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Maybe This Christmas
Two best friends. Ten Christmases. One happy ending.
When best friends Alexandra and Lucas share a first kiss on Christmas night their senior year of high school, it feels like the best years of their lives are ahead of them.
Then Alex goes off to college, and Lucas stays behind to work at his dad’s construction business in the small beach town where they grew up. Life, as they say, happens. And somewhere along the way these two high school sweethearts find they don’t have as much in common as they once did.
Lucas’s life is on Beaufort Island, and Alex is all about getting away and moving on. So he makes one of the hardest decisions of his life and lets her go.
But every year when Alex comes home for the holidays, fate conspires to reunite the two former lovebirds on Christmas Day. Year after year, through good times and bad, Lucas and Alex meet up, catch up, and reconnect on the anniversary of their first kiss.
Is it too much to hope that one year they’ll find their way back to each other permanently?
Maybe even this Christmas.
When best friends Alexandra and Lucas share a first kiss on Christmas night their senior year of high school, it feels like the best years of their lives are ahead of them.
Then Alex goes off to college, and Lucas stays behind to work at his dad’s construction business in the small beach town where they grew up. Life, as they say, happens. And somewhere along the way these two high school sweethearts find they don’t have as much in common as they once did.
Lucas’s life is on Beaufort Island, and Alex is all about getting away and moving on. So he makes one of the hardest decisions of his life and lets her go.
But every year when Alex comes home for the holidays, fate conspires to reunite the two former lovebirds on Christmas Day. Year after year, through good times and bad, Lucas and Alex meet up, catch up, and reconnect on the anniversary of their first kiss.
Is it too much to hope that one year they’ll find their way back to each other permanently?
Maybe even this Christmas.
114 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 22, 2019
About the author
Susannah Nix
37 books1,742 followersSusannah Nix is a RITA® Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of rom-coms and contemporary romances who lives in Texas with her husband. On the rare occasions she's not writing, she can be found reading, knitting, lifting weights, drinking wine, or obsessively watching Ted Lasso on repeat to stave off existential angst.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
November 14, 2019
Alex and Lucas were best friends for years. Both feelings the spark of something more. Maybe this Christmas is the ten years of them figuring it out. Their families are intertwined and so are their friends. It doesn’t matter the distance these two try to stay close.
This is a sweet story about realising you can’t run away from fate.
#competition win
This is a sweet story about realising you can’t run away from fate.
#competition win
November 20, 2019
Mixed feelings here. I liked the writing and concept (ten chapters cover the ten different Christmases, starting from senior year of high school), but the execution didn’t quite work for me. We hear so much about what happens the rest of the year (so many parental infidelities and relationship changes), but something seemed missing?
I understand that that the MCs have a once-in-a-lifetime friendship/love, but I never quite felt it. The beginning of each chapter always caught up on the seismic life changes of the past year, and I’d have to recalibrate my emotions and figure out exactly where the MCs stood (sometimes it was very different than how they left things the previous year). I don’t know. Maybe I’m being a grinch. Everyone else seems to love it, so I’m probably an outlier. It was fine; I just didn’t love it.
However: this was my first book by Nix and I really liked the writing. I think the characterization would be more fleshed out in a longer work. I'm definitely interested in trying another Nix book because the voice really works for me. Despite my mixed feelings, I'm glad I read MAYBE THIS CHRISTMAS.
Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I understand that that the MCs have a once-in-a-lifetime friendship/love, but I never quite felt it. The beginning of each chapter always caught up on the seismic life changes of the past year, and I’d have to recalibrate my emotions and figure out exactly where the MCs stood (sometimes it was very different than how they left things the previous year). I don’t know. Maybe I’m being a grinch. Everyone else seems to love it, so I’m probably an outlier. It was fine; I just didn’t love it.
However: this was my first book by Nix and I really liked the writing. I think the characterization would be more fleshed out in a longer work. I'm definitely interested in trying another Nix book because the voice really works for me. Despite my mixed feelings, I'm glad I read MAYBE THIS CHRISTMAS.
Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
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October 22, 2019
It's heeeeeere!!! Maybe This Christmas is AVAILABLE NOW for only 99¢!
Who's excited to read this holiday romance? I can't believe it's taken me this long to write a best friends-to-lovers book, because it's one of my favorite tropes.
The story starts in 2010 when the two main characters are in their senior year of high school. I had do some research to remind myself what the world was like ten years ago and to imagine what it must have felt like to graduate from high school that year. A LOT has changed in the last decade, and this book follows Alex and Lucas as they grow into adults, checking in with them every year on Christmas day.
🎄🎄🎄
Two best friends. Ten Christmases. One happy ending.
When best friends Alexandra and Lucas share a first kiss on Christmas night their senior year of high school, it feels like the best years of their lives are ahead of them.
Then Alex goes off to college, and Lucas stays behind to work at his dad’s construction business in the small beach town where they grew up. Life, as they say, happens. And somewhere along the way these two high school sweethearts find they don’t have as much in common as they once did.
Lucas’s life is on Beaufort Island, and Alex is all about getting away and moving on. So he makes one of the hardest decisions of his life and lets her go.
But every year when Alex comes home for the holidays, fate conspires to reunite the two former lovebirds on Christmas Day. Year after year, through good times and bad, Lucas and Alex meet up, catch up, and reconnect on the anniversary of their first kiss.
Is it too much to hope that one year they’ll find their way back to each other permanently?
Maybe even this Christmas.
🎄🎄🎄
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October 25, 2019
★★ 4.5 stars! ★★
Maybe This Christmas is the perfect title for this holiday-themed novella. It essentially takes 10 Christmases for Alexandra and Lucas to go from best friends to more-than-friends, grow apart, and finally, come back together again. Every chapter starts with a new Christmas and I kept hoping that maybe this one would be the one where they got it all together.
There's so much packed into just over 100 pages—friendship, sacrifice, patience, turmoil, life-changing decisions, and finally happiness. I'm amazed by how emotionally involved I became in these characters' lives. I couldn't rest easy until I knew they were going to have their HEA and how it happened.
If you're looking for a novella to help get you in the mood for the holidays or to help catch up on your reading goal for the year, definitely check out Maybe This Christmas!
Maybe This Christmas is the perfect title for this holiday-themed novella. It essentially takes 10 Christmases for Alexandra and Lucas to go from best friends to more-than-friends, grow apart, and finally, come back together again. Every chapter starts with a new Christmas and I kept hoping that maybe this one would be the one where they got it all together.
There's so much packed into just over 100 pages—friendship, sacrifice, patience, turmoil, life-changing decisions, and finally happiness. I'm amazed by how emotionally involved I became in these characters' lives. I couldn't rest easy until I knew they were going to have their HEA and how it happened.
If you're looking for a novella to help get you in the mood for the holidays or to help catch up on your reading goal for the year, definitely check out Maybe This Christmas!
November 12, 2019
Perfection!!
October 28, 2019
This was a fun Christmas romance novella! It takes place over the course of 10 Christmases. Alex and Lucas are best friends and everything changes when they kiss the Christmas of their senior year of high school. Each Christmas vignette takes us through their relationship and the years apart, as well as how their respective families change.
They date other people, which includes Alex coming out as bi. (I’m interested in seeing what bi reviewers have to say about the representation.) They break up with other people. Some years their friendship is on track. Other years they’re barely speaking. But each Christmas they continue to be in each other’s orbit.
As cute as this was, it felt like it dragged a little in the middle. Molly O’Keefe did a Christmas Eve story in 5 parts a couple of years ago, spanning from 2001 to 2013, and doing it in 5 parts allowed her to skip a few years as needed. That might have been more effective here, instead of depicting all ten Christmas days. That’s a minor issue on the whole, however.
