Make The Season Bright

by Ashley Herring Blake

RATING: 2.5/5

SPICE: 2.5/5

Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake is a sapphic holiday romance that, unfortunately, doesn’t quite live up to the high bar set by the author’s previous works. Centered around a second-chance romance, the story follows Charlotte Donovan and Brighton Fairbrook, two women who had been together for years and were once engaged. However, Brighton left Charlotte standing at the altar and disappeared from their life in New York City, moving to Memphis and starting anew at a bar.

Five years later, fate brings the two women back together in Colorado for a Christmas getaway with mutual friends. The tension between them is palpable, but so is the unresolved anger, which ultimately makes the festive backdrop feel out of place.

While the premise is promising, the execution left much to be desired. The book is weighed down by an overwhelming amount of anger and miscommunication, making it difficult to get into the holiday spirit. As a reader who typically loves Blake’s work, the constant misunderstandings between the characters grew exhausting, to the point where I almost didn’t finish the book. I kept pushing forward, partly due to my goal to complete my Fable reading list for 2024, but this one felt like a major disappointment.

Compared to Blake’s previous novels, which I adored and rated five stars, Make the Season Bright fell short. The emotional weight of the story was hard to balance with the holiday theme, and I found myself wishing the characters could work through their issues with more clarity and less drama.

That being said, I still hold out hope for Blake’s future novels, as her earlier books have been among my favorites of all time. This one, however, ranks at the bottom of her repertoire. Here's hoping her next release brings back the magic that made her earlier works so special.