Back of Book: 

A feel-good holiday romantic comedy perfect for fans of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. But with less polka and more llamas.

Noelle Cooper grew out of all that Christmas stuff years ago. In fact, the only present she wants this year is to land the biggest real estate deal of her The purchase of a chain of historic inns that her firm plans to transform from tired to trendy.

But when her lunatic boss blows up her pitch meeting just three days before the holiday and orders her to fix it by Christmas or her career is kaput, Noelle has no other option than to chase the inns' elderly owner on his road trip to visit his beloved inns one last time.

Only, near hurricane conditions in Miami leave her only one viable mode of Her brother's best friend in his ancient red truck that looks plucked straight out of a Christmas movie.

Luke Williams.

As in, the nerdy guy she shot down years ago when he asked her to the prom. But he probably doesn't even remember that.

Right?

As Noelle and Luke chase what's left of her career across the Eastern seaboard, things start to heat up between her and the surprisingly charming, not-so-nerdy-anymore Luke. Along the way, Noelle begins to wonder if sometimes life really does gives you second chances. And maybe what you thought you wanted wasn't at all what you really needed. And, of course, if perhaps there's still a little more magic in Christmas than she thought. 

Book Number: One

Genre: Adult | Contemporary | Romance 

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

A fun road trip romance featuring a series of festive hotels, an old pickup truck, and a llama named Chester. 

Noelle Cooper may hate Christmas, but that doesn't mean she isn't willing to go all in to secure a sale with the owner of a series of festive holiday inns. Unfortunately, her angry boss exploded in front of the client, so it is now up to Noelle to smooth things over. Desperate to catch Obadiah as he's visiting his hotels, Noelle sets out on a road trip with her brother's best friend, Luke Williams. In high school, Noelle shot down Luke's invite to prom, so she fears that things will be awkward. However, she couldn't have been more wrong. Being with Luke is bringing back all the happy memories of her youth and she begins to reconsider if what she has been doing with the last third of her life is what will truly make her happy in the long run. 

This was such a fun and sweet Christmas story! I don't have the best relationship with many holiday books, but I always try to keep an open mind. And I ended up really enjoying this one! 

I have been eating up road trip romances as of late. This one was so fun because literally everything that could possibly go wrong on a road trip went wrong. In real life, this would be a tragedy, but it added such a humorous element to a rom com novel. Especially, because all the events that occurred kept forcing Noelle and Luke to remain trapped in a car together. 

Something that really surprised me about this one was just how witty it is. I found myself constantly laughing at the clever things that would come out of Noelle's mouth, and I found myself impressed by some of the wordplay that the author used. 

I'm starting to really love the brother's best friend's trope. I appreciate the history that the main character and their brother's best friend always have. In this case, Noelle and Luke spent a bit of time together as children due to the fact that Luke and Ben (Noelle's brother) are best friends. The fact that they also ended up spending prom together was so adorable. This made their chemistry together so authentic and had me absolutely rooting for their love story to end happily. 

I'm not gonna lie, but one of the main reasons I wanted to read this book is because I was told that it had llamas in it. I must admit, the llama wasn't as important as I thought it would be, but Chester was still a cutie regardless. 

Before I go, I just wanted to say that this book has some seriously great themes for it being a short Christmas read. Noelle grapples with the death of her father and the fact that she has been living a life that she doesn't exactly love. I think realizing that one's life has gone off the rails and is no longer moving in the trajectory one wants it to go down is such a hard thing to do at any age, so I really respect Noelle for looking deep inside herself and working towards reprioritizing the things that she finds most important in life. 

Overall, "Through the Woods" is one of the best holiday books I have ever consumed. I enjoyed the witty banter between Noelle and Luke so much. Another favorite part of this story is the road trip element, which added the perfect dose of forced proximity. The brother's best friend vibe in this one gave the two main characters such strong history, which made it easy to support their relationship. I was sold a little short on the promise of llamas, but honestly, I'll take any llama content I can get. This book is the first in a series, so I'll have to keep my eye out for future installments! And fingers crossed the llamas will return!