Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Medicaid is officially taken care for a year(ish) unless the administration keeps screwing with everything. Now, my main concern is the wheelchair (yeah, we’re still not done with that yet). Beyond that, I have a month or so where I don’t have to prove I’m cripple enough or poor enough to anyone. Huzzah! Don’t worry. A new round of that starts in November/December. Anyway… It’s the last Wednesday in September, so you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I ended up with a cozy Christmas romance. Christmas at Honeycombe Bay by Lilac Mills was released by Dell yesterday (the 29th). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

Christmas at Honeycombe Bay follows Eloise and Bart. Eloise (60 and was recently let go from her lifetime job) wants nothing more than to escape all things Christmas, so she runs away to a seaside village that’s supposed to be dead in the winter. Bart (widowed and still wallowing in his loss) owns a B&B that he never really planned on opening again but does so just to prove he can run it alone with the bonus of having an excuse not to spend Christmas with his son’s family. Nobody in the B&B particularly wants to celebrate, but when a house fire a few doors down leaves a single mother and her young child homeless, what are they supposed to do? Bart and his guests decide to give the little boy and his mother the best Christmas they can, of course.

Plot: slow. This is obviously more character driven than plot driven. Yes, you get all the Hallmark romance plot points, but they take a backseat to the characters. Eloise is constantly ruminating on something. Bart is always fretting. And the biggest plot issue is that neither of them can openly communicate to save their lives. Based on the plot alone, the story is cute. It’s standard Christmas fare. There’s nothing special about it. That’s not to say it’s not good. It is. I found it to be very enjoyable. I’m just not going to add it to my list of books I want to re-read. It’s a one and done.

Characters: mixed bag. I didn’t like Eloise. She’s a whiny bitch and everything has to be her way. Her attitude is explained away as stemming from a tough childhood. She is 60. It’s time to acknowledge that other people have agency in their own lives. Also, nothing about her past is severe enough or explained well enough to warrant the hissy fit she throws when she discovers the town is trying something new this year. I also didn’t like Bart’s son. He’s the one who comes off as an uncaring gold-digger, so he has no room to accuse anyone else. And he doesn’t support his father at all even though the book tries to make it seem like he does. That being said, I loved Bart, Mitch, Sarah, and Toby. So, mostly good with a couple of meh characters.

Setting: LOVE! It’s a cozy English seaside village. What’s not to like? It’s a great book in terms of world building. I kind of wondered why it was so fleshed out until I saw a second book set in the same village is coming out next year. Different scenario and different people, but same setting. I don’t know if I’ll pick it up, but in case you were wondering, that’s why Honeycombe Bay is so vividly described.

Writing: not bad. Unobtrusive. I had to look up one or two things because it’s in England and I’m not. But that’s a me problem.

Ultimately, I liked Christmas at Honeycombe Bay for what it is. I’m not particularly interested in future books, but I’m not mad I read this one.

Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. A solid 3.5, anyway. If you enjoy binging Christmas romances (nothing spicy), you’ll probably like this one. If you’re looking for something special, keep looking.