‘Katie.’ Michael’s thumb touched my cheek, gently wiping away the tears. ‘You’re talented, gorgeous, funny, intelligent, kind. You’ve all the good stuff going on. You should be with someone that appreciates all that.’
The Christmas Project is a lighthearted Christmas romance that is sure to leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.
Professional organiser Kate Stone has never – NEVER – been tempted to hit a client over the head with a snow shovel, but Michael O’Farrell is the most obnoxious – and heart-stoppingly gorgeous – man she has ever met. If he weren’t her best friend’s brother, she would not have waited on his doorstep in the freezing cold for five minutes, let alone an hour.
Kate knows, however, that her job isn’t just about tidying up, sometimes she needs to be part therapist too, and Michael clearly needs her help to declutter his heart as well as his home.
But with the festive season just around the corner there isn’t much time to get Michael’s house ready for the O’Farrell family celebrations, but everyone knows that at Christmas anything can happen…
I cannot believe it has taken me this long to read one of Maxine’s holiday romances. She is one of my go-to comfort authors, and I always, and I mean always, adore her male main characters. They tend to be some of my favourite book boyfriends. The Christmas Project was exactly what I expected it would be. It is an easy, soft romance with a lot of charm. It is just a beautifully written story that leaves you feeling like you are being wrapped in a cozy blanket. For those bookworms who don’t want to read something that is overwhelming Christmas-y, this book is going to be for you. The book is set during the holiday season, and Kate and Michael’s decluttering job needs to be done for Christmas day, but you aren’t being bombarded with Christmas shenanigans. The spirit of Christmas is lightly sprinkled throughout the story.
I enjoyed the story and its characters. Kate and Michael have this fabulous grumpy sunshine tropey feel to their interactions. Kate is a fixer and loves helping people. She is kind and smart and doesn’t take any BS from Michael. But underneath that sunshine personality is a person who feels alone in the world. She has a crappy boyfriend and no family to spend the holidays with. She is lonely and hides that loneliness by helping those around her. Michael is dealing with some emotional baggage from a bad divorce. He comes across as a prickly man and wants nothing to do with Kate. The only reason why he agreed to have Kate help clean his house was because he knew it would make his family happy. Watching these two characters work together was fun, swoony, and heartbreaking in a way. As they spend more and more time together, they realize that they both see through those facades they created, which leads to moments of heightened emotions, often leading to big blow-ups. Their journey is rocky at times, but that is to be expected when you have two characters dealing with real and big, messy emotions.
I love a good grumpy sunshine romance, and when those two characters find themselves forced to work together in a small space, it is even better. Kate and Michael constantly kept each other on their toes. I loved the banter between them. It went from this friendly, teasing banter to sharp, prickly in the blink of an eye. If you are new to Maxine’s books, then you should know she writes clean closed-door romances. The two characters kiss and hug on the page, and that’s it. But don’t think that because this is a closed-door romance, it lessens the chemistry between Kate and Michael. There are still plenty of moments that had me feeling those butterflies in my stomach and had my heart pitter-pattering faster.
The Christmas Project is an uplifting romance that is oh-so-satisfying to read on a cold winter’s night.