Two best friends. Ten Christmases. One happy ending.When best friends Alexandra and Lucas share a first kiss on Christmas night their senior year of high school, it feels like the best years of their lives are ahead of them. Then Alex goes off to college, and Lucas stays behind to work at his dad’s construction business in the small beach town where they grew up. Life, as they say, happens. And … say, happens. And somewhere along the way these two high school sweethearts find they don’t have as much in common as they once did.
Lucas’s life is on Beaufort Island, and Alex is all about getting away and moving on. So he makes one of the hardest decisions of his life and lets her go.
But every year when Alex comes home for the holidays, fate conspires to reunite the two former lovebirds on Christmas Day. Year after year, through good times and bad, Lucas and Alex meet up, catch up, and reconnect on the anniversary of their first kiss.
Is it too much to hope that one year they’ll find their way back to each other permanently?
Maybe even this Christmas.
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I’m getting in the holiday mood with Maybe This Christmas! A perfect read to pair with hot chocolate and dreams of snow and sleigh bells!
I love this book. I love how this author was able to put ten plus years on this book and make it all make since and not feel like anything was left out.
It all starts out the year Alex and Lucas are set to graduate and start to date. Then goes through ten years of many ups and downs?
The thing is are they strong enough to make it through? Do they meet other people? Are that able to keep the the same friendship?
This is just a book that you need to read to see what all happens and how life can change thing. And not just their life but there parents and siblings.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was such a cute story that spans over 10 Christmases. Alex and Lucas have been friends forever but when they tried a relationship it didn’t work out due to distance. They spend the next 9 Christmases trying to move on and be friends but something always pulls them back. Loved this sweet second chance romance and I am not a big fan of sweet romances but this one had my heart.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was such a very sweet short story. It’s about two young people who meet while in high school and fall in love. But with all things life gets in the way and their plans of going awAy to college together falls apart. They try to maintain their relationship but once again life happens. Read a beautiful story of how love does happen and it does come back around. I truly enjoyed this book.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this book, but once I dove into it, I couldn’t put it down. I loved seeing how their friendship and relationship ebbed and flowed over the course of 10 Christmases – it was totally like a Christmas movie, and I loved it. I did find myself wanting more than just that day, but that’s not what this book is about, and for me, it works. It was a fun holiday read!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Alex and Lucas are best friends in high school, when they start dating. They stay together until Alex leaves for college, while Lucas stays home to work for his dad and attend community college. Lucas sets her free, and Alex doesn’t think twice about it, because she’s ready to experience all that college has to offer. Their group of friends gets together every Christmas holiday to have a bonfire at the beach and catch up. Some years are awkward, while others are better. There are some good friends that also return each year, and it’s possible that there are other stories about them, but that’s just a guess.
This story offers a glimpse into each of their lives every Christmas for 10 subsequent years. It’s not a very long story, yet there is enough detail given in each chapter to give the reader an adequate snapshot of each of their lives and their motivations. They grow and change and mature, and perhaps appreciate each other a bit more after each separation. No spoilers here, but this story had surprising depth for its brevity. The pacing moves along, because each new chapter occurs one year later. It’s an effective way of telling this story.
This is an enjoyable read. The ending is satisfying and somewhat inevitable. Nonetheless, the ending isn’t fully clear until the final chapter.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The romance of Alexandra (Alex) and Lucas in Susannah Nix’s Maybe This Christmas May be so slow-burn as you almost be no burn, but this wonderfully heart-warming and fun small town “Second-Chance Holiday Romance” is a time of fun and definitely worth the read. I’m happy to recommend the book.
I’m a sucker for holiday romances, and this was a perfect fit, with the story jumping from Christmas to Christmas as we watched up and down again romance play out between the leads while they both grew up and matured over time. Nice, light read for an icy December afternoon. Made me smile!
I implicitly enjoyed this story, hands down. It was such a cute, heartwarming story.
It’s a quick read that I needed at the moment. I breezed right through it.
