did this throw me at first when I realized the characters were British? maybe. did I internally voice them as if they were on Love Island UK, also maybe. in the end was this book a vibe? Absolutely.

*more in depth tiktok review to come <3*

Evie and Dan made a pact after a kiss under the mistletoe - if they're both single when Evie turns 30, they'll marry each other. When her 30th birthday lands them in Vegas, they drunkenly decide to make good on their promise, and wake up married. Flipping between present day and 8 years previous when they made their pact, the dual perspectives keep us in the loop as we see them pining after each other.

I really like the concept of time skipping between Christmas Eves of years past - I understand that we couldn't stay at Christmas forever, but it would have made a bigger impact for me. I wasn't wowed by this, but I still enjoyed it enough to keep reading.

Evie and Dan's pining got to be a bit much for me, and some of the plot points seemed unnecessary? This could have easily been a more concise book. I did love the "will they, won't they" in the first half of the book, but I got a bit tired of it by the end.

As with many Bookouture titles, I still had fun!

Cute, Light Read!
Brief Synopsis: Long time friends make a marriage pact to marry if they aren't by age thirty. Flash-forward eight years and a drunken night in Vegas leads to a wedding. A quick annulment leads to years of dancing around each other and their feelings.

Opinion: Loved the concept of this book...marriage pact between long time friends and a Vegas wedding. But the storyline was so FRUSTRATING. If only Evie and Dan could have had a simple conversation. An annulment and constant misunderstandings led to an extremely drawn out "get-together." It literally took years for them to act on their feelings! The characters were likable, but I never really felt a connection to them. The storyline was confusing at times do to the jumping between time. Overall, this book did not have a strong Christmassy feel, but is an enjoyable quick read.

This was a harder read for me from the books I usually like. I loved the premise of the book. Friends forever who made a pact that eh eh will get married if they aren’t with others by the time they are 30. Whet could go wrong? After a drunken night in Vegas they did just that. I did enjoy this book over. It was sweet at times, but over all it was a slower paced book that I would have liked.

I received this ARC through #netgalley and I am voluntarily reviewing this book

I find myself confused by this author’s books. There are so many things that I like, but at the same time, I’m finding that there are things that I wish were improved to make the good things even better.
First for the good. The author has a talent for making characters that seem real and believable. They’re often pleasant, which makes the reader want to root for them to finally get together.
That’s certainly the case with Dan and Evie. It’s no spoiler to say that their relationship is fated to be, but there are a lot of stumbles along the way.
The story is told in an interesting fashion. We start in the “now” which is Christmas, with Evie and Dan in Las Vegas. As they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But for them, it isn’t that easy.
From there, the plot switches to past Christmases, eventually catching up to the present. Then the author does something unusual and moves the action forward, where “now” actually becomes the future (2022).
This was effective because it made sense in the context of Dan and Evie’s plot arc. It also allowed for a LOT of other stuff to happen in the meantime.
And in some ways, although I liked the movement forward, it almost seemed like there was too much to fit in. I really enjoyed their story, but once I reached the “now” of the present time, everything else seemed like filler.
Which is weird, because that’s actually where the bulk of the action takes place.
Anyway, there were times that I felt that the author was trying to do too much. Dan had issue after issue – with his dad, his brother, his ex – and it didn’t always seem to fit the overall plot. More that “let’s give Dan more so that the reader will be more sympathetic toward him.”
Evie was sort of the same. Between the sexy mom and the lackluster boyfriends, it all seemed to just pile on. I didn’t feel it was necessary because the plot itself (and the romance) was pretty decent to begin with. It could have been more straightforward.
There were also times that I felt that the author got lazy in the actual writing. Phrases became repetitive, people repeated what others had just said, whole conversations were of the same thing said by different people. It might have been for comedic effect, but it just fell flat for me.
Which is a shame, because as I mentioned, Dan and Evie’s story is charming. And if the telling of it had been more direct with less added drama, I could have enjoyed it even more.
As always, that’s my take on it. Other people may have a different opinion and may like the extra details. There is enough to like in the book for anyone to give it a try for themselves.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Publishing for eARC access to The Mistletoe Pact, by Jo Levett, published October 1, 2021.

Opening up on modern day Christmas Eve, Evie and Dan wake up with wicked hangovers, naked in bed together, after a wild night in Vegas. They have cashed in on their 8 year agreement that after they reach 30, if they weren't married, they would marry each other. With a Then-and-Now storyline, we see the two yearn for each other for YEARS, and decide if they plan to get a divorce, or finally share their feelings with one another.

