title: Christmas at Honeycombe Bay
author: Lilac Mills
publisher: Penguin/Random House
publication date: September 29, 2026
pages: 304
peppers: 2 (on this scale)
warnings:
- some anti-Christmas sentiment
- parental death and abandonment (before)
- a house fire (nobody gets hurt)
- spousal death (before) and grief
summary: Eloise hates the Christmas cheer everyone's forcing at her, so she retreats to an off-season BnB she remembers from years ago. Bart, the BnB's owner hasn't been feeling the spirit either, so even though he hasn't been renting out rooms since his wife died almost two years ago, he decides he could use the money. He opens up the house for any anti-Christmas guests who'd like to show up.
tropes:
- given up on ever finding love
- trying to escape everyone else's cheer
- learning to live again
- found family
what I liked:
- older protagonists --> they're both in their sixties!
- secondary characters
- found family is really well done
what I didn’t like:
- conflict might be a little too made-up
overall rating: 4 (of 5 stars)
As always, you can click on the photo above if you want to buy the book.