This book is told in a very unique way, which worked for this story completely. You get to know the characters in such a short time, while taking their journey of bad timing.
There is nothing better than a feel good, Christmas romance this time of year. I highly recommend it.
Wow, I absolutely loved this story from start to finish. I honestly haven’t read a story like this before and that alone made me want to keep turning the pages. As the story grows you grow as well just like you are right there with them. Maybe it’s the holiday magic, maybe it’s love that pours through the pages, who knows? In the end I loved everything about this. *happy sigh*
This was a fun Christmas romance novella! It takes place over the course of 10 Christmases. Alex and Lucas are best friends and everything changes when they kiss the Christmas of their senior year of high school. Each Christmas vignette takes us through their relationship and the years apart, as well as how their respective families change.
They date other people, which includes Alex coming out as bi. (I’m interested in seeing what bi reviewers have to say about the representation.) They break up with other people. Some years their friendship is on track. Other years they’re barely speaking. But each Christmas they continue to be in each other’s orbit.
As cute as this was, it felt like it dragged a little in the middle. Molly O’Keefe did a Christmas Eve story in 5 parts a couple of years ago, spanning from 2001 to 2013, and doing it in 5 parts allowed her to skip a few years as needed. That might have been more effective here, instead of depicting all ten Christmas days. That’s a minor issue on the whole, however.
Alex and Lucas were really great together. I loved watching Alex do her best to get out of their small town and see how she fared in college and her career. It was also interesting to see how Lucas stayed in their hometown and what life is like when you decide to stay. It was beyond satisfying when they both got their acts together and finally realized they’d never stopped loving one another. Lucas’s gesture the Christmas they get back together made me swoon!
CW: divorce (parent), infidelity (parent)
Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
This holiday novella by Susannah Nix is right on time ! A second chance romance and best-friends-to-lovers and some Christmas cheer? Hits all my easy buttons and is a sweet, romantic gift!
How adorable is this cover? And who doesn’t love second-chance romance?
I love a good Christmas romance!
Get yourself in the holiday mood with this small town, second chance romance from Susannah Nix.
Sweet, heart-warming holiday romance + friends-to-lovers = Total Win!
Let’s be honest, I don’t usually read Christmas stories until November at the earliest. Generally speaking, I like to set the scene when I dive into holiday stories (aka my Christmas tree and lots of lights), but I was thrilled to make an exception to read Maybe This Christmas. Y’all know second chance romance is catnip for me. When you add to that a small-town setting and holiday theme, I’m all over it.
I love Susannah’s writing style, so I absolutely adored Maybe This Christmas. The premise was unique. I was a little concerned I wouldn’t feel a connection to the characters since we’re seeing them for such a short period of time, once a year. Of course, I had nothing to worry about. Alex and Lucas still found their way into my heart, even though I only really spent ten days with them. (Or like an hour of actual reading time.) I connected with them as friends and then as a couple, so some of the yearly check-ins were tougher than others. I’m not going to get into all that, though. This is another case where the story is just best experienced with little advance knowledge.
Maybe This Christmas was wonderfully sweet and gave me all the feels I wanted. I adored the characters, setting and the slow burn romance of two best friends finally getting it right.
I can’t wait to dive into my first holiday read of the season!!
Heartbreaking. Sweet. Cute.
I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This book tells the tale of high school sweethearts that drift apart then drift back together. It’s a friends to lovers, second chance, coming of age romance all wrapped into one.
Interestingly enough, the story is told over the span of 10 years. Each year the Lucas and Alex meet up on Christmas Day, whether they want to or not, and catch up with each other’s lives. I liked that we get to experience their personal growth as they navigate adulthood and that their relationship experienced realistic challenges.
Overall, this book was a good read. It’s a novella, so it’s quick, but it’s also full of depth and a well developed storyline.
It’s a yearly check in with Alex and Lucas over the span of a decade.
They are friends and try to maintain a relationship until life happens but every Christmas, we check in with them. Maybe this year, they will finally be on the same page.
A quick read, a yearly Christmas check in, characters you root for.