My Review: 3/5⭐️ while the book overall was cute, I felt like the relationship between Evie and Dan was reading as a friendship - there was no chemistry from my standpoint. But, the format, even jumping with 2 POV's and multiple time frames, was easy to follow. Overall, I just was left wanting more of their relationships and more sexual chemistry/spice. I was frustrated how both were so quick to give up on the 'marriage' and never communicated anything worthwhile. Tropes Included in This Book: Marriage Pact, Best Friend's Sibling,

This book was cute, not too cheesy or illicit. I really appreciated the "realness" of the relationships. They weren't perfect, they didn't always say the right thing and the characters had baggage. There were moments when this was frustrating as a reader since the characters did stupid things, but it also made it more believable. I loved the back and forth between the time periods. I thought the relationship with Hannah and having a child together was a little strange and felt forced, but other then that I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read.

✨The Mistletoe Pact by Jo Lovett✨

Genre: Romance
Star Rating: ☆☆☆.5

🎄 Marriage Pact
🎄 Friends to Lovers
🎄 Hallmark vibes

Eight years ago on Christmas Eve, Evie and Dan made a pact that if they were still unmarried by thirty they would marry each other. Neither put most stake in the pact even though both of them harbored secret attraction for each other.

Flash forward…Las Vegas…Christmas Eve eight years later, the day before Evie’s 30th, Dan and Evie wake up hitched in the honeymoon suite. (Can anyone say Friends reference!) What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…right?

The Mistletoe Pact feeds that winter romance hole we all want to fill. I like this mainly for its abundance of cute moments between the two, could have lived without some of the drama but hey what’s a good romance without a little bit of drama.


👏Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review

As a character from the famous Chernobyl series would say: Not great. Not terrible.

The plot was all over the place and I got confused with the timeline at some point. BUT that does not mean that I did not enjoy reading it.

The story revolves around the two main characters, Evie and Dan, who are best friends for evaaaa but guess what? They fall in love. The thing is that there was always something with them, but they just did not want to ruin the friendship. That evolves into sticking with bad partners and participating in a lot (A LOT) of weddings. Seriously now, how many weddings can you attend in a lifetime?

The Mistletoe Pact is fast-paced, has good characters (sometimes too good to be true) and a lovely love story.

I highly recommend reading this near Christmas. 🌲

On Christmas Eve eight years ago Evie and Dan made a pact: if they weren’t married by thirty, they were going to marry each other. Of course, neither of them took it seriously, even if Dan has always been mesmerised by Evie’s beautiful smile, and Evie has always fancied Dan, her best-friend’s brother. But then “it” happens. They wake up on Christmas Eve, the night before Evie’s thirtieth birthday in Vegas, married. In a honeymoon suite filled with hundreds of heart-shaped pillows, they realise too late what they’ve done – just like Ross and Rachel. Surely if they just get a quickie divorce, they can go back to the way things used to be, right? If it wasn’t for the alcohol and Susan-with-the-huge-beehive-hairdo who just wouldn’t take no for an answer, none of this would have happened. They can just go back to being friends. Except moving on is easier said than done when you've secretly loved each other forever… but if one of them doesn’t admit that, what happens to their friendship? If they don’t get together this time, what happens to the pact? Are they really ready to let it go for good?

Oh this was such a beautiful, heart-warming read. I instantly connected with Evie, Dan and all of their friends and family. I loved getting to know all of them and they quickly felt like friends. Lovett writes this from Evie and Dan's perspectives and time hops too. All of this helps the reader gain a better understanding of them and fall in love with them more. Plus it adds to the jeopardy of will they won't they.

My other main reason for loving this is Christmas features heavily in this! Lovett centres a lot of key moments around the festive season and it has a wonderful Christmassy feeling to the read. This really added to the magical, gorgeous feel of the read and it just made me happy. The characters are stunning and the setting of London and the Cotswolds equally so. Everything was just perfect.

'The Mistletoe Pact' is a real festive treat, prepare to fall in love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance copy.

#themistletoepact #netgalley

I had a hard time reading this book, it just didn't click with me. I thought it would have a more Christmas time theme, but Christmas hardly came up at all.

First of all, I was wishing this book was much more Christmasy with how looks. That's pretty much the reason I read it and since that failed it didn't help. I was a little unenthused with the plot of this - part of the time I was entertained but an equal amount of time I was bored. Overall I would categorize it as "fine" but not memorable and left me wanting more.

This one made me absolutely fuzzy in the tummy. I loved these two and their hilarious love story and wish I could get an update!

