Such a sweet YA Christmas romance. I loved the story, writing and the characters. And of course the bookstore setting was perfect! Definitely going to read more by this author!

I'm a big fan of Christmas stories, so I was eager to read this one and saved it until after Halloween. The protagonist, Trey Anderson, is a young man with dreams of becoming a singer, but he's also struggling to keep his family's bookstore afloat. Ariel, another main character, is a talented artist who wants to attend a prestigious art program, but she's facing financial constraints.
The story explores the challenges of owning a minority-owned business and the unique obstacles faced in the book industry. As a librarian and bibliophile, I loved this aspect of the story. I found Ariel to be the more compelling character, as she's dealing with some tough issues. Trey, on the other hand, drags on a relationship he's not into, which makes him less likable. Each chapter contains a Christmas song recommendation for a “Black Christmas playlist.” I loved this added unique touch. I do wish a little more Christmas was incorporated into the storyline though.
This is a recommended purchase for school and public libraries serving teens.

This was a really cute YA holiday romance. As a reader and lover of all things books, I loved the plot to save Trey's family bookstore. I also enjoyed the grief exploration with Ariel. What I did not like about this book was Trey being in a relationship with a different girl for 90% of it. It made all of Trey and Ariel's flirting and near kisses feel like cheating. Also, Trey decided he didn't want to jump into another relationship, so the book ends without them really being "together". So all in all this is a cute book, but not great on the romance side.

This was a really fun holiday romance. Trey’s family’s bookstore, Wonderland, is in trouble;and he’s stressed about finding ways to help. Ariel is trying to find a job to help save money for her dream arts school, and ends up at wonderland just when they need help the most.

Trey and Ariel team up to raise enough money to save Wonderland. As they work together their friendship grows, and eventually so do romantic feelings.

These characters were fantastic! It’s always nice to read stories with young BIPOC characters living life, setting and achieving goals, and falling in love. Trey and Ariel are such realistic characters facing the complications of teenage life along with some harder challenges!

In Abiola Bello’s YA debut, Love in Winter Wonderland, two teens go from dislike to falling in love over the Christmas holidays while working together to save a local, Black-owned family bookshop from shutting down because of neighborhood gentrification. I love YA/Teen romances, especially with Black lead characters/couples, and over the last few years, I’ve gotten into British Black YA and New Adult romances. Bello’s YA debut was an entertaining novel.

Bello’s vivid storytelling, worldbuilding, description, language use, and colorful and natural-sounding dialogue create visual images with each word, drawing you into her multilayered love story from the first scene. Her complex characters are fascinating, likable, flawed, and, at times, frustrating as she develops them through emotional, funny, dramatic, snarky, and charged interactions. In combination with her writing style, all these qualities make the pages fly by quickly. I love Bello’s introspective and insightful exploration of self-esteem, artistic expression, popularity, and emotional healing. The cover is super cute, perfectly capturing Bello’s hero and heroine and a pivotal scene from the novel nicely.

Creative, artistic, and quirky, Ariel Spencer follows in her father’s footsteps with her calling to be an artist and painter. Her dream is to go to the same prestigious art program he attended, but she needs the money to pay her tuition. A job at Wonderland Bookstore will help her achieve her goals. Trey Anderson is charming and handsome, but he struggles to balance working at his family’s bookshop, Wonderland, with the pressures of his popularity, social life, and girlfriend.

Devoted readers and book lovers Ariel and Trey reluctantly team up despite their differences to save Wonderland—a place each loves very much—and discover that they have far more in common than not. Working together at the book stop fosters the growth of a surprisingly deep connection fueled by a burgeoning attraction that complicates their lives as they fall for each other and their lives unexpectedly change.

Bello tells Ariel and Trey’s story in alternating first-person POV. One of the novel’s coolest aspects is that Trey and Ariel are really into playlists and how each chapter begins with the POV character listing a song from their Christmas playlist. Learning about new Christmas songs and versions of songs recorded by artists I was unaware of was excellent. I also love Ariel and Trey’s discussions of books, and Bello’s exploration of YA romance and book love through their evolving relationship. The book Love that fills the pages of Love in Winter Wonderland is incredible and 100 percent relatable to YA romance and book lovers, who will get a kick out of the characters’ book Love and discussions about popular YA series.

