Review: Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

Title: Make the Season Bright

Author: Ashley Herring Blake

Publisher: Berkley

Length: 367 Pages

Category: Contemporary Romance, Holiday Romance

Rating: 4 Stars

At a Glance: I loved and appreciated the diversity in this story, the friends who were more than just set dressing, and the happy ending for all the characters who got one.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: 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?

Review: Make the Season Bright isn’t what I consider a holiday romance despite it taking place around the holidays. Christmas isn’t the focus, it’s the excuse. The long and short of it is this: it’s a story of overcoming issues and traumas that have caused both Charlotte and Brighton to lead ultimately unfulfilling lives. The fly in the eggnog (?) is that December is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month for memories.

I liked the roles the author attached to each of her leading ladies. Charlotte’s selfish and negligent mother contributes to the overwhelming sense of self-reliance Charlotte lives by. Brighton, on the other hand, has the loving family but was so thoroughly stabbed in the back by the people she’d once called friends that she’s stagnant and afraid to move on from their betrayal. Just because I understood their motivations didn’t mean I didn’t get frustrated with them, though. I absolutely did. The reality is that to know them was to judge them a little. But I grew to love them and root for them too.

Thanks to an unplanned reunion, a little forced proximity, and some tough love from friends, Charlotte and Brighton get a do-over. They get a second chance to live their dream, this time with the maturity and hindsight to compromise and have those tough conversations that have to happen so misunderstandings don’t.

I loved and appreciated the diversity in this story, the friends who were more than just set dressing, and the happy ending for all the characters who got one.