A Merry Irish Christmas - Clodagh Murphy - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Clodagh Murphy

GENRE: Romance.

PUBLICATION DATE: September 6, 2025

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A romantic comedy filled with the Irish festive spirit. Forced proximity trope. A good balance of comedy and emotions, though it never gets too intense. Nice characters, though a few are a bit too pushy. Sweet romance, with a teeny bit of steam. A heartwarming read with only a few misses and eyerolls. (Coming from this Grinch, consider this a compliment.) Recommended.

Plot Preview:

When her boyfriend breaks up with her just a few days before Christmas, Mary McBride longs for a morale boost with her loving family back in Dingle. So she books a last-minute flight from New York to Ireland, hoping to surprise her family. When she reaches home, she discovers that her family had the very same idea, and they have gone to New York to surprise her. Worse, they entered into a house-swap agreement, and Mary has to handle the grumpy Evan Prentiss, who wants his temporary house all to himself and with no Christmas cheer at all. But they soon realise that they both don’t have any choice, and have to contend with each other’s presence until the flight back home. Mary is determined to make the best of the festive season. Will Evan the Grinch spoil her fun? Or can he truly embrace a hearty Irish Christmas?

The story comes to us mostly in Mary’s third-person POV, with a few scenes coming from Evan’s perspective.

Bookish Yays:

🎄 Mary, to a great extent. A sweet and caring girl who is modern and traditional at once. One thing I especially appreciate is her financial sense. Nice to see a romcom character display awareness of monetary limits.

🎄 Evan. Love that he isn’t a typical grump, though the blurb declares him as such. I wish his POV had more chapters. It would have been great to know him and his thoughts better.

🎄 The “romance”. Given the short time period of the story (it lasts just about ten days or so), I appreciate how the pair doesn’t go flinging vows of lifetime commitments by the end of the book. The development of the relationship feels like that between two consenting adults, and it contains a good amount of banter and understanding. Not insta, not too slowburn.

🎄 The comedic crossover fiasco(s) – predictable but still funny.

🎄 The use of the two locations: small town Dingle and big city New York. The contrast as well as the vibes of both locations were palpable in every scene. (Also, isn't the name ‘Dingle’ perfect for a Christmassy story? I love that this is an actual place name!)

🎄 The blurb doesn’t state that Evan is a fairly successful actor. (Thank heavens for that! I am not a big fan of celebrity-outsider romances so I might have missed out on this book.) But this feature is used well in the plot, and while Evan’s popularity gets a proper place in the storyline, it doesn’t restrict Evan’s depiction only to his fame and fortune. We genuinely get to see the man, with all the ups and downs of celeb-hood forming only a part of his character development.

🎄 The use of forced proximity: quite nicely done. I enjoyed how genuine the interactions felt, and how each character had enough scenes to themselves despite the shared home.

🎄 The Irish Christmas food – sounds so scrumptious! Gotta find me some Kimberly biscuits! 😋

🎄 Fast-paced. No frivolous scenes, no stupid third-act breakups.

🎄 The “main character in your life” dialogue – loved it! Won't ever forget it!

Bookish Okays:

🍀 The remaining characters are a fair mix of adorable and stereotypical. Mary’s mom Sheena is an amazing character, and the rest of her family, coming in barely a couple of scenes, also sounds cute. There are several other secondary, non-family characters, quite a few of whom are one-noted. The character development is relatively weak for most of the cast, as they appear only to the extent of their limited roles.

🍀 The Irish Christmas celebration is fun to read, with some comments about potatoes and the inclusion of local traditions. But I am very surprised that even an Irish Christmas book has no reference to church or Christmas Eve mass, and all the Irish characters spend Christmas Eve in the local pub. Further, there is mention of taking down the Christmas tree somewhere at the end of December. Who does that!? Traditional Christmas season lasts till the feast of the Epiphany. I wish the religious aspects also had found at least a little place in this story, considering that the main location was Ireland.

🍀 The house swap idea is used decently in the plot. But I don’t see how a person can throw a party in the swapped house and invite outsiders without the original owner’s permission. Fictional license, perhaps?

Bookish Nays:

🌊 I like to picture the characters in my fictional picks. So I was quite stumped at the minimal physical description of the lead characters. We get generic words like ‘hot’ for Evan and ‘cute’ for Mary. But we don’t know their age, their height, their facial features, or even their hair. (Mary’s “long, blonde hair” is mentioned for the first and only time at the 61% mark!) It was very tough for me to visualise them.

🌊 You might think that the cover would help in the above issue. But honestly, despite its cuteness, the cover art represents neither the story nor the characters well. Evan has no beard; not even a stubble is mentioned! And Mary seems to have brown hair on the cover. This isn't the first time I have seen a Boldwood Books cover be totally inaccurate about the characters’ physical features.

🌊 Mary’s insistence on Evan’s mixing with others in the neighbourhood, even though he had clearly come in search of some privacy and quiet, was somewhat irritating. The way she made him commit to various things under duress wasn’t right or fair. I don’t like such bulldozing behaviour in real life, so I struggle with it in fiction as well.

🌊 Most of the story was minimally steamy and mostly closed door, but there was one extended scene that went dangerously close to third base. This scene spoiled the otherwise cute vibe of the story for me. This might not bother those more comfortable with spicy scenes. Also, Mary’s repeated thoughts about Evan’s distractive physique were a bit annoying.

Overall, despite the somewhat mixed skew of my feedback, I did have a lot of fun reading this book. The ‘Yays’ are really strong, and the ‘Okays’ have relatively minor bothers. So I am pretty happy with my first Christmas read of the season.

The author has revealed that she is working on a new book set in Dingle, featuring another member of the McBride family. Given the majorly satisfying feels of this book, I’d not say no to more of the McBrides.

Recommended to romcom lovers who would enjoy a fun festive story with an Irish flavour and who wouldn’t overthink while reading.

My thanks to Boldwood Books for providing the DRC of “A Merry Irish Christmas” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.