Easy read, relatable characters. Enjoyable to read although not very compelling.

Suitable for ya

There’s Something About Merry by Codi Hall is a book that reads more like a school assignment with a minimum word count. It’s long, really long, but despite all those words, the author has somehow forgotten to include a plot. Basically, Merry lives in a tiny house on her parents’ farm. She’s recently returned home after spending some time elsewhere dating men who were bad for her. Now, however, she’s ready to find that one person who fills her heart with joy.

For those of you who don’t recognize it, the above is a mangled quote from You’ve Got Mail because I think this book is supposed to be an homage to that movie. Our two LIs meet via a dating app that, oddly, doesn’t include pictures of the people searching for partners. The pictures have to be excluded since our LIs live on the same farm, practically next door to each other. This stretches credulity but we’re going to move on anyway.

The two characters write to each other frequently and they’re really boring pen pals. Their notes include such interesting topics as favorite vegetables. If you’re familiar with You’ve Got Mail, you know that the correspondence the audience experiences is either related to the business conflict or charming expositions on fall in NYC. Also … and this is key to the success of You’ve Got Mail … only one of the LIs knows the truth until the very end of the movie.

Although it takes us a really long time to get to anything happening in this book, the author gives up the pen pal secret almost immediately, which pretty much – no, no, actually entirely – ruins the tension. After that, all we have is a “will they or won’t they.” And now …

We need to talk about the sex scenes. I’m sorry. I don’t want to either and right now I feel like Lady Bridgerton discussing sex with her daughter before the wedding. Haven’t seen it? It’s pretty funny but these sex scenes aren’t. They are awkward. They are uncomfortable to read. They are weird in the way that women’s body parts are sometimes written by men.

I expected an undulating breast to vibrate out of Mary’s dress and into Clark’s mouth but sadly that didn’t happen. Also, somewhere in there is a missed opportunity to re-use the word screw for the 324th time.

Don’t worry. We still have a loooong way to go before this book is finished. We need to acquire a pet, meet Clark’s baby mama, put Mary in front of a TV camera, have a weird encounter with the pet’s prior owner, meet Clark’s brother, take family photos, decorate for Christmas, have Thanksgiving dinner … I give up. There’s so much covered in this book. And yet it feels a bit like trying to walk through ankle deep mud while keeping your shoes on your feet.

The author also needed an editor or a friend to say something along the lines of “you can cut out the handwashing, the cars turning around, the majority of dog walks, the single highly stereotyped gay character.”

Don’t deny it. You already know that Clark is jealous of the gay best friend because, of course, the author went there. And also had the gay friend give clothing advice. I mean, don’t all gay men shop with their straight girlfriends and use jazz hands?

My recommendation? Get some popcorn and watch You’ve Got Mail. It’s more fun.

I received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a really fun Christmassy book following Merry & Clark, and is a follow up to NICK & NOEL’S CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST. I really enjoy these small-town stories where each book follows a character in the town, or in this case, in the same family. While I liked this, I definitely preferred the first one. Merry & Clark have a cute romance over the course of the book, and I enjoyed the Christmas vibes and the big family elements with the Winters and their Christmas tree farm, and Jace’s relationship with his father, but the writing and dialogue in this was just not up to par. I can’t remember if the first book was like this, but I don’t think it was? There were just the cheesiest lines and the most stilted dialogue, and while I can ignore it here and there, it was one thing after another that built up to the point where I just cringed every few pages. Also, there was no third-act breakup, which I liked, but there was also just no really controversy at the end, which made me feel like the story was just trucking along for nothing? I like there to be a bit of a conflict, and while there was the potential for something, it didn’t pan out to the extent I expected. If you’re looking for a really light-hearted book, you should check this out, but it wasn’t my favorite.

This book is about Merry and Clark. It was just okay. I enjoyed the puns and fandom references but the story just a bit too over the top for me. It felt like I was reading a Hallmark movie. It was an easy read if you love all things Christmas.

I was given an Advanced Review Copy by NetGalley for an honest review.

From the author of Nick and Noel’s Holiday Playlist comes another holiday romance featuring a different member of the Winters Family. This Christmas story was like a hallmark movie on steroids. It was cheesy, and completely over the top, but I was here for all of it. It gave me all the Christmas feels - and had me smiling and dreaming of Christmas even though it’s 5 months away. I mean - you’ve got the Winters family, who own a Christmas tree farm. The children’s names were Nick, Merry, Holly and Noel. The love interest’s name is Clark (and his favorite Christmas movie coincidentally is Christmas Vacation). The setting, a town named Mistletoe, feels cozy and quaint. The parents are basically perfect, the dialogue is perfect, the banter is funny, and it’s just a really great, light Christmas rom-com that will have you ready for Christmas by the end of the book.

I did take off half a star because reading the sex scenes had me rolling my eyes so much I had to skip ahead through them, but for those of you that know my book preferences - I’m a bigger fan of a clean romance book anyway. So - this is probably just a me thing.

Thanks you to @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Release date: Sept. 6.

After reading Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist last year and loving it!! I couldn’t wait for the next book in the series and There’s Something about Merry was worth the wait!

