Review: An Ex for Christmas by Lauren Layne

An Ex for Christmas by Lauren Layne
Publisher: Loveswept
Publication Date: 7th November 2017
My rating: 5 stars.

She’s making a list—and checking it twice. But is there a nice guy among all her naughty exes? The New York Times bestselling author of Blurred Lines returns with a charming friends-to-lovers rom-com. When a psychic tells spunky, superstitious Kelly Byrne that she’s already met her true love, she becomes obsessed with the idea of tracking him down before Christmas. Kelly immediately writes up an “Ex List” and starts contacting old boyfriends to figure out which one is the one. When her college sweetheart rolls into town, Kelly convinces herself that they’re meant to be. The trouble is, sparks are flying with someone she’s never given a chance: her best friend, Mark. Mark Blakely has watched the guys on Kelly’s list break her heart, and he’s not looking forward to watching them do it all over again. Mark’s always been there for her, but the timing’s never worked out for their relationship to be something more. Now, just as Mark is ready to move on, the sexual tension between them is suddenly off the charts. With Christmas morning around the corner, he just hopes Kelly will wake up and realize that everything she wants has been right in front of her all along.

An Ex for Christmas was a delight to read, I’ve always enjoyed Lauren Layne’s books in the past, but this book just had that extra special something, maybe it was the Christmas theme, or amazing friendship between Mark and Kelly that bought about a flurry of butterflies in my stomach, I just had the best time reading this book. Our MC Kelly, is a believer in fate, horoscopes matching up and is known for asking her magic 8 ball all types of questions, so when catching the train one day and a random lady tells her that she’s already met her true love, she makes it mission to track him down before Christmas. Why would Kelly listen to a random lady you ask, well she also happened to make a passing comment on Kelly’s parent’s 30th anniversary cruise, which not any random person would know about. Kelly of course took this lady’s random comment to mean that her true love was one of her ex’s. It was so much fun watching Kelly compile her list of ex’s and trying to track them down and see if they would pass her mistletoe test that she had come up with. 

I try not to re-read the summary of a book before I pick it up, I guess I always want an element of surprise? And I’m glad that this was exactly the case with An Ex for Christmas, as I’d naturally assumed that there was the chance that Kelly would find the one in her list, that maybe they had missed their chance long ago, but now was the time to be together, so when sparks started flying with Mark, I was absolutely delighted! The perfect guy was basically in front of her all along! I was a bit worried though, that as Mark and Kelly had been best friends for so long, that may be them taking things to the next level, could ruin the friendship that they had, but with the casual build up, I knew for sure that I wanted something more to happen between them, forget the risks and what ifs. Also, Mark was such an amazing guy! (definitely a contender for my top ten fictional crushes of the year), he always had Kelly’s best interests at heart, even though she didn’t realise it at times, he was charming, one heck of a cook, had that growly thing going on, that had me weak in the knees and was hot! I know Kelly wanted to complete what she had started with her list, but things started getting heated between her and Mark and I wanted to shout forget the bloody list, open your eyes and look at the fine specimen of a man that you have standing in front of you! This minor issue aside, I still adored Kelly’s character, she was such a bubbly character, she was funny and like any other person, had her doubts that she had to deal with, she really was a person that I could relate to in so many ways. 

With the reading slump, I was in An Ex for Christmas was exactly what I needed and so much more, I kind of wished that I had saved it for Christmas, with the Christmas setting it had going, but I know I’ll just have to read it again, during my Christmas break! An Ex for Christmas, was one of my favourite reads by Layne so far, I’m glad that I picked it up, because it truly had everything going for it; a beautiful friendship with the potential to emerge into a fantastic relationship, many laugh out loud moments and vivacious characters and swoony scenes that you’ll want to read over and over again, this is one book readers definitely don’t want to miss out on!