Why are Darcy-related books the freaking best?!

I was a fan of Chelsea’s first book in this series…but this one 😍 Woah. The tension, the P&P, the characters, the plot—all overwhelmingly delicious. I read the first 15% late last night, and devoured the rest today. I literally couldn’t stop reading.

This is a tension-filled, angsty, romantic Christmas read that you don’t want to miss out on this season. If you like Pride and Prejudice…you’ll love this read! It’s easy, flows well, and has all the story elements you love in a romance!

Content Warnings: abuse, few swear words, steamy but clean scenes, alcoholism

I absolutely adored this book and I'm so glad NetGalley allowed me to have the whole series. All I Want for Christmas Book 2

I love the dual POVs and small enemies to lovers trope included in this book. Everly and Beckett were such a cute couple! The characters had great chemistry and I loved every interaction between them. They had great witty banter.

I also like the overlapping characters in this series. It was so great to see Graham didn't totally mess up everyone's lives for good in All I Want For Christmas is the Girl Next Door. Also, this book was so much better than the first book in the series! I definitely want to see more of Beckett in this series. Compared to Graham, he was overflowing with angst.

Chelsea Bobulski writes such realistic characters! Everly and her friends were almost exact copies of my actual friend group. Kind of freaked me out at moments...

If you like Hallmark movies, this series is for you. It has the same cozy, predictable vibe. All I Want For Christmas is the Girl in Charge was so adorable!

The only thing that I didn't really love was the sudden acts of violence in the book. I know Beckett's home life with his mom and step-dad was supposed to be terrible, but that moment with Roy at the Christmas tree farm really dampened the mood. I understand the scenes were present to add depth to both the novel and Beckett, but I wished the author just left this book as a cute, heartwarming Christmas read.

A sweet but deep, heartfelt romance. This book is a perfect holiday read. I find that YA romances can often be very surface-level and neglect to acknowledge the complexities of life that people experience regardless of age but Chelsea did a great job of balancing authentic backstories and issues with a sweet romance.

Whenever I read the first book in this series, I didn’t realize it was actually a series. I truly love that it is!

This one follows Beckett, a teenage boy with a troubled past, and Evelyn, a super organized and in charge girl. Evelyn thinks she has life figured out and is in complete charge of things. Her goal is to direct the best play that her school has ever seen so she can get into the Ivy League college of her choice. She has planned everything to a T… except she didn’t expect for Beckett to walk into the picture. Beckett is unreliable and a “bad boy.” He was dealt a terrible hand as a child. He’s kept himself closed off from anyone for so long and automatically expects everyone to let him down. What they both didn’t expect was falling for someone so fast and having that person be the one to change their outlook on everything.

This story was a sweet one. What was lacking in the one before was given to me in this one. I wanted more of Aunt Bee and I got her. I love her! 😂 This series is the kind that you don’t have to read in order. It pulls characters from the last book and mentions the main characters of the one before. I LOVE series like this. If you love YA romance and Christmas, read this series!

Arc provided by Netgalley: Wonderful Christmas story with fun characters and a really clean writing style. Would definitely recommend for those who love Christmas Hallmark movies.

Christmas, forbidden love and a classic play all rolled into one great Christmas story. Evelyn is the put together, organized, high achieving student trying to get into a great college by writing and producing a retelling of Pride and Prejudice with a twist. Beckett is just trying to lay low and make it to his 18th birthday when he will be free of his dysfunctional family. He isn't looking for anything more than fulfilling his community service hours and certainly isn't looking for love but when Evelyn needs to fill the lead in her play Beckett just may find both. For someone that loves stories where the girl finds the "bad boy" this is awesome. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

*ARC received from Netgalley*

RATING: 5/5⭐

"And when good people are hard to come by, we find them in books, and in the authors who had the good sense to write them."

REVIEW

I LOVED THIS BOOK. This is book two in a Christmas rom-com companion series, and I enjoyed the first one, but this one hit it on the head for me. It was perfectly Christmasy and exactly the mood I wanted.