Alex and Lucas were really great together. I loved watching Alex do her best to get out of their small town and see how she fared in college and her career. It was also interesting to see how Lucas stayed in their hometown and what life is like when you decide to stay. It was beyond satisfying when they both got their acts together and finally realized they’d never stopped loving one another. Lucas’s gesture the Christmas they get back together made me swoon!
CW: divorce (parent), infidelity (parent)
Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
They date other people, which includes Alex coming out as bi. (I’m interested in seeing what bi reviewers have to say about the representation.) They break up with other people. Some years their friendship is on track. Other years they’re barely speaking. But each Christmas they continue to be in each other’s orbit.
As cute as this was, it felt like it dragged a little in the middle. Molly O’Keefe did a Christmas Eve story in 5 parts a couple of years ago, spanning from 2001 to 2013, and doing it in 5 parts allowed her to skip a few years as needed. That might have been more effective here, instead of depicting all ten Christmas days. That’s a minor issue on the whole, however.
Alex and Lucas were really great together. I loved watching Alex do her best to get out of their small town and see how she fared in college and her career. It was also interesting to see how Lucas stayed in their hometown and what life is like when you decide to stay. It was beyond satisfying when they both got their acts together and finally realized they’d never stopped loving one another. Lucas’s gesture the Christmas they get back together made me swoon!
CW: divorce (parent), infidelity (parent)
Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
October 14, 2019
I'm a sucker for YA type books, so the beginning of this fresh novella of Susannah's hooked me right from the start! The story line and the characters progressed in ways that are out of the box for romance in general which made my adult romance reading heart happy too. If you're ready for more than the cookie-cutter Hallmark Christmas story line, give Maybe This Christmas a read and become a huge Susannah Nix fan like me!!
November 12, 2019
Maybe This Christmas has just what I want from a holiday romance! We get Alex and Lucas's love story in episodes, once a year. They start on the night they move from friend to lovers...but that doesn't last, so they go back to being friends-ish. What follows is a sweet and emotional story of self-discovery, especially on Alex's part. Each year, life takes a new turn, adding a new layer of complexity to them and their relationship. It's a story of true love and of a relationship that helps weather the unforeseen storms of growing up.
December 12, 2021
It’s hard to fall in love with a book when both main characters are kind of miserable for all but the last 3 pages?
December 17, 2022
The book starts the last year of high school for Alex and Lucas who have been best friends for years and finally decide to show their feelings for each other and kiss on Christmas.
After graduation Alex moves to Austin and Lucas stays at Beaufort and they have broken up.
The first year is tense but then the story follows their love every year on Christmas when they meet till Alex finally moves back.
Through the years Lucas' parents got divorced, Alex had a girlfriend and broke off with her(or well the other way around),Alex' parents got separeted and back together, Lucas got a girlfriend and got engaged to her but then broke off the engagement because he was still in love with Alex till Christmas 2018 when they finally are together on Christmas, live at the same place in their hometown and Lucas finally proposes to the girl he has loved since he met.
After graduation Alex moves to Austin and Lucas stays at Beaufort and they have broken up.
The first year is tense but then the story follows their love every year on Christmas when they meet till Alex finally moves back.
Through the years Lucas' parents got divorced, Alex had a girlfriend and broke off with her(or well the other way around),Alex' parents got separeted and back together, Lucas got a girlfriend and got engaged to her but then broke off the engagement because he was still in love with Alex till Christmas 2018 when they finally are together on Christmas, live at the same place in their hometown and Lucas finally proposes to the girl he has loved since he met.
January 17, 2020
This was such a cute story that spans over 10 Christmases. Alex and Lucas have been friends forever but when they tried a relationship it didn’t work out due to distance. They spend the next 9 Christmases trying to move on and be friends but something always pulls them back. Loved this sweet second chance romance and I am not a big fan of sweet romances but this one had my heart.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
January 1, 2021
This could've used an extra few pages so we could actually get a feel for these two and their "love" for each other. It just wasn't believable which made any potential cuteness fail to manifest.
