Jasper is the golden girl of her small town. She is also neurodivergent. Arthur and his cousin are making a film about their town. Jasper struggles to escape the perfect family expectations to live her own dreams.

This is a YA closed door romance with a holiday feel as Jasper is home for the holidays from college. It also has themes of enemies to loves between Jasper and Arthur.

However, Jasper's mother and sister were a very big turnoff for me. They were just awful humans to everyone and I wanted to stop seeing Jasper make excuses for them.

"Some Like It Cold" by Elle McNicoll offers important Autism representation, but ultimately, it wasn’t the right fit for me. The way Jasper’s friends and family treated her left me feeling heartbroken, and it became a bit too distracting to continue. While I’m hopeful the story improves toward the end, I had to set it aside to focus on other books. If you’re a fan of enemies-to-lovers or small-town settings, this might be a great read for you, but I recommend checking out other reviews to see if it aligns with your preferences.

Jasper’s family is small-town royalty but she can’t leave town quickly enough. She comes home for one final holiday season and her older sister’s wedding before she plans to leave for good. While home, she comes across Arthur, an old high school nemesis who is now making a documentary about the town. As they spend time together, they form an unexpected bond.
I loved the small-town vibes in this one and thought Lake Pristine was the perfect setting. The characters and side characters all had so much history and that was reflected really well in the story without seeming like too much. A lot of the plot focused on how Jasper felt misunderstood by her family and their poor reaction to her having autism. I thought this storyline was handled beautifully as Jasper and the people around her came to love and accept her for who she is. This was a sweet teen holiday romance!
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the advance copies.

I really wanted to like this book but found myself struggling to get through it. I typically enjoy reading books with neurodivergent main characters, but I felt like in this book it was just overdone and j couldn’t get past it.

As someone who is discovering her own neurodivergence in middle age, I enjoyed the autism representation in this book and felt as though the author conveyed it sensitively. I also liked Jasper and Arthur, both individually and as a couple.

That being said, I had a few challenges with this book. First, it seemed to be a holiday-themed novel but the holiday content was very low. There was even a note that the Montgomerys didn’t really celebrate Christmas. It didn’t feel festive at all. In addition, it felt like a bizarre mish-mash of US and UK slang, places, etc. Saying both that someone teaches “maths” and then making a casual, offhand reference to “Radio City” felt contradictory.

Thank you to the publisher - I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another christmas book added to my read list.

This one was cute, but the writing style was not my favorite. However, that could be because my copy was an unedited edition aka maybe the final edition is better.

Really enjoyed the small town setting, those are always some of my favorites. Some of the characters were so annoying and mean, I kept being like "no one behaves like this in real life" but I guess some people do. Also the two main characters seem older than 18, I kept forgetting this actually is a YA.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

If you’re looking for a refreshing YA read with excellent neurodivergent representation, I can’t recommend Some Like It Cold enough! While this book is perfect to read around the holidays, its message could be enjoyed year round. Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for access to the title in exchange for my honest opinions. I started by reading the ebook but then mostly listened to the audio, which concluded with a conversation between the author and the narrator, Charlie Sanderson, which added to the reading experience. I love when audiobooks do this!
Written by an autistic author, Some Like it Cold centers around autistic main character Jasper, who is returning to her small town of Lake Pristine for the holidays after making some big decisions while away at university. She hasn’t told anyone the decisions, and she knows they will be very unhappy, so she is carrying a large burden. Once home, she interacts with her frenemy, Arthur, who is an aspiring filmmaker. The two keep running into each other, and the reader has more insight than either character due to the dual POV. Some of the other characters are just awful, and it was frustrating at times to read about the situations. However, I think the book is well written and does a great job depicting how frustrating the neurodivergent experience can be. I recommend the book to middle and high school students, and I'd wholeheartedly endorse it for students on the spectrum. The budding romance is realistic and sweet, but there is much more than just that in this read.

