A Little Holiday Fling

Ruby is all about celebrating the (not religious part) holiday season. She likes her job at a high end boutique but has even bigger dreams to move to London to fulfill her mother's dream to open an inn. What she didn't expect was Rashid, a grumpy dermatologist Scrooge type, to come into her world and maybe he might ruin her plans.I love that Rashid actually went along with Ruby's plan to get him to like a bit of this season... Especially for his twin nieces. He slowly starts to thaw his hardened exterior and becomes a great friend/more to Ruby.Rashid's family is such a joy in contrast to her barely there father who is really not nice at all.The Christmas joy is radiant through the book. It makes me want to have a season like Toronto's in the book. I liked that some of the side characters were from Accidentally Engaged and Shayne was one of my favorites. Definitely brought some comic relief.

Thank you to Forever for the advance reader copy and to Hachette Audio for the free audiobook. These opinions are my own.This was a sweet Christmas romance. Ruby loves celebrating and enjoying all the traditions of the season, but Rashid does not partake and doesn't really feel Christmas is for him. I appreciated the way the book examined commercialism and what Christmas has become secularly.Rashid's nieces and sisters are such fun characters. I enjoyed getting to know his whole family and would love to read future romances with his sisters. Similarly, Ruby's found family is absolutely amazing.Parts were harder for me than I expected, as it focused a great deal on Ruby having to celebrate alone since her mom had died when she was 20. Given this will be my first Christmas without my mom, I would have liked more of a mention of the centrality of that loss in the synopsis or content warnings.But mostly, this was super cute and had me checking the dates for my local holiday markets. I expect to be attending with some of my closest friends.CW: parent death from cancer

A Little Holiday Fling by Farah HeronPublished by Hachette Audio | Forever — thank you to the publisher for my gifted ALC and book copy.A Little Holiday Fling is Farah Heron doing what Farah Heron does best — serving you a holiday romance that’s sweet, sharp, culturally rich, and emotionally real, all wrapped in tinsel and grief. It’s like someone handed her the Hallmark Christmas blueprint and she said, “Cool, but what if we added a hot dermatologist with commitment issues, a South Asian heroine clinging to a childhood dream, and a fake dating setup that’s actually just emotional sabotage with holiday lights?”We meet Ruby Dhanji mid-chaos, dragging a Christmas tree down the street in Toronto in what can only be described as a reckless display of seasonal optimism. Ruby loves Christmas. Not in the casual “I own a snowman mug” kind of way, but in the “this holiday is how I keep my dead mother close” kind of way. It’s her personality. It’s her grief management system. It’s a whole mood. So when she meets Rashid, a man with Grinch energy and resting scowl face, sparks don’t fly — they collide. Because Rashid thinks Christmas is performative nonsense. He’s also temporarily in Toronto helping his sister and her kids post-divorce, and has zero time for Ruby’s joy.Naturally, they are forced together. Friends set them up, fate meddles, and next thing you know, Ruby is negotiating a deal: she’ll bring the holiday magic for his adorable, neglected-in-the-Christmas-department nieces, and in return, he’ll introduce her to his very rich, very British hotelier family. Because Ruby, plot twist, has always dreamed of moving to England and running a cozy little inn like she’s auditioning for a rom-com set in the Cotswolds. This is her dead mom’s dream too. And dreams, in case you were wondering, are non-refundable.Now, let’s talk about the grumpy/sunshine trope. This is textbook execution — Ruby is the emotional equivalent of glitter nail polish and Rashid is the human embodiment of a sigh. But Heron doesn’t reduce them to caricatures. Ruby is deeply insecure beneath the cheer, still trying to prove her worth after being raised by a father who weaponized shame like a sport. Rashid, for all his scowling and rolled eyes, is a man doing emotional labor for his family while quietly questioning his own path. Together, they’re not just opposites — they’re inconveniently perfect for each other.Also? The chemistry is slow-burn delicious. Like, “we’re doing holiday crafts and pretending not to stare at each other” kind of tension. When things finally heat up, it’s not just physical — it’s the kind of intimacy that comes from being seen. Really seen. And it’s handled with a light, almost romantic realism that doesn’t over-sexualize or over-sanitize. It just fits.The audio narration by Soneela Nankani is top-tier. Her Ruby voice is effervescent without being annoying, and she gives Rashid just enough gravel to make you forgive him for being a crank. She nails the pacing, nails the emotion, and somehow makes British, Indian, Canadian, and twin-child accents work in one performance without sounding like a one-woman puppet show. This is an audiobook you can get lost in, whether you’re walking in the cold or stress-cleaning your apartment.There are also deeper themes at work here — class, religion, identity, female ambition, and what it really means to pursue your dreams when those dreams were handed to you by someone no longer around to validate them. Ruby’s BRCA1 diagnosis adds another layer, as does her difficult family history. And Rashid? He’s navigating generational expectations, burnout, and the sinking realization that being the “good son” doesn’t guarantee happiness. These aren’t just plot points. They’re the quiet, tender scaffolding holding the romance up.Is it perfect? No. The middle meanders a bit. Ruby can feel stuck in a loop of performative joy and oblivious privilege. Rashid’s grumpiness occasionally crosses into “sir, calm down” territory. And if I had to hear one more reference to Jane Austen, I was ready to throw my copy of Pride and Prejudice into a snowbank. But those are minor quibbles in a book that otherwise balances banter, emotion, and cultural nuance with finesse.The supporting cast is excellent — friends who actually feel like friends, not just exposition furniture. Rashid’s family is warm, chaotic, and meddling in the best way. And yes, there’s a found family element that will melt your cold little heart faster than a snowman in July.By the end, this isn’t just a story about two people falling in love during Christmas. It’s a story about choosing what kind of life you want to live — the one you planned, or the one that fits who you’ve become. It’s about letting go of guilt, making peace with your past, and trusting that the right people will find you, even if it takes a little longer. Or as Ruby says, “Maybe the real miracle isn’t that I fell in love. Maybe it’s that I finally saw myself clearly.”⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ...

