A Cross-Country Christmas

A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh | 256 pages | 2021

Lauren Richmond isn’t a fan of Christmas. Which is why she rarely makes the trip home to the Midwest for the holidays. After all, she has plenty to keep her busy—namely, her duties as a set decorator on a TV sitcom. But this December, Lauren's brother and his wife are expecting a baby, so her brother arranges a ride home for her with his good friend, Will. Unfortunately for Lauren, she’s been trying to forget college baseball coach and childhood crush Will Sinclair for more than ten years. Now, thanks to her fear of flying, she’s stuck in a car with him from California to Illinois.

She’s circumspect and organized. He’s flirty and spontaneous. She’s convinced that people don’t change. He’s trying to prove to her (and himself) that he has. On this cross-country road trip, they’ll both discover that history doesn’t exactly repeat itself. . . but like any good Christmas carol, it does have a second verse.

(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

This story was a quick read, and cute in a Hallmark Christmas Movie sort of way. The banter and comedic moments were enjoyable, and I got a little misty-eyed at the end (before the cheese went off the charts).
Unfortunately there were things that kept pulling me out of the story, so I think it would have benefitted from better editing. Several typos were really distracting (including misspelling Keira Knightley's name wrong, twice), and there were some details about things like daily life and technology that were just kind of...not how things work. It also relied heavily on the "I'm going to keep my secrets and feelings to myself" trope, which has a tendency to drive me nuts. It wasn't hard to keep reading, but I don't think this will stick with me very long.