The Mistletoe Motive
Ratings44
Average rating3.7
Cute holiday read but this left me wanting more. The ending felt really rushed too
Una historia navideña super cute, repleta de clichés (grumpy x sunshine, rivals to lovers trabajando en la misma librería, forced proximity, etc). Algo simple pero lindo, tanto los personajes como las vibras y el romance. Para ser una novela corta es perfecta.
No hay drama innecesario y la pareja es muy linda.
5/5
I loved this! Both Jonathan and Gabby were AMAZINGG. I loved how they kept addressing one another by their last names, whether they were flirting or not.
Ahhh I wish we had more from Jonathan's POV than an epilogue but it was easy to see him pining after her. And I KNEW that was when he figured it out, I knew that! Ahh, a scene from his POV would have been so great, especially at this scene, but I loved reading about it from Gabby's POV too.
This is another book with a demisexual representation and I loved reading that! Gabby's realization that she doesn't need to like someone to be attracted to them, as long as they bonded over something, delicious! And reading about her dreams and how attracted she is to him was SO good. I loved this book.
And I'm so happy that there was no third-act breakup, thank you, Chloe. I'm so happy about that!
Definitely one of my favourite reads this year!
Cute but very predictable. Then again I kind of like my holiday themed stories that way.
a super cute grump sunshine holiday romance! i normally don't enjoy holiday romances but this one is a good one. the set up is great and i also loved the characters and super related to the heroine
It took me a minute to get into this book. The characters being over the top clichés was questionable at first, but the consistency of it ended up making everything more enjoyable. It was cute. First time I've read a romance with a male lead being diabetic. I liked that representation. This next bit is just because I'm picky, but I wish the spice could have been built up more organically. The overtly sexual thoughts in the first scene didn't leave a whole lot of room to build. The reason enemies to lovers is so popular is because of the subtleties. Anyway. It was good christmasy read.
I could read this over and over and still not be satisfied. I just love gabby and jonathan that much.
omfg i was having such a bad fucking week and then this book came along was like I'M HERE FOR YOU BITCH,,,??
the entire thing was just pure fluff and i love nothing more than that in life!!??
also we need to talk about the demisexual rep??? as an ace person myself, i can't even tell you how fucking happy that made me (autism and diabetes rep are some other reasons to check out this book !)??
this book got the classic grumpy/sunshine trope ~exactly~ right!! it was truly ???chef's kiss???
jonathan was soooooo hot omg!! the way he was so caring and protective of gabby had me SWOONING
i loved all the side characters so, so much and this was the cheesy, sappy, You've Got Mail-esque rom-com of my dreams?? !??
AAAAND i loved all the meta-bookish parts of this shit way too much ????
OH BTW SHE HAS A CAT NAMED GINGERBREAD??? I'LL NEVER RECOVERRRRR
omfg i was having such a bad fucking week and then this book came along was like I'M HERE FOR YOU BITCH,,,
the entire thing was just pure fluff and i love nothing more than that in life!!
also we need to talk about the demisexual rep??? as an ace person myself, i can't even tell you how fucking happy that made me (autism and diabetes rep are some other reasons to check out this book !)
this book got the classic grumpy/sunshine trope ~exactly~ right!! it was truly ✨chef's kiss✨
jonathan was soooooo hot omg!! the way he was so caring and protective of gabby had me SWOONING
i loved all the side characters so, so much and this was the cheesy, sappy, You've Got Mail-esque rom-com of my dreams !
AAAAND i loved all the meta-bookish parts of this shit way too much 😭
OH BTW SHE HAS A CAT NAMED GINGERBREAD??? I'LL NEVER RECOVERRRRR
Everybody is raving about this book, but I found it insufferable. The main character is the most unlikable woman and the story is completely predictable. The last 15 minutes or so were by far the worst. Save yourself, pass on this.
Everybody is raving about this book, but I found it insufferable. The main character is the most unlikable woman and the story is completely predictable. The last 15 minutes or so were by far the worst. Save yourself, pass on this.
3.5star would be 5 stars if the sex scenes were removed or better written. I'm not into clean romance to be clear but the sex scenes were 100% cringey to me. Even her dreams were pretty weird.
But other than that this serves up 100% of the holiday rom-com antics one could desire. It definitely has You've Got Mail meets The Hating Game vibes. I loved the characters. It has great rep we've got some queer characters, our main gal is Neurodivergent and demisexual! Which I related to a lot as I am too. Our main dude has a secret disability He has type 1 diabetes and it is a spoiler because the main gal doesn't realize what's going on with him.
I'm hoping maybe the author can improve on the sex stuff as she puts out more work because this was really fun. But the sex stuff seemed like it was porn-like or written for men versus women if that makes sense.
Two other cons were how often he says her name. It's constant and gave me 50 shades flashbacks in a bad way. It didn't come off as sexy to me. AND in the audiobook, the women's male voices were pretty terrible. Very forced and raspy. It came off very fake if that makes sense. And in general, I wish if that they used the male narrator for the male voices throughout instead of him just reading the epilogue. Still think its fun, but fast forward past the last 20ish minutes of the book to avoid the cringe lol.
Enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance set in a bookstore at Christmas? Did Chloe Liese intercept my letter to Santa? Because that's EVERYTHING I LOVE.
