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Make the Season Bright

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Make the Season Bright

Written by: Ashley Herring Blake
Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
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About this listen

Two exes find themselves stuck at the same house for Christmas in this holiday romance by Ashley Herring Blake, USA Today bestselling author of Iris Kelly Doesn't Date.

It's been five years since Charlotte Donovan was ditched at the altar by her ex-fiancée, and she’s doing more than okay. Sure, her single mother never checks in, but she has her strings ensemble, the Rosalind Quartet, and her life in New York is a dream come true. As the holidays draw near, her ensemble mate Sloane persuades Charlotte and the rest of the quartet to spend Christmas with her family in Colorado—it is much cozier and quieter than Manhattan, and it would guarantee more practice time for the quartet’s upcoming tour. But when Charlotte arrives, she discovers that Sloane’s sister Adele also brought a friend home—and that friend is none other than her ex, Brighton.

All Brighton Fairbrook wanted was to have the holliest, jolliest Christmas—and try to forget that her band kicked her out. But instead, she’s stuck pretending like she and her ex are strangers—which proves to be difficult when Sloane and Adele’s mom signs them all up for a series of Christmas dating events. Charlotte and Brighton are soon entrenched in horseback riding and cookie decorating, but Charlotte still won’t talk to her. Brighton can hardly blame her after what she did.

After a few days, however, things start to slip through. Memories. Music. The way they used to play together—Brighton on guitar, Charlotte on her violin—and it all feels painfully familiar. But it’s all in the past and nothing can melt the ice in their hearts...right?

©2024 Ashley Herring Blake (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Romantic Comedy Celebration New York Heartfelt Winter Christmas Single Parent

What the critics say

"Cozy and comforting... This is destined for many a keeper shelf.”—Publishers Weekly

“Blake excels at bringing readers along on the emotional journey of her characters, going from feeling jilted Charlotte’s angst to eventually rooting for a reunion as Brighton’s side of the story is revealed. .. Featuring a hard-won happily ever-after and queer found family, this is a second-chance holiday romance to revel in.”—Library Journal

“Ashley Herring Blake’s Make the Season Bright is the mulled wine of holiday love stories: sweet, steamy, and completely intoxicating. If you love second-chance romances between former best friends as much as I do, then make sure this one is in your stocking. A delight!”—Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Summer Will Be Different

What listeners say about Make the Season Bright

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    4 out of 5 stars

Great story!

I loved them I loved the heart ache I loved the spicy scenes! Amazing job!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Charlotte and Brighton dersrved a more fleshed out story.

As a lot of reviews pointed out writing a second-chance romance can be very difficult. It takes a set foundation and a development in our main characters that makes me continually want to see them fight for each other, or make me want to fight for them.

But due to the pacing of the story I left the book not rooting for their HEA as much as I wanted to.
For one I felt like this type of story would've benefited so much from not having the signature Ashley Herring Blake third-act breakup, especially since this is such a different foundation for her other romances. I wanted to see them grow into rekindling their bond as a friendship, to give themselves time to understand who they were then and who they were now, and to let them fight as well as talk more. But I felt like we were giving little time for the tension and anger and it went right into them having sex and into a relationship too quickly without truly understanding how they got to this place in the first place. They needed more time to grow on their own and with the new people they had met before they realized how much they still wanted each other, and overall the book would've been so much better with a couple of 100 more pages.

I felt like Charlotte as a Character was very well drawn with Blake giving us a balanced picture of why she is who she is today. And why she chooses to make the decisions that she does, but Brighton. She fell flat to me. Her relationship with her parents always felt like they coddled her too much and I never felt like she truly acknowledged how this led to her selfishness and inability to speak on her emotions and that was unfortunate because there was so much growth that could've been done, but all her growth felt like "I am not the only one in the wrong" which is just not it.

I understand that Blake was trying to paint a picture of them being young and both having a lack of understanding of the complexities of an adult relationship, especially marriage, but their issues and places where they needed to grow were disproportionate and didn't truly link with the overarching message of the book.

The quartet falling apart felt like too smooth of an ending and an excuse for them to not actually talk about their issues, but the ending was cute and the symbolism of their love represented in music was so sweet, I just wish they had more time to develop.


The side characters were great with Manish (obviously) being my favorite.
But Sloane and Adele didn't quite make sense to me as supporting characters.
Sloane's attitude towards Charlotte about her inability to have a reciprocal friendship felt blown out of proportion due to the dynamics already set in the relationship. They are colleagues and yes I understand wanting to have friendship with the people you work with, but to paint Charlotte as someone who owed Sloane her undying trust and therefore her trauma felt unnatural. It honestly would've made more sense if it was made clear that Sloane had originally had feelings for Charlotte and those feelings felt unrequited which is why she was so hurt. I'm glad Charlotte did end up getting the help she needed, but I think Charlotte wasn't completely wrong for her attitude.
Adele on the other hand needed to be more honest with Brighton about how she was wrong in the relationship. To me, Adele felt like another person in Brighton's life who coddled her instead of letting her grow. But I understand wanting to protect your friend and Adele's support for Brighton was incredibly in all aspects of her life was incredibly sweet.

Overall it doesn't feel to me like Blake's best novel but it was definitely an easy read that I'm glad I got the chance to experience.
Overall 3.25 stars.

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Bittersweet story with HEA ending

The author and narrator have done it again! Very enjoyable story with strong supporting characters and believable leading characters. Masterfully narrated by Ms. DiMercurio.

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🎤🎄

✨️💚✨️Audio Book Review✨️💚✨️

Book: Make The Season Bright
Author: Ashley Herring Blake
Rating: 4.5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5

Another amazing book by Ashley!

I really enjoyed this one. It had a great second chance/anxiety rep, but my only concern was the fact that the miscommunication trope lasted as long as it did between the two main characters.

The spice was amazing, the side characters were a lot of fun, and I really liked how the story progressed.

Lots of tension and some great feel good moments.

You get:
• Holiday Read
• FF
• Spicy Rom Com
• Second Chance
• Forced Proximity
• Found Family
• Runaway Bride

I highly recommend this one! Available on ebook, paperback, and audiobook.

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