I love Bello’s development of Ariel and Trey’s relationship and connection and her description of their building temptation. She smoothly develops their attraction and feelings for each other from not exactly enemies to lovers, but a kind of apathetic dislike to co-workers to friends with the potential for more. In addition to working at the shop together, Ariel and Trey begin to have conversations about books, music, their dreams, and life.

Ariel’s a lovely, kind, talented, resilient young woman with a sweet spirit. I really like her. She struggles with issues concerning insecurity, self-confidence, and self-esteem, particularly regarding her art and her body and self-esteem. Still, she hides it pretty well, burying those feelings and keeping them at bay with her painting, art, and dancing. I love her relationship with her cousin and friends, which helps to further her character development.

A good-looking, popular guy with a beautiful girlfriend, Trey doesn’t have any complaints about his life except when he needs a break from popularity’s pressures. Although he comes off as primarily shallow, Ariel discovers there’s more to Trey while working to save Wonderland. Unfortunately, he behaves like such a jerk for much of the novel, which makes him appear undeserving of Ariel because of how mean and rude he is to her. Honestly, that makes it hard to root for him, in addition to dating a mean girl. I genuinely hate how cruelly he treats Ariel when she’s late for their interview and tries to explain why. After working with her at the store, spending time with her and their brothers, and seeing her interact with their shared friends, he should have known Ariel’s character better than that. It’s not like he doesn’t know his girlfriend is manipulative, moody, rude, and treats people she looks down on horribly. But somehow, he’s the only person who doesn’t see it? His relationship with his BFF Boogs and his younger brother helps to soften, reveal, and evolve his character and offer hope of redemption for him.

An angsty, funny, sweet, and sexy Christmas/Holiday romance, Love in Winter Wonderland explores themes of the creativity of Black artists and writers, supporting Black businesses, following your dreams, facing your fears, self-esteem, standing up for yourself, gentrification, self-acceptance, self-love, self-confidence, grief, loss, and healing and recovery. I highly recommend the novel for Black British Love, book Love, YA romance, and enemies-to-lovers romance fans.

Advanced review copy provided by Soho Teen via Netgalley for review.

Love in Winter Wonderland is an easy breezy Christmas story that gets the holiday nostalgia started early.
Being a small, Black-owned bookstore owner, (Asè Book Boutique) I have to say that I was just a tad biased going into this book. I assumed that I was going to like it. My assumption was accurate (thankfully).

Wonderland is a Black- Owned bookstore in London that's failing. Trey, whose parents own the shop, and Ariel, the other main character, come together to save the shop. With the help of their community and influence, the two work together to keep the bookstore open and possibly (😉) fall for each other during the process.

This was such an easy read. The buildup was slow, but not slow enough to lose interest. There is an obvious attraction between the MC's that I wanted them to hurry and act on. Right when they would get close, Blair, Trey's girlfriend from the pits of Mean Girl-ville would show her fangs and get in the way.

The main conflict in this book is between the main character's girlfriend, Blair, and Ariel. Blair is a major irk, across the board. She lowkey knows that her boyfriend has a thing for Ariel, who is the antithesis of Blair's how existence. So unfortunately, Trey and Ariel couldn't immediately act on their emotions, but the chemistry was clearly there.

There were some moments in the book that felt a little random but worked for the story. There are moments where we get a peak into Ariel's eating disorder that has been triggered due to grief. Those moments felt dropped in and somewhat random. I would have liked more on this or none of this.

Overall, this YA romance was innocent and very wholesome. It was a cute story and a great way to warm up to the upcoming Christmas season.

Before I start with my review, I just want to apologize for my late review. I've had a lot going on the past weeks I couldn't open NetGalley and post my review!

I just want to start by saying Abiola Bello is one of my favorite authors at the moment! What a great book and what a great author!

One of my challenges this year is to read a book by an author of color and that this is the book I chose.

I'm baffled by the style of writing. I love the fact that the setting of the book is revolved around books and a book shop that is owned by a family of generations. I also love that it's in a community of color and everyone is very supportive.

The chemistry is real. The sparks are real. I love the friendships and the cliques. The whole college vibe is very relatable; with the bullying and the popular kids and the not so popular kids and the struggles of being in a long relationship that is kinda shaky. I love the loyalty the friends have for each other. Even the very recognizable difference between Santi and Blair is just perfect.

For all you Gossip Girl fans, you know what they say, don't EVER mess with Blair!

