I was immediately interested in the Under the Mistletoe Collection because Olivia Dade is one of my favourite authors, and All By My Elf, or as I like to call it Love In A Weinermobile, exceeded all of my expectations. Everything I love about Olivia's books is there; characters 30+, body diversity, deep feelings, big laughs. Olivia has this way of digging into the humanity of every career path of her main characters that is immediately relatable, even when I expect the opposite. *chef's kiss* I love it, Nina + William forever! I’m awarding this story the gold medal in this collection.

Having started the anthology in the middle, I next read Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur who is a new-to-me author, though her work has been on my TBR for quite some time. I was not disappointed! Everliegh and Griffin connect in a very wholesome Christmas-movie-esque way in that the hunky firefighter not only saves the day, but Christmas as well. If the events of this story unfolded in real life would be a bit too forward for comfort to be totally honest, but I was easily able to suspend disbelief and trust this author, and I wasn’t let down at all. This one comes with a side of grandmother grief—and I always appreciate touching on grief in a Christmas romance because feelings are in overdrive during every but especially the Christmas holiday season. And also a side of spicy, which I also always appreciate in a Christmas romance! A solid bronze medal is awarded here.

Next I read Only Santas In The Building by Alexis Daria which wins the silver medal. Evie and Theo swept me into their mutual crushes immediately, their backstory was served up sweetly and succinctly, and their blossoming love was dished up hot and spicy. Throw in a dash of the Queen of Christmas and delightfully meddlesome neighbours and this New York City Christmas short is a delight all-around. This one also comes with a side serving of grandmother grief and it is handled with extra tender and loving care.

Why did I choose a 3-medal award system in a 5-story collection? Because I did not finish reading Tessa Bailey’s and Ali Hazelwood’s stories. Tessa is a new-to-me author whose work I have heard of and avoided because I suspected it wasn’t for me, and I found that to be true. I didn’t appreciate the way she describes bodies—I’ll never know what an Irish chin or sturdy hips really implies, and I’m not interested in finding out—but I tried to keep going and stopped short when the female main character whips up perfectly-fitted jeans for the male main character without having measured him. I know it’s fiction and the magic of Christmas, but this wasn’t it for me. And the fact I didn’t finish the story by Ali shocks me because I am a fan of her work, but this one is an enemies-to-lovers, which is already my least favourite trope after secret baby, and she dug in so hard with the enemies part that I wasn’t interested in finding out how the magic of Christmas was going to save this love because despite the magic of Christmas, there wasn’t enough forgiveness in the world for me to understand how love would blossom in this case.
But those first three? I will be adding to my Christmas rereads rotation forevermore!
love it.

Under the Mistletoe Collection ❄️🌾🚙🚒🎅

Ahhhhh this was the cutest holiday collection ever! I read all in a day or one sitting and had such a fun time! The spice was spicing! The relationship was cute, and the stories were short and I would love more🤭

You know I’m a sucker for anything written by Ali Hazelwood, Tessa Bailey and Olivia Dade, and I had such a great time reading their parts.

Alexandria Bellefleur and Alexis Daria are new to me authors (though I have their books in my tbr) and I loved their work here so much! Definitely can not wait to go and read their other books.

❄️ Cruel Winter With You:
Former childhood friends
Best friend’s brother
Snowed in together

🌾 Merry Ever After:
Giant farmer who blushes and has a dirty mouth
Single mother
Acts of service

🚙 All by my Elf:
Underpaid academics with secret crushes
Stranded in a car because of a blizzard
Forced proximity as they are on a roadtrip for extra money

🚒 Merri-Ment and Mayhem:
Firefighter
Damsel in distress meet cute
He falls first

🎅 Only Santas in the Building:
Neighbors to lovers
Secret crushes
Neighborhood costume party

Thank you NetGalley Amazon Books Amazon Publishing and Olivia Dade for helping me get an e-arc copy! So so grateful🫶💙

Under the Mistletoe is a Christmas short story collection that’s available for free to Kindle Unlimited & Prime members - with the option to add audio!uu I was really excited for this year’s collection because these are five of my favorite contemporary romance authors! All five were really fun, and I would recommend getting the whole set.

