If you're looking for something with a good winter vibe, this may be the book for you. An escape to Finland gives you the snow scenes every winter read needs, without being a book centralized around a holiday. It's also has the perfect amount of romance for those that aren't looking for a sappy or over the top romance novel. In fact, I would argue that NetGalley's classification of this being a Romance novel isn't quite accurate.

Does a quick pash, and a closed-door sex scene at the 70% mark really constitute a romance??

And what’s the deal with the book cover trickery? I was looking forward to a holiday romance surrounded by the magic of the northern lights and instead got an irresponsible and immature radio presenter with an alcohol problem.

There was no connection between the characters, not a smidge of intimacy and I couldn’t care less what happened to either one of them.

This is not a romance!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, One More Chapter and Emily Kerr for a gifted in exchange for an honest review!

What an adventure!!! I mean, maybe not the greatest start to it, but once Lucy gets away from her mess of a life and starts to actually get settled...wow. This story inspires me to take leaps and plunges and reminds me not to settle for what I have because it’s what I have. Who knows what is out there and imagine the endless possibilities!!!!!

I enjoy the authenticity of Lucy and Tommi. They are very much themselves, they are by no means perfect, and they feel like two people you could go to the North and meet (and know exactly where each came from lol.) The side characters round the cast out nicely and are essential to the story for reasons...well, for reasons you will find out if you read this book (I’m sorry, I can’t do spoilers!!!! Lol)

If you’re looking for a story of hope, finding yourself and figuring out who you are, and trying something new then go on and pick this one up!!!!!

Wow. Funny, romantic, Christmasy what a book. My first from this author but it won’t be the last. Easy to read and follow with a few twists and turns along the way. It couldn’t be a better book to read on a cold winters night. Thanks Emily Kerr her publisher and NetGalley. Highly recommend this book.

I loved the setting and imagery of the book. It was a perfect Christmas read!

I came for a rom com and was not prepared for the more serious topics this book tackled. That being said, they were handled very well.

My biggest issue was the sloooooooow burn romance…it took forever. Once they finally did connect it was very sweet and adorable.

Really enjoyable read. Would definitely recommend this to fans of romance and women's fiction.

Beautiful setting and great characters!

Emily Kerr really set up the story well, as radio presenter Lucy finds herself in quite a lot of trouble. Needing to get away from it all she runs away to stay with family of a friend and it just so happens to be in the Arctic Circle. I really liked the huge differences in location as it really meant a big change for main character Lucy.

Lucy was a great character and although on a bit of a downward spiral in the beginning, she was someone I could relate to. She was put in a really bad position and you just had to feel for her. I loved seeing her completely out of her element when she tries to get away from everything. She actually sounded like how I would probably be in that situation.

Love interest Tommi was a nice addition to the story but in all honesty, I wanted more of him. Although the connection between him and Lucy was great I didn’t feel like we found out enough about him. I think I could have just done with a bit more time for him and Lucy to be alone and to get to know one another.

Lucy is a breakfast radio DJ who's life has been spiralling for a while but after a video emerges making it look like she tried to steal someone else's man, she is forced to rethink her life. A chance to venture to Finland may be just what she needs but is she ready for such a shock to the system.

What a beautiful Winter read. Its making me want to go to Finland now though i'm not sure I'd like the activities but the sauna sounds amazing. This was an interesting story. It shows the dark side of media and what fame can bring when it turns on you. Lucy was an interesting lead and goes on quite the journey. I like that she didn't instantly find herself but had to make a few mistakes first. The plot is steady building to the ending we all wanted and i liked how it came together for them both without dreams being given up. A sweet relatable winter read.

Lucy Fairweather loves her job as a radio DJ although it’s sometimes hard to get to the station in time to host the breakfast show. Especially when she’s had a few drinks the night before. And her producer, Mike, has hated her since the start and works to undermine rather than support her. But she has her good friend Skye, the chilled newsreader, and it’s thanks to her that, when an edited video of Lucy ‘misbehaving’ with a colleague goes viral and she starts getting threatening letters, Lucy is able to escape to work at an outward bound type centre in northern Finland. There, kind Joanna and the forbidding but (of course) caring Tommi help her learn how to navigate life in the extreme cold and also how to maybe change some of her behaviours that don’t help her to help herself.