A lovely, cozy, diverse romance that really shows the beauty of “if you love them, let them go”. I love how this romance had that third act breakup because it showed how strong both MCs were - Ruby for being strong to live out her dreams and not giving them up for someone she just met, and Rashid for allowing her the time and space to do that without gaslighting her. Add that to the Christmas joy and wonder with two adorable twin girls, and you got yourself a nice story to read this season.

Oh, this was an interesting grumpy/sunshine Christmas/holiday romance. I loved that this was a little different than the other holiday romances I’ve read this year. Our two MCs were both Muslim, though not super religious, and you got to see how the holiday magic in the more secular light. The perfect time of year to make memories, have joy, and spend time with family and loved ones. All of this outside of the religious implications of the season. Ruby is our FMC who spent her whole life wanting to move to the U.K. to eventually open a rural Inn because she and her mother loved all things Britain. However, Ruby’s mom died of cancer when she was 20, and now she has saved enough to move to the U.K. from Toronto at the beginning of the New Year. In the meantime, she works at a luxury store in the special Holiday Market in Toronto. On a whim, she gets a small Christmas tree and then tries to take it home, dropping it on a surly “lumberjack” type man who then proceeds to help her take the tree home. Of course, this brings in our MMC Rashid, who came to town to help out his sister, who just went through a terrible divorce. He doesn’t understand the obsession with Christmas that Ruby has, and Ruby is determined to change his mind, setting up 1 date a week through December to take him and his twin nieces to do something to bring on that holiday spirit. Along the way, we learn the hard stuff that Ruby has gone through, as well as Rashid’s family members. Ruby has to confront her father, her mother’s death, and what she really wants out of her life. Rashid learns how to open up and enjoy the holiday season.I love the sappy holiday stories, and this is a good one. The characters don’t bend and change for one another; they bond over great food and spending time with adorable little girls. Their communication skills could use a little work, but in the end, they talk through things like adults, and even though they may not end the way they want, they do what is best for the individual person. I could have gone without hearing how hot Rashid was every 5 seconds there for a while. I understood the first five times. He’s a looker. There were difficult moments too, like Ruby dealing with the fallout of how her father treated her and her mother during her childhood and through her mother’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, and the impact that had on her as an adult and her adult relationships (both platonic and romantic). There were some great social/economic points brought up in passing, but the main focus is the romance and the self-discovery. Anyway, this is a holiday read that should be added to your holiday read list. It has the feels but isn’t your cookie-cutter Christmas Romance.