bramble falls – GoodeyReads

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Misty Wilson
Publisher: Simon Teen
Release Date: October 6th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A girl juggles planning her town’s first-ever winter festival and untangling her complicated feelings for both her best friend and the star hockey player in this charming book in the swoony Bramble Falls series that started with the New York Times bestselling Falling Like Leaves.

After Bramble Falls’s wildly successful Falling Leaves Festival, Sloane Sullivan is looking forward to some downtime—especially kicking back and marathoning Nora Ephron movies with her best friend, Asher. But they barely make it through Sleepless in Seattle before Sloane’s mom calls an emergency tourism department meeting; it’s all hands on deck—Bramble Falls is having its first ever Falling Snow Festival!

Sloane may still be recovering from the last seasonal event, but she’s also excited. After all, Christmas is the best time of year! And she’ll have her whole crew by her side, including her cousin Ellis and, of course, Asher. But when irresistible, hockey-playing Micah catches Sloane’s attention, she finds herself a bit distracted. The emotions her unexpected flirtation brings up make Sloane feel confused about Micah…and Asher.

She’s never thought of Asher as more than her best friend, but even if Sloane is seeing Asher in a new light, what does that mean for her and Micah? Uncertain and more than a little overwhelmed, Sloane throws herself into festival preparations, hoping to get a little Christmas magic in return that will help her figure out where her heart lies.

Thank you Simon Teen for the eARC and Simon Audio for the ALC (gifted).

SWEET STORY.

This was much more holiday-esque than I was expecting and I think I would add it to your holiday romance TBR if you’re looking for something short and sweet. I liked being back in Bramble Falls and seeing what our next pair was up to.

I did not like being a part of this friends to lovers trope though. This had some of the hallmarks of things that make me cranky in regards to F2L. I didn’t love that they both tried to date other people and kept butting heads with each other. Granted, it felt genuine to the age bracket so take this opinion with a grain of salt. I do think it’s mostly young adult friendly. Probably older YA. There are some brief underage drinking scenes and language. There’s also a brief assault scene (unwanted touching) that occurs too.

Sloane and Asher were cute though. They had a very strong friendship I liked seeing and I liked all of the moments they had together. The winter activities were just right and had me begging for cooler weather and a cup of hot chocolate. Asher did some super kind things for Sloane and I loved all of those scenes too (because I was kind of bummed Sloane’s Mom guilted her into not going to NYC). I did appreciate the strong friendships woven in at least and seriously how magical the whole book felt for the season.

I think the audiobook was good too and the narrator did a wonderful job.

Overall audience notes: