4.5 out of 5 stars!

A steamy take on "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" Storee Taylor has to spend some time in Kringletown nursing her Aunt Cindy back to health. Since Aunt Cindy can't take part in the festivities she gets Storee to enter. Storee and Cole used to be best friends. They did everything together when she visited Kringletown until an embarrassing incident keeps Storee from returning for 10 years. Cole still lives next door to Aunt Cindy. Little does she know, Cole stopped celebrating Christmas since his parents passed. When Cole finds out Storee is entered in the Kringletown competition, it's game on to see who comes out on top. Then somehow Storee and Cole end up in a fake relationship. The competition between these two is fierce! They were constantly one-upping each other while their feelings turned to something real. Then they were pretending to pretend. LMAO! The audiobook narrated by a full cast made this romcom extra funny and the characters' antics even more over the top. With top notch narrators like Vanessa Edwin and JF Harding, Shane East, Robert Hatchet, and Emma Wilder, this book was just the thing to get me ready for the upcoming Chrismas season. I just might need to do a re-listen!

I received an advance copy of the book at my request and voluntarily left this review.

A cute and adorable Christmas rom com by the amazing Meghan Quinn!! She can’t write anything that is not am absolutely fun and quirky time!

Storee and Cole used to be friends, every year since they were kids Storee would come visit her Aunt Cindy in the year-round Christmas town. Then one year, after an embarrassing incident, Storee tells Cole that she hates the town and can't stand coming to visit. He doesn't see her again for 10 years when she comes to help her Aunt Cindy recover from a fall. It is Aunt Cindy's deepest wish that Storee enter the Christmas Kringle Competition. Cole decides that he has to join the contest just to beat her. Determined to make each others lives miserable until only one can come out on top.

It is never too early to read a Christmas novel, especially one by Meghan Quinn. This is the Christmas book of the season. It is definitely How the Grinch Stole Christmas meets the sexy snow daddy we never knew we needed. Pair the spice with Meghan Quinn's hilarious banter and you have an excellent read. I really enjoyed the rhyming narrations at the beginning of each chapter. The banter is also top notch, the back and forth between Storee and Cole is hilarious. I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it.

Welcome to Kringletown, Colorado! It is year round Whoville.
When Storee Taylor, a not so self sufficient, immature California gal returns to town a decade later to care for her Aunt Cindy, she comes face to face with her adolescent friend, Cole Black aka our sad boi Grinch.

The buildup and chemistry are a bit weak between these two enemies to lovers in a fake dating small town trope.

There are so many characters introduced at once. Is this what it’s like to read fantasy books? I can’t keep track.

One thing we all need to agree on: Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

Did I read the same ARC as all of you? I wanted to DNF. I hoped for some redemption to the plot and characters, but alas. This book is very heavy on the plot of a completion around being crowned The Kringle of Kringletown. The characters are 2D, the dialogue falls flat, but the spice spices.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

5 Candy Canes for Meghan Quinn's hilarious, heartfelt new holiday romcom inspired by The Grinch!

From the prologue to the epilogue, How My Neighbor Stole Christmas was absolute perfection! I really don't know how Meghan Quinn continues to surprise me with her romcoms, but this is one of the best. And I've read just about everything she's published. And I often say that *this* book may be one of her best yet, only for her to outdo herself with the next one! Well, I think Meghan has outdone herself...

My heart broke for Cole, and how lonely he's been since his parents died. Storee has also been feeling lonely and isolated, and they really do bring each other back to life over the course of this book. It starts with a spark of healthy competition during the Kringle Christmas contest, and as they spend time fake dating (so the townspeople think they are getting along), they pick up the friendship that was cast aside a decade ago. I really liked how the worst night of Cole's life coincided with a night that Storee was completely humiliated.

And then there is the reverse-fake-dating (I didn't even know that was a micro-trope!) where Storee and Cole begin to really fall in love. The spice level is high in How My Neighbor Stole Christmas... and I will never be able to look at a candy cane the same way again.

