The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss Book Review

“On the fifth date of Shagmas my true love gave.to me,

One gay man dancing,

One date drinking,

One fireman skating,

One vegan weeping

And a no-show outside the Pear Tree!”

Kate shook her head and typed back:

You are hilarious. Have you considered giving up catering and going into comedy?”

(pg. 112)

About

Author: Jenny Bayliss

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

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Synopsis

When it comes to relationships, thirty-four-year-old Kate Turner is ready to say “Bah, humbug.” The sleepy town of Blexford, England, isn’t exactly brimming with prospects, and anyway, Kate’s found fulfillment in her career as a designer, and in her delicious side job baking for her old friend Matt’s neighborhood café. But then her best friend signs her up for a dating agency that promises to help singles find love before the holidays. Twenty-three days until Christmas. Twelve dates with twelve different men. The odds must finally be in her favor . . . right? 

Yet with each new date more disastrous than the one before–and the whole town keeping tabs on her misadventures–Kate must remind herself that sometimes love, like mistletoe, shows up where it’s least expected. And maybe, just maybe, it’s been right under her nose all along. . . .

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To the dates leading to the holidays,

Reading holiday books and watching holiday movies are just part of the holiday season to get into the mood. I read The Twelve Dates of Christmas last year and wanted to save this review for this year’s holiday book line up because I don’t know what holiday books I’ll be reading by this time next year. I like to think I would have read some holiday books, but just in case, I’ll have this review as a back up.

I was interested to see what this book was about because the premise was interesting, a single older woman looking for love, so she goes on the twelve dates before Christmas, hoping to find love or at least a good shag.

Sounded fun. Sounded like it could be Hallmark movie romanic and cute.

Before I can get further into this review, I would just like to note that I have nothing against the author or her writing, just some books are your favorite and some aren’t. I really wanted to like The Twelve Dates of Christmas, I really did. It’s not like any reader goes into a book not wanting to like it.

But this book fell flat for me. I felt like I was chugging through the book because it was slow and somewhat interesting. I don’t know. I finished the book because I wanted to see what happened, but I wasn’t on the edge of my seat or invested in the story of the characters. There were many slow parts that felt too detailed with the setting. I like being put into a scene and envisioning every moment, but there was a bit too much whimsical detail that wasn’t necessary in moving the story along. I think we could have taken out some of the detail and focused more on Kate and Matt’s backstory and maybe their upbringing. I think it would have been cool if we had some flashbacks to the time they were apart so we could see what they did rather than being told what they did. I wanted to feel like I was on this journey with them; Most of the time, I felt like I was an outsider being told what the journey was rather than feel it.

Also, there were many homely art scenes. I appreciate art, but it just felt really slow and didn’t move the story or feel like it served a purpose. I wanted more about Kate’s personality and relationship with her mom and dad. I wanted to dig deeper on her emotions with her mom leaving her and the dad and Kate feeling like she had to move back to London to take care of her dad. Kate was obviously made at her mom, but there could have been more said or explored about the situation. We could have had a deeper conversation with the mom about how Kate felt about her leaving the dad and them. We had a short conversation towards the end that felt serious, but it wasn’t the heart-to-heart I was looking for. Maybe we also could have explored more of Matt’s relationship with Sarah and how he felt with everything. I wanted Matt’s perspective because I just felt like we didn’t even get to know Matt beyond what Kate saw of him. From what I gauged, Matt’s a jokey, caring, kind, and protective friend. But he could also be very stubborn and unclear in his words and actions—very hasty. I wanted to know more about how he felt after his parents passed away and how that deeply effected him. There were layers to Matt, but we only grazed the surface of his character. I don’t feel like I got to know Matt, so I didn’t really form a connection to him. I didn’t care about his character all that much, besides him being the love interest. He wasn’t a bad person or anything, I just didn’t connect the most to him or care about his character.

The twelve dates were interesting.

I wasn’t super invested by the twelve dates and I wanted to be 😥. I wanted to feel the giggles or the swoon romance. I did laugh with some of the dates, but most of them felt one-note and blurred together. T liked the failed trials and errors with her dates because that’s funny and expected—-not all dates could be winners. So I appreciated that we had some pretty awful and funny dates. There were some interesting dates like the one with Drew (who I loved the mostest), Barry the fireman, the architecture who wanted to build his own gingerbread house, and the escape room. I thought those were fun and I kind of laughed. But the other dates? I have no clue what there names were or what distinctly happened on their dates. If I skimmed the chapter titles again, I could remember, but at the top of my mind, I couldn’t’ tell you. I wanted more action or epicness, comedy, and cuteness with the dates. I wanted something that was memorable, fascinating, romantic, or fun. The dates were okay, but I felt like there was something missing about the twelve dates that could have really taken the story to another level.

I think maybe I was looking for more romance with other contenders because there only seemed to be Richard who she liked, and I didn’t even like him.

I have always heard that if a person is too cocky or confident, that that’s a red flag. The person should be humble or a bit nervous.

Richard was suave and a smooth talker. I mean, who doesn’t like a guy who saves you in the middle of the night when your car won’t start? Also, who doesn’t like a single father who cares for his kids. He sounded and looked good, but he was just too darn cocky and confident for me. The way he was overly sure of himself was weird and then he had the AUDACITY to threaten one of Kate’s dates and then say he felt jealous and wouldn’t do it again and that it was just one time. I was like, it’s not one time. He’s sweet talking you and manipulating the situation. He’s a walking read flag 👏🏼. Then the whole thing with how he would get all protective and territorial about Kate was disgusting or whenever Kate talked to him about guys and dates, he would close off and get mad at her like it was her fault. I’m sorry, were you both not signed up for this twelve dates of Christmas?? Yea, I thought so. I also wanted to yell at Kate that she was ignoring the signs that he was trying to woo her. He bought her dinner after a big fight because he sweet-talked his way back to her, which was stupid. He’s a player and a loser.

