The Plight Before Christmas: An Un-EX-pected Sugar and Spice Christmas Romance (Holiday Hijinx)

Omg! I loved, loved, loved this book so much, that I read it in one day. I couldn’t put it down! The angst, the yearning, the slow burn, all wrapped up in a Christmas bow. I can’t tell you how many times my heart ached because I could feel the fmc’s pain, but in the end, she got the answers she was looking for and he definitely had a valid reason. Aside from the heartache, there were some laugh out loud moments, for me, as I could easily picture everything playing out. I love the author’s writing style and will be reading more of her books. I can’t wait!

The Plight Before Christmas wraps second-chance romance, family nostalgia, emotional healing, and hot spice inside a crowded mountain cabin. Kate Stewart gives Whitney Collins the holiday nightmare of every romance reader’s dreams. Her college ex-boyfriend arrives at the family Christmas gathering nearly two decades after breaking her heart. Whitney wants peace, alcohol, and distance from Eli. He arrives ready to confess everything he should have said seventeen years ago. Whitney reaches her late grandparents’ cabin after a brutal few weeks. She has broken her toe, ended another disappointing relationship, lost a deserved promotion, and watched her car die in the driveway. Christmas with her family should offer comfort. Eli standing on the doorstep destroys her plans. Whitney and Eli shared an intense college romance before he ended their relationship dishonestly. Their reunion begins with hostility, painful memories, and an attraction hot enough to melt every patch of snow surrounding the cabin. Eli appears cold and confrontational at first, but his tenderness emerges quickly. His connection with Whitney’s family also makes it much harder for her to dismiss him as the man who abandoned her. I usually find prolonged miscommunication between adults frustrating. In this story, Whitney and Eli’s separation made sense once their history was revealed. Eli carried grief, anxiety, and family trauma that he did not know how to explain as a young man. His choices still caused lasting damage, but the novel allowed both characters to repair the pain instead of using his suffering as an easy excuse. Their adult conversations created space for accountability, forgiveness, and real healing. Eli’s decision to use their forced proximity to declare his love was exactly the sort of Christmas hijinks that I wanted. He knew Whitney deserved answers. He refused to leave the cabin without showing her how much he still loved her. Whitney resisted for a respectable amount of time before giving both of them what they had been craving. Her surrender led to my favorite parts of the book. The spice was passionate, sexy, and perfectly suited to two people catching up on seventeen years of lost time. The Collins family gives the romance an adorable holiday backdrop. Their traditions, arguments, schedules, decorations, and crowded-cabin antics capture the warmth and irritation of spending Christmas with people who know every version of you. Kate Stewart’s writing balances festive humor with genuine emotion. The Christmas setting adds nostalgia. The cabin is filled with old memories, family history, unresolved tension, and the possibility of beginning again. I could easily picture the novel becoming a Netflix holiday movie with a naughty twist. The Plight Before Christmas offers a heartfelt reunion between two adults who finally possess the maturity and courage their younger selves lacked. Pick this up if you enjoy second chances, forced proximity, chaotic family gatherings, emotional confessions, and generous spice.

While predictable, was a fun read… “listen.” I did the audio version and had moments I did LOL and blushed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one was more emotional then I thought it would be. The audio was great!