💫🎤 Book Spotlight: Solo for the Season by Martha Keyes
Genre: Contemporary Romance • Christmas Romance • No Spice Romance • Self-Discovery

☕ Book Details & Rating
Format: Audiobook
Series: Standalone
Year Published: 2023
Page Count: 206
Rating: ☕☕☕☕☕ (5 Coffees!)

🥤 Coffee Pairing: Cinnamon Vanilla Cold Brew with Oat Milk

Smooth, comforting, and quietly festive, this pairing mirrors the tone of Solo for the Season. The cinnamon adds just a hint of seasonal warmth without overwhelming, while the vanilla and oat milk keep things soft, cozy, and grounded. It’s not flashy or overly sweet, but deeply satisfying.

Perfect for sipping while embracing slower moments, quiet reflection, and choosing exactly what you want this season. ☕✨🎧

About the Book

Solo for the Season by Martha Keyes follows a woman who makes a deliberate choice to spend the holiday season on her own. Rather than chasing expectations, traditions, or forced cheer, she leans into solitude, reflection, and figuring out what she actually wants out of this season and her life.

As the days unfold, unexpected connections and moments of self-discovery challenge her assumptions about loneliness, independence, and love. The story gently explores the balance between protecting your peace and being open to something new, all without rushing the emotional journey.

Thoughtful, warm, and quietly hopeful, this book offers a refreshing take on holiday romance that prioritizes personal growth and intentional choices over over-the-top festive antics.

My Thoughts

This story is so cute. Maggie and Wes are absolutely adorable. This poor girl was bullied terribly throughout elementary school. Kids suck sometimes. They made a connection that her name, Margot, was close to maggot and called her that. To make matters worse, Wes was one of those kids and he was also her crush. Her family ended up moving away but she kept in touch with her best friend, Stevie, and started going by Maggie. Now she’s face to face with Wes and he can’t place her but he knows he knows her. There is a light bulb moment for Wes and he feels terrible about how he treated her. We find out that he didn’t have the best home life, so he just wanted to be accepted at school. That doesn’t make the bullying any better but he was in elementary school. Maggie forgave him, so we can too.

What I love about Maggie is she took a risk. She went up into the mountains for a solo vacation. Just her, her romance novels, and Christmas movies. The Christmas before she was dumped and this Christmas is an off year for family. There’s no cell service or internet. She is completely secluded in a decked out for Christmas cabin. That sounds absolutely perfect. Did it end up being truly a solo trip? It’s a rom-com, of course not. She meets Wes on her first day on the mountain and they both feel the instant attraction.

We see the inner struggle that Wes is dealing with. He is dealing with the fact that he is technically not allowed to date guests. He also has guilt over how he treated Maggie in school. He also knows he has a fine line to tow with another guest throwing herself at him. As his manager says, he needs to figure out how to handle her because her family owns a good portion of the cabins. Wes wants to take over the resort once his boss retires in the spring.

What I loved about this is there wasn’t a third act breakup. Once they got together, they were together. They still had a conflict to overcome, but they stuck it out. Maggie was going to run away, but instead, she confronted the miscommunication head on. It was honestly refreshing. There are a ton of other romance tropes throughout the book, so if you love the third act breakup, there are still others to enjoy. I loved that this book was clean. There were no spicy scenes. There was no language. It is just a romantic story that I fell in love with.

Final Thoughts

Solo for the Season by Martha Keyes is a sweet, cozy rom-com that delivers heart without unnecessary drama. I loved the focus on forgiveness, personal growth, and choosing yourself, as well as the refreshing lack of a third-act breakup. With clean romance, no language, and a comforting holiday setting, this book feels like a warm hug for readers who enjoy gentle love stories that still offer meaningful emotional payoff.