Review: “Make the Season Bright” by Ashley Herring Blake

All I Want for Christmas is Sapphic Feels

Anyone who has talked sapphic romances with me or followed me here, on social media, or at The Lesbrary knows that I am a massive Ashley Herring Blake fan. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care was my gateway drug to sapphic romance and I loved both follow-ups in the Bright Falls Series, Astrid Parker Can’t Fail and Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date. Now, Ashley Herring Blake is back with a Christmas second chance romance in Make the Season Bright. While Christmas romances haven’t been exactly my thing in the past, I really wanted to try this year to read more. So, even though this book technically came out in October, I figured it would be the perfect start to my month of Christmas romances. And oh my, was I correct.

Charlotte Donovan is living her best life in New York City. She teaches music at the Manhattan School of Music and is in a string ensemble that is about to embark on a European tour. Sure, she has a mother who never checks in and was left at the altar by the love of her life five years ago, but that doesn’t matter. When her ensemble mate Sloane ropes the entire group into visiting her parents in Colorado for Christmas, Charlotte figures that a few days away from the city couldn’t hurt. What she doesn’t expect, though, is to find out that Sloane’s sister Adele also brought a friend home: her ex-fiancée Brighton Fairbrook. Brighton came with Adele in the hopes of having a holly jolly Christmas away from Nashville and memories of the band that kicked her out a few months ago. While Charlotte would rather act as if Brighton and her were complete strangers, a series of dating events and other holiday festivities serve to bring back old memories and long buried feelings. Too bad they’ve both moved on, right?

Ashley Herring Blake does a phenomenal job using every single element of the story to drive the romance between Charlotte and Brighton as well as their individual arcs. Starting with the setup of the story, a group Christmas trip at a friend’s parent’s house is a good way to force two characters who have spent years avoiding each other back together. Add to it multiple speed dating events as well as a night being snowed in and it becomes impossible for Charlotte and Brighton to avoid each other and, consequently, their past. Try as they (especially Charlotte) might, there was just no way for either character to keep hiding behind their walls anymore.

The supporting characters also served as a way to drive home the themes of the story. One of the strengths of The Bright Falls Series was the ensemble cast and it’s the same here with Make the Season Bright. For starters, I loved seeing a big diverse cast of well-written queer people. There are characters from different racial backgrounds, bisexual characters, gay characters, and a character that is agender. None of these characters felt like a ticking of a diversity box either as the majority of them had their own subplot that at least partially paralleled Charlotte and Brighton’s situation. Even the least realized character among them played a pivotal role as a foil to Charlotte and Brighton by showing how far they need to go to move on from the hurt of their breakup. I particularly enjoyed the subplot of Sloane’s relationship with Charlotte and how that related to Charlotte’s handling of her pain of being left at the altar.

Forced to spend Christmas together, the emotional journeys Charlotte and Brighton go on were so intense in the best way. There’s deep down hurt, rage, longing, and so much more that in their interactions. When each of these emotions flare up in either Charlotte or Brighton, they feel earned and essential to the character’s growth. Each emotion was also rendered so well that I couldn’t help but feel them myself. I felt Charlotte’s hurt and anger at Brighton for leaving her the same way I felt Brighton’s annoyance at Charlotte for trying to act as if they were strangers. The fights between them felt real and impactful. At the same time, their tender moments together also felt incredibly real. Reading those scenes, I truly felt just how much these two women love each other. By the time I finished the book, it was crystal clear that these Charlotte and Brighton belong together and that their happily ever after was well and truly earned.

There is one small issue about Make the Season Bright that has been nagging at me since I put it down: the character of Elle. Elle is a member of Charlotte’s quartet and accompanies the group to Colorado. They are introduced in the first chapter as agender and pansexual. The introduction of their gender identity felt kind of clunky to me and the only other thing about their gender that is discussed is that their parents are not accepting. Furthermore, out of all the supporting friend characters, Elle is the only one not to get any sort of subplot. For the majority of the story, they are just there reacting to something another character is doing. It felt like such a shame to have a transgender character in a traditionally published sapphic romance be the least developed supporting character.

My issues with the lackluster transgender representation aside, I still loved this book. It’s an expertly crafted story that hit me right in the feels over and over again. It’s a book that fans of Christmas romances will surely want to add to their seasonal reading list. Even if you’re someone who’d rather keep Christmas out of your romances, it’s still a wonderful story that is well worth your time.