*I saved this book to read during the holiday season, so I apologize for the later review*

I'm so sad this is the last book in the Christmas Notch series! I didn't love it quite as much as the previous books, but it was still a fun and spicy read for December.

Sunny is trying to write a screenplay about a local Christmas Notch legend. Isaac is still grieving the death of his wife and trying to write an album. They end up having a one night stand, and then rooming together as Sunny's hotel room is a piece of trash, and Isaac is staying in a huge mansion. Isaac helps Sunny solve the mystery so she can finish her screen play and Sunny helps Isaac live a little again.

Can I just say that Sunny's cat, Mr. Tumnus, was probably the best character in this book? He was epic. I loved Isaac too, actually, and was happy that he was able to get some sort of spark back into his life.

The local legend really intrigued me - I love how that was intertwined into the plot. And Isaac's online group of friends were the best!

3.5 stars

✨ Review ✨ A Jingle Bell Mingle by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

Thanks to Avon and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This third (and final?) addition to this porn stars and pop stars Christmas Notch series was the best yet.

Things I loved:
🎄 the grumpy/sunshine vibe between broody boy band Issac and the aptly-named Sunny
🎄 Sunny's demonic cat that Isaac falls in love with
🎄 Isaac living in the wildly gigantic over-the-top manor house featured in so many of Christmas Notch's movies
🎄 the historical mystery Isaac and Sunny are solving together
🎄 the hot librarians // the general bi-attraction vibes throughout
🎄 the way that both Sunny and Isaac are able to push past creative blocks to work together in their scriptwriting and music
🎄 the full cast of Murphy/Simone's characters coming together to resolve their stories, esp Teddy Ray Fletcher
🎄 the love that radiates throughout this book + all of the Christmas joy :)

This was just a fun romance filled with the characters and ambience these authors have been building from the first book. A++

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: f/m contemporary romance (bi-rep)
Setting: Christmas Notch, Vermont
Pub Date: September 24, 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ holiday romances
⭕️ sunshine-broody grumpiness
⭕️ Christmas Notch series

thanks Avon for my gifted copy. I read the first two in this series and and while they were spicy, it was entertaining. This third book in the series had zero plot and I really just couldn’t finish

Super spicy and laugh out loud moments! I loved the chemistry between the two leads. Anytime I’m back in Christmas Noch is a good time for me.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 strictly for bi representation and the chaotic cat.

This book is SPICY. Nothing I couldn't handle, but just a warning! There's a lot to love about this book from the found family to the sex positivity.

I think what was missing for me was THERAPY. Both characters were suffering from trauma that they should have been in longterm treatment for. And I felt at times the MMC weaponized his grief against the FMC... and I was like 🚩🚩🚩.

I normally can't stand a sad boi, but in this case I understood his pain, of course I just hated how someone with his means isn't in therapy for it. Felt very strange to me!

3⭐️ I really liked this book and was into it in the beginning and love how it ended but idk smth put me off and it took me a month to finish this book. Nonetheless it was a cute spicy holiday read.

Thank you Avon or Harper Voyager for the ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

I loved “A Merry Little Meet Cute” which was the first book in this series, but liked “A Holly Jolly After” a little less, but this third book, “A Jingle Bell Mingle” was so very perfect in all pieces and aspects! I did not want to put this one down! The third and final (sad) book in this series ends with the third band member (Isaac) and one of the band member’s wife’s best friend’s (Sunny) are brought back together for their friends wedding. It’s a full adventure full of tropes, muses, and a 1944 love triangle! So good! Highly recommend reading during the holiday season!

This was my favorite of the series! The characters were really likeable and it had some more depth to the usual rom-com with the added themes of grief. Even so, it still managed to also be lighthearted and humorous. I really enjoyed this one!

This one just didn't have the charm that the previous two books and novella had in the series. Nothing wrong per say, but I just wasn't feeling the same vibes.

Thank you for sending me an early copy of this book! At first, I had a hard time keeping the characters separate and figuring out who was who. This was a very spicy book, and it was very open with all different types of sexual activity, Though this was not my cup of tea, it will be great for many!

I liked this book but not as much as the others in the series. Overall it was good and I will still recommend it to people.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I love these authors. They always write the best and steamy holiday novels. A Jingle Bell Mingle, had me sucked in from the very beginning. I loved every minute of this book.

I'm so sad to see this wrap up because I loved Christmas Notch. It was everything that small towns are, and it was always made more hysterical by the offhand "naughty" things hiding in plain sight.

I loved the first two books and Novella's for their own reasons. But this was fun because it was about the hope channel, but it wasn't about the hope channel. This was about mental health and grief and how grief can absolutely affect the way you consider things in life. Sure, Isaac was the Sad Boy everyone made him out to be in the first two books, but he also wanted to be loved but didn't feel like he deserved that. Even though I think that is silly I get it, and it was worth it to see him realize that he could have dual emotions and multiple loves.

Sunny was such a ray of sunshine even when she was a rain cloud. I enjoyed her discussing how ADHD affected her and how grief played a major part in who she was as a person because she was afraid of messing life up. I think that Sunny was exactly the kind of person that stops people in their tracks and makes people really think about what they're doing.

More than anything I still really love the chapters we get of Teddy. He is a gem, and I love him so much. 4.5/5 rounded up to 5/5 stars

Overall this was a cute story, but most of it felt like the same story as the one in A Merry Little Meet Cute, just with less compelling characters and a less interesting plot line.

A JINGLE BELL MINGLE was such a fun, heartfelt conclusion to Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s sweet and spicy Christmas Notch series! Thank you to the publisher, Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

This book was a bit heavier in theme than I anticipated, but I loved the way both main characters worked through their grief in different ways. I also really liked how the book pretty deeply explored the concept of “moving on” after losing a loved one. I think Sunny’s side quest of investigating the mailman mystery may have ended up with more depth and page time than Isaac’s side quest of finding a muse and finishing his album, but I also preferred Sunny’s mystery more than Isaac’s muse hunt, so I didn’t mind. I was also SO pleased with the ending, which brings back some favorites from past books and wraps up the series in a fun way. I’ve loved spending the past three years in Christmas Notch and can’t wait to read what Julie and Sierra publish next!

My favorite of the Christmas Notch series. I didn't love book 2 as much as book 1, but Sunny and Isaac had my heart immediately. I might just be a sucker for a grumpy x sunshine dynamic. I also really love when all the characters from a series collide, and there's a lot of that in this one as the series wraps up.

𝗬𝗢𝗨’𝗟𝗟 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗜𝗙:
• You want a steamy romance 🌶️🔥🥵
• You need some holiday spirit 🎅🏻☃️❤️
• You want to lol and cry depending on the chapter 🥲🥰😂
• You want smut under your Christmas tree this year 📚😏🎄

It was a little too crass and unbelievable at times (for me), but this series has become our favorite festive book club read - so we will see what next year will bring!

This book was good but for me not great. It is entertaining with many funny moments, balanced out with some seriousness. It was cute, but at times very predictable. I would recommend this during the holidays if you needed a pallet cleanse and wanted something easy to read. The romance between Isaac and Sunny never fully hooked me on a deeper level, it was lacking in emotional depth f0r me personally.

There is no other Christmas series that I look forward to reading more every year. It is hilarious, full of heart and extra spicy. This series is just a blast and this latest addition is so good!

Thank you #NetGalley and #avonandharper for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A Jingle Bell Mingle is the PERFECT third installment of the Christmas Notch series. It's funny, it's sweet and has a lot of spice!