I enjoyed this quick little Christmas read. The book doesn’t always center around Christmas but the plot is fun and kept me engaged for most of the book. If you like a book where the couple is meant for each other but it doesn’t seem like the right time then this book is for you.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

I picked up this book expecting a holiday read because it was a Christmas novel set in Cheltenham about two friends who had missed chances and would have a second chance to fall in love, but it didn’t hit the mark for me. Evie and Dan’s story would have been a sweet Christmas novel if their relationship wasn’t so static. Their one-night marriage was annulled and inconsequential to the story, so what was the whole point with the pact then?
If you like reading friends-to-lovers or second-chance Romance, maybe this might be your book.


(I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.)

Oh how I really wanted to love this book. Sadly that was not the case. I didn’t hate it, but I was definitely disappointed.

Firstly, the title was quite misleading. This book was not festive in the slightest. If anything the majority of the book took place outside of December. Considering the title of this book includes one of the most iconic symbols of Christmas I was so disappointed that it really had nothing to do with the story.

This book could have been set at any time of year and nothing would have changed. As I mentioned before most of the story took place outside of December, other than a few festive events that had no impact whatsoever. The only festive event that had any impact was the scene where they made the pact and even then it didn’t feel very Christmassy.

When I say the timeline was confusing I 100% mean it. I didn’t know what was happening a lot of the time. There was a constant shift between past and present, but no real indicators other than the date at the chapter start of where you were. I would find myself mid-chapter forgetting when and where the scene was set and what details about the story the characters knew at that point. Maybe this was just me being too dense to understand what was going on, but I’m not sure.

Also, the points of view were too similar. There was no real difference between Evie and Dan and how they talked/acted. I felt like the entire book was written from one perspective.

It was painfully obvious to absolutely everyone in this book that the main characters liked each other. Including both main characters. This obviousness was quite grating at times and I found myself thinking ‘just get on with it already’ but no this frustrating back and forth continued to happen for way too long. I really lost interest in their romance.

This brings me to the biggest point of my review. These characters were not right for each other. For me, they lacked that certain spark of chemistry that you need for a romance novel. This was most likely the result of them growing up together and having more of a familial bond rather than one of a romantic couple.

They definitely had chemistry and were very comfortable around each other, but it really did lack a spark. Even when they did get around to being together it was cute, but often felt stilted and forced. This is a shame because I usually enjoy a finally being with your life-long crush type of story, but it failed to hit the mark.

I’m making it sound like this was the worst book I’ve ever read. Honestly, it wasn’t, but it isn’t one I will be recommending to anyone soon. It was a fairly quick read, despite the confusing chapters and it did have its moments of romance wonderfulness, but everything kept falling short of my expectations.

I LOVE Christmas books and this one seemed like it had a lot of promise. Dan and Evie are friends who have been secretly pining over each other for years. On Christmas Eve 8 years ago they made a pact that if they were both single at age 30 they would get married. Which they do, while they are very drunk, in Vegas. If the love story had moved on from there I would have really loved it. Instead, they pretend they don’t even like each other and go their separate ways.
This was a VERY slow burn friends to lovers romance that takes years to happen. It was so frustrating because if they had just had a conversion about their feelings they would have gotten together a lot sooner. Dan and Claire spend more time apart in the book than they do together. The time jumping combined with the dual POV was also a little confusing. I was never sure who we were following and what timeline we were in.
I did enjoy the author’s voice and the fact that we get to know the two main characters really well. Dan and Evie are both likable and I was rooting for them the whole time.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy to read and review.

This book was the perfect way to kick off my holiday reading season! If you're looking for the perfect holiday read with a best-friend's brother trope, you've found it! This book is magically, has loads of Christmas spirit and is sure to make your holiday bright!

I llreally like that the characters had a long history. I'm a sucker for a Christmas book unfortunately I can't see to find one that I really love. I'm stuck on 3 stars with romances.

In this book, a group of friends meet every year on Christmas and most of the time things get interesting. For years you never know if Evie and Dan will finally make their move.

The Mistletoe Pact was one of my highly anticipated Christmas reads for 2021, the premise sounded perfect and we all love a best friend’s brother romance, right?! Unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations.

Evie and Dan make a pact on Evie’s 22nd birthday (which also happens to be Christmas Eve) that if they’re both single by her 30th birthday then they’ll marry each other. We immediately see that they did in fact get married, only it wasn’t a planned affair, it was after an extremely drunken night in Vegas!

I’m sad to say I had issues with this book! It wasn’t the feel good festive romance I wanted (and expected), in fact it had very little to actually do with Christmas other than the timeline occasionally being set around Christmas time. I didn’t connect to either main character so I didn’t particularly care if they ever got together, which by the way took forever (the very last chapter of the book!). My main issue was just how frustrating and boring it was to read, I generally don’t mind a good slow burn but this was far too slow for me.

Disappointing!

2 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.