Thank you to NetGalley and Wise Wolf Books for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book, for a lot of reasons. I really liked the romance in the book and how everything concluded, and I liked the message that the book sent about how we should live our lives. I am also a total sucker for anything Christmas themed so that didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the book either. Overall, it was an easy fun read that I would definitely recommend for anyone who enjoys a good holiday romance.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review, which has not altered my opinion of this book.

This book was the essence of a teenaged version of a Hallmark Christmas movie but in book form. Does that make sense? It was cute, predictable, and has (SPOILER!) a happy ending where everyone learns something. I am a lover of the Holiday Hallmark specials and make a point of watching my favorites and the new ones every year (which is right about this time of the year!).

However, this one just felt super dissatisfying to me. It also felt overly dramatic. I say that knowing that all Hallmark movies are over the top and that's to be expected, but this one kinda pushed the envelope for me a bit farther than I was comfortable with or than I wanted at all. It made the entire situation uncomfortable and awkward and just made me dislike the main character completely, which is very unfortunate.

Overall, this does get 3 out of 5 because I appreciated the Hallmark aspects of it, but still did not appreciate the over dramatic-ness of the situations.

I loved the rest of the series. And yes, I saved the first to read last. Yet, for some reason, I could not get into this one.
I am not fond of the whole switching-lives thing that happened. The rest of the series did not have anything like that so it threw me off a bit.
I was also not fond of how once Graham becomes Sarah's boyfriend, he becomes interested in Piper. That has never been a favorite plot device of mine and nothing has changed.
I really wish I liked this one, but it was a DNF for me.

1 Star

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.

All I want for Christmas is the girl next door.

4 stars


Sum it up:

Graham a 16-year-old boy has been in love with his neighbor forever but she's dating his best friend, after confessing his feelings to her and getting rejected he wishes she would love him and be with him. Some wishes do come true but in this alternate universe, he notices even loving a different person alternates the way life was. that's when he starts questioning, is this really what he wants? Was he really made to be with her? 


My Thoughts:

This book reminded me of a hallmark movie which I love those moves. So of course this book had me hooked. The big part I loved is after being in the alternate universe he realizes the love he has for the girl next door is just friendship and they don't belong together. His greater love is out there just like hers is. Not everyone realizes you love certain friends like they're your soulmate and sometimes they're better at staying your friend. those lines can blur a lot in life and the way she has written this is beautiful. you see the struggle he goes through when he realizes it all and how hard it is to face that the person you thought you loved for years isn't meant for you. Then you see how he falls for his actual soulmate and damn I had so many tears with this read. I'm giving this 4 stars cause even though I loved it, I just wish he would have been more caring in the alternate universe. I know he struggles cause he's realizing it's not meant to be but some of the stuff I just wanted to smack him and tell him to man up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wise Wolf Books for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest and real review.

I didn't know what to expect from All I Want is the Girl Next Door, I love Christmas novels, as you can see if you look at the list of what I've read, but this one stepped out of what I usually read with this idea of Graham getting sent into an alternative universe. I ended up really enjoying it though! The town of Christmas is a quaint backdrop for a story of a teenaged boy who thinks he knows what he wants, and that's Sarah, the girl next door. When Graham wishes on a shooting star one night to date Sarah he wakes up the next morning in a completely different reality, one where he's been dating Sarah for two years. This novel really focuses on Graham as he tries to adapt to this new life and enjoy what he thought he wanted, what he thought would be his best life. Overall it was a cute love story that had me freaking out just as much as Graham, I would love a little novella of the relationship in the epilogue, I think that it would have been so cute to get a bit more of them but overall it was a cute and very fast read with that Christmas whimsy I love so much.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC. This was a fluffy RomCom- definitely a Hallmark movie vibe. It wasn’t for me, there were a lot of instances where I didn’t like what the main character was doing and I found him quite obnoxious and self centered. Unfortunately, this made it very hard to get through and get to the good parts.

I read this book after loving All I Want for Christmas Is the Boy I Can't Have, another book in this series, so I had high hopes going into it, which were immediately disappointed.

A large part of the issue that I have with this book was the sheer disdain that I have for Graham, the protagonist. After having been in love with his best friend, Sarah, for two years while she's been dating his other friend, Jeremy, he makes a wish to be the one dating her instead, which then comes true when he wakes up the next morning. It is never really clear why he's so obsessed with Sarah; they have no chemistry, but he keeps insisting that she should be with him rather than her boyfriend. In the new reality, he is now dating her, but emotionally cheating on her with Piper, the new girl in town and his co-worker at the bookstore, literally the entire time. He and Piper were sort of cute together, with the exception of the cheating thing and the fact that he over-sexualized her constantly. Honestly, I think the cheating aspect was what ruined this book for me the most; it was also an element in the first book I'd read in this series, but circumstantially the characters seemed much less worthy of condemnation in that case.

