He’s a cocky lumberjack who hates my guts, and this Christmas we’re forced to bake together…
Lucas Jolly and I have a secret history that left invisible scars. Now I’m back in Merryville, and he’s making it crystal freaking clear I’m about as welcome as fruitcake at a dessert table.
When his meddling Mawmaw signs us up as partners for the town’s Christmas Cookie Contest, there’s five thousand dollars and a family tradition on the line. Six weeks of forced proximity in a kitchen might actually kill me, but I could use the money.
Between heated arguments over cookie dough and even hotter stolen glances, I’m melting faster than snowflakes on fresh out of the oven gingerbread. The town thinks we’re secretly dating, but the truth is Lucas hates me. Even so, I’m one mistletoe moment away from crossing lines we swore we’d never cross again.
Now I’m wishing for a Christmas miracle because falling for Lucas Jolly nearly destroyed me once. Doing it again might be the sweetest mistake I ever make.
If there’s one thing Lyra Parish knows how to do, it’s take a small town full of chaos, heartbreak, and meddling family members, and make you want to move there anyway. A Very Merry Enemy is the perfect blend of sharp banter, genuine emotion, and the kind of laugh-out-loud moments that sneak up on you between all the slow-burn tension.
Holiday Patterson and Lucas Jolly aren’t just exes—they’re unfinished business. Fifteen years ago, she left Merryville to chase her dreams, breaking his heart in the process. Now she’s back after a failed engagement and seven years trapped in a toxic relationship, trying to rebuild her life while carrying the weight of regret and the scars of emotional abuse. Lucas, on the other hand, has turned every ounce of heartbreak into resentment, hiding behind a wall of anger, sarcasm, and smartass remarks. He’s surly, broody, and, as Holiday so perfectly puts it, “ugly as fuck” on the inside, which, of course, only makes him more irresistible once that grumpy façade starts to crack.
“You’re disrespectfully late,” she says.
“Great. That’s the level I was hoping for.”
Their chemistry? Unreal. The bickering, the one-liners, the sheer pettiness—it’s peak enemies-to-lovers energy. He buys out her entire bakery display just to make her leave. She tells him his personality ruins his face. Every interaction is a power play, each of them determined to get the last word, and the tension practically sizzles off the page. But beneath all that bitterness is an ache—a pull neither of them can ignore.
Enter Lucas’s Mawmaw, the meddling queen of Merryville, who decides the best way to settle things is by forcing them to “bake their way back to love.” She signs them up as partners for the town’s annual Christmas Cookie Contest, and suddenly six weeks of forced proximity turns into a slow unraveling. With a family legacy on the line, a kitchen full of chaos, and enough tension to power a Hallmark movie on a three-day caffeine binge, every argument softens, every glance lingers, and the line between hate and heartbreak blurs completely.
“You were the ghost who haunted the hallways of my heart. You were the reason I couldn’t commit to anyone…but I mostly missed when you looked at me like I was the only person who mattered in your world. You made me believe love existed, but you also made me hate it.”
And in true Jolly family fashion, the humor never stops. Lucas’s brothers have a knack for catching them in very compromising positions—think flour, countertops, and questionable timing, and a camping trip where they oversleep and the entire town is looking for them—and the group chat that follows? Utter chaos. Add in Holiday’s brother Sammy, who ends up in jail for cold-cocking her ex (and gets celebrated for it at a family dinner once he’s “broken out”), and you’ve got a small-town circus that somehow feels like home.
But beneath all the chaos, there’s so much heart. Holiday is messy, unsure, and trying so damn hard to put herself back together after years of being broken down. She’s not perfect, and that’s what makes her so easy to root for. Watching her rebuild her confidence and finally start choosing herself felt like she was finally breathing again, almost as if a weight has been lifted. She’s been through hell and somehow still finds the courage to open her heart again, even when she’s terrified it’ll cost her everything.
“I promised you I would always love you. And I know you thought I broke that promise, but I didn’t. I know you thought I wouldn’t come back like I promised, but here I am.”
And Lucas; this man may be stubborn, but once he loves, it’s all in. Even when he’s angry, he can’t stand seeing her hurt. The way he shows up for her isn’t loud or flashy; it’s quiet but powerful. It’s in the small, deliberate things—the dream house he built just the way she always wanted, the camping trip that lets them drop the walls and just be together, their hilarious “game of confessions” fueled by bad bourbon, the drive through town to look at Christmas lights. It’s the kind of steady, grounding love that says I see you. I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere this time.
“I love all of you, Holiday. The good parts and the messy parts and the parts you think are too broken to love. All of it. All of you. I always have, and I always will.“
It’s the emotional payoff you’ve been waiting for—the one that makes all the cookie dough fights and family chaos completely worth it.
“This Christmas, I learned that home is love. Home is Lucas. Home is us. And I’m never leaving this again.”
I re-read that line several times, because that’s what A Very Merry Enemy is really about: finding your way back to where you belong, even if you have to fight (or bake) your way there. It’s about forgiveness, choosing love over pride, and realizing that sometimes home isn’t a place at all, it’s the person who’s been waiting for you all along. Lyra Parish wrapped this story in humor, heart, and healing, and by the time I turned the last page, I wasn’t just smiling, I felt settled, like everything landed exactly where it was meant to.