We follow two characters (the love interests), one of them is the perfect, hardworking, Evelyn. The other character is the brooding, angry Beckett. I love this pairing in romance novels so much. I also loved that we got Easter eggs from the first novel and were updated on how the other couple was doing.

The endings of these series (so far) always take a darker turn that is very surprising in a Christmas rom-com and I love it. It ups the ante even more and makes the reward even more satisfying. I also really love Chelsea Bobulski's writing. I think it is really beautiful and perfectly descriptive. There are also some great quotes in here. The way the characters confess their love for each other is beautiful. I can not wait to finish the series!

This Christmas season young adult novel had the same kind of warm and cozy vibe to it that a Hallmark movie has but with teens instead of adults. Even with Beckett being s delinquent with a troubled and difficult past and home life it still made my heart so full to read this, the same kind of feeling I get from watching Hallmark movies.

For Beckett he has come to Christmas, Virginia to help at his uncle's Christmas tree farm to work off his community service hours and escape his drug addict mother and abusive stepfather. He never expected to run into someone like Evelyn.

Evelyn is close to being an exact opposite of Beckett. She is Christmas High's Senior Class President, volunteers at every Christmas charity drive, and basic overachiever. Whereas Beckett is a bad boy delinquent with a crap home life and nothing promising happening in his life.

When Evelyn has the chance to co-direct and star in her schools production of Pride and Prejudice is thrilled until the boy playing Darcy gets hurt.

Even though Beckett was a child prodigy he has no interest in the role of Darcy until his social worker pushes him to do it. The more time they spend together the more her lively and joyful attitude melts are the frozen parts of himself and he starts imagining a very different kind of future for himself. Hope, love, and family aren't are far away from his grasp as he thought.

I adored the dynamic between these two characters, and the romance that unfolds between them. This book was truly an amazing story and a great addition to the All I Want For Christmas series. Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this story.

Rating: 2.5/5

This book was a very Hallmark-type Christmas romance novel. The story brings two characters who have instant chemistry as well as personality repulsion to work alongside each other in a high school production of a "Pride and Prejudice Christmas" aka a Jane Austen spinoff that the main character Evelyn wrote herself to impress Ivy League colleges. Unfortunately Mr. Darcy suffered an injury and this led to Beckett auditioning (against his own will) and being cast in the role, since his practice hours will qualify for his court mandated community service hours. As fate would have it, despite having hated each other at first, working together might just be the meet cute for these two hopeless romantics; however, when Beckett's step-dad comes into town to take him home and when Evelyn finds out about the real reason Beckett is doing the play things get really sticky.

I enjoyed this book. A very cheesy feel-good romcom; however, some parts were a bit peculiar. For example, I was not anticipating the physical abuse and violence acts that happened in the book. I just felt like it was all out of left field and so heavy for a Christmas romance. I surmise the author was adding depth to the story by introducing these scenes, and while that was certainly accomplished, it was a little too gruesome for my taste and felt incongruent with the beginning of the story. I also felt like sometimes the characters were confusing, because they were teenagers, but then at times it seemed like they were adults, and that could very well be the nature of the age group, but all in all, it felt like there were a few scenes and manners in which things were written where I felt like less would have been more.

I really enjoyed the twist on Jane Austen and how the author had both the male and female leads equally invested in literature and theater. I also loved a particular scene where Beckett talks about how one sentence out of someone else literally changed his entire sense of living, showing us how fragile the human condition is and how much impact we have on each other. Overall this is def a Hallmark type Christmas romance, and I think many readers, myself included, will enjoy it.

CW: strong domestic abuse scenes, emotional and verbal abuse, drug references.

Thank you to @netgaley and @wisewolfbooks for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

* this book releases November 10th! *

Reader’s Notes:

– this is book 2 in a series, and though the characters from book one appear a lot in this story, it is not necessary to read the first to understand this one

– this book is told from both our romantic interests’ points of view (Evelyn and Beckett)

– there are about 10 total curse words

– Beckett’s mother and stepfather are not the best parents due to: drug use, physical abuse, and drinking. We don’t see much of them since he is with other family members during the story, but they do come up a few times and are shown to be affected by what they use/their need for more money. This also affects how Beckett thinks about different things and reacts to them, which is explained in the story.

