Eight Winter Nights by Liz Maverick

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Title: Eight Winter Nights
Author: Liz Maverick
Series: Winter Nights #1
Published by: Audible Originals
Release Date: November 24, 2020
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky, Jason Clarke
Length: 2 hours and 55 minutes
Genres: Contemporary, Holiday, Romance
Source: Audible Premium Plus
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

Cozy up with this warm, festive rom com novella about being true to your heart, the friendships that define us, and the irresistible pull of holiday magic.

Last year, Rachel Bacharach met the man of her dreams at a Hanukkah party — and then her outgoing best friend Tamara swooped in and “called” Oz Caplan for herself. It’s a typical outcome for the dependable, bookish Rachel, who is never able to extinguish the spark she immediately felt for Oz. But being secretly in love with her best friend’s boyfriend all year hasn’t been easy.

As this year’s party approaches, Oz and Tamara break up. It’s a worst-case scenario when Oz asks Rachel to help him write Tamara love letters to win her back in time for their Hanukkah anniversary. Rachel’s been writing love letters to Oz in her journals for a year; she knows all the words he would need. But will Rachel be able to hide her true feelings from Oz any longer? And might this year’s party finally be Rachel’s chance to trust her heart and put everything on the line for love?

4 stars — Yeah, this worked for me.  Like, I can see things that might not work for others, but it totally worked for me.  And I think I was surprised, b/c of the whole BFF’s ex thing, but I was satisfied with how it played out for the most part.

I get that Rachel is a bit too self-sacrificing, and that some folks might want a braver heroine.  I’m totally okay with her just the way she is, b/c I guess I can connect with that, what with the feeling less than and all that.  I love the background girl.  And even though the situation was all sorts of weird, I kind of loved that she loved Tamara just the way she was…

Oz was…well, Oz was kind of an idiot.  But I think his character surprised me the most.  When we start out, I’m all “what does Rachel see in him?”  He’s focused on all the wrong things, and seriously takes forever to figure his own feelings out.  But we got glimpses of how his upbringing was just different from Rachel’s, and maybe he didn’t have the examples to help him recognize love and chemistry and all that.  So it ended up being kind of satisfying watching him figure shit out.  And I adored how much being part of Rachel’s family’s Hanukkah rituals really meant to him.

And they were cute together.  I mean, it was kind of an uncomfortable courtship, what with the spectre of Tamara in the background and all that, but it was still cute somehow!

Tamara herself gave me mixed feelings.  I can see how some might see her in a *super* negative light, and she’s definitely an odd bird.  But I guess I saw a lot more complexity to the situation…maybe it was just me projecting, but it was kind of an interesting situation.  I don’t think she knew right from the beginning about Rachel’s feelings…I choose to believe she found out late and that’s what led to all this.

I really loved Rachel’s family, and the rest of their friend group in Sarah and Elliott.  They seem like a group that has fun together and supports one another.

I ADORED that Hanukkah, and Judaism, wasn’t just a token throw in to be different.  There were all sorts of little mentions here and there that delighted me as someone who knows nothing.  I’m kind of thinking Ms. Maverick must be Jewish herself, because I can’t imagine getting this authenticity right otherwise.

So yeah.  It was fun.  It was cute.  It was uncomfortable, but I was surprisingly satisfied in the end.