My full review: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2021/12/12/two-wintry-but-not-christmas-reads-emily-kerr-meet-me-under-the-northern-lights-and-dani-redd-the-arctic-curry-club/

A big thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK/One More Chapter for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is my first book by this author. I must say that I really disliked the book at the beginning-I never really grew to like the main character Lucy. I almost just said NO, but I kept on because I do have a love of the nordic lands. The setting and descriptions were fantastic. I liked all the other characters but Lucy just made me mad. She did get a raw deal, but she had her own issues and was self destructing. I did enjoy the ending. Just wish the lead character had been someone else. 3.5 stars

I love a book that lets you be transported from your armchair to somewhere else, and this book certainly did that. I felt as though I was experiencing the Finnish wilderness alongside Lucy.

Lucy is escaping from a viral video of herself, and I could tell she was slightly out of control even before the video, and from there she spirals. The reaction to this video was terrifying and shows just how easily internet trolls can cause damage to a person's wellbeing.

From the moment Lucy reluctantly arrives in Finland I was hooked. I enjoyed getting to know her new colleagues and friends but at the same time like her, I wanted to know who was behind the viral video.

Tommi who owns and runs Wild Zone, comes across quite gruff initially but as you see more of him, it felt like he was quite warm and cuddling inside once he cares about someone.

There are a series of mishaps in Lucy's early days in The Wild Zone, some of which are more life threatening than others, as she really isn't taking the surroundings seriously.

This is Emily Kerr's second book and first one I've read and on this basis I will certainly be on the look out for more.

But if you are looking at this this, thinking between the cold part of Finland, the possibility of Northern lights and the December publication date that this is a Christmas book. Well I had left it until near the end of my festive reading season this year, and well clearly I was wrong. This can easily be read at any time of the year, but I do recommend curling up somewhere warm to read, if nothing else than to combat the freezing cold temperatures in Wild Zone.

This is romantic escapist fiction at its very best, and it was a sheer pleasure to delve between the pages and devour this story.

Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Anything that promises a spell under the elusive Northern Lights is of instant interest to me, so it’s no wonder that I requested this book. I expected a chilly, cosy, rom-com but that’s not quite what I got.

Lucy Fairweather used to be a well-loved presenter of the breakfast show on Star FM until a drunken video of a work party went viral. Now she is gone way down in a lot of people’s estimations and has even started receiving some frightening mail. With the help of her friend Skye, she decides to disappear to Finland to wait out the horrific abuse being hurled her way. Joining the team at the Wild Zone, where tourists come to experience the magic of the Arctic Circle, Lucy meets the sexy, brooding owner Tommi but can she really run from her problems forever?

I really struggled to like Lucy. It transpires that she does have some hidden, unaddressed problems but in spite of that, I just felt she was a huge liability to everyone around her. Although she definitely didn’t deserve the abuse that she received, her thoughtlessness and reckless behaviour made her really difficult to love. This didn’t improve as the book progressed either, which I was really hoping it would.

I think the fact that her mother is deeply underwhelmed by how Lucy has turned out was the only aspect of Lucy’s life where I felt any kind of connection with her. She is a successful woman but because she hasn’t gone down an academic or particularly lucrative route, she is met with disapproval. I know a lot of creative people also experience this reaction from their family and it can be pretty demoralising.

Tommi is immediately cast in a kind of warm, golden glow from the minute Lucy meets him, despite the fact he isn’t a particularly warm character at the start. It made the romance pretty predictable, which I didn’t overly mind because that’s standard for a lot of ‘women’s fiction’ novels. I think I’d have appreciated a bit more originality or uncertainty that they’d end up together though. Even mention of the mystery Gurta didn’t deter me from the certainty that romance would blossom!

The Northern Lights hold a huge amount of real magic and I have always been fascinated by them. There is a part of this book where Tommi talks about some of the folkloric explanations for their origins and I could have listened to those stories for hours. The presence of such a magical phenomenon in our world gives me a gorgeous, fuzzy feeling and I would have loved to have that feeling more. However, perhaps the fact that the Lights aren’t there all the time adds to their mystery and is probably more accurate to reality -they show themselves when they want to.

Lucy does a lot of soul-searching and realises that she has a host of issues inside her that she hasn’t ever dealt with. Although the end of the book is a happy one and Lucy has taken baby steps to heal, I wasn’t convinced she had the strength or tools to really follow it through yet. I hoped that she would but I wasn’t confident that she was out of the woods, which was a bit dissatisfying.