Merry Winters has moved home to her family’s Christmas Tree Farm and wants to learn the business to take over from her father. Single parent Clark Griffin has taken on the Foreman job at the Farm and remembers Merry from High School. They are both looking for the one and unknown to them have been anonymously flirting with each other online.

I adored all the characters in this book. I love getting to spend more time with the Winters and in this town. The characters are so well written and will make you laugh out loud and then fall in love with them.

This is a heartwarming Christmas story that will make you feel super cozy and put you in the Christmas spirit.

Can’t wait to pick up a physical copy when this one releases September 6th. This one definitely deserves a spot on your Christmas TBR.

Thank you @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for an early copy of this book for review.

4.5/5 (rounded up to 5 on here)

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

WOW! I had no idea I was going to love that book as much as I did. If you love a good romantic comedy with a Hallmark movie vibe, then this is the book for you. I was definitely laughing out loud throughout parts of this book and the puns were amazing! I absolutely loved the setting of a Christmas tree farm during Christmas season. I know it can be a bit cheesy at times, but that was what I was looking for in this book and it did not disappoint! This was also my first book with the trope of single dad and I was definitely digging it! I loved how Codi wrote about the characters and how just wonderful they all were. It is definitely the kind of family/small town vibes that I love in a book.

Personally, I would have liked a little bit more spice as the scenes that we did have felt a little too infrequent for me but I did love them all the same! I did read that this was a follow up book to Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist but I think it can definitely be read as a standalone. I hadn't read Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist and still really loved the book but don't you worry, I will definitely be adding that one to my TBR! Overall, if you are wanting a good romantic comedy to add to your list for this Christmas Season definitely add this one!!
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This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (read_betweenthecovers) in the near future!

Thank you to Netgalley and Codi Hall for this ARC.

4⭐️

This book was very easy read and very enjoyable. It wasn't too christmasy, more after Halloween through Thanksgiving and before Christmas period. The story line and the characters kept you wanting to read more and I did laugh out loud throughout the book. I was left wanting to find out more about the MCs and they're future (maybe appearances in other books?). This is a book I would recommend to people.

It started out really strong, but it lost me after it. I liked the setting but it wasn't enough to keep me intrigued and happy.

A sweet romantic hallmark movie kind of book. I truly LOVE narratives that are set into the christmas season("...Sure It's the most wonderful time..." -I know You know the song, right?) Everything that reminds me about Christmas time catches my heart so deeply. And having had read Nick e Noels' christmas Playlist before this one, I can conclude That I appreciated this book more a lot than the first(not that it was bad, it's that this one is better haha) I also like a lot stories with single father and adorable kids making the narrative funny and cute. More than approved!

If there is one holiday romance I think needs to be made into a movie it’s this on. There’s Something About Merry has the perfect mix of sugar, spice, and everything nice to fill the Christmas tree shaped void in my heart as I wait for the holiday season.

I absolutely loved the characters, especially the entire Winters family. They have such a great dynamic and I really loved how welcoming everybody was to Clark and Jace. I also think Merry’s character is the kind of person anybody would want to be friends with. I mean come on, she even saves a puppy at one point.

Overall I loved watching the relationship between Clark and Merry develop over the course of the book. They’re one of those book couples that I really hope ends up with their own perfect happily ever after.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this follow up to Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist. While it can be read as a stand-alone, it was nice to be able to see some of the other characters from the first book.

This was a sweet and fun read. The supporting characters and family members are great.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

Omg this book was amazing and had me laughing so much! It was all soooo adorable. I will definitely be reading more by this author!

this was so cute oml!! i read this in july but it genuinely made me miss christmas. the tropes are serving like single dad, second chance, and kind of anonym "penpals"!! the smut was great too.
i just feel like maybe it was all over the place sometimes and i had trouble keeping up but overall it was a great read

This was a cute and fun read! It was great to read in the summer and now I feel like I need to do this more often!
I loved Merry and her family and her chemistry with Clark! I love the subversion and having Clark be shy and Merry be outgoing. I love her family as well.
Clark has my whole heart. He is such a good father and I loved Jace. I loved how his love showed through his actions and just his maturity in dealing with his ex. I loved his character. The single-parent trope always makes me worry that the kid is not relevant to the story, but Jace added to the story. I really enjoyed all of the characters and hope both siblings get a book as well. This was my first Cori Hall book and I enjoyed it. X

Book 4/5 stars
Spice 3/5 stars (would have liked to see more spice - what we got was fast-moving and happened too infrequently for my taste)

I would describe this book as You’ve Got Mail meets your favorite Christmas movie - admittedly, the Christmas movie series playing in my head as I read this story was Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause.

Tropes: hometown hero, found family, single parent dating again, dating app romance, coworkers (kind of?)
Content warnings for the book (not this review): animal abuse/neglect (happens on-page and is discussed on-page again), child sexual assault (off-page, brief - 1 sentence), domestic abuse (off-page, brief - 1 sentence), absent parent / child abandonment (discussed on-page regularly)

Codi Hall did a great job making me fall in love… with our heroine! I definitely liked the love interest, but I found myself more interested in our leading lady. Who doesn’t love a woman who always smells like Christmas cookies, and knits plushie penises? Who is so generous with her time and genuinely kind to everyone she meets? Idk, I might have been projecting the image of Carol from The Santa Clause (Elizabeth Mitchell, anyone?!) onto our sweet Merry Winters, but I can’t unsee it now.