The characters are very unique in their own way with the way they look and dress and act. How they wouldn't change for anyone or anything. I just can't get over how beautiful Bello's writing is! I think I'm more amazed by her writing than the actual book. Don't get me wrong though, I absolutely love the book!!

What a great Christmas book. Just the right book to get you in the Christmas mood!

*Black Lives Matter*

Love in Winter Wonderland is a sweet book written for young adults (think late Junior high and high school) that is a typical hate to love romance trope. It is a well written story line with strong characters.

Trey is a popular high school boy who also happens to work at this families book store, Wonderland.

Ariel is a creative, quirky, sweet young woman who wants to join an arts program but needs the money to do so. Therefore she gets a job at Wonderful. When the bookstore is at risk of closing the teens work together. They go from not liking one another to building a friendship and more.

Read this cute, teen summer romance to find out whether the bookstore is saved and whether romance blooms fully for Trey and Ariel.

British bookshop at Christmas time?! Yes, please!!

This was an adorable, wholesome Christmas story that I highly recommend. Perfect book to put you in the Christmas spirit. This was a realistic girl which was refreshing to read about and truly appreciate in a story. Especially one where the audience is teen girls!! I love that they can see life is not always one size, one way!

If you want a cute, fun Christmas book don't skip this one!

I won’t lie, the representation is what drew my attention to the tour… however, the book makes me so happy and ready for Christmas.

I love books that revolve around indie bookstores; I love them even more when it’s Black-owned. Trey wasn’t the best character or book boyfriend, and I wished I learned a little more about him. (That is one of my cons out of the way!) With that said, his chemistry with Ariel was just a chef’s kiss. It felt natural and organic. The synopsis said it was a “hate-to-love” journey, but I didn’t really get that vibe. (This is my other con. Last one, I promise!) I was hoping to get that enemies-to-lovers trope, but honestly, I’m okay that I didn’t.

The writing was enjoyable, and I felt like I was with Ariel (mostly) throughout the book. I was with her at the party, listening to Ja Rule while also thinking, “I’m way too much of an introvert for this!” but enjoying myself as well. (Who doesn’t love 2000s music?!) I loved that each chapter came with a Christmas song… yup, the book came with its own Christmas playlist.

Ariel was such a relatable character, dealing with way too much. She’s dealing with mean girls and grief, and it’s handled very well. I would have preferred a little more time for Ariel and Trey as a couple, but this is a YA book.

This book was the perfect distraction I needed from such heavy topics I’ve been reading lately. It also provided me with much-needed relief from schoolwork. This was a light-hearted, wholesome story. It showed what two young people can do to save something you care about.

I really enjoyed this early fall holiday read. The romance was a little strange considering most of the book the main character was with someone else, but the chemistry between the two was really there. I’m mainly a sucker for most books that take place in a bookstore and even more when we have to SAVE it. I’m immediately on board. I would recommend this book to any of my students as a great lift me up holiday tale.

I zoomed through this book. I love black love and especially young black love. The fact that this storyline is centred around a black-owned bookstore. Say no more

Trey Anderson is charming, handsome, and dating the most popular girl at school. However, he loves his family bookstore and his family, and they need help before they lose everything.

Ariel Spencer is an artist and loves to read. She can be awkward but needs a job, and Trey's family bookstore is the place. This is where she starts the plan of how they can save Wonderland.

I loved everything about this friends-to-lover book, and I would recommend it to anyone.

So, firstly, I misread this as being about older teens because I read "college" and didn't realize it was British college, not American college lol So this is very much a young adult book. Nothing steamy, but lots of more age appropriate cuteness. I don't read a lot of romance so I can be kind of picky with what I read in the genre, but this one features two black leads, a bookstore, and Christmas time, so I wanted to check it out - but the comparison to You've Got Mail is WAY off. Just because there's a bookstore doesn't mean it's like You've Got Mail lol

I think what I'm most impressed with is Bello's distinctive voices for her characters and the fact that she's written teens that aren't tiresome. I thought I reached a point where I just don't "get" YA anymore, after a few off-books with unbearably self-involved youths. I know all kids are like that but some authors just focus on it too much and that is not fun to read, and in fact Bello makes a plot point out of it haha

My only disappointment was that there was all the set up of a delightfully unhinged antagonist but it turned out my predictions were completely off... there was a conflict but the stakes never felt too real. Everyone is good at everything and they're all amazing and Rihanna is even a fan. I know it's romance but give us sabotage! Is it the big money property developed? Is it the narcissistic and jealous girlfriend? Ugh.