Cruel Winter with You - Ali Hazelwood
Ali’s is the longest of the collection - and spans the most time! The FMC met the MMC when he was born - he’s her best friend's little brother. If it weirds you out that she held him as a baby, even though she was only 2.5, that could be a deal breaker! For me, it met a lot of similar beats to Hazelwood’s full length books, and I personally love a consistent author. It did have a “no one will ever stick around for me because my mom never did” trope - which is one of my least favorites. Especially since she’s had the same best friend since she was basically born? Like, having a parent leave doesn’t *just* make you afraid of commitment - it can *instead* make you more likely to have codependency issues. But that is just my personal pet peeve. My pet peeve aside, I loved this one!

Merry Ever After
This was the spiciest one! I thought the lovers had great chemistry and it had just the right amount of plot for a short story. If you are a fan of dirty talk and possessive men, you’ll love it.

All By My Elf
This one was my favorite because it had delicious forced proximity and generally my favorite tropes - she starts out thinking that he is in love (or at least lust) with her best friend. Perfect length and emotional angst for a short story!

Merriment and Mayhem
This felt like one long meet disaster, but with people making life decisions at the level of a full length book. It was super fun, but the ending felt abrupt. If you're looking for some slapstick comedy and lust-at-first sight, ending with some spice, you'll enjoy this! I really liked the narrator, each character was really unique and it felt cinematic.

Only Santas in the Building
This was cute & spicy, with a core of celebrating the holidays after losing a loved one. Evie not only lost her grandmother, but her apartment, and is trying not to ruin her *new* apartment by falling for her neighbor. If you like meddling neighbors - you’ll love this!

🎧 I listened to all of them and loved the narrators for each one! I thought they were all well cast and fit their character(s) well. A couple of the stories had flashbacks, but all were clear (for me) even by audio!

Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood (4 stars)

This is my first foray into Ali Hazelwood, even though I have one of her books on my bookshelf. I am pleased to report that I enjoyed this one, possibly more than I was expecting to when I first started because there was a decent amount of angst packed into this story. We have Jamie and Marc. Marc has been in love with Jamie for a long time, Jamie has always (mostly) viewed him as her best friend’s younger brother. She’s finished med school and is now a pediatrician, he’s a successful tech guru. He made his play for her, and it didn’t work out, now they are stranded in his parents' home during a snowstorm all because her father sent her to get a roasting pan in the storm (yes, he’s slightly thoughtless). As the reader we get both the story of how they got to this moment, and the working through the fallout. I was pleased with how Hazelwood balanced the emotions, particularly as the final piece of the puzzle was unveiled, putting everyone’s behavior a little more into understandable territory than it had been before. He’s got some pride issues, she has some self-worth issues, but Hazelwood crafted characters who believably know each other very well and set them on a collision course over 80 pages.



Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey (2.5 stars)

Tessa Bailey almost gets away with an instalove premise in Merry Ever After. If it had only been one side that was the “I knew immediately” as she initially set up, I would be feeling much kinder to this steamy novella. The story opens with Evie, a single mom with a six-month-old who is working in a thrift store ogling the giant farmer Luke who is in search of a pair of jeans that will fit his overlarge frame. He splits a pair he’s trying on, pays for them, and Evie offers to make him a pair that fits him, she’s a fashion upcycler. He initially declines and hotfoots it out of the store when he hears Evie’s son cry. Luke assumes she’s married; Evie assumes Luke is put off by her single motherhood and decides to show him what she can do by making him a pair of jeans and delivering them to his farm. From there they are off to the races in rectifying the assumptions and reckoning with the steamy feelings they are each experiencing. Where Bailey loses me is that Evie turns too fast from having her focus being on her son and rebuilding her life in a new town and a commitment to being single, at least for now, to striking up a hot and heavy relationship with Luke. The individual components of the story are all well written, but it felt like it was missing a little connective tissue to explore the emotions going along with the sexytimes.

