This book takes places over like four or five days total, so it’s not like she refused to talk to him for months. When you’re at a certain point in your life, the decisions you make are more long term and not wanting to immediately run into the arms of the man who broke your heart ages ago is an absolutely okay decision. Whitney hadn’t expected to run into her old flame and needed time to adjust and decide to have that particular conversation with him. Also, I thought the situations were handled appropriately. There is a lot of emphasis put on physical age and what people “think” you should be like but that just isn’t how it works. I think the mentality of hitting a certain age and being different is an assumption of a younger person. I read one Goodreads review on this where the criticism was that they were in their late 30s and they handled the situation like early 20s and I fully disagree.

The spice didn’t hit until the end, which is perfectly fine, and was excellent to be honest. The family dynamic and side characters were fantastic and I wasn’t annoyed when those characters popped up in scenes, which is something that happens to me often. I loved that these were older characters who’d found the footing, independence, and confidence. I adored the hero and his story, along with his character development. I’m not usually much for second chance romance or holiday books but this one really hit the spot. It had me cracking up in some moments and swooning in others. The Plight Before Christmas was better than it had any right to be.

Julianne donaldson goodreads