all of the dates but also all of the rest of Kate’s life unfold in the background of the story. The secondary characters were many and amazing. I loved them all for what they provided to the story. The romance of the story was also pretty great. I really, really enjoyed it. It wasn’t pretending to be anything other than what it was.

I will definitely be reading The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss again. It was one of my favorite reads of 2022.