4.5 stars

Blame it on the Mistletoe was an absolute delight, and was hands-down one of my favourite Christmas reads of the 2021 holiday season.

This book is like a fun, zany YA version of the classic movie The Holiday. It was sweet, heartfelt, and laugh-out-loud funny. While it’s cute and lighthearted, the characters also had some hard lessons to learn and there were realistic issues like social media, popularity, unhealthy competition and comparison, discovering what really matters in life, and valuing friends and family. With the book’s target audience being teens, I think these issues are timely and were handled well, all while being entertaining. I loved the themes of friendship and family, and all the holiday fun and traditions. Another thing I loved: besides the cute small-town settings in England and the States, we also got to visit two places I’ve always longed to see at Christmas: London and New York City. Cue all the heart-eyes from me!

As with many holiday books (and movies), you have to suspend believability a bit while reading this one. Everything happens in a short span of time, emotions are heightened, and there’s a hint of that anything-and-everything-is-possible magic, which is why I personally love books like this, but why a lot of readers simply can’t get on board with them. Also, there are a lot of over-the-top moments and the book generally does have a young YA feel to it, so if you’re one of those adult YA readers who gets annoyed at teens for - gasp! - actually acting like teens, you might want to give this one a pass.

I was completely charmed by Blame it on the Mistletoe. I adored it so much, I pre-ordered the paperback as soon as I finished reading the eARC. I recommended it constantly throughout the holiday season, and I can definitely see myself reading it again next year.

(3.5 stars)

I was looking for a light read before Christmas, and this was just the thing! It felt like a YA version of the movie The Holiday, which I love, so I enjoyed this one!

While it was fun to jump back and forth between Elle and Holly’s adventures, my favourite character was Holly. She was so overwhelmingly into Christmas that I immediately identified with and loved her! Her family and friends were fun, and I had a smile on my face at the very beginning reading her Christmas letter.

Elle’s story was somewhat less interesting for me because I wasn’t that into the social media influencer world she was part of, but the stakes were high for her and I was rooting for her to succeed.

This has romance, friendship, humour, a dog and a human with the same name, and a delightful Christmas spirit. Recommended!

Thank you for the early copy but this was not for me.
I had a hard time getting into any holiday book this year.
It was to slow and I didn't love the story.
DNF'd after 100 Pages

super holiday cute read reminiscent of the movie The Holiday! I went in knowing it was a YA book, so the younger points of view were ok for me. Reminded me of Tweet Cute but with Christmas all over it. I really enjoyed it!

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a contemporary Christmas themed YA romance novel. Cute story that took me a bit to get into but was a good read right at Christmas time.

|| 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖

Blame It On The Mistletoe
Beth Garrod
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

|| 𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒:
The Holiday but make it YA and involve some insight to the struggles of social media.

|| 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄:
•The Holiday
•YA Romance + realizing your worth
•Knowing that social media has two sides. What’s posted and what’s going on in the real world.

|| 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒:
Elle (Noelle) and Holly pull a The Holiday type switch. This includes one being in England and everything. This one was cute for a YA Christmas book. The romance is minimal, but it was still interesting. It gave some insight to cyber bullying, social media pressure, and did have me a little worried about what parents let their 16 year olds travel by themselves and do things with minimal supervision 😂 it was a fun read despite that, and I felt I learned a little about the holidays in England which was fun! The Christmas spirit is high in this one, so if you are feeling in a funk about the holidays the character Holly will definitely turn that around for you!

Blame it on the Mistletoe by Beth Garrod

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and SourceBooks Fire and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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?

This a heart-warming novel filled with plenty of holiday cheer. It was like a book version of the movie 'The Holiday' with Holly and Elle swapping homes in the build up to Christmas. The story alternates between the two main characters with both characters bringing a very different narrative. Overall, a nice quick festive read.

Rating: 4/5

Admittedly, the plot of Beth Garrod's Blame It on the Mistletoe is a bit outrageous. Two strangers - one a social media influencer from America, the other a Christmas-obsessed British girl - swap lives for one epic Christmas. Would this ever happen in the real world? Probably not. But all's fair in love and fiction.