Listening to this book on audio was seriously an elevated experience! It was narrated by a full cast, with JF Harding and Vanessa Edwin perfectly playing Cole and Storee's rivalry, fighting feelings, and falling in love. Robert Hatchet was hilarious as Cole's best friend and sidekick, Max, with Emma Wilder bringing snarky sister Taran to life. But I really think Shane East steals the show as The Narrator. The way his British accent wraps around those Dr. Seuss-style rhymes... I seriously could have listened to him tell this entire story!

You'd have to be a real Grinch to not fall in love with Storee and Cole in How My Neighbor Stole Christmas! I received an advance copy via NetGalley and Bloom Books and voluntarily left a review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5
🌶️🌶️🌶️/ 5

“A gentleman can hold the door open for you…and slap your fine a** when you beg for it”

My Thoughts💭

The Grinch, but make it spicy🔥 I absolutely loved this book. I couldn’t stop laughing from the narrations to the poems for each chapter! Cole has a best friend named Max(I see what you did there), I swear those two were just the perfect duo. Cole and Storee were friends as children, they hadn’t seen each other in 10 years, leaving their relationship rocky and from the second Storee arrived in Kringletown, they became the perfect enemies. The banter between the two created some delicious tension! The Christmas competition was absolutely golden. I swear I laughed so much and loved everything about this book. This ended up being an extremely sweet love story. Thankyou to @read_bloom for this arc!🫶🏼

If you’re looking for
-Fake Dating
-Small Town Romance
-Enemies to Lovers
-Forced Proximity
-Spicy use of candy cane

Then this is the book for you!

Meghan Quinn has done it again! Absolutely loved this book. Retelling of how the grinch stole Christmas had me interested to start with loved all the callbacks to the movie, cartoon and book but it also held up on its own as a story. And including a narrator top notch! Will definitely be picking this one up for myself to add to my physical shelf to read again

Classic Meghan Quinn rom-c0m wackiness (complimentary). I enjoyed this one and has all the hallmarks of what I love in a MQ rom-com:

Banter
Some Slapstick stuff
lots of Spice
Men that are so down bad
Legit LoL's

Pick it up for a nice break and to get into a funny holiday mood!

For fans of the Grinch, you’ll love this romcom version! 😍

📖 How My Neighbor Stole Christmas by Meghan Quinn
⭐️ rating: 4.75/5
🌶️: open door, several descriptive scenes

💭 overall thoughts:
This was such a FUN read!
The audio was particularly amazing, and I highly recommend grabbing that if you can 🥰

All the little nods to the Grinch - from character names to smaller and bigger moments that happened - made my Christmas-loving heart so so happy 🥹

I absolutely ADORED the banter between these Storee & Cole - the competitiveness, the “hate” they had for each other, and also the history.

The dynamic between “Snow Daddy” Cole & his best friend Max was perfect, and I’d love to see a book for him too 🙃

🎙 audiobook thoughts:
This one is DUET narration and FULL CAST!
It genuinely makes the story even better, I could completely picture it all in my mind.
My favorite dynamic is between Cole (JF Harding) and Shane East (the narrator) - had me laughing so hard!
Vanessa Edwin is FANTASTIC as Storee as well, and Robert Hatchet (Max, Cole’s best friend) & Emma Wilder (Taran, Storee’s sister) are amazing as side characters.

read if you love:
🎄 Grinch inspired holiday book
🗯️ childhood friends to enemies to lovers with so much banter
🥸 fake dating
🎄 small town Christmas competition
🌦 grumpy sunshine
🐢 slow burn
🎧 duet & full cast narration
💞 dual 1st person pov

Thank you to Meghan Quinn & Bloom Books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This was such a perfect, funny Christmas themed story. This was like an adult version of the Grinch— more on the naughty side!!! Each chapter starts with a poem very similar to Dr. Seuss but spicier. This whole story was a delight, sweet, funny rom-com. I enjoyed the enemies to lovers and all the amazing banter between Cole and Storee. This will be a must add to my yearly Christmas leads as it was just fun and such a festive read.

I know that with any book by Meghan Quinn, I’ll be laughing my butt off a good 80% of the book. She puts the comedy in romantic comedy and I can never get enough.

