Meet Me Under The Mistletoe was more of a contemporary romance than most of your typical holiday romance reads. I thought it was a great cozy winter read taking place during the holiday season, but not necessarily a Christmas read, though the title would suggest otherwise.

The book takes place in London and the English countryside. It follows Nory, a secondhand bookstore owner, during her trip back to her old private school stomping grounds for her friend's wedding. The group of friends arrive to stay at a beautiful castle near their old school a week early to spend time together before the wedding. During Nory's stay she runs into her childhood nemesis Isaac, who also happens to be her older brother's best friend who she used to have a major crush on. Isaac is now the Castle's gardener. As the two spend more time together they both realize they have feelings for eachother. What follows is a heartwarming romance with wonderful realistic characters and a strong focus on friendship between each of the friends in the group.

This is my second Jenny Bayliss book and I for sure will pick up any upcoming releases from her! This was a perfect cozy rom-com that wasn't just light and cheesy but had interesting characters, realistic dialogue, and a story with some great complexity!

A great read for the winter!

Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Group PUTNAM for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

2 stars.
TW: suicide, bullying, racism, classism.

"Meet Me Under the Mistletoe" by Jenny Bayliss sees Nory reuniting with her posh private high school buddies at a lavish wedding set in a castle. Nory struggles to find her place in the world, not being fully accepted by these pals because she was a scholarship kid (aka not super rich like they are), and not being fully accepted by her now-friends since she went to a preppy high school and all her school-friends are snobs. When she reunites with Isaac, the now-head gardener at the castle, sparks instantly fly between the two of them. "Trapped between honor and desire," Isaac doesn't want to get involved with Nory because he's her brother Thomas' best friend, but they just can't stay away from each other.

This story is like a modern, less interesting, more douchey version of "The Big Chill." The book is way too long and unfolds at a ploddingly slow pace. Everything feels overexplained in such a way that made me lose focus and care on multiple occasions. There are also way too many characters (who have all had sex with each other apparently)? I couldn't keep them all straight. When I was about 68% in, I still didn't know what the story wanted to say about, well, anything. Bayliss tries to make apologies for Nory's disregard for the casual and overt racism Isaac experienced when they were younger, but balances that out with...making Isaac still encounter casual and overt racism with her friends in the present?! This really irked me and made me not care about or connect with most of Nory's school friends because they were such entitled wankers. I guess...maybe that's the point? Nory does speak up in Isaac's defense, but he is still harassed verbally and mentally and nearly assaulted for being a person of color. The entire plot is about Nory trying to decide who she wants to be and how to reconcile her past prep-school self with her more humble (?), nerdy present as a bookshop owner (because, of course), but I found her to be so wishy-washy that I quite frankly didn't care what decisions she made in the end. Maybe her brother Thomas was right to be worried about her hooking up with his best friend...she doesn't seem like a capable enough adult to enter into a romance with someone as sweet and good as Isaac. Ameerah was the far more interesting character. The third-act conflict is also sort of silly and unnecessary.

If it weren't for the mistletoe in the lost garden, I would have forgotten this was a Christmas book. Skip this one. Jenny Bayliss has other, better books. I initially was going to DNF this book, but I came back to it because I needed something to read before Christmas. I wish I had gone with my gut.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jenny Bayliss, and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

Nory owns a second-hand book store that specializes in more rare and collectible books. She is reuniting with friends that she went to school for a wedding and runs into her old school-girl crush, Isaac. As they spend more time together, feelings grow, but a family secret threatens to tear them apart.

Bayliss does such a great job immersing the reader into the setting - I liked the details about the castle and found the reminiscing to be fun, but after a while, some of the comments and thoughts became a little too repetitive. I wanted more scenes with Nory and Isaac as well as Nory's family. Overall a great read leading up to Christmas time and I enjoyed the characters and believed in their relationship!

Jenny Bayliss does it again y’all! This book was so cute and had a dream setting. Honestly I will pick up anything written by this author! 5 stars!

I come to Jenny Bayliss’ Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by way of her debut, The Twelve Dates of Christmas, which I LOVED! I keep picking up Bayliss’ novels every year, hoping to recapture the fun and magic of The Twelve Dates, but much like A Season for Second Chances last year, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe failed to fill me with all of the warm and cozy Christmas feels that I so desire. While not bad, Mistletoe is not great either.

There seems to be a trend this year that most of the Christmas romances that have been published have very little Christmas in them! If I am picking up a holiday novel, I want my Christmas cup overfloweth with spirit and cheer. Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is just not it. This book could have taken place during any season; there is that little Christmas in it. A more vibrant holiday setting could have made this romance all the more charming and enjoyable!