October 26, 2019
Find this review and more at kimberlyfaye reads.
Let's be honest, I don't usually read Christmas stories until November at the earliest. Generally speaking, I like to set the scene when I dive into holiday stories (aka my Christmas tree and lots of lights), but I was thrilled to make an exception to read Maybe This Christmas. Y'all know second chance romance is catnip for me. When you add to that a small-town setting and holiday theme, I'm all over it.
I love Susannah's writing style, so I absolutely adored Maybe This Christmas. The premise was unique. I was a little concerned I wouldn't feel a connection to the characters since we're seeing them for such a short period of time, once a year. Of course, I had nothing to worry about. Alex and Lucas still found their way into my heart, even though I only really spent ten days with them. (Or like an hour of actual reading time.) I connected with them as friends and then as a couple, so some of the yearly check-ins were tougher than others. I'm not going to get into all that, though. This is another case where the story is just best experienced with little advance knowledge.
Maybe This Christmas was wonderfully sweet and gave me all the feels I wanted. I adored the characters, setting and the slow burn romance of two best friends finally getting it right.
I received a complimentary copy of this book for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
October 22, 2019
Maybe this Christmas...they’ll finally get it right!
This is an absolute gem of a story – a sweet second-chance, friends-to-lovers romance spanning a decade!
Alexandra and Lucas were friends FOREVER. Best friends! At the beginning of the story, we meet them over the Christmas holiday of their senior year of high school. Over the course of this heart-warming tale, their relationship evolves into high school sweethearts, to estranged friends, and ultimately to the HEA you just KNEW they could get to if they could just get onto the same page!
The format of this novella is just perfect, each chapter shows us the events of a Christmas one year after the last, and focuses on the viewpoint of either Alex or Lucas. I found this just brilliant, as you can see over time the way they evolve and grow as individuals as they slowly find their way back to each other (although it didn’t feel slow at ALL as you’re reading it; I read it all in one sitting as these two just grabbed me and dragged me into their story from the first word).
This book is just what you need to jump start your holiday spirit and ALL the good feels! A stand-alone novella that will leave you wanting for nothing and engaged until the final words, we get the perfect natural ending to this couple’s journey with no cliffhangers. Susannah Nix has quickly become one of my FAVORITE authors, and this book definitely lived up to my expectations. https://www.susannahnix.com/
Release date: October 22, 2019.
**I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.**
This is an absolute gem of a story – a sweet second-chance, friends-to-lovers romance spanning a decade!
Alexandra and Lucas were friends FOREVER. Best friends! At the beginning of the story, we meet them over the Christmas holiday of their senior year of high school. Over the course of this heart-warming tale, their relationship evolves into high school sweethearts, to estranged friends, and ultimately to the HEA you just KNEW they could get to if they could just get onto the same page!
The format of this novella is just perfect, each chapter shows us the events of a Christmas one year after the last, and focuses on the viewpoint of either Alex or Lucas. I found this just brilliant, as you can see over time the way they evolve and grow as individuals as they slowly find their way back to each other (although it didn’t feel slow at ALL as you’re reading it; I read it all in one sitting as these two just grabbed me and dragged me into their story from the first word).
This book is just what you need to jump start your holiday spirit and ALL the good feels! A stand-alone novella that will leave you wanting for nothing and engaged until the final words, we get the perfect natural ending to this couple’s journey with no cliffhangers. Susannah Nix has quickly become one of my FAVORITE authors, and this book definitely lived up to my expectations. https://www.susannahnix.com/
Release date: October 22, 2019.
