Love comes home for the challah-days in this sparkling romance.

Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby’s been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don’t understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes.

Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There’s one Seth.

As it turns out, Seth’s parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsome smiles, he’ll introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart.

This year, I told myself that I would diversify my holiday reads. Even though I’m not exactly Christian, I was raised in a Christian household, and that’s all I’ve ever known. I was happy to have found this recent release that stepped away from the standard. Set against the backdrop of a snowy Vermont town and the hustle and bustle of New York City during the holiday season, this book is the perfect blend of festive cheer and sweet romance from a Jewish perspective.

The book is told from the point of view of Abby Cohen, a feisty and independent woman doing her best to keep her struggling coffee shop afloat in her small Vermont town. Abby moved away from New York and her awful parents with her now ex-fiancee, and she loved this town so much that she decided to stay and open a coffee shop. Things have been hard, and Abby is alone in this since she doesn’t have enough money to hire staff. When the town decides to throw a Hannkuah celebration to attract tourists and bring in more money for the local businesses, Abby is tasked with planning the festival because she is the only one of them who is actually Jewish. It doesn’t matter that she’s not practiced in years – she knows more about Hannakuah than the rest of them, so it’s all dumped on her shoulders. The problem is that the bossy white woman who is overseeing everything has particular ways she wants the festival to play out – ways that are more in line with Christmas than Hannukah.

When Abby goes online to see if she can find anyone in the area who might also be Jewish and could help her out, she finds Seth, a man who visits Abby’s coffee shop every morning. Seth is cute, but he gets on Abby’s last nerve – no one can really be that upbeat and positive can they? When Seth agrees to help Abby with the festival in exchange for her posing as his girlfriend so his mom will get off his back, she agrees, and it’s not long before the two of them are off to New York for a few days to stay with his parents. And this is when things get awkward – could Abby end up falling for Seth?

You probably already know the answer to that question, and even though this one hits all the expected beats and follows several familiar (but comfortable) tropes, I still found it humorous and endearing. Elliot’s writing is engaging and heartfelt, and she expertly weaves together themes of love, family, and tradition in a way that is both touching and uplifting.

The main cast is great, and the supporting cast of characters adds a lot of depth and charm to the story. Seth is adorable, and I wanted him and Abby to get together from the moment we met him. His parents are even cuter – especially his mom. I also found Abby’s complicated relationship with her parents to be heartbreaking and relatable. Abby’s journey to embrace her heritage and share it with others is inspiring. I seriously wanted her to knock out the white Christian woman who kept trying to insert her Christmas ideas into the Hannukah festival. She was a pain in the butt!

Overall, this was a nice departure from the standard Christmas fare. Elliot has crafted a beautiful holiday romance that celebrates the spirit of Hanukkah and the power of love and community. The characters are memorable, and I found myself rooting for Abby and Seth from the get-go. If you’re looking for a holiday read that is outside of the Christmas norm, I highly recommend this one.