Review: Christmas In July

Christmas In July by Kelsey Humphreys
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 51%.

Aiden is a ruthless property billionaire with plans for a upmarket ski resort in Juniper Falls, unfortunately in order to build the ski resort he is going to bulldoze half the main street.

Harper is your typical small-town homebody, she looks after her invalid father and runs a small bakery, she and most of the small businesses in town are slowly declining, but she is determined to oppose the destruction of her shop and half the town. She also has a speech impediment or a brain fart which means she often says the wrong word - people correct her all the time which is why she has rarely spoken to strangers. But when she hears Aiden's plans she has to speak up - and they agree a deal, if each of the shops due for demolition can make a profit by July Aiden will save them ... he knows they have no chance at all.

So Harper rallies the townsfolk to basically celebrate every possible high day and holiday. At first even that is a disaster, until Aiden steps in and points out some basic sales and marketing techniques. Meanwhile, Aiden has rented the house next door to Harper and her dad and has started helping Harper out in different ways. If she could just accept that she is going to lose their bet Aiden would be a happy man.

Ordinarily I love Kelsey Humphreys and I was stoked to get an advance copy to review. Unfortunately, there's suspension of disbelief for a Hallmark movie and then there's this which pushes me too far over the edge. I didn't really warm to Harper, I didn't see what Aiden saw in her, or what she saw in him and frankly reading any further felt like an effort. I prefer Kelsey's sassy heroines - the successful authors or businesswomen. However, this won't stop me from reading more of her books.

I received an ARC from the publisher via BookSirens.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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