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A review by katiedermody
Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones
I love this book. This was a reread and I knew I liked it but it had been a couple of years so I couldn't remember details or why. I was pretty sure the disability rep was great and it is! The main character who's POV we get is written as Autistic, undiagnosed along with dyspraxia. Neither of those are mentioned on page but the author included a note saying she wrote Haf this way intentionally because so many women's diagnoses have been missed and she knew from personal experience what the character would be feeling. She also said she pictured her finding out one day and things making sense for her, which is lovely. Her love interest has hEDS (hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) and along with that comes major fatigue, chronic pain, and a whole host of other symptoms. She also used a cane, which I didn't yet when I read it last time so it's even more special to me now. It's the way Kit talks about her experience as a disabled woman and work that really hit home for me and I found so many highlighted sections from before, and found more to do now. All that aside, the story is just good... Haf comes to Christmas in the south of England as the fake girlfriend of Christopher, who she met weeks previous and helped save face in front of his ex, who tells everyone and it snowballs. On her way to meet him to go, she has an encounter with a beautiful woman but doesn't get her name or info. Surprise: she's Christopher's sister Kit! There's shenanigans, secrets (which actually stressed me out more than I recall last time, maybe because even though I couldn't remember I already knew deep down how it would all blow up?), an excellent queer best friend (the queer rep in this book is so great), and it's set with a mostly charming family at the holidays, including the small town fĂȘte. This is one that will become a regular holiday read for me after this and I need to get a trophy copy for my shelf at some point. I also hope to read the author's new book as well at some point!