I am full on in Hallmark movie mode this season and have watched more than a dozen twee Christmas romances already (including one that shares a name with this novel) so I am really not taking in any other entertainment than holiday sweetness and romance.

I had two days off and spent them decorating my Christmas tree, watching Hallmark movies, and reading this little charmer of a book filled with lots and lots of dates (good and bad), delicious sounding recipes, quirky townies, handsome coffee shop owners and a totally predictable and welcome conclusion. If I had a gripe it would be a little bit of an anticlimactic resolution that didn’t fully clear up all my questions about the rocky road to romance for our two leads but whatever, who really cares if we get the happily ever after, right?

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Kate and Matt have been childhood friends. Matt is dating Sarah. Kate decides to sign up with a dating service for The Twelve Dates of Christmas where she will date 12 men during the month of December hoping to make a match. Turns out when Sarah goes as Kate's wingwoman on one date thtt things get complicated. Will Kate find a match? Will the complications that arise help or hurt?

I enjoyed this story. Kate is brave going out on all these dates. Some work out. Some are real jerks. When Matt gets mad at Kate, my heart sank. I felt bad for Kate. I also felt her anguish and hurt and anger. When Kate rescues Matt, I hoped things would work out but wasn't sure if they would. Some nasty things has been said.

I will be reading more of this author. ( )

Such a sweet novel.
It was very obvious how the book was going to end but it was a fun journey getting there. Kate goes on 12 dates, some were amazing and others were cringe worthy. ( )

When you want a feel good, happily ever after kind of read, you can't do better than to pick up a sweet and charming, small, British village set Christmas rom-com. And that is exactly what Jenny Bayliss delivers in The Twelve Dates of Christmas.

Kate, a thirty something year old successful fabric designer and artist has moved back to the small village where she grew up. She's thoroughly happy living in her childhood home, close to her delightful father, and baking delicious sounding treats for her old friend Matt's coffee shop. But she wouldn't be against meeting the right man. So she allows her best friend Laura to convince her that signing up for an online dating agency's Twelve Dates of Christmas package will be fun. Each date is a different type of seasonally appropriate experience with a different guy. As anyone who has heard or experienced online dating might guess, some of the dates are disastrous. Some are friendly. Some are fun. Some are hilariously awful. And some are downright odd.

It's really no surprise who Kate ends up with in the end but the getting there is the draw of the story. Each chapter of the book takes on one date and Kate's day or days leading up to it. There is quite a bit of back story about her friendship with Laura and Matt, her relationship with her parents, her lovely father and her self-absorbed mother, and very detailed descriptions of the things that inspire her artwork. Bayliss has drawn the village of Blexford and its residents as incredibly appealing. There's a lot more to the story than just dating flops and even though the ending is predictable, it's a comfortable and satisfying predictable. Perhaps best read in the lead up to Christmas, this is overall a cute story. ( )

Cute, cozy, Christmas read. I was a little frustrated with the lack of description for the main characters, while the dates had a lot more. I saw the plot twists coming a mile away but, for something new with a familiar predictableness, this was a good one. ( )