For my holiday book review, I wanted something fun. I selected Elizabeth Meitzler’s debut novel, The Twelve Swipes of Christmas. Meitzler is a Pittsburgh native, and she is also the featured author for this month’s Q&A. Her book is available on Amazon for the Kindle and in paperback.

To help Tatum move on after a disastrous break up, her best friend and roommate, Mila gives her the early Christmas gift of four dating apps. After receiving several suggestive photos, Tatum wants to delete the apps, but Mila persuades her to check out a few of the profiles and go on a couple of dates.

After swiping left numerous times, Tatum finds four men she is willing to contact and meet, Nash, Cole, Beau, and Brendon. She hears from three of the four men. After her first two dates end poorly, Tatum pins all her hopes on number three only to be disappointed again.

While waiting for her Uber driver to arrive, she ducks into a local bar to stay warm and runs into Nash, her first dating disaster who is also the emergency room physician she saw after her second dating disaster. They talk. They laugh and they kiss, but Tatum still remembers why their date ended so poorly and she’s not sure if the handsome doctor is confident or arrogant.

After much flirting and many delicious Christmas drinks, they agree to become friends with benefits. When Nash suggests they establish rules for their non-relationship relationship, Tatum is surprised to learn one of Nash’s rules is they must spend time together and have non-date dates before sex. Tatum tries to protect herself by insisting they can’t ask personal questions and they can’t be exclusive. They agree on five rules and their non-relationship relationship seems off to a great start.

Tatum begins to look forward to their non-date dates as much as the friends with benefits relationship.

When Tatum receives a text from Brendon, the fourth man, he sounds so sweet, she decides to agree to a date. She and Nash aren’t exclusive. Brendon is fun and sweet, and she feels an instant connection with him, even if it’s not the passionate connection she feels with Nash.

As Tatum attempts to work through her feelings for Nash and Brendon, she must also confront her past relationship with her controlling ex,  her often absent parents, and the loss of the one person she loved most. Lucky for Tatum she has her friends Mila and Trey by her side, but how much longer will they be willing to keep their relationship in a holding pattern to support their friend?

Meitzler does an amazing job of bringing romance and humor to Tatum’s and Nash’s non-date dates and their friends with benefits relationship. She also delivers on the steamy scenes. Friends in a friends with benefits relationship have sex and to pretend otherwise or to gloss over these scenes would be a disservice to her characters who are young and fun. They also have hidden depths she slowly reveals which add layers to her tale of dating woes, but no spoiler alerts here. You’ll have to read the book to see what happens and who she chooses, if she chooses anyone at all.

Elizabeth Meitzler will be holding her first book signing at Borelli’s Cellar at the Galleria Mall in Mt. Lebanon, PA on December 10, 2022, from 4-6 pm. If you are in the Pittsburgh area, come out, say hello, have some wine and buy this book!