A YA Christmas romance for those looking for neurodivergent representation.
❄️
Jasper has been gone to university for eighteen months and now she’s back in her Scottish hometown of Christmas. She’s ready to tell them that she’s dropping out of school to attend design school instead. Her parents are going to be livid, but Jasper is ready to follow her dreams. Jasper realizes her school nemesis is also still in town. Arthur is a budding filmmaker who always had a crush on Jasper and is hoping to finally share his feelings through the short film he’s making about their town during Christmas.
❄️
Told in alternate POVs we really get to see how both the main characters are feeling throughout the book I loved Jasper so much. The stereotypes she (and the author) are fighting about being neurodivergent were so great to see represented in a young adult romance We need more of this @ellemcnicollofficial I wanted to hit Jasper’s sister on multiple occasions 😂 Also, the audio was fantastic!

CW: ableism, emotional abuse, grief, bullying, gaslighting, classism, death of a parent, toxic relationship, panic attack, car accident, fatphobia, sexual harassment

3.5 ⭐️

A sweet emotional romance between Jasper and Arthur
Took a while to get into.
Voluntarily reviewed.

Some Like it Cold was an easy and cute wintery YA romance. I loved the wintery vibes of the small town of Lake Pristine. Jasper and Arthur have never really gotten along growing up in school, and I’m not sure I fully understood why, but I did enjoy seeing them grow out of it. I liked Jasper as the main character and how she went for what she wanted. Arthur was super supportive of her as well, and I enjoyed Jasper and Grace’s friendship that developed throughout the book. It was hard to see Jasper not being treated very nicely at times by many of the other characters, but I did like how things wrapped up, though it was done quickly for some aspects of the story.

Overall, I liked this one, but don’t think it will stay with me for a long time. If you’re looking for a cute, YA wintery romance with neurodivergent rep, grand gestures, a small town setting with drama, check out Some Like it Cold, out now.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Just not for me.
A very cute cover though!

Thank you to the publisher for a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was quite disappointing. I had no idea where the story was set—was it in the US, Canada, or Scotland? It was never clear. The worldbuilding was severely lacking. Additionally, the main character's family was portrayed as completely awful, with no redeeming qualities, which made it hard to read. The romance also lacked any real chemistry. While the book had some promising ideas, the execution ultimately felt flat to me.

This was a dnf for me. I could not get into the writing style or characters. Unfortunately as I kept reading it didn’t draw me in and I had to set it aside. It seemed like a good concept but the execution didn’t work for me.

Jasper is coming home for the holidays for the last time. Determined to finally forge her own path away from her parents’ and the small town of Lake Prestine’s expectations, she has her final to-do list in hand and a December full of a whole lot of craziness (and a whole lot of love) ahead.

SOME LIKE IT COLD by Elle McNicoll was an exceptionally cute (if at times, frustrating) YA novel set around Christmas.

Our main character Jasper has autism and I really loved seeing this rep in such a strong light (making it an even greater read for younger readers)!

The small town of Lake Pristine felt very Stars Hollow-esque, which was one of my favorite aspects of the story, in addition to the enemies to lovers romance that slowly builds throughout.

Some of the characters were ~annoying~, leading to my earlier mentioned frustrations, but it made it all the more easier to root for Jasper.

A sweet holiday read with important messaging that I’d recommend picking up this time of year!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Some Like it Cold was a sweet story! It starts off strong with a laugh out loud moment, as Jasper comes back home after being away at school for 18 months. Naturally she gets in the way of her god awful sisters proposal. I really enjoyed the strong characters like Arthur, jasper, and Odette, but some of these characters were so cruel and insufferable. Jasper deserves better after living a life fitting into their mold (all while being neurodivergent), which is what the story is about. It’s a story about breaking that mold, following your heart, and finally putting your foot down. 3.5⭐️

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really fun book. I enjoyed it a lot!