I was so excited to get this ARC despite not being personally ready for Christmas yet (Halloween is my jam!). Imagine a WhoVille for real people. A small town, with adorably quirky people, all obsessed with Christmas year-round. A competition every year to see who is the Top Kringle! Between making candy canes, baking a fruitcake, a holiday-themed performance of which an almighty hip thrust prevails, and a cutthroat house-lighting contest, it’s a doozy.

Our MCs, Storee and Cole, were childhood friends when Storee and her sister would visit their great aunt annually. Now, Storee and Cole love to hate each other. And it’s a public event. Both are determined to win this competition and take the other one down.

Except, maybe they didn’t really hate each other all along…?

I wish this could have been 800 pages of their comedy. But I enjoyed every second of what time I did have and I’m so excited to see this popping up throughout the holiday seasons as others review it too. Love!

☆ARC READ☆
Publication date: October 15, 2024.


⭐️⭐️⭐️.5


This was a cute enemies to lovers rom-com which was a spin-off to The Grinch. The banter between the two MCs was top notch. Based on the book title and cute cover I thought I would enjoy it more than I did. But overall a fun light hearted read!

Thank you NetGalley, Meghan Quinn, and Sourcebook Bloom Books for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

First let me say Thank You Netgalley and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for the ARC of How my Neighbor stole Christmas. Meghan Quinn is an INSTANT buy author for me. I devoured this book! Its a rom-com spin off and even has enemy to lover vibes, with a few spicy scenes thrown in for good measure. The whole book takes place in a Christmas Obsessed town, the two main characters are competing against each other to be the town Kringle! The two main characters have backstories; MMC lost his parents at 18 and the FMC had an utterly embarrassing accident in town. They both has crazy side kicks egging them on to the be the best Kringle they can be. With plenty of banter and hilarity this book is the perfect read to begin the season. Have already per-ordered the physical copy and can't wait for the full cast audio book to come out! Once again Meghan Quinn knocks it out the park!

What an absolute treat this book is for the holiday season! I was laughing so hard because this book is so much fun!

Meghan…you truly outdid yourself. I love the similarities with How The Grinch Stole Christmas. It was so creative and especially the rhyming? SO GOOD. This book also felt like a spicy Hallmark movie and I loved it so much. The town, the vibes. IT WAS PERFECTION.

Don’t even get me started on Storee and Cole. I loved how they were friends, then enemies, to enemies to lovers and just the banter was 🤌🏽. Plus the spice? 5 🌶️ out of 5. I’ll never look at candy canes the same. 😂

Highly recommend putting this one first on your holiday TBR. Thank you so much NetGalley, Bloom Books and Meghan Quinn for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I made it to the 33% mark before calling it quits. I typically really love Meghan’s books and writing, but this one felt very long and drawn-out. Some of the jokes and innuendo were funny, but some of it felt childish and reminded me of the Hating Game (which is not a book I enjoyed)..

Ultimately I just felt uninterested in the story or characters and felt the pacing was far too slow to retain my interest any longer.

Thanks for the chance to read it! I’ll hold off on publishing my reviews anywhere for a while.

Genre: Holiday Spicy Romance
Rating: 4.5/5⭐️
Spice: 2/5🌶️

Summary: Storee returns to the festive town of Kringle to care for her recovering aunt, but she quickly learns her visit comes with an unexpected twist—her aunt wants her to compete in the town’s legendary Christmas competition. Meanwhile, Cole, her grumpy next-door neighbor, still holds a years-old grudge against her and is determined to do whatever it takes to keep her from winning the grand prize.

Thoughts: The amount of times I cackled while reading this book should be criminal. I love how Meghan leans right into the ridiculous antics of a Christmas obsessed town. I got all the cozy vibes with a dose of comedy.

I also loved how this book didn’t stop until the very end. There’s a town-wide Christmas competition happening. I loved the community involvement and everyone was balancing fun, festive and fierce for it.

There were some cheesy moments but I really can’t picture a Christmas novel without some. Strong recommend for me to send you into the holiday season laughing.

I was provided an eARC of this book and am leaving a voluntary honest review.

