I got a real holiday treat this year in the form of Kristen Bailey’s Big Nick Energy. This new-to-me author absolutely delighted me with a warm, sweet, funny love-triangle Christmas romance that explores a second chance with an old flame and a sweet discovery with someone new.

Kay is a librarian and children’s book author who is excited about the upcoming Christmas season. While visiting a Christmas market, she bumps into her ex-boyfriend Nick. He had dumped her several years earlier right before Christmas (ouch) and left for New York but he’s back living in England again. Enough time has passed that the hurtful feelings she had after the breakup have dimmed and she’s really pleased to see Nick again. He’s handsome, he’s financially successful (even more so than when they had been dating), and he’s still charming. It’s enough to give a girl second thoughts when he asks her out again; maybe fate has brought them together for a reason. Her female friends tell her to be cautious, but for Kay, it really appears that Nick has changed for the better and she’s willing to see where things go. And where they go is some sexy (off page) hookups leading to steady dating.

But then Kay meets another Nick – grumpy, serious, Christmas tree farmer Nick. Her friend Lucy moonlights for his family business as an elf in the runup to Christmas and when Kay goes to meet Lucy at the tree farm, slightly drunk from a party with old Nick (where, truth be told, he had not been the best date), she ends up getting wrapped up in tree netting and needs rescuing the Santa, Lucy’s boss. Whose name is Nick. Henceforth known as new Nick. As Kay says to Lucy “I’ve entered the season of Nick.”

New Nick’s serious nature makes for some awkward moments at first, as Kay is one of those people to whom joking about everything is second nature and he doesn’t seem to get her jokes. But it turns out that it just takes him a little while to warm up to people. He’s a workaholic, and during the off season his family runs a fresh farm shop and café – and he makes his own wooden furniture. He’s handsome and very fit, and really too good-looking to be Santa, yet he ends up volunteering to be Santa for her library kids and makes a point of supplying real trees everywhere he can. When Kay tells him about her book drive to collect books to give away at Christmas, he volunteers to help. He is impressed with her children’s stories (and secretly buys a bunch to give out as gifts) and as they get to know each other, Kay finds herself torn. Things with old Nick are good now, but are they ‘long term’ good? Or is new Nick going to be the one to capture her heart?

I loved this book from start to finish and had a hard time putting it down. It’s so funny and emotionally touching, and makes a perfect Christmas read. It did take me a little bit to get used to the first person, present tense voice, but it does allow for introspective storytelling and really fits the story. Kay has wonderful friends and co-workers who are supportive (and quite hilarious) and keep her grounded. She also has her Nana, who is in a nursing home and starting to lose her memory but is still a wonderful and amusing woman (and we get to see a bit of their history as the first couple of chapters of the story cover the span of years between Kay and old Nick’s breakup and the present). I loved the contrast between old Nick and new Nick (including old Nick’s rehabilitation as a better version than he used to be) and Kay’s honesty in trying to figure out her feelings for them both and what she wants for the future. I’m not going to tell you who she picks, you’ll have to read this for yourself. Big Nick Energy is what a rom-com should be and I’m delighted to recommend it – It’s going on my best of the year list.