All by My Elf by Olivia Dade (3.5 stars)

This novella is the reason I requested an ARC of this collection. I love Dade’s writing and although I still haven’t gotten to her latest (it is currently my in-case-of-emergency read) I knew I was missing some of Dade’s signature humor in my life. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the strongest Dade I’ve read. I’m thinking most of my problem was that we are dropped into action in progress and given the background to the ludicrous situation as we went. Because I follow Dade on social media, I knew going in that the characters were driving around in a refurbished Wienermobile, but it was difficult to gather what was happening initially if you didn’t have that information and confusing even if you did. The official blurb doesn’t even cover it: Nina and William are underpaid adjunct professors at the same university, where winter break is no break at all: ’tis the season to make extra money. When their holiday side hustle has them stranded by a blinding blizzard in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing to do but cuddle up for warmth and play a game of Never Have I Ever to pass the time. But in the game of love, secrets never stay secret for long…

The other detail that eluded me until the end of this 55-page read was that while Nina is a couple years older than William, she’s the new employee at the University having been there less than a year. It changes the dynamic of her crush and his obvious to the reader but not to Nina attraction. The other big sticking point in the narrative (similarly not in the blurb – I can see people being caught off guard with the story they are getting based on it) is that Nina thinks that William and their colleague Claudia are an item since they have been huddled together for the past couple days, when really Claudia is bucking William up to tell Nina how he feels. Once the characters are actually snowed in (about halfway through) it started being the enjoyable Dade story I was expecting as misunderstandings were cleared up in hilarious fashion and feeling were discussed and activities happen in the back of the unfortunately shaped vehicle.

Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur (4 stars)

One of the ridiculous tv shows I like to keep up with when my brain needs some fluff is 9-1-1. I bring this up because the male lead in Merriment and Mayhem reminded me A LOT of the character Buck from that show and it positively impacted my appreciation of this story. The story focuses on Everleigh Dangerfield who has come home to settle her grandmother’s estate and is planning on having one last Christmas in the house before selling it and returning to her life in Seattle. But as one disaster after another has the fire department, and the very handsome and kind Griffin Brantley, responding Everliegh’s ideas about what she does or does not need to protect herself from change. Griffin makes his interest known but is also entirely respectful of Everleigh’s boundaries as she doesn’t do casual. I enjoyed the way in which the emergencies that Bellefleur put Everleigh in, and that Griffin responded to, were seasonally appropriate and had just enough actual danger to warrant fire response without enough to put the emotions of the story out of balance. There were a few moments in the story where it felt like Bellefleur had missed a sentence or left a thought dangling and I was confused, but overall, the writing was very strong and the steamy scene quite steamy.

Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria (4.5)

This was my favorite of the collection. Alexis Daria hit the balance just right in giving enough backstory early enough to engage the reader while leaving enough to be uncovered as we went and ensuring that this single POV story had enough in the showing to give us an indication of the intent of the other lead before they were able to solidify that in the dialogue. Only Santas in the Building gives us the story of Evie Cruz, freelance illustrator, who is finishing a hard deadline assignment in the weeks before Christmas. She’s a bit exhausted, from the grueling work schedule and coping with the grief of her grandmother’s death earlier in the year and the way it upset her life and caused her to move into her current apartment. Which happens to be just one floor below her new crush, Theo. Her very sexy and kind neighbor who has helped the movers with her sofa, changed a light she couldn’t reach, and helped her with her get her Christmas tree into the apartment even though it sits undecorated as she can’t bear to go her grandmother's ornaments from storage and see them in a new place. But someone is bringing her ornaments and leaving them on her door handle, and there’s a Christmas party up on the fifth floor that all the building tenants are invited to, and Theo is going to be there.

For a story that clocks in below 70 pages this one felt very lived in. I could picture Evie’s apartment and her art, and the various cast of characters who inhabited Evie’s life. I loved how so much of what Evie was attracted to in Theo was his nature, his kindness, and how clearly Alexis Daria built into him learned lessons about saying what he meant and not judging others for how they live their lives (I smiled enormously when Theo chided Evie for apologizing for dirty dishes in her sink because he was too excited to see her at all to be distracted by dishes in her sink because he knows she eats).

Collection of short stories all from authors I am very familiar with reading. I’m going to review them individually on goodRead’s. But collectively I give 4 stars.

