Right off the bat, I definitely feel that I should preface this review by saying that despite The Christmas Tree Farm actually being the third book in Laurie Gilmore’s Dream Harbor series, I read The Christmas Tree Farm without having read any of the other books in the series, since each book in the series is written as a standalone book with a guaranteed happy ending. That being said, here are my thoughts on The Christmas Tree Farm.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Christmas Tree Farm for the most part. I felt like it had a very interesting premise, with Kira impulsively buying a Christmas tree farm, essentially sight unseen, even though she hates Christmas, using the money that she had received from her trust fund to buy it, and then struggling to make the whole idea work out for her in a new town where she initially struggled to fit in, when it came it to not only finding ways to bring in business for the Christmas tree farm, but to also cope with living in the incredibly rundown house that she had bought along with the Christmas tree farm; which interestingly enough seemed to come at least already somewhat furnished when she bought it. It was also interesting to see Kira dealing with all of this while also having a long-distance relationship with her twin, Chloe. These things made Kira a very nuanced, well-written, and likable character.
Bennett was also a very interesting and well-written character, especially when it came to his almost desperate need to help people in need. This quality really helped make Bennett a complex, well-written character, much like Kira was. He also had a complicated relationship with an ex-girlfriend of his that really kept me guessing how that might all factor into the plot of the book in the long run, but it ultimately was just used as another example of his desperate need to help people. I was honestly really relieved that not too much drama came out of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, like I was expecting it would.
Not only were Kira and Bennett well-written characters, but Gilmore handled writing the relationship between them very well for the most part, with two of them having a grumpy x sunshine dynamic with each other. I thought it was very interesting to read a romance novel where the female character, Kira, is portrayed as the grumpy character in the relationship in a variety of ways, and the male character, Bennett, is portrayed as the “sunshine character” in the dynamic. I’m very used to the dynamic being the reverse, so I found the writing for Kira and Bennett’s slow-burning relationship very refreshing. I definitely got the impression that Bennett seemed to fall for Kira first, though. Gilmore also ultimately did an excellent job of incorporating the idea of a couple writing love letters to each other into the ending of the book after Kira and Bennett had found some old love letters in the attic of Kira’s house that had been left behind by a previous owner earlier in the book.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this is the only book in Laurie Gilmore’s Dream Harbor series that I’ve read at this point, while I really enjoyed the fact that The Christmas Tree Farm had a wide variety of supporting characters that made it so that the town of Dream Harbor and this book reminded me of the town of Stars Hollow, which is the setting for TV show, Gilmore Girls. That being said, the biggest complaint that I have about this book is that many of the supporting characters, AKA the citizens of Dream Harbor, kind of blurred together as characters, rather than stood out to me. Perhaps, I would have had a different experience reading this book if I had first two books before reading this one. (Book #1 The Pumpkin Spice Café; Book #2 The Cinnamon Bun Book Store). That being said, after reading this book, I’m definitely planning to read the other books in the Dream Harbor book series in the future, given how much I enjoyed this book.
All things considered, The Christmas Tree Farm is definitely a lighthearted and fun romance novel with a lot of great characters and a great premise. Kira and Bennett are both great characters, and I absolutely loved the slow-burning romance between them. As far as I’m concerned, this book’s biggest flaw was that many of the supporting characters blurred together in my mind, and I couldn’t keep many of them straight. That could have been because this is currently the only book in Laurie Gilmore’s Dream Harbor series that I’ve read, though. After having read The Christmas Tree Farm, I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of Gilmore’s Dream Harbor series, though!
That being said, my final score for The Christmas Tree Farm is 8 out of 10.
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