Blame It on the Mistletoe is a social media-laden holiday rom com. I repeat, social media-laden. So if that is not your thing, don't pick up this book because you will hate it, although keep in mind it is written for teenagers, and social media IS their thing, so ...

The story follows Noelle, an up and coming social media influencer, who in a ploy to get more followers to win a contest, swaps lives with Holly, a girl from the UK who just looooooves Christmas! Holiday hijinks abound in Blame It on the Mistletoe. As Noelle races around England trying to take the perfect photos that will gain her more likes, Holly finds herself falling for Noelle's twin brother while attempting to make him less of a Scrooge.

If you want to read a story that is heavy on Christmas, this is your book! In fact, the holiday-centric aspects of this novel are the best parts of this story, as I found both Noelle and Holly to be unlikeable and indistinguishable from each other. Garrod's writing style was also cumbersome and difficult to navigate. It did not feel natural, and I found myself paying way too much effort to how the story was written as opposed to just getting lost in this holiday tale.

I am strictly recommending this one to teens and very young adults. Older readers will more than likely feel annoyed by the characters and writing, but younger readers will be able to get into this story.

🎄Review: Blame it on the Mistletoe by Beth Garrod ❄️

The Holiday, but make it YA! This is easily the most festive book I’ve ever read. I genuinely cannot think of a single Christmassy thing that was not mentioned at least once in this story! All the holiday spirit you could ever need packed into one book! This was definitely a fun, quick read for my holiday break. I do think it read a little younger than I was expecting, and some parts could be taken as cliche for sure, but I was willing to overlook it for the sake of festive feels. This one focuses heavily on social media too, so if that’s not your thing, you might consider passing on it. (However, considering you are reading this review, you must at least use social media to some degree, it may be just your thing!) It was also fun to read about all the drama but I think I was able to predict most of the reveals in that regard. At the start, I must admit the writing style took some adjusting too and the full-on narration style was overwhelming for me but it was easier as I made it further into the plot. The light romances, fun adventure vibes, and Christmas settings mixed between big-city-dreamscape and quaint-winter-wonderland-village created a fast-paced, cozy reading experience for me! It was also a nice touch to include a more serious take on issues like cyber bullying and family hardships.

My rating: 3.5/5

*thank you to NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Blame It on the Mistletoe felt like a YA version of one of my favourite Christmas movies ever, The Holiday.

This book was a cute, cheesy, rom-com that was super fun to read right before Christmas!
I really enjoyed Elle's POV and her character development. I also loved how this book examines how social media can make our lives look perfect when in reality it is usually far from that.

My only issue with it was Holly’s character. I found her annoying and the use of all-caps was overly excessive in her chapters, so I struggled to get through her chapters.

Overall, this was a cute and fun book to read for the holidays!

Cute holiday rom-com. I found some parts kind of out there and others didn't make sense to me as much....but I'm also not a teen, so the whole online stuff and getting followers just isn't my thing anyway. For sure makes me want to go to Britain for Christmas some time!

I was so looking forward to reading this because “The Holiday” but make it YA was what sold it to me to begin with. Unfortunately, I ended up being more disappointed than thrilled. I thought this book captured the cozy, warm, fun and lighthearted vibes of the holiday season quite well. So I do see why people enjoyed this. However, this just wasn’t for me.

The writing felt extremely childish, so to me this was most definitely written for the younger YA demographic (and that’s fine; I’m not judging). But having certain sentences be capitalized for no reason for example got tiring and redundant after awhile.

I also never connected with any of the characters. Neither of the romances did anything for me, though I thought Fred was the better love interest in my opinion.

My biggest issue however, was with Holly. OMG, I couldn’t stand her. She was borderline creepy and her stalker-like tendencies were just very strange. Though I didn’t think her strong love for Christmas was a bad thing, the way it was executed in this came off rather cringey. It was basically her entire personality.

Despite my overall dislike, I would still recommend this book to a younger YA audience. I feel like they would enjoy this more than I did.

