Review: The Twelve Dates of Christmas

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve not read any books by Jenny Bayliss previously, but the premise sounded interesting, so I thought I’d go for it.

I enjoyed the story, I thought the twelve dates idea was fun, and carried out well. The atmosphere of the dates (and the whole book, in fact) was generally very Christmassy. I thought the mix of people Kate was paired up with was not unrealistic, though a little disheartening!

I thought the characters were well drawn, especially as many of them didn’t get a huge amount of page time. They were all different, and some were very entertaining. I liked Kate very much, she was kind, and looked after her friends and family. Her dad was lovely, as were many of the characters in the village. However, I unfortunately couldn’t like any of the potential love interests. Richard threw up red flags for me right from the start, he seemed emotionally manipulative at the very least, and I couldn’t believe it when Kate continued to go out with him, even after she sees some of his bad side. 

I also didn’t really like Matt. He was repeatedly really horrible to Kate, and she’s always putting aside her plans to do things for him. He never actually apologises for the nasty things he said, just says “I was angry” and somehow it’s all fine. That would not be sufficient for me. Some sense of regretting those words and actions would be necessary.

As a result of me not really liking any of the love interests, the ending did fall a little flat for me. I’m not convinced of their ultimate happiness together. However, if you’re not as demanding of apology as me, this was a lovely Christmassy book, with plenty of amusing moments too.

I was given a free copy of this book, my opinions are my own.

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