Merry Little Kissmas(2025)

Lauren Blakely

Wanted: A fresh shot at love for the holidays. But fake dating my brother’s grumpy best friend? He’s my new client, for Santa’s sake!
As a professional matchmaker, my biggest job this holiday season should be simple: find a date for the sexy single dad hockey player—aka my brother’s best friend—for his team’s fancy Christmas Eve gala.
Sure Rowan’s hot as a crackling fire and spicier than a gingerbread man, but he hasn’t just sworn off romance. The Christmas hater has made a bet that I can’t find him a holidate.
What’s a matchmaker to do?
Win, of course. Even if it means fake dating the grinch myself to get him ready for the real thing.
Only…these fake dates at Christmas tree farms and hot cocoa competitions in the snowy small town of Evergreen Falls start to feel a little too real as I get to know the man behind the scowl. Somewhere between kisses under the mistletoe and a snowed-in night in his cabin curled up by the fire (where the stockings aren’t the only thing hung), I realize I’m in over my elf-loving head.
And when Rowan opens up to me at last about his painful past, I’m determined to give my brother’s best friend the holiday he deserves.
But what if the only gift I want him to unwrap this season is… me?

Tropes: Holiday romance, brother’s best friend, fake dating, grumpy/sunshine, small town, Christmas competition, matchmaker romance, workplace romance