Cruel Winter with You - I love Ali’s writing. This steamy short story featuring life long friends is wonderful. I especially love the humor in reminiscing about the pranks between siblings. The storm forcing proximity helps heighten the tension. And the miscommunication actually fits and works perfectly with the story. (5 Stars)

Merry Ever After - Bailey is a hit or miss author for me. While I liked her short story, the dirty talk was a turn off and a big ICK. Sadly it made the story my least favorite of the Under the Mistletoe collection. (2 Stars)

All by My Elf - Holiday short story featuring two adjunct professors who have taken a part time gig driving a mincemeat (wiener) mobile in holiday parades. With forced proximity, and a game of Never Have I Ever, they get over some miscommunications between the two. Enjoyable after the confusing setup. (3 Stars)

Merriment and Mayhem - I love Alexandria Bellefleur to the point that I have signed copies of all of her books. Her holiday short story featuring accident prone Everleigh Dangerfield and firefighter Griffin Brantley is delightful. Meeting when she has a baking incident starting a small fire is perfect meet cute and starts the sparks and longing between the pair. And like a good short story, I felt the potential HEA was really there. (Stars 5)

Only Santas in the Building - Sweet and steamy short holiday story. Evie Cruz, a comic book illustrator, has a crush on her upstairs neighbor. Luke is adorable as the helpful neighbor. All it takes is the upstairs neighbors to push them under the mistletoe and step back to watch the sparks. This one feels like a complete story. Very enjoyable. (5 Stars)

Perfect holiday short novellas for people who love romance and Christmas! get ready to cozy in and read 5 very different festive love stories.

I was familiar with 3/5 of the authors before going into this and was excited to see what they did. I listened to the audio along with reading.

1. Cruel Winter With You, Ali Hazelwood. 3/5 stars. While I'm fine with a friends to lovers/best friend's sibling romance, the fact that she held him as a baby was weird. Also he is almost painfully down bad for her.

2. Merry Ever After, Tessa Bailey. 5/5 stars. AMAZING. I need more farmer romances now. A little cliche that he is SO big and she is SO small but who cares. This one was so cute and spicy.

3. All By My Elf, Olivia Date. 3/4. Eh. Underpaid professors have a side gig in a weird food truck and definitely break food safety codes to get it on in a snow storm.

4. Merriment and Mayhem, Alexandria Bellefluer. 4/5. Love a firefighter moment! even if the FMC is painfully clumsy, this one was funny and sexy.

5. Only Santas in the Building, Alexis Daria, 3/5. If people would just use their words... then this wouldn't have had a plot lol. But it was cute in the end.

Each of these is available separately on KU with the audio included!!!

This was a fun collection of Christmas stories! While some of the stories were stronger than others, I think the collection as a whole was excellent. I would love to have longer versions of these stories too! There was great humor and banter and great ability to connect with the characters.

I will be rating the various stories separately on good reads but I will put them here for now:

Cruel Winter with You: 5 stars
Merry Ever After: 4 stars
All by my Elf: 4 stars
Merriment and Mayhem: 5 stars
Only Santa’s in the Building: 5 stars

🥇 Cruel Winter With You (4.5🌟)

- Best friend’s brother and forced proximity Christmas perfection!

🥈 Only Santas in the Building (4.25🌟)

- And they were neighbors!! This felt like one of the more realistic novellas in the collection.

🥉 Mayhem and Merriment (4🌟)

- This one had me laughing! Love a fireman romance moment and serious Hallmark vibes!

4️⃣ All By My Elf (4🌟)

- Pining over your coworker while in a hot dog van.

5️⃣ Merry Ever After (3.5🌟)

- Insta love in a thrift store with a farmer. This one is one of the spiciest of the group!

Spice: 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️

I love Christmas novellas, so I was so excited that all these amazing authors got together for this! Each individual cover and title is just so cute, and I actually enjoyed all of them. They are all open door, although some are spicier than others, and there are various tropes to keep things interesting. My absolute favorite was Merry Ever After, I could’ve read a huge full length book about those two and the spice was spicein even for a novella!

These novellas capture the cozy, festive atmosphere of the season, with heartwarming moments and a variety of romantic tropes to keep things interesting. A few of the stories truly shined while others fell flat for me.

Overall, it’s a solid pick for fans of quick, festive spicy romances. It didn’t completely wow me, but it’s a charming addition to a cozy winter evening.

Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood
3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
2/5 🌶️🌶️

I’m surprised that I enjoyed this one since I’m not an AH fan but I did like it. I’m also just a big ol softie for these kind of childhood friends to lovers stories. This one was best friends little brother which was unique and an interesting take. I liked the flashbacks and reminiscencing between them.

