Review: Christmas on Fifth Avenue

Christmas on Fifth Avenue by Julie Caplin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Evie Green has become a social media icon - but not in a good way. Despite being a financial journalist she fell for a scam offering a holiday in New York and used her flatmates' money to pay the deposit. Then when her boss finds out she gets suspended. The only upside is that the Plaza in New York has offered her a holiday in New York all expenses paid if she will post photos and videos of her time there. It was a dream of Evie's late mother to spend Christmas in New York, since her death Evie hasn't really celebrated Christmas so this trip will be a first.

Noah Sanderson is an American playing football in England, he got a bit of a bad boy reputation, which he was trying to clear up, until trying too hard he went in for a strong tackle which ended up breaking both his opponent's legs and potentially ending his career. His agent has banished him to New York until the fuss dies down with the instruction to stay away from controversy.

Of course they end up sitting next to each other on the plane and having adjoining rooms in the Plaza. The two of them are like chalk and cheese, Evie throws herself into things with abandon, but never gets too close whereas Noah plans everything carefully (one tackle aside) and is super close with his family.

When the inevitable happens and the hotel shares a video of Evie dressed up as an elf giving out candy canes to diners in the hotel's restaurant and teasing Noah about being a bad boy Noah's agent decides a fake wholesome romance is just the ticket to rehabilitate Noah's image. The video has the highest engagement of any of the posts to date so Evie agrees to the fake dating.

What follows is Noah and Evie ticking off every Hallmark New York experience, from ice-skating to Tiffany's, Bloomingdales, Christmas lights etc, etc. Along the way Evie discovers that Christmas might not be as bad as she thinks and Noah sees the virtue in a bit of spontaneity.

Then comes the inevitable conflict, TBH it felt manufactured and a trifle silly.

Overall, if you love a Hallmark Christmas movie I think you'll love this, its cute, cosy, and choc full of meet-cute experiences.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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