Book Review: Blame It On the Mistletoe by Beth Garrod
For fans of The Holiday and Tweet Cute, this one’s for you. Okay, that’s literally on the cover so let me break it down for you:
This charming, delightful YA holiday rom-com book, Blame It On The Mistletoe, is perfect for the reader who loves a good YA book but also doesn’t mind a good, adult literary fiction plot, but needs a light and easy read. While I will say this book is very much YA and on the younger side of YA, I’ll still recommend it to the average romance reader.
Synopsis:
Tweet Cute meets the movie The Holiday in this funny holiday rom-com where two very different girls swap lives for a Christmas adventure.
Elle is a social medial star with the #DreamLife...or so it seems. Determined to shake up her content and gain new followers, she's on a mission: can she find a British fan to swap with for Christmas?
Holly loves everything about Christmas. But after a mortifying mistletoe disaster with her ex, her perfect plans unravel like a bad Christmas sweater. Can Holly save the holidays when she switches places with favorite social media influencer?
Elle gets more than she bargained for when she meets the cute boy from across the street. And Holly wasn't expecting Elle to have a handsome twin brother. This holiday is full of surprises.
Book Review:
For those who have watched The Holiday starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black, this story starts out very similar. Popular influencer Elle enters a contest with the deadline of Christmas to reach 15,000 new Instagram followers. She devises a plan to switch lives with a follower until Christmas Day. Enter: Holly. She has had this Christmas planned out for weeks, but when her plans start to unravel, she immediately wants to get out. She sees Elle’s challenge, and instantly wants in. The two switch lives—Elle traveling across the Atlantic to England, specifically Little Marsh (the town where Holly lives and Elle’s mom grew up in), while Holly travels across the Atlantic to the States, specifically New Jersey. When the two swap lives, both find what they’ve been looking for—and then some. While Holly swears off feelings and rather decides to catch flights (flights, not feelings), Elle is on a mission to reach her 15,000 follower goal—because according to this contest’s rules, she will have to delete her account if she doesn’t reach the goal.
Overall, I thought it was charming and an easy read. While I do love a good YA book, I thought this was a bit too young and the plot didn’t hook me in. It was fun turning each page and getting more into the story, yet the book just didn’t do anything for me. I liked Elle and her social media challenge, and I liked Holly and Nick’s little friendship (friends-to-lovers trope!) that turned into flirtation, and I especially loved the Christmas challenges that both Holly and Elle did in their countries.
However, the plot didn’t do a lot for me. One of the main questions I had throughout the book was like … how did the parents not be more involved in this swap? Yes, I understand they probably called each other’s parents several times before and during the trip to check in, but I just think the book didn’t cover that as much. Like, they were 16, 17 years old? How did the parents not be too involved?
Aside from the parents and the book being a bit too YA, I think this holiday rom-com is a good book to bring on a road trip or curl up with on the couch post-Thanksgiving meal.
Rating: ⅗