**I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.**
December 6, 2020
This is a nice little novella that suffers from the same problem that lots of novellas have ... the story is a bit too shallow. There isn't enough depth to the character development. We are dropped right into the middle of an epic friendship that immediately turns into romance, so a lot of depth is lost in the relationship. Alex and Lucas have been best friends forever, but during their senior year at the annual Christmas night get-together that her friends have at a local beach each year they kiss, and their friendship becomes more. That changes almost immediately because Lucas stays home to work with his father's business while Alex heads off to a far-away school. They try to make it work, but they are growing apart, so it isn't going to last. This novella is a story of them reuniting every Christmas day for ten years, their relationship evolving and changing as their circumstances change each year. They try to remain friends with varying degrees of success. They try to date other people with varying degrees of success. But they've always been in love. It just takes ten years of annual meetings for them to realize it and do what it takes to be together.
This is labeled as a Christmas romance, but honestly, it could have taken place on just about any random day of the year. Christmas is barely a presence in this book, so it doesn't really have a holiday feel although the events of each year are centered around the day of Christmas.
I liked the characters of Lucas and Alex well enough. I felt like I might even like them more if more time had been spent in developing them. Instead, each chapters we get long expositions about things that had happened to them during the previous year. It bothered me, but I guess it actually makes sense. Don't we all do that when we gather with friends and relatives once a year for Christmas? We just recap a year of experiences at one dinner. That's essentially what is happening in this book. The real problem occurs because it is hard to feel the epic nature of their romance when we are basically experiencing it in hyperdrive without any of the small moments that build up to epic love in a full length novel.
So, for what it was, this was a nice little holiday novella that didn't quite hit the spot, but was good enough to make me happy to see the beginning of a HEA at the conclusion. I'll give it three stars. I liked it.
This is labeled as a Christmas romance, but honestly, it could have taken place on just about any random day of the year. Christmas is barely a presence in this book, so it doesn't really have a holiday feel although the events of each year are centered around the day of Christmas.
I liked the characters of Lucas and Alex well enough. I felt like I might even like them more if more time had been spent in developing them. Instead, each chapters we get long expositions about things that had happened to them during the previous year. It bothered me, but I guess it actually makes sense. Don't we all do that when we gather with friends and relatives once a year for Christmas? We just recap a year of experiences at one dinner. That's essentially what is happening in this book. The real problem occurs because it is hard to feel the epic nature of their romance when we are basically experiencing it in hyperdrive without any of the small moments that build up to epic love in a full length novel.
So, for what it was, this was a nice little holiday novella that didn't quite hit the spot, but was good enough to make me happy to see the beginning of a HEA at the conclusion. I'll give it three stars. I liked it.
December 4, 2020
This was a really cute and super quick read. Every chapter is set on Christmas Day from 2010 all the way through 2019. It was a creative way to tell the story of Alex and Lucas as they go through all their ups and downs and all-arounds while always finding themselves looking for each other. Maybe This Christmas was very well written and included themes of sexuality, divorce, and friendship and how these things change you while also helping you to grow into who you're meant to be. A great little story and an author I'm definitely going to be reading from again- especially because she managed to write a romance book where I didn't find myself rolling my eyes at one character or another at some point. A huge feat.
The one negative I have to share is the fact that the cover is misleading. I chose this book because it had Christmas in the title and snow on the cover. This book is set in Texas- never once was there snow. As a matter of fact, the friend group likes to spend Christmas evenings together on a beach after they've spent sufficient time with their families. For some folks this will be no big deal but I'm from upstate New York and the thought of Christmas near a beach with no snow is appalling. It's a testament to the author that I found myself seriously enjoying this book despite it not being the atmosphere I was looking for.
I highly recommend this to romance fans, especially those who tend to enjoy adult romance minus the more erotic details. This is a lovely, PG, adult Christmas romance. For those looking for a Christmas romance more on the erotic side I recommend Merry Inkmas which is my favorite romantic, yet sexy, holiday book to date.
The one negative I have to share is the fact that the cover is misleading. I chose this book because it had Christmas in the title and snow on the cover. This book is set in Texas- never once was there snow. As a matter of fact, the friend group likes to spend Christmas evenings together on a beach after they've spent sufficient time with their families. For some folks this will be no big deal but I'm from upstate New York and the thought of Christmas near a beach with no snow is appalling. It's a testament to the author that I found myself seriously enjoying this book despite it not being the atmosphere I was looking for.