Meet Me Under The Northern Lights is a very slow-burning romance. I was quite bored and frustrated with the speed of the plot for about half of it and I didn’t like Lucy, so it felt even slower for me. The setting is beautiful and there are husky puppies (although not really enough sightings of them) but I really wanted to give the story a shove forward at several points.

Enjoyed. Great humour in places but also lots of reflection too. Would have liked to know a little bit more about the secondary characters too

A really lovely book. The setting was brilliant and the story was much deeper than I first expected. I warmed to the characters immediately and it left me wanting to add Finland to my bucket list. Highly recommended.

Love the setting. <3

Lucy is a radio host, quite well known. She is good at her job, but lately, her addiction is getting in the way. She spends a lot of nights drinking and has a hard time coming to work on time, always the life of the party.

The last straw is when an edited video of her goes viral. Media backlash follows. There are threats, people are taking sides and Lucy just wants to escape. Her friend Skye's brother owns an outdoor retreat, close to the arctic circle, Wild Zone. When offers come her way, she can't refuse.

She agrees to help with guests, in return for her stay, but getting on the same page as Tommi, the hot owner, is a little bit hard.

I love the storyline and the setting. I was transported to Finnland and the beautiful retreat. But I had a hard time liking the characters. I didn't feel like I got to know Tommi and Lucy enough to root for them.

Meet Me Under the Northern Lights - Emily Kerr

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

All it takes is one moment to change your life . . .

When a cleverly edited video of radio host Lucy Fairweather goes viral, she knows she needs an escape. And preferably somewhere far away.

Where better than Wild Zone – a destination for people who want to experience the Arctic Circle? Owned by the gorgeous but brooding Tommi, Lucy agrees to help with the guests in return for her stay. But getting to grips with her skis is proving harder than it looks.

This was a magical book with the ability to instantly transport me to Finland. This is an enjoyable book as we join Lucy on her journey of self discovery. Whilst it contains some delicate topics, it was written in a light-hearted way and a perfect escape for the holiday season.

Rating: 4/5

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. One More Chapter for an eARC via NetGalley, of ‘Meet Me Under the Northern Lights’ by Emily Kerr in exchange for an honest review.

This winter-themed novel proved a delight. It is witty and charming with a love affair at its heart that I felt developed in a natural way. I class it as a comedy-drama as there are some serious themes; though I felt that these were well integrated into the overall narrative.

Its lead is Lucy Fairweather, the host of a popular syndicated breakfast radio show. She enjoys her work even if it means waking up at stupid-o’clock. Yet this particular morning she is confronted by news that a cleverly edited video of her partying at a pub has gone viral. The trolls are out in force and the tabloid press is hounding her.

Given the chaos, Lucy yearns to escape somewhere far, far away. Her best friend’s husband is Finnish and his brother, the handsome and broody Tommi, has just opened the Wild Zone - an adventure centre deep in the woods for folk wanting an experience of the Artic Circle. Tommi agrees to let Lucy stay in return for helping out with the guests.

It seems a perfect temporary solution. Yet while the Wild Zone may be a winter wonderland, Lucy is completely unprepared for the extreme cold, the ice, snow shoes and skis. It proves a steep learning curve. Will an encounter with the breathtaking Northern Lights change her luck, in both life and love?

At times I was frustrated with Lucy as she could be her own worst enemy, though ultimately I was rooting for her, especially her quest to uncover the source of the viral smear campaign. I also felt that Emily Kerr did a great job of portraying Finnish culture and the sense of community that Lucy discovers in Finland.

Overall, a lovely winter-themed romantic comedy-drama that was entertaining and uplifting. I am certain that it will prove popular over a wide readership.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

I took to this book straight away. I really enjoyed the writing style and I liked the main character so wanted to find out what was in store for her. I liked the plot, and was pleased with the ending, what more can you ask for? I will definitely be looking out for more from Emily. Thank you #netgalley

Light-hearted and sweet romance. Perfect to snuggled up with on a cold winters day. Very much enjoyed this one, Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

Meet Me Under the Northern Lights is a cozy rom com. The characters are interesting and diverse. The writing and pacing also flows nicely sprinkled with some humor and romance. I was glad to see the author approach issues of mental health and addiction. Including touches of the Finnish culture and traditions was also a nice addition. Overall, the book was a fun winter read with a romance to make you feel warm and cozy inside.