When Matt heard him talking to his wife in the bathroom, I wasn’t surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. I🚩I told you! He was too confident and a walking red flag 🚩.

It broke my heart because he made Kate the other woman and that wasn’t her fault, but she sure as heck felt violated and guilty for it. I felt violated for her. Richard is walking trash and he disgusts me 🤮.

Dude was married and was cheating on his wife just so he could get a shag for Christmas like the twelve dates thing was a game.

I must say, it sucks that people like Richard ruin such a good-intentioned thing like a twelve dates event because it’s such a sweet sentiment for people to find love but then you have sleaze bags like Richard who take advantage of the event and turn it into this sick, twisted, disgusting game just because they are unloyal mother truckers! What trash. They ruined Christmas and this darn event. I hope they get coal for Christmas.

But, we all KNEW she liked Matt the entire time 😩!!!!!

It was obvious in the way he was in mostly every scene and the way he teased her about the date was his way of processing his hurt because he liked her too but was too chicken to admit it. I still don’t understand why they ever got back together when they both really didn’t work through their past hurt. They slept together in college, but they never talked about it. Instead they had this big argument that broke up their friendship because he didn’t want to make a big deal about it, but Kate wanted to talk about it because it meant something to her. It probably meant something to him too but he pushed her away and regretted it too late because she moved to London to pursue her dreams. He tried to move on by marrying someone so quickly—within a year or five after she moved away. He ended up divorcing his wife and dating his now ex-girlfriend, Jess. Matt should have just talked to Kate or told her how he felt. They never talked about that college days even if they got together at the end. I wasn’t really a fan of their romance because I didn’t get it. There was no conversation about what happened in the past—they just avoided it and still failed to talk about it all these years later. I wanted more cute moments between Matt and Kate to feel their chemistry rather than little moments here and there. I wanted more dates, more laughter, heated intense moments of kissing.

Honestly, were was the kissing in this book 😂?????! No pressure, but I came for the romance and I got none 🤪. I wanted some spice in this Christmas and some heat! I wanted some proper snagging. Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel Kate and Matt’s chemistry. I didn’t feel the tiny detailed moments of how they looked at each other with loving gazes or noticed every detail about the other person—-you know the typical long paragraph that depicts how the love interest looks. I didn’t get that. I also didn’t get the whole build up of their crush because Kate just all of a sudden realized that Matt was the sparkle in her life. I wanted to feel that sparkle. I didn’t feel anything. I wanted to see her heart race whenever he came by or I wanted to feel her restraining herself from kissing him and him having that same fevered and intense passion. I didn’t get that. We needed spice and everything nice.

I understood the story wanted to build off this childhood friends to lover. I love that trope, but I didn’t feel it much here. If they were childhood best friends, give me the nostalgia!!! Give me the cute moments they used to do together and them recreating those moments now. I wanted the heart-felt, ooey-goey love scenes and re-falling in love with each other rather than skirting around each other and acting like they were in love with each other the whole time like it wasn’t straightforward. I wanted to feel that love.

If this book were a drink it would be eggnog because it was not my favorite, but I read it anyway.

I will say I liked the end when Matt showed up at the twelfth date by surprise and they watched the movie in the park together. That was cute. I love a surprise.

Overall, The Twelve Dates of Christmas could have been a stronger book with more communication around the important points brought up with both characters. Dual POVs or flashbacks would have built up the story better to form a stronger relationship between Kate and Matt and the love they shared. I would have liked more interesting twelve dates that felt sparkly, giddy, or more funny. I also wanted to love their love, but I found myself feeling one-note about it because I couldn’t connect to the characters or how they worked through their issues to be together. They had some arguments and conversations, but I wanted deep conversations about their fears and pasts. I didn’t think we got that. There was a solid holiday vibe with the town and the coziness. Again, a lot of detail with different scenes, and a lot of detail isn’t necessarily a bad thing because I picture the town and the community. But I wanted more story and to be showed rather than told what happened.

Also, I wasn’t a fan that during some parts, the author used the word “slave” in a joking way because those who were enslaved were not a joke or something to be joked about. The term and its use just rubbed me the wrong way whenever I stumbled across it and I would have liked more sensitivity or omission of the word.

Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? 

What did you think of the book? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

What is your favorite holiday tradition?

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.

And as always, with love,

Rating

2.32 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: I liked Drew. What a fun character. Oh, and Laura. I didn’t connect to Kate or Matt.

Plot: The twelve dates could have been more romantic and fun, but something was missing for me.

Writing: The book is very detailed and sets the scene, but there was a lot of extra words and scenes that were slow and didn’t move the story forward as much as I would have liked.

Romance: The romance could have been cute if we had more spice or deeper moments that built Matt and Kate’s relationship. I felt like they never really talked about what happened in the past before being honest about their deep down feelings, so I didn’t really like their relationship because they didn’t work through the hard parts to be together. Also, there wasn’t as many romantic scenes between them that made me convinced they loved each other now. They felt stuck in the love they had for each other when they were younger, but what made them like each other now?