Christmas lacking aside, I also had major problems with the way this novel is written, as well as the number of superfluous characters and details it contains. I had the hardest time getting into the book because I felt so removed from main character Nory, a secondhand book shop owner, due to the novel being written in third person. I really feel like it would have benefited from being written in first person from Nory’s POV. As it stands, I just felt like an outsider looking into a friends group who I would never be a part of.

And speaking of friends, they were also a major hindrance to this novel’s enjoyment factor. The entire premise of the novel is that Nory and her former boarding school crew meet up at a castle near where they went to school to celebrate the nuptials of two of the friends. Nory unexpectedly falls in love with the gardener, who she previously knew from her time at the school. However, Nory’s friend group completely overshadows the novel’s romance, and not in a good way. There are way too many friends who are all too similar. I could not keep them straight and even now, at the end of the novel, I cannot attribute traits to the individual characters. This book just had too much going on - I wanted it to be simpler and sweeter than it was.

All of that aside, I did enjoy Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, but I didn’t love it. I feel like some tweaks could have made it so much better.

Read if you like:
-Christmas Romances
-Holiday Books
- Cute Stories
- Weddings
- Books set in London/ English Countryside
- Romances with twists

This one was so unexpected for me. I have loved Jenny's previous work and this one was no different for me. This one was just so cute when looking at the plot and how it was put together with the friends coming together for a wedding at an old castle.

This one was something different from most romances and holiday books that I have read as the ending was unexpected and not something that I saw coming and loved how the twist was done so nicely.

I thought this would be a cute Christmas romance of a bookshop owner and a former classmate. This book deals with serious topics like suicide, racism, and classism. I could have wrapped my head around that, but the story itself was dull.

🎄 Book Review 🎄

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
Author: Jenny Bayliss
⭐️⭐️

Read if you love:
❄️ Christmas
❄️ England
❄️ Romantic Comedies

Truthfully, #MeetMeUnderTheMistletoe by #JennyBayliss was really difficult for me to read. When I was about 38% through the book, I seriously considered returning my loan early to #Libby, but soldiered on until I reached about 50%. The only reason why I waited a bit longer was because I was on the waitlist for other books I wanted to read, but I really wasn’t enjoying the book at all and ended up deciding to return it before receiving any of my holds.

The premise of the book is entertaining and I was excited to read it (the main character owns a second hand bookstore), but the story was just not interesting enough to keep my attention. Additionally, it was very slow paced which seriously didn’t help the situation. I will say that if you are going to read this book, the audiobook helps. If it weren’t for the audiobook, I think I would’ve dropped this book much earlier.

DNF @ 15% - Usually, I try to stick out longer for ARCs, but I could immediately tell this hallmark book wasn’t for me. I was hoping for a cute fluffy romance, but this one went on for way too long describing settings and characters that were very irrelevant. I think if you’re looking for something that you can easily flip through and skim, this is definitely for you, but sadly I was looking for something with a bit more body. thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Simply put, this is just a super cute read. It was the perfect little bit of fluff I needed in between a few heavy reads. Nothing too over the top remarkable, but it will do the trick to get your mind off the holiday stress and hustle and bustle. Plus, who doesn't love a British countryside romance with a castle, a bunch of friends, and a lead character who works in a London Book Shop? I found myself easily distracted while reading this, but it was also easy to hop right back into it and keep going. Sometimes you just need something easy and this was it for me. Cute and fun.

I really enjoyed this story! I kept waiting for the bad thing to happen, but I really didn't know what it was going to be until it happened, which I love. I loved being surprised at the falling-out of the love interest and the MC. I enjoyed the relationship of the friends, and the banter and chemistry between all the characters was great. This was a very enjoyable holiday read!

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

This book was a slow start for me and there were a lot of characters to keep track of.
I loved the sweet romance between Isaac and Nory and the group of college friends coming together for a wedding in a castle. There were some heavy topics mixed in with the romance between the main character and her childhood acquaintance so for that reason I advise to check trigger warnings if possible. Overall it was a cozy little holiday read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House publishers for the digital
ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Meet Me Under The Mistletoe ended up being a DNF for me. I had a hard time connecting with the story and characters. I was bummed because I have enjoyed her other books.

In Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, used bookstore owner Nory heads back to her old stomping grounds for the wedding of one of her boarding school friends. Nory was the quintessential scholarship student of their group, who is rounded out by an intriguing and often annoying or repugnant group of characters (but purposefully so). Staying in a castle for a mini-reunion the week before the wedding, Nory also runs into her bother's old mate and her childhood crush, Isaac, now the gardener on the estate. Their connection develops during Nory's stay, but classism (and reverse classism), secrets, and the ticking end date throw a wrench in their budding romance.

While full of holiday feels and British charm, this is not a light romance. The suicide of Nory and her friends' classmate and his death's impact on them is discussed throughout the book (i.e., not skippable). And the tension due to privilege between Nory, her family, her friends, and Isaac is at the forefront. The privilege that Nory's friends were born into and that Nory was granted through her scholarship cause a riff between the family that Isaac also feels--pretty much everyone is judging everyone for either having money or not without knowing anything else about them. And most of the judgments are unwarranted (except for Guy; he's trash). These features of the book certainly and depth and thought-provoking insights, but keep it from being light and fluffy. The Big HurdleTM (i.e., third act breakup) was also one of those Leave-It-To-Beaver moments you could see coming from a mile away but couldn't do anything to stop it. But ultimately, the whole story was wrapped up nicely in a bow and I enjoyed it as a romance that was a little bit different my normal fare.

Thanks to Putnam for my eARC and finished copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars - 8/10

MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE
by Jenny Bayliss

This is the third book I’ve read by Jenny Bayliss. I get swept up in her seasonal stories every time I pick up one of her books and they always feel like a nice escape, most of the time.

MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE is about Nory. Nory owns a small bookshop in the countryside, which I thought was a charming detail. She’s off to celebrate a wedding with a few of her friends and hopes all things will go well, knowing it's not likely to go that way.

The holidays were featured but not as much as would’ve liked. I also would’ve liked a lot more of the bookshop details. Those that were given were nice but brief. I feel like there was more focus on the realistic details of everyday life and less focus on escapist details- which is what I’m here for.

Some of the subject matter from the material is heavy and I can see that being a turn-off for some readers. For me personally, it helped give the book something that I can hold onto as a reader. The complexities provided depth for the characters, although it was mostly still lacking the charm that I wanted in a holiday novel.

It wasn’t that the heavier subject matter was there it is more that the lighter subject matters were not.

Overall, I liked this book but not as an escapist read.

Thanks to Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons, and Penguin Random House Audio for an advanced copy of this book!

MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE…⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a cute rom-com, but I'd classify it more as contemporary fiction with a bit of romance. I wish this wasn't necessarily marketed as a Christmas read, it felt more like a story that took place in the wintertime, let alone Christmas. It's definitely a bit of a slow-burn compared to what I'm used to when it comes to romance - which is fine!

Initially, I really liked Nory! I mean, owning a secondhand bookstore is quite literally my dream job. However, as the story progressed, she really started to irritate me.

~450ish pages for a light Christmas romance is somewhat pushing the limits for me as well. There were a ton of side characters (most of whom I despised) and smaller storylines that didn't seem necessary, so I found myself bored at parts.

I will say that I LOVED Isaac! What a gem. He was definitely the best part of this book.

I'm beginning to think closed door romances may not be my cup of tea - and that's okay!

Overall, I enjoyed it and thought the story was cute. If you enjoy fade to black scenes, you'll definitely appreciate this one!

I’m not happy to make this review, but I unfortunately did not finish this book about 20% of the way in.

I did not want to pick up the book to read it and when I did read it, I found myself incredibly bored. I was really looking forward to a cute holiday book, but I could not connect with any of the (many, many) characters and I found the main character to be lacking in any personality with boring, mundane dialogue.

This isn’t it. WAY too long and I just wasn’t convinced of any of it. So much repetition of unimportant and boring bits. The friend group vibes were NOT it. The fade to black sexy times were a disappointment. There was minimal yearning. So many scenes were just so earnest and saccharine — it was too much for my cold, black heart to take. I would like to stay for a turn in that castle though!

I think this book was mismarketed. The title and the cover make you think it’s going to be a holiday romance, but it lacks the lighthearted, cozy, Hallmark feel that you expect in that genre. This is contemporary fiction with a side of romance, that really only involves the holidays in the last few pages. It reminds me of the movie St Elmo’s Fire, more about a group of friends dealing with the struggles of becoming adults. There’s suicide, racism, infidelity, and just heavy stuff. Takes a while to feel at all like a romance, because it’s really more about so many other things. Also, Closed Door, which is not my preference.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to review in exchange for my honest opinion.