This book totally gave off How the the Grinch stole Christmas with a spicy hallmark movie vibes. Meghan seriously never misses when it comes to making me laugh literally out loud! 😂
Storee comes to town after ten years of being away to come take care of her Aunt Cindy since she fell and hurt her hip. Cindy wants Storee to help her win the Christmas contest.
Cole is neighbors with Cindy and after losing his parents 10 years ago he has stayed on his property and has been the town grump, however when he saw Storee again and saw she was entering in the contest he knew he had to run up against her because he doesn't think she deserves to win. He has his best friend Max as his side kick to help with the contest.

Cole (aka Snow daddy) & Storee were true enemies at first. The tension these two have was hard core. They also had so much banter and I loved it! They both end up fake dating for the town basically to win votes for the contest, then reverse fake dating because of Storee Sister Taran and her Aunt Cindy. Storee and Cole end up having that sweet and warm romance especially when it was just them too alone.

I had so much fun with this book. Who knew how much I would love a Christmas book in the beginning of October.

Tropes
-holiday romance
-enemies to lovers
-neighbors
-fake dating
-reverse fake dating
-small town
-second chance
-(biting, use of a candy cane (spicy stuff )

Ummm candy canes who knew?!

The audiobook will definitely keep you entertained & you may learn some new uses for Christmas candy 😜🥵🫠

Here’s my real review 😍

🎄If you’re ready to unwrap some holiday cheer, “How My Neighbor Stole Christmas” is the perfect listen! With a fabulous full cast of narrators, this story sparkles with wit and charm as Storee and Cole navigate their playful rivalry turned steamy romance. 🎅🏻

Y’all—the “narrator” is fabulously cheeky and he adds just the right amount of sass to the mix! 😏🎉 Whew🥵 there’s a super sexy candy cane scene that definitely brings the heat to this festive tale!

So, if you're in the mood for a cheeky, fun, and oh-so-festive audiobook, grab your hot cocoa and press play! 📚☕️🎁 #HolidayReads #AudiobookJoy #CheekyChristmas #jinglemybells

"How My Neighbor Stole Christmas" is a fun holiday rom-com with lots of jokes and banter, and a narration that will leave you gasping for air from laughing so hard. I loved the several tropes in this book-  enemies to lovers/ second chance, fake dating, plus a competition around Christmas time. It was perfect! I also loved the chemistry between Storee and Cole! Cole is super grinch, but he has his reasons, and Storee is a carefree yet highly competitive soul. When she agrees to enter into the Christmas Kringle contest, I knew it was going to be game on!
Unfortunately, there were a few things I did not like about this book. Firstly, the pacing was off. The first half seemed very slow compared to the latter. I also didn't like how immature Storee seemed at times, as well as the cringey spicy scenes. It's pretty odd because although they both made me cringe, it was immediately followed by laughter. (Is that Meghan Quinn's style? Newbie here, so not quite sure). But overall, I loved this book! And the narrator, chef's kiss! So much fun!
Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Bloom Books, and Meghan Quinn for this fun holiday read!

Storee and her sister are visiting her injured aunt Cindy in Kringle for the holidays. She remembers visiting every year and hanging out with the neighbour boy, Cole. That all changed, and Storee hasn’t returned to Kringle since “the incident” ten years ago. Aunt Cindy wants nothing more than for her dear niece to win the Christmas contest, so Storee begrudgingly enters. Cole, feeling like Storee abandoned her ten years ago, will not allow her to win, not after their history. As the competition heats up, so do their feelings. Now, we need to figure out who stole Christmas.

This was a cute, fun, holiday read. The tension and banter that Meghan Quinn brings to this story was laugh-out-loud funny. Storee was the epitome of sunshine, while Cole was the gumps of all grumps. I loved watching them together, seeing what would happen next. The book was full of heat, and there was even a scene involving a candy cane (if you know, you know).

With the town of Kringle, we have some great characters, too. Aunt Cindy and her antics kept Storee and her sister hopping and getting into the Christmas spirit. We had Max, Cole’s loyal friend, who was comedic relief and Bob Krampus, the town Santa. There were so many others, all adding to the story and bringing the town to life.

The beginning of each chapter started with a narration, similar to The Grinch, which added to this story. This was such a fun book, and is the perfect addition to your holiday reading list! Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

read if you like: enemies to lovers, fake dating, delicious banter, small town, Christmas read, slow burn, forced proximity, childhood friends