Review:

GUYS!

I thought I really liked book one, but I like this one sooooo much more! (It only got better!) I loved how we didn’t find out why Beckett was doing community service until Evelyn did, we don’t generally have things kept from a reader about a character who is one of the points of view the story is being told from! I really liked how Evelyn and Beckett struggled against themselves with their feelings for each other. And how they went back and forth as the other one acted out negatively/positively around them. And I’m just going to brag on a side character for a sec here…there was another guy interested in Evelyn (totally obvious that he was to probably everyone but Evelyn). And I thought he was going to be a jerk about Evelyn and Beckett getting together, but in the end when Evelyn made her decision, he respected her and her decision. AND he encouraged her to go for it! That’s awesome for someone to do that (literary or real)!

So what is this awesome story about?

Well…we have a moody boy (Beckett) who has always wished for the picture perfect family. But like all his other hopes and dreams, they died when confronted with his lot in life. Now he doesn’t like dreaming, he prefers to be practical. Right now that means finishing his service hours so he can be free to leave when his 18th birthday comes.

We also have a girl (Evelyn) who thrives on being in the middle of something others would find hectic and being able to fix it or make it run well. In this case, Evelyn holds the reins (and if we’re being honest, the whole sleigh) to the school play. She chose to rewrite Pride and Prejudice into a Christmas play over the summer and now is being allowed to produce and star in the play. Everything is running well until her leading man does something silly that causes an injury. One that makes it so he can’t perform in the play.

Evelyn is frantic trying to find some guy, any guy, to fill in. A few guys tryout, but once Beckett tries out the lines to make a point Evelyn knows she has found the perfect Mr. Darcy. And she isn’t going to let him back out so easily. She will do whatever she can to get him to say yes. And she doesn’t know it, but she has some help from a mischievous Aunt Bee who caught on to the looks in both Beckett and Evelyn’s eyes when they see each other.

This is a perfect, wonderful, and heartfelt Christmas love story that will tug on your heartstrings and give you some laughs. ❤️

❄Is bad boy Beckett really deserving of Evelyn after all?🤔

4-4.5🌟 stars
I really enjoyed this opposites attract teen romance with a Pride and Prejudice theme running through. And the Christmas setting, from the town actually called Christmas, to the tree stand, snowball fights, charity Christmas market and heaps of holiday gingerbread, cocoa and cookies, gave the novel a cozy but wintry holiday sparkle.

I went into this story thinking it would be a sweet, light holiday YA romance. But the two leads had more complexity and depth than I expected and it raised the level of my interest and connection to the outcome. And I liked the twist of having the leads' life circumstances reversed, with Evelyn, unlike P&P's Elizabeth Bennett, having the financial and social edge while Beckett is the financially-strapped guy with an embarrassing family situation.

The author is new to me but it looks like I will now be seeking out more from her.

Thanks to Wild Wolf Books and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

All I want for Christmas is the girl in charge is a cute rom-com, perfect for Christmas. Plus I’m a sucker for a dual POV romance. however, I feel like the portrayal of teen romance was a little exaggerated/cheesy at times, but that can be expected for a YA rom-com.

( ps I read this book while listening to Christmas music, and it really tied everything together for me. I 100% recommend doing the same)

Maybe it was just a situation of right book and right time, but I really really enjoyed this one. Despite all that is going on right now, I couldn't put it down.
The character growth was fantastic throughout the whole story. At the beginning, one is very closed off while the other is seeking 100% control over everything in her life. This slowly starts to change as the characters get to know each other.
I would have liked to see more of Beckett playing the violin (being a violinist myself) and the impact that it has on him.
The only complaint I have is the random language used throughout the book. For the most part, it didn't seem to fit the mood of the story.

Content: abusive/drug-addicted parents, language, kissing

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

A high 3.5 stars, close to 4.

