Summary (from the publisher):A sixteen-year-old girl is on a mission to find the perfect boyfriend this Hanukkah, but love might not go according to plan, in this charming winter romcom from the author of The Summer of Lost Letters.

Shira Barbanel has a plan: this Hanukkah, she’s going to get a boyfriend. And she has the perfect candidate in mind—her great-uncle’s assistant, Isaac. He’s reliable, brilliant, and of course, super hot. The only problem? Shira’s an absolute disaster when it comes to flirting.

Enter Tyler Nelson, Shira’s nemesis-slash-former-crush. As much as she hates to admit it, Tyler is the most charming and popular guy she knows. Which means he’s the perfect person to teach her how to win Isaac over.

When Shira and Tyler get snowed in together at Golden Doors, they strike a deal—flirting lessons for Shira in exchange for career connections for Tyler. But as Shira starts to see the sweet, funny boy beneath Tyler’s playboy exterior, she realizes she actually likes hanging out with him. And that wasn’t part of the plan.

Amidst a whirl of snowy adventures, hot chocolate, and candlelight, Shira must learn to trust her heart to discover if the romance she planned is really the one that will make her happiest.

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

If you’ve just changed your Halloween decor for the upcoming holiday season and want your reading life to match, look no further than Hannah Reynold’s YA contemporary, Eight Nights of Flirting! 

Eight Nights of Flirting follows Jewish teen Shira during Hanukkah, as her huge family, filled with her parents, aunts, uncles, and tons of cousins & led by her grandparents spend the holiday in their family home on Nantucket. Shira has her eyes on her great uncle’s intern, Isaac, and teams up with her former crush, Tyler, to help her learn everything about flirting. As Shira and Tyler spend time together during their ‘lessons’ and trying to figure out the romantic past of one of Shira’s ancestors, Shira finds herself questioning if Isaac is the one she really wants after all. 

Eight Nights of Flirting is a semi companion novel to Hannah Reynolds’s The Summer of Lost Letters, in that Shira’s cousin is the male love interest in The Summer of Lost Letters. I’ve had The Summer of Lost Letters on my TBR, but just recently picked up a copy from the library – I guess the only ‘spoilers’ in Eight Nights of Flirting for Lost Letters surround whether  if Abby and Noah end up together and the connection between their grandparents. In short, I don’t think you necessarily have to read The Summer of Lost Letters before Eight Nights of Flirting, but there are minor spoilers for Hannah Reynold’s debut.

ANYWAY, Eight Nights of Flirting is one of the few novels I’ve read set on Nantucket other than of course Elin Hilderbrand’s novels, but aside from Elin Hilderbrand’s Winterstreet series, it was such a cute portrait of winter life on Nantucket. The book is set across the eight nights of Hanukah & then some, as Shira & her family celebrate with their family traditions, including a play led by Shira’s mischievous cousins in hopes of getting their grandparents to be on better terms with one another. It was such a fun read filled with banter, between Shira’s close-knit relationships with her cousins and of course, her friendship with Tyler. I think the book had the perfect balance of holiday fun and relationship development, alongside some self-discovery.

Overall, Eight Nights of Flirting is such a cozy YA contemporary perfect for the holiday season! 

I was provided with a review copy from the publisher in exchange for review. By no means did receiving this book affect my thoughts & opinions.

Have you read Eight Nights of Flirting or The Summer of Lost Letters? What YA contemporaries have you been loving lately? Share in the comments!