This one was so good, you guys. This is one of the most irresistible, easy-to-love YA reads of the year. Pining for You has a great, relatable, funny and enthusiastic heroine, and she kept me coming back to this one. I fell immediately in love with the prose, too. Pining for You is going to end up being a book I go back to again and again – a rare thing for me, as I am not a re-reader.

Christmas tree farm worker and high school senior Bennie Bosley falls in love at first sight with a mysterious stranger whom she bumps into during a Christmas celebration in her hometown of Ripton, Connecticut. All of Bennie’s friends know she lives and breathes Christmas: she holds a Worst Hallmark Christmas Movie marathon and she arranges an ugly Christmas socks exchange every season. She loves giving gifts and has a godlike ability to find and give the best presents for everyone.

But her luck has failed her: the only thing she knows about her meet-cute is that the other girl’s name is Eve. She never got a last name or even a number out of her; all she knows is that Eve lives in Brooklyn. Since Bennie wants Eve to be her first kiss, this is dire. Bennie is about to go to college, and sees this missed connection as a last chance before her new life begins.

Naturally, Bennie – also a wannabe director raised on Christmas movies – thinks she has a romcom in the making on her hands. She and her co-workers – Cash, Diya, and Izaac – gather together and decide Bennie should use what little she knows about Eve to track her down, all in the twelve days before Christmas. Since Bennie has no idea where Eve is, this is definitely going to be quite the adventure. A cross-state road trip sets in. Can Bennie find Eve, learn more about her, maybe kiss her, and make it back to Ripton, all in time for Christmas?

This one gave me every single 80’s adventure movie vibe ever. It was very Home Alone/Adventures in Babysitting in tone and I really loved every single little morsel of this adventure. I wanted to spend an eternity with Bennie and her friends, and especially Evie.

Have I mentioned that I love Bennie? She’s fantastic and funny and naive and romantic. She’s filled with heart and her head is dizzied by her first crush. She runs out into the world hoping it will be good to her and, well, sometimes it’s not.

The twisty adventure to find Evie comes first. The romance arrives afterwards, and it’s a delight. Bennie and Evie are a coming-of-age love story, and they’re a tale about growing up and realizing what adulthood might look like.

Evie doesn’t get any POV chapters and we only see her through Bennie’s eyes. It works, though. Bennie and Evie have to overcome mistrust and the outre weirdness that is Bennie to form a bond, and they manage to do so handily. Evie, of course, is misled a bit by Bennie – she thinks that Bennie just accidentally bumped into her again.

And the romance – once it sets in – is beautiful and sweet. Evie likes Bennie for who she is, and she’s not quite the construct of Bennie’s fantasies – neither in her reaction to being followed to Brooklyn nor to Bennie’s lies about their second meeting being an accident. Bennie grows up thanks to Eve’s honest reaction, and Evie gives her another chance. They have a warm, cozy connection filled with starry nights and old movies. It’s so sweet, cute and good.

The road trip is great fun: the characters she and her friends bump into delighted me with their assorted neuroses and they added so much depth to the adventure.

Three magical words that sum up this road trip:

• tamales
• drag queens
• polka

These folks were funny, tragic, and sometimes perfectly ludicrous. I loved Diya’s secondary love-hate romance. I loved the way Izaac’s mind worked and I thought Cash was wonderful. Along the way, Bennie realizes that each of them is coping with something hard and tries to help, becoming a better friend in the process.

I love all the little narrative details, like how Ripton is one of the most snow-free places in the universe until a blizzard threatens the town at the worst possible time. I loved all of Bennie’s Christmastime rituals with her best friends, and even her sometimes-strained relationship with her family. And I loved the sweet hope of real love and the way the reality clashes with Bennie’s fantasy. And OK, maybe tracking down the girl you fell in love with at first sight and trying to get her to kiss you might be a little stalkery. But Evie calls her out on it because Bennie needs to and learns to grow up. I believed in Bennie’s growth, and in Evie’s fascination with her. I was fascinated by Bennie, too.

This book reminded me of being a teenager and the poignancy of that last summer before college. Bennie is making that transition to adulthood in her own way – with a whole lot of Christmas spirit thrown in. What a delight. Pining for You is the perfect holiday read. It grabbed my heart, pulled it out of my chest and when it gave it back, I was blissfully happy.

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This guest review comes from Lisa! A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviewed at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her at @‌thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job.