*I was given an ARC of The Best Christmas Choir Ever in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Mills & Boon and Elizabeth Hrib for my copy of the book*

Synopsis:

Music was everything to professional soprano Charlie Ward…until her brother died, leaving her lost in grief. But when her beloved Gram moves into the Glendale Retirement Village, Charlie is cajoled into temporarily volunteering to direct the community’s new choir, their sights set on winning the Annual Christmas Choir Competition.

Only, the home’s activities director happens to be the super-cute guy she once spent a hot, hazy, sexy summer with. Julian Guerrero hasn’t forgotten Charlie Ward. Not even a little. Fortunately, he has his hands full with the lively residents who are determined to win, even if they must twerk their way to victory.

Amid mince tarts, gingerbread houses and Christmas lights, Charlie and Julian must find a way to transform their quirky singing seniors into a sensation. It’ll take hard work. It’ll take heart. And it’ll take just enough holiday magic to surprise everyone…Charlie most of all.

Review:

The Best Christmas Choir Ever was possibly my most anticipated festive read of 2025, however, it will not be making it into my favourites. It’s a little savage to say but this was so boring I couldn’t finish it. 

As a lover of all things singing, The Best Christmas Choir Ever sounded right up my street. Unfortunately, I didn’t like either of the main characters and I thought the pace was far too slow for the shorter length of the book.

A lot of this review is my jumbled thoughts I wrote down while reading, so apologies if it’s a little all over the place.

The ‘romance’ was just plain bad. Charlie was visibly upset about her brother and for some reason Julian saw this as an opportunity for a cheeky little kiss. They’d been bickering back and forth and he literally pretended to not know her so this was very strange

Also I didn’t find their previous romantic relationship very believable. If we were given a flashback that would have been good. I’m not a fan of “you should believe this because I’m telling you”. I want you to show me why I should want them together. 

I think if meeting again years later was a complete surprise to them both I would have gotten more excited about it. But Charlie already knew Julian worked at the home so it was a bit meh. There was no spark for me, but I will admit they do have good witty banter, I just don’t think it was the romantic kind.

Including spice in a book about a Christmas choir made up of geriatrics is a little weird to me. I only read one slightly steamy scene but it was genuinely jarring. It felt so out of place, especially as there has been no development of their relationship between the inappropriate kiss I mentioned before. 

The residents of the home were brilliant though. I loved how they all had very distinct personalities and the choir was pure chaos. Charlie’s gran and the other workers at the home easily outshone the main characters.

Also, Charlie was embarrassingly horrible to them to begin with. She treated them like they were Broadway professionals so any mistake, even tiny ones, were blown way out of proportion. I do get that doing anything musical without her brother was hard for her, but this was too much in my opinion. You can’t be shouting at elderly residents of a retirement home.

I don’t really have much else to say as even though I made it more than halfway through The Best Christmas Choir, not a lot happened. They’d barely begun the choir and the book didn’t feel festive at all.

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