Hmm, something is just always off with Ali’s spicy scenes for me. I didn’t enjoy the “funny” nicknames. Or the miscommunication from the FMC but that seems to be her whole people pleasing personality.
—
Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey
5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Yes. So much yes. I don’t know if it’s my baby fever, obsession with big men or my weakness for farmers but this one was written for me! Luke, Daddy, he is for me! This man knew what he wanted and wasted no time. Honest and upfront plus he can admit when he’s wrong!! What’s not to love?! I loved Evie’s fire and how she didn’t let him just run with her life! She’s stronger than me because I would have folded like a napkin.
—
All By my Elf by Olivia Dade
3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
2/5 🌶️🌶️

I liked the unique circumstances of this story but I didn’t feel like it was a Christmas story. The phallic jokes wore thin for me with a story this short. I wish she would have leaned further into the elf aspect of the story.
—
Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur
4.25/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

This might be a favorite of the holiday shorts! I thought Griffin was very cute! The way he kept saving Everleigh, even going the extra mile, was so sweet! A hot fireman who considerate, check and check! I enjoyed this one!
—
Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria
3.75/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
1.5/5 🌶️

This was a super quick holiday story! I loved the secret Santa type of thing. It was adorable and so was Theo! I love me some male pining 🥹

I just wished it were a little longer or that we had more time with Evie and Theo!

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH
I need these stories to be longer. I love all these authors and it makes my Brain so happy to read this. Ali, Tessa, Olivia, Alexandria and Alexis are a dream team even when these stories are not overlapping they just the cutest and so wholesome.
perfect for holidays.

All of these novellas were so so cute and Christmasy. I use them like a little pallet cleansers between all my other Christmas romances I had lined up. My only complaint would be that they were in fact so short, and I would’ve liked some longer stories.

Thank you to the publisher for making this a "Read Now". I was able to download it on my Kindle, and it is the perfect little collection to get you into the holiday spirit. These short stories are full of cheer and full of spice; even though I have read all of these authors before, I wasn't expecting the short stories to be so steamy. Is now an appropriate time to make a joke about being on the naughty list? The first one and the last one in this collection were my two favorites. I wasn't super crazy about the second one- she made him giant pants? I thought that was a bit odd. The stories are quick, fast-paced, and easy reads, which is great for those looking to unwind after a busy day of Christmas shopping.

This collection was so fun, and it was well written! The collection of authors was a great combination. They did not have anything tying them together like an improbable meet cute series did, which was a downside for me. Some of the stories also felt rushed too, which makes sense for a novella, but was still disappointing. There are definitely some that I preferred over others in this series

What a fun idea! These are 5 powerhouse romance authors for sure. While these were fun, you have to keep your expectations low. 60 pages isn't quite long enough to get a full picture of the character AND care about their love story.
The two stand-outs for me in this collection were Ali Hazelwood and Alexis Daria.

These short Christmas stories are perfection. They were funny and spicy (Tessa Bailey can make even a novella the spiciest thing you'll read). All the authors did a great job bringing the pining and making me love the characters and root for them. I honestly loved them all, no notes.

This was the first time that I have read anything by these authors. I may give them another chance, but not for a while. My favorite story out of the 5, was Only Santas in the Building.

I have reviewed each individual story on their own.
Cruel Winter With You -3
All by My Elf - 2
Merry Ever After - 3
Merriment and Mayhem - 3.5
Only Santas in the Buliding - 4

Nothing like a set of Christmas novellas to get me in the holiday spirit! Love all of these authors and their way of creating lovable characters and fast paced stories!

🎄Under the Mistletoe short story collection is here!! 🎄

5 short stories (under 100 pages) have launched with Amazon publishing and you can snag them now with Kindle unlimited as well as Free narration (in the US).

Fun, flirty, 🔥 and perfect to get you in the Christmas mood!

My favorite - Only Santa's in the Building by @alexisdaria
They live in the same apartment complex. Both have secret crushes and he MELTS 🫠 for her! He does so many adorable things for her I was a gonner! 🤐 Not saying what, you'll have to listen, or read, yourself!

Thank you @netgalley and all the authors for these ARC's and an alc!