I do like the bookstore setting element, though it isn't featured much. I also genuinely love Piper's character independently of her relationship with Graham, and I like Sarah as well; they definitely feel like the two most sympathetic characters in the book. I enjoyed the alternate reality aspect of it more than I was expecting, but found the way the author dealt with relative characters' awarenesses of it confusing; it seems like many of the characters are somewhat aware that something is off from how it should be, but that doesn't feel like it was addressed enough either. I also found the resolution very unsatisfying, though I can't really elaborate on why that is without spoilers.

However, despite my issues with it, I did still enjoy reading the book; it was quick and light, and I did feel somewhat invested in it, so I'm giving it 3 stars. I would recommend it to anybody looking for a quick and fluffy holiday read.

This is such a cute book, especially for the holiday season. It totally has that holiday feel good atmosphere that I just love

I absolutely adored this book and I'm so glad NetGalley allowed me to have the whole series. All I Want for Christmas Book 1

I wanted to like this book since I love It’s A Wonderful Life and this sounded like a fun book. While there were some things I liked about the book, the bad outweighed the good for me.
I didn’t like the language scattered throughout the book. And the love triangle drama along with Graham being so indecisive and immature was got to me. I understand he’s a 16 year old boy but it got to me. One minute he loved Sarah, one minute he loved Piper.
I did like Piper. Honestly, she was about the only one I really cared about. I love that she loved Little Women, annotated her books, and was a total bookworm.
Also Graham’s mom was fun the little she was seen.
The Christmas vibes were fun and I liked the “It’s a Wonderful Life” aspects to the story. I liked that the characters worked in a bookstore.
But I thought the language was unnecessary and just some other problems I had with it overall.
This wasn’t the book for me due to the content and the characters.

*I received an ARC in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

Fun, sweet, quick Christmas romance. I loved the main character and you just really rooted for him to be happy.

Maybe what you wish for isn't really what you need. Christmas, VA is the holiday setting for this YA romance. I did like having a male POV for the story but it just felt like any other Hallmark type romance but Graham was so wishy-washy on who he really liked and how he treated people was not kind that it was annoying at times. So it is a light quick read that others may enjoy right before the holiday season.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC for an honest review.

I LOVE this book! It is such a sweet story + it's one of those stories that stays with you — when you aren't reading, you're thinking about it and can't wait to get back to reading it! Highly recommend.

Emotional cheating is not romantic. The hero was so abnoxious and he objectified the side chick all the time, he bullied her perfect girlfriend when she was clearly having an eating disorder, everything was about this jerk and how nothing was according to his plan he didn't care for the people around him. I did like The end though the last twist but since I never care for the MC whatever, it was short and funny also you can tell the writer is Smart. I don't recommend this book

I am so glad that this book was my first holiday read this year! It is just the epitome of everything I love in a holiday romance - friendship, snow, hot cocoa, and two people finding out what they really want and need. The writing was lovely and atmospheric for reading during the holiday season. Graham Wallace is in love with the girl next door who has been his best friend for years. He thinks life would be just so much better if he was with her so he makes a wish. However, when the wish comes true- he comes to realize that sometimes what you think you want isn't what you really need. I loved this book so much! Definitely will be a yearly re-read for me!

I enjoyed parts of this. It was a fun idea for a book but overall I just felt a little bored by it all. Good writing just bland.

This sounded like it would be such a cute book, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. There were some cute moments I guess, but the main character was so insufferable, that it made it really hard to enjoy anything about this book. None of the characters had any sort of development and they all felt so flat, so I literally did not care about a single one of them. I didn't necessarily mind the premise, but the way that it was executed was not good in my opinion, and this book would have worked much better if there was no wish involved, and he learned that loving the idea of someone wasn't the same as loving them without all the bullshit that happened because of the wish.

Overall, I can't really recommend this, although I am sure there are people who will enjoy this more than I did.

Super fun and adorable Christmas read! Perfect to put you in the Christmas mood. It got me so excited for the winter and the fun activities. Also the possibilities of love during christmas.

A YA "It's A Wonderful Life" with great Christmas vibes -- but with an ending that' I didn't love.

I wanted to love this book, and there were plenty of times when I was reading it that I was having a wonderful time enjoying the charming small-town holiday delight, but the MC was kind of hard to like. Also, a side character is a ballerina and, having danced seriously myself for a long time, it irked me that quite a few descriptions relating to her and dance weren't accurate. The main problem I had, though, was that the ending didn't make sense. There was a whole situation that called back to the beginning scenes, but it was like the author forgot exactly what she wrote at the beginning, because the end didn't completely line up with that. I feel like it was an issue that would have been caught if the publishing schedule for these ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS books wasn't four books in two months. If this was made into a Christmas movie, and they fixed the ending, I would totally watch it.

Given by Netgalley for an honest review: Very fun read. Has a Hallmark type vibe. Would recommend as a good holiday read.