Two things I’d like to get out of the way first:
1)If you’re looking for a Christmas book this isn’t the best fit. It isn’t that focused on the holidays. It just takes place that time of year.
2)I almost dnf’d this book because one of the characters was so mean to another character. I don’t like books with characters that grate on me. But I’d like to delve into that in my review.

Jasper hasn’t been home to Lake Pristine in 18 months. Everyone in the small town knows this. I thought the town would give Stars Hollow vibes but it really didn’t.

Jasper is neurodivergent, specifically she is autistic, but her parents never wanted her to tell anyone that. Jasper is just supposed to act “normal”.

Jasper is beloved by everyone in town but she thinks they only love her because she puts on a mask to cover who she really is.

The only one Jasper can’t get along with is Arthur.
They went to school together and never got along. Arthur and his brother now own the movie theatre his dad used to own.

When Jasper comes back to town she plans to stay for the holidays, help her sister execute her perfect wedding, cross off a list of items and then say goodbye to the town and everyone in it. She wants to study something in college other than what her parents want and she thinks she’ll get disowned.

Now, on to Jasper’s sister Christine. Guys, her sister is so awful to her. She is openly mean to Jasper. Literally everyone sees it and everyone knows. Most people want Jasper to stand up to Christine. But Jasper’s parents want her to just shut up and take the bad treatment to keep the peace in the family.

Listen, a lot of us have felt that way at one time or another. It doesn’t feel great to read it either. But that doesn’t make this a bad book. I don’t hold it against the book. But this isn’t a happy book most of the time. Is the cover cute? Absolutely. Does the storyline sound reasonably light? I thought it did. Will there be a happy ending? I won’t spoil the storyline. But if you’re looking for a Christmas book, keep looking. If you’re looking for a book about family issues, this is a better fit for that.

I think that this book would make someone more empathetic to someone with autism. The author is autistic and I imagine that was used to shape Jasper’s character.

I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley. Thanks!

SOME LIKE IT COLD
Elle McNicoll

I have read several books featuring neurodivergent characters. The idea is not a new one. I have, however, never read a book where this aspect is highlighted so often that it detracted from the story.

That is the case here.

The entirety of the plot points in the story were drowned out by this feature and a lot of the storyline was in a sense malformed or otherwise immature. Not well-formed.

I tried to imagine a reader or situation where someone would benefit from a story or character formed this way and I couldn’t find it. Certainly, we can agree that neurodiversity is one aspect of a person and not the entirety of the person and it should be the same for characters in books that we read.

I was begging for something more than this and it was not given.

I’m sorry this one didn’t work for me.

Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio | Macmillan Young Listeners, and St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books for the advanced copies!

SOME LIKE IT COLD…⭐️⭐️

**Thank you to St. Martin's Press for this free digital review copy.**

This was a cute Christmas romance, but I didn’t feel very strongly about it. The story didn’t really grip me and I wasn't looking for excuses to keep reading like I do with the books I really love. It was a story of self-discovery for just about everyone. I appreciated the author's perspective as a woman with autism writing about a young woman with autism, giving the reader a look inside how it may feel to be neurodivergent. Jasper's diagnosis impacts but doesn't define her life, and she struggles with parental expectations and uncertainty about her future, just like any college student does. The way the town embraces her is so sweet, and I came away having high hopes for Jasper, even if I couldn't see a real future that works for our main couple, and so I was left somewhat wanting in the end.

This family drama/rom-com was an entertaining read. Jasper Montgomery is the town darling, so when she returns for a visit from the city to her small hometown, everyone is excited for her visit - except Jasper that is. While there she has to deal with a complicated family situation revolving around her sister being a Bridezilla, and running into her high school adversary.

I enjoyed the tropes, which included small town drama and enemies to lovers. It was charming and heartwarming, and I actually liked the fact many of the characters were unlikeable. I also appreciated the insight into neurodivergence through Jasper's character.