Last updated on 12/09/2025
Sylvie Harding once swore that the only reason she’d ever return to Castleton was to plan her sister’s wedding… And here she is.
After eleven months of planning, the Christmas Eve wedding of her little sister’s dreams is only three weeks away, and professional wedding planner Sylvie is all hands-on deck from the moment she arrives home. Swept up in the magic that is Christmas in her hometown, the only thing that can possibly dampen her spirit is coming face to face with her childhood frenemy.
Thomas, the Duke of Castleton.
The man she spent her childhood feuding with thanks to an errant cricket ball is just as snarky, annoying, and gorgeous as she remembers. Despite running the village tree farm and his mother being the ringleader of all things Christmas in town, the past few years have turned him into a right little scrooge.
When a string of tragedies hit the wedding plans, Sylvie only has one person she can turn Thomas. Not that she has a choice—he has a habit of showing up exactly when she needs him to save the day, and she can’t stand it.
And when the ultimate disaster befalls the wedding just three days before the ceremony, Sylvie doesn’t see how it can go ahead.
But Thomas can.
And it just might be his chance to prove to Sylvie how he truly feels about her—and save Christmas at the same time.
Review:
This was really cute!
Sylvie was a bit OTT with her Thomas-hate for a little too much of the book (I get it, I am the grudge holder to end all grudge holders. But when I’m truly over my grudge, I also know when to let it go, whereas she’ll be making him pay for her eyebrow scar for decades to come) but once she let herself finally admit her feelings to herself and to him, they were a delight together. I did enjoy how well he really understood her–this will bode well for him in those decades to come–and when he stepped in to help at a point where she just couldn’t see a way through? Pure romance fiction gold.
Not going to lie, though, I’m actually glad we don’t have a book from younger sister Hazel’s POV, because she absolutely earned every tongue lashing Sylvie gives her about her lack of follow through for the things she promised to/needed to get done for her own wedding. And the epilogue–which is all kinds of freaking adorable in every other way–pretty much makes it clear that she hasn’t learned a darn thing.
But Beatrix Trotter? And Thomas’s family, especially his mum? Solid side characters I wouldn’t mind seeing again.
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
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