If you’ve seen the Holiday you’ve pretty much read this book, Swapping lives for the holiday season is essentially the premise for this one. It’s cute but not my favorite holiday read. I didn’t love the characters but it was a fun quick mindless Christmas story.

I received this book as an ARC last year and I never got around to reading it. Last Year was a very bad year for me and ARC's. I didn't really read that much, and my list just grew and grew. I'm determined to get through my ARC's by hopefully March (fingers crossed!) I thought Christmas was the best time to read this one.

Elle is a young girl in America who is striving to achieve social media fame. When she is asked by one of her favorite social media influencers to enter a contest and possibly become a member of one of her groups. Elle sets out to reach 15,000 new followers and have the best social media Christmas. She decides to find someone who will switch places with her. Holly is a Christmas fanatic. However, with her sister away and her mother putting the house up for sell, her Christmas isn't going to plan. When her favorite social media influencer posts a picture of her neighborhood and wants to switch places for the holiday, Holly jumps on the idea of getting away and having the best Christmas ever. Can they both have the best Christmas ever?

I did find this book a tad bit slow at first. However, I'm sure it's just because it is a young adult romance. I absolutely loved Nick and Holly's story. I was so invested in them. I liked how genuine they were. I wasn't all that into Elle's point of view. I just couldn't relate to her as much. I did like the relationship that Nick had with Gram. Beth Garrod did a great job at creating two separate story lines for the girls. I do look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

I received this book as an Advanced Readers Copy from Net Galley and sourcebooks in return for an honest review.

Super cute holiday romance! I loved the similarities to The Holiday. I did find it a little cheesy and a bit too much at times but it’s a worth the read!

The Holiday but make it Instragram influencers. Elle is a social media queen who is in a competition to gain 15,000 new followers by Christmas. To step up her game, she decides to swap places with a British fan. She ends up switching with Christmas obsessed Holly who needs a getaway after an awkward moment with her ex. But the switch brings many adventures and surprises for both girls.

This one was so fun and I flew through it. I loved the London and New York settings - what perfect locations for Christmas adventures! I thought the teenage take on The Holiday was fun. The reasons for the switch seemed a bit strange at first, but it ended up working. If you love social media, pop culture references and all the holiday cheesiness, this is a book for you!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced copy.

Blame it on the Mistletoe - Beth Garrod

This is a YA Christmas book, inspired by the movie the Holiday! Two girls, one in New Jersey, and one in England, swap places for the holidays. We follow Elle and Holly’s POV. Elle is a social media influencer, and Holly follows her. Elle’s mom is from England, so she tries to find someone to swap places with her, and it turns out Holly and Elle’s moms used to be best friends so they end up swapping.

This book took a bit for me to get into, but once I did I ended up really enjoying it. Both girls have a romance in their opposing countries. I loved the friendships and the Christmas vibes, as well as the alternating POVs. Overall I had a good time reading this!

This modern YA-version of The Holiday definitely got me in the Christmas spirit. Holly and Elle were such cute characters and I loved their cast of friends. This book had a sweet ending, but it felt like it was too long while also not diving deep enough into some important details. It read too chaotic and immature and I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone above middle school age. That being said, I think a lot of tweens would relate to the social media aspect of the story and the idea of focusing more on real life and family than the number of followers or likes you get.

This one took me a few chapters to get into, but I really enjoyed it. Holly was a bit naive and young, but she was also only sixteen years old. She was obsessed with Christmas and lists and it seemed as though her holidays were about checking traditions off instead of enjoying the holiday. And Elle was obsessed with her social media account and her role as an influencer. The two young girls end up switching places and I loved these two girls trying to complete as many Christmas "challenges" as possible. But along the way, there was a lot of friendship, romance and of course lots of character growth (on both sides) and I loved it. This was a great read to get me in the Christmas spirit!

This was a cute idea, but just a little too cheesy for me. I thought the influencer angle would make the story different, but it just felt annoying. The rest of the story was very predictable for holiday romances.