The Christmas Tree Farm by 
The Christmas Tree Farm by Melody Carlson is a very quick and easy holiday read. I wanted to give his a shot because I thought the cover was cute and who doesn’t love how very Hallmark the idea of falling in love at a Christmas tree farm. That said, this did have some pacing issues and then became a bit religious toward the end which left me just feeling like this was a weird read.
The romance was okay but the attempt at a love triangle was weird. Madison returns home to her family’s Christmas tree farm and starts growing close to her high school crush/former flame, Gavin, while dealing with her sister’s neglect of the property and constant biting words. I liked Madison and Gavin. They had a connection and felt really compatible. I wish there would’ve been a bigger focus on them and their relationship instead of trying to make a love triangle to put in random drama.
Speaking of love triangle, Madison’s sister, Addie, was just handled in such a weird manner. She hated being and working the farm, but never left. After their grandparent died, it would’ve been easy to just hire some farmhands to keep up the work and leave to the city. But she didn’t. She stayed to run the place into the ground so she could sell it? Why would she run it to the ground if she wanted to sell it? Wouldn’t it have fetched a better price if she should show it was profitable? Then, Addie fights with her sister because she secretly is in love with Gavin and both Gavin and Madison indulge her in this? What? These people are supposed to be fully grown adults so what is the point in leading someone on? In denying yourself a relationship because someone has a one-sided delusional crush? I didn’t get it and I didn’t get how hard the author went to make Addie a villain only to ‘redeem’ or forgive her after she put in the bare minimum.
Pacing was an issue, which was obvious with Addie’s turn from villain to sympathetic and grateful sister. I get that this is under 200 pages, but knowing that this was going to be a short book, more attention should’ve been paid to the romance and not the details of how much work it takes to run a tree farm. Or, don’t make Addie so flat bad if you want readers to be okay with her by the end. Using her to form tension between Madison and Gavin just fell flat after a while. Then, towards the end, we suddenly get church shoehorned into the story and how important it is that both Madison and Gavin attend weekly because they are good people unlike Addie who doesn’t attend. Like, thanks. I get that this is a Christmas romance, but I don’t really need a morality check.
I know this review sounds super critical, but I actually did like The Christmas Tree Farm by Melody Carlson. The closed door romance between Gavin and Madison was very sweet. They were so compatible and in love, that trying to find reasons they couldn’t be together felt forced and weird. If this had been longer with a stronger focus on the two, this would’ve been so much better. As it stands, you’ll enjoy this if you want something very short to read with likeable main romance characters. And if you’re into church and western rustic living or the tradwife lifestyle, I think you’ll like this too. If you can’t stand pointless drama or the weird social commentary that comes from the juxtaposition of a tradwife protagonist and her modern city girl sister, steer very clear from this.
