*I was given an ARC of Yours for the Season in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Headline and Emily Stone for my copy of the book*

Synopsis: 

Christmas with your ex and his family in a cosy cottage in the snowy Scottish Highlands?

It’s the last place Mel imagined spending the holidays.

But when her ex-boyfriend Finn shows up on her doorstep, only months after inexplicably dumping her at his sister’s engagement party, asking her to pretend to his family they’re back together, she agrees – on one condition. Mel can publicly dump Finn at the end of the week and show him just how it feels.

But with Finn’s mother set on making this Christmas picture-perfect, can Mel and Finn keep up the act without falling back into old feelings? As their white lie snowballs out of control, and the ice between them starts to thaw, Mel must decide if she really wants their romance to be just for the season – or something more…

Review:

After pretty much hating The Christmas Letter, I wanted to give Emily Stone another chance, and I’m glad I did. Yours for the Season was an absolute joy from start to finish. It did have some sad elements, which I’m starting to associate with Emily Stone’s books, but these didn’t last too long so the book does have an overall joyful feeling.

We all know by now that I’m a real sucker for a fake dating book and one set at Christmas is just perfect for me. I especially loved that in Yours for the Season our fake dating ‘couple’ are ex’s that only broke up six months ago. This left a lot of room for angst, begrudging physical touch and anger. Which also equals fiery passion apparently. 

I loved how Mel and Finn’s past was woven into the current day story. The flashbacks to their relationship didn’t feel out of place or like they were detracting from the festive vibes. These actually made their relationship far more believable and didn’t make you question why they’d even think about getting back together after such a harsh break up. 

Neither of our main characters are perfect and, to be honest, it’s a little hard to like both of them to begin with. However, they do really grow on you. I think Finn ends up being one of my favourite characters actually, which if you’d told me that at the start of the book I would have thought you were crazy. No way would I like a character that breaks up with his long time girlfriend in front of his whole family at his sister’s engagement party. But yeah, his reasoning for that is still ridiculous when you find out why, but you do understand it.

The side characters in Yours for the Season are great. I wasn’t a fan of Mark (Finn’s brother) but I did love Hattie (Finn’s sister), Susan (Finn’s mom) and Kirsten (Mark’s wife). Kirsten was a stand out character for a few reasons. She had one of the deepest and most complex character arcs and I loved how she and Mel grew much closer than they were before Finn and Mel broke up the first time.

The Christmas vibes are off the charts. The family do so many festive activities together that this really got me excited for the Christmas season (even though it’s mid July when I’m writing this). The scavenger hunt and Come Dine With Me style cooking challenge were my favourite parts. These made me want to do something similar with my family for Christmas. 

Learning why Finn’s mom wants to do these activities is a little heartbreaking, but it is something you see coming. There are subtle hints throughout the whole book about what’s going on with her so it’s not a total shock. But it does create the drama element that seemed missing from Yours for the Season. I’m not a fan of creating drama/sadness in this way, but it’s been a common theme in both of Emily Stone’s books I’ve read so far.

Something I always wish for in festive romances is for Christmas day to last longer than just one chapter or a few paragraphs. Having the perfect Christmas day was a big theme of this book so while I did enjoy what we did get to read, I would have loved even more. I can’t complain too much though, there were a lot of festive activities, which is more than can be said for most books set around Christmas.

I’d highly recommend Yours for the Season. It was my first festive read of 2025 and it has made me excited to get stuck into more Christmas books.

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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Audiobook Review: The Upside Down Christmas by Kate Forster