Merry Winters is a great heroine. She is well written and has a very specific personality. It can be hard to believe anyone could have such a big heart and still be able to stand up for themselves without wavering, but that’s the exact type of warm-and-cozy feeling I want in a Christmas romcom. I really rooted for Merry throughout this book to be happy, whatever that meant for her - because that’s what she wishes for everyone around her.

Clark Griffin is definitely a good love interest, don’t get me wrong - just because I liked Merry more doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate Clark as the wood-chopping, flannel-wearing, single-dad-with-a-hard-exterior-but-a-gentle-heart that he is. Clark is soooo into Merry, which of course, I love. There are a few things that he says that made me think “yikes, he’s holding on to some stuff from high school”, which is generally unattractive to me, but I don’t think it ruins the love story or the story as a whole.

The Christmas spirit is captured really well in this book, although there was a little bit of main character syndrome in the main characters - a few conversations about people being scrooges for not liking Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving, how that must mean they’re mean/bad people, etc, and all I could think to myself in those brief moments was “not everyone is Christian / celebrates Christmas, y’all”. These moments were fleeting enough that I could brush past them, but other readers might feel differently.

I believe the absolute heart of this story lies in how family is depicted. Clark is a single father of a young son who is starting to ask questions about his mother, who abandoned Clark and her son moments after giving birth. The way Jace (Clark’s son) is written is a perfect depiction of his age, and of course he, too, has a wonderfully huge heart and loves everyone he meets. He would be a child someone would say has “never met a stranger”. When Clark moves into the foreman’s house at the Winters’ family farm, he finds family with Merry’s parents as adopted grandparents to Jace, and the tight-knit family welcomes Clark, Jace, and Clark’s brother, Sam, into their family unit with open arms, open doors, and matching shirts for family photos. I aspire to love, and spread that love, the way the Winters family does.

My main critical opinions of this book lied in the conflict and the twist. The conflict, which is a classic in a romcom, usually happens in act III. This conflict happened much earlier - I was at around 50% on the ebook and the entire conflict had already happened. This left me confused about where the story would go, and feeling on edge thinking there might be yet another conflict that would be bigger/more stressful and harder to resolve. This leads me to the twist, which I would not describe as a conflict, though while reading I thought it would be another conflict - a character is introduced somewhere after the 80% mark of the book, who brings a sense of stress and negativity to the story. They have a dark/twisted history and also, seemingly, a dark and twisted present. I didn’t think this choice fit with the book or was necessary at all to the story. I would have much rather that character never show up on page - it didn’t drive the story forward, didn’t develop the characters, and overall felt ominous for no reason, given that in one chapter it was completely over. I also was disappointed to see so many easy-to-catch grammatical errors and errors with punctuation/syntax in a digital ARC that was this close to publication - I’m hoping that the book will go through final revisions, because these errors pulled me out of the story as a reader.

Overall, I do recommend this book - I devoured it in two sittings. It felt cozy, like warm cookies, hot chocolate, being snowed in, wearing a nice sweater, and living in a cabin. If you go into this book expecting a blow-me-away 5 stars, you might be a little disappointed. That said, this story is definitely worth reading - especially if you’re the type to watch cheesy Christmas Netflix originals over and over every year and not really care whether it’s necessarily a perfect plot or not. This book was cute, fun, and cozy, and that’s exactly what I needed it to be.

This book is a super cute hallmark movie type holiday novel! The relationship between the main characters is fun and cute, also the male MC is a single dad with an adorable kid! The town and the house that they are staying at has a nice sweet Christmas cozy vibe.

There's Something About Merry by Codi Hall ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Sept 6/22)

In this follow up to Hall's debut (Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist), readers get to know one of Nick's younger sisters, Merry, who has now lived back at home on the Christmas tree farm for about a year in her own small cottage. She wants to learn more about running the farm but her dad hires a new foreman, serious single dad Clark, who now lives in the other cottage on the farm with his adorable son. She eventually breaks him down and he starts to show her more about the farm, all the while they are actually messaging each other on a dating app and not realizing it.

I enjoyed this one! I think I liked the first one better but it was a solid follow up and I am definitely still excited for the other sister's story, which I assume is to come.

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for the advanced copy!

Absolutely loved Merry and Clark’s story! A friends-to-lovers trope with a little “You’ve Got Mail” vibe thrown in, it was great from start to finish.

The story takes place at Merry’s family’s Christmas tree farm and has a great secondary cast of characters… Merry’s family and friends, Clark’s son and brother… they all add the “com” to this romcom.

This book was okay. Once I got past the Christmas theming and names, it was alright. A typical small town love story. It was cheesy and predictable but sometimes that works. I finished it to say I did. I don’t really have any other words to describe it. Would I buy it? Nah. But it was alright.