All in for Christmas by Ginny Baird - Book Review

Publication Date: 09th Sep 2025

Genre: Contemporary Christmas Romance

3 Stars 

One Liner: Enjoyable, but the writing is stilted 

Paige Pierce is a practical person with a planner and a checklist for everything. She loves her job at the school, teaching English to high schoolers and helping them. Her latest project, Paws and Read, is aimed at helping struggling students become fluent readers. 

When Dean Burton, the man she loved and let go six years ago, joins her school as a physics teacher, Paige can’t help but wonder about what ifs. It is a week before Christmas, with a comet passing through the Earth’s atmosphere, and a magical advent calendar predicting the future. 

Paige wakes up in an alternate reality where she and Dean have been married for six years and have a cozy house, two kids, and an adorable dog. Paige is torn between the life she has and the life she could have had. However, she knows she has to choose soon. 

The story comes in Paige’s first-person POV. 

My Thoughts: 

The premise made it sound like a perfect Christmas read (I’m doing Christmas in August/ Sep, if you haven’t figured it out). 

The overall storyline is pretty decent, too. I quite liked the side characters (FMC’s mom, the principal, the mysterious woman, etc.). The kids are super-duper adorable, and so is Scout the dog (see him on the cover). 

The entire story comes in the FMC’s first-person POV. It did work for the plot, given the focus is on her and her choices, etc. 

However, the writing style didn’t help at all. The dialogues are stilted and weird. I guess the aim was to show the awkwardness of the scenes, but it didn’t come out right. Especially those (Ha. Ha. Ha). They grated on my nerves. And the use of (So.) as a single-word sentence. Ellipses should not be overdone, but they can and should be used when necessary.  

The pacing is on the slower side, which sometimes makes the story drag despite the series of events and activities that happen on the page. 

The romance is pretty much closed-door and non-descriptive. I don’t think it helped much, TBH. 

This is also a low angst piece, so things are resolved without much drama. I didn’t particularly like the choice made at the end. There was a better option, IMO.  

To summarize, All in for Christmas is an enjoyable cozy Christmas read about second chances, miracles, and hope. The beginning will need some patience, though. 

Thank you, NetGalley, IBPA, and Winter Wedding Press, for the eARC. 

#NetGalley #AllInForChristmas