I highly recommend this to romance fans, especially those who tend to enjoy adult romance minus the more erotic details. This is a lovely, PG, adult Christmas romance. For those looking for a Christmas romance more on the erotic side I recommend Merry Inkmas which is my favorite romantic, yet sexy, holiday book to date.
January 23, 2020
I love this book. I love how this author was able to put ten plus years on this book and make it all make since and not feel like anything was left out.
It all starts out the year Alex and Lucas are set to graduate and start to date. Then goes through ten years of many ups and downs?
The thing is are they strong enough to make it through? Do they meet other people? Are that able to keep the the same friendship?
This is just a book that you need to read to see what all happens and how life can change thing. And not just their life but there parents and siblings.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
It all starts out the year Alex and Lucas are set to graduate and start to date. Then goes through ten years of many ups and downs?
The thing is are they strong enough to make it through? Do they meet other people? Are that able to keep the the same friendship?
This is just a book that you need to read to see what all happens and how life can change thing. And not just their life but there parents and siblings.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
December 4, 2023
I loved the concept of this book and rounded up in my rating because of that. That being said, I didn’t realize this book was a short story when I started it and usually I love short chapters and a quick pace but I felt like Lucas and Alex’s love story deserved a little more. These two discover their affection for each other on the last Christmas they share as high schoolers, they start dating and a year later because of distance they break up. Fast forward, each chapter is in the POV of either Lucas or Alex but in the following year on Christmas Day. And each year they see each other their love story goes through a roller coaster of emotions. This one could’ve been great but even through all of the missing pieces I still enjoyed it.
December 4, 2020
It takes many Christmases to bring the pair who were high school friends and then sweethearts their HEA. The gimmick was that we only see the pair once a year around Christmas, but the reconnecting and getting closer really happens off screen so the romance wasn't really satisfying, I understand that this is a novella but...
December 23, 2019
Enjoyable the only reason that it doesn't get 4 stars is that it was too short. I just felt like to much happened between every year that wasn't explained enough.
November 1, 2021
A cute holiday novella about second chances at love.
December 8, 2022
this was really pretty and a nice romantic novel for christmas.
December 19, 2022
Good concept, it just really read YA. And I'm not a YA lover.
March 18, 2020
I had the honor of being a sensitively reader for this book and was deeply impressed with the thoughtfulness around the experiences of bisexual women and that romance can come in many ways. This story also has the nostalgia of “Same Time, Next Year”, which was my favorite romance film growing up.
November 27, 2020
3.5 rounded up; this was cute! Pretty much what I expected although not quite Christmas-y but definitely very friends to lovers angsty.
November 8, 2023
Maybe This Christmas, maybe the next Christmas or the next. A cute repeat story of “hopefully one day they will make it” with a Christmas spin on it, but by the fifth Christmas it felt repetitive in a less-cute way. I kept through because the character building was lovely in the beginning, I needed that final ending!
December 13, 2019
3.5 rounded up.
This book is about 2 friends and their relationship over a period of ten years. Lucas and Alex go through changes as each chapter advances by exactly 1 year. Interesting and a fast read.
This book is about 2 friends and their relationship over a period of ten years. Lucas and Alex go through changes as each chapter advances by exactly 1 year. Interesting and a fast read.
November 14, 2019
What a cute novella! Obviously, it would be considerably better if it was a full-length novel, but I nonetheless loved how adorable it was and the whole concept of the Christmas thing. It really was very, very cute.
And I'm out.
And I'm out.
November 11, 2019
Quick, cute read. Like many novellas, I wanted more story but was satisfied with the telling and the way it ended.
November 28, 2019
I did not care about this couple. The story was predictable in a boring way. I’ve read stories with the ending revealed, and was still invested to know how the characters ended up there but not these two.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews