The Twelve Dates of Christmas | Started Great, but Slowed Down

3.75/5 Stars

Kate is 34 years old and about ready to give up on love. Her little town of Blexford, England is lacking when it comes to men. To solve this problem, her best friend signs Kate up for a dating agency. Their holiday event? The Twelve Dates of Christmas. Kate embarks on 12 dates with 12 new men but soon realizes that love might be closer to her than she thought. 

I picked this up for a cute, Christmas romance and I definitely got it. The town of Blexford was charming and got me in the holiday spirit. The idea of 12 dates was interesting. It was fun reading about the successes and failures when it came to dating, but the pacing felt off. The date went quickly in the beginning, and I was curious how this would go because I had my predictions of how it would end. Around the 60% mark, there was an abrupt change in how thing were going for Kate. This allowed for one relationship to progress, but I needed a bit more plot development for it to work smoothly. 

Because there are 12 dates plus Kate’s friends and family, there were a lot of characters to follow. Some seemed a bit unnecessary, but they did add to the overall charm of the cozy town. This wasn’t a steamy book, but it did make me want to grab a hot cocoa from a coffee shop and watch the snow fall (sadly, I live in Texas and that is not a possibility). Overall, this was a cute romance. A bit slow in the beginning, but once the plot developed, was a good story to get me into the Christmas spirit.