I felt this book was a step up from the first in the series; the plot pacing and character development felt tighter and more on point. And, I mean, I adored the entire Jane Austen subplot (even if the Keira Knightley version got watched a few times haha! But I do agree that the cinematography in that was well done, its high point <wink>).

Another review mentioned how the characters talked older than they actually are, and I also feel that's on point (maybe why I liked it better, they read almost like early-20s characters, haha).

The occasional language was still present, just like in the first book, and the main reason the book didn't get 4 stars from me. It just isn't something I expect or look for in a Christian read; I'd almost (_personally_) prefer it be marketed as a clean read, and find the pleasant surprise of church and God-talk being incorporated ... but you can't please everyone on everything. :) It's still a really solid read, with plenty of mic-drop moments and quite a bit of action, particularly near the end.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Picture a Hallmark movie, but with teens. That's what reading this book felt like. It had everything from a town-wide fundraiser to a Christmas tree farm, and I loved the small-town, nostalgic vibes that this book gave. It had such a sweet redemption narrative, and it was fun to see the nods to Pride in Prejudice throughout the story.

Evelyn and Beckett (our heroine and hero) were so sweet together, and felt like real people facing real challenges and self-doubts. I found Evelyn to be especially relatable, and Beckett's backstory helped make his character understandable (since I couldn't personally relate to being a moody teenage boy). My one complaint with them is that they were a little to effortlessly beautiful, with Beckett's perfectly formed body, and Evelyn's state of being constantly put together and having half of the male population in love with her. It was very on brand with the Hallmark vibes, but I would have personally preferred them to be a little less perfect in this way.

Overall, it made for a sweet, cozy read in preparation for Christmas.

Two things to note:
This book was listed in the Christian section of Netgalley. I didn't see anything that made it Christian, and the smattering of language throughout would make me hesitant to recommend it as a 'Christian' book.

Second, the description of this book was for the third book in this series. I still enjoyed it, but it was a bit confusing at first.

A clean, YA, contemporary Christmas romance. Evelyn Waverley is an over achiever and likes to be in control. To add more to her college applications she decides to star in and co-direct her adaptation of A Pride and Prejudice. Beckett Hawthorne, recently came to their small town of Christmas, VA to stay with a great aunt. He needs service hours for a recent police incident and being in the play will give him plenty. It doesn't hurt that he gave the best try out and is perfect for Darcy.

It is fun to see the two learn to trust each other and bring down walls. Beckett has had a hard life and but Evelyn helps him remember the prodigy he once was. This is the second is the author's All I Want for Christmas series but can easily be read alone. It takes place a year after the first book and the main couples do make an appearance. Other than Becketts Great Aunt Bea most of the side characters are filler and forgettable. This is a quick, sweet high school romance. It includes some mild violence involving a step-parent. Thank you to NetGalley and Wise Wolf Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. (3.5 stars)

All I Want for Christmas is the Girl in Charge is a great YA book and I loved every minute of it. Evelyn Waverley just wants her remake of the classic Pride and Prejudice to go off without any problems. But, when the plays leading man gets injured she's on the hunt for a new Mr. Darcy. So, when Beckett Hawthorne reads for the part as a joke Evelyn needs to do everything in her power to convince him they need him for the play. This book was so good the characters are adorable and the story was well written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wise Wolf Books for my copy of All I Want for Christmas is the Girl in Charge by Chelsea Bobulski in exchange for an honest review. It publishes November 10, 2021.
I just love these books! Bobulski is such a skilled writer, and makes YA enjoyable again! I've been so bored or annoyed with YA that I've given up hope of ever enjoying it again, but these sounded so cute, and I'm glad I tried!
I really enjoyed the back and forth perspectives in this book, and getting to know both Beckett and Evelyn. Also, I am now inspired to finally read Pride & Prejudice! So all around a great book! Cannot wait to read the next two books in this series.

This was the second book in this adorable series. It is definitely a must read if you want to read books that are going to keep you in the holiday spirit. There was side characters that were blah to me and could have been written a bit better to make me fully invested but otherwise adorable.