I read the book as I listened to the audiobook as well, mainly because I just didn't like most of what Trey's reader did. Ariel's was fantastic, but Trey's reader, outside of dialogue, was so wooden and robotic and it would just take me right out of the story when he started speaking again.

Overall this is a VERY cute YA romance, with likable leads and a feel-good story perfect for the holiday season. I genuinely enjoyed it, even if there were parts I thought could have been done better.

Love the You’ve Got Mail vibes, the playlists and the overall Christmas vibes. It was a sweet romance between two teens who team up to save a struggling Black-owned bookstore. It was a cozy winter and Christmas story great for the holidays.

I had a bad day yesterday & decided that my usual spooky book would not be a good idea so I decided to give this book a try, hoping it would change my mood. Boy did it. I devoured this in one night and completely fell in love with Ariel & Trey and the winter setting. I was a tiny bit disappointed in the ending but not enough that I wouldn’t re-read this again & again.

Love in Winter Wonderland is a beautiful and heartwarming Christmas romance about a small black owned bookshop struggling to keep its doors open, and the budding attraction between son Trey and part time employee Ariel as the two get together to use the power of social media to help save the indie bookshop from closing. I loved that each chapter is accompanied by a Christmas song by a Black Artist. It was a really cute story geared to a younger YA, 14-17 yrs old.

This was a sweet YA Christmas romance and I was living for the Black British rep!
I loved how wholesome this storyline was in terms of 2 teens coming together and using the power of social media to help save a Black owned indie bookshop from closure.

I loved how natural the 2 MC’s chemistry was, they clearly became good friends while working together before the romantic feelings and it didn’t feel forced to me.

Ariel really carried this book for me, she had so many layers to her personality and was dealing with a lot like weight issues (binge eating), grief (losing her dad), applying for her scholarship to art school and also dealing with bullies.
All while being an amazing friend to Trey and saving the bookshop.

This will be my most favorite ya read of the year. I absolutely loved most of the characters, Including Ariel. She was absolutely my most favorite character. This story has all the holiday feels and is so charming and heartwarming. It kept my interest from beginning to end. The plot was enjoyable, as well as the development of the characters. Such a delightful and beautiful read just in time for the holidays.

Thank you to NetGalley, HearOurVoices, and SOHO Teen for the e-ARC and audiobook copies.

This was my first Black YA Christmas story. I love Christmas, so this read was a no-brainer, even though it was September.

We are introduced to Trey Anderson first, who is battling to support his family's bookshop while also wanting to pursue his dreams as a singer. One thing is standing in the way: he has stage fright. Ariel, my favorite character, is an artist with the goal of getting into a distinguished art program. The one thing holding her back is money. This is where Wonderland, the indie family-owned bookstore, comes in. Wonderland is in need of saving as it is struggling to keep up with the competition. The author sheds light on not only the struggle of owning a minority business but also the factors that go up against them in the book industry.

Ariel carried this book for me; she was multi-layered and compared to Trey, who drug a relationship he wasn't interested in for 90% of the book. I did not particularly like him entirely because of that, but I understand they were kids, so I give grace there. Someone on here said emotional cheating occurred, and I 100% agree. Ariel dealt with the grief of losing her father, binge eating, bullying, and financial struggles. Ariel was just more interesting as a character overall because of the adversities she faced.

I loved the 66-track Black Christmas playlist, but that may have been the only thing that really reminded me of Christmas. The story just lacked that Christmas feel for me, so if you are looking for that in this novel, I wouldn't recommend it for that purpose. The audiobook was great and helped me fly through the story. I loved Ben Bailey Smith and Nneka Okoye as the narrators for this story. It was perfect and I'm glad I requested it.

I would recommend this book if you love bookstore-centered stories and books set in the UK.

This was such a cute and fun read. Trey’s family owns Wonderland Bookstore which is in need of help to prevent it from closing. Ariel needs a job to save money to get in the art school of her dreams. She ends up in Wonderland as her part time job and gives Trey ideas that they could use to try to raise the money that Wonderland needs.

It might have just turned to Fall but this winter YA romance got me in the mood for Christmas. It was so much more than just a romance. A journey of Ariel coming into herself, a little love triangle action, complicated friendship dynamics. All the high school things. I really enjoyed the story and look forward to more from this author