A collection of spicy Christmas short stories by some of my favorite authors. I loved every single one. My only complaint as usual when it comes to novellas is I wish they were longer.

Thanks t0 NetGalley for ARC in exchange for an honest review, as always all words are my own.

Fun, short, and sexy story collection. Definitely something to read to get you in the holiday reading mood.

Under the Mistletoe is an Amazon Original Stories collection featuring five short stories from some of your favorite authors. If you love Christmas-themed romcoms with a touch of spice, this collection is perfect for you.

The collection includes....
Cruel Winter With you by Ali Hazelwood
Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey
All by Myself by Olivia Date
Merri-ment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur
Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria

The collection is accessible via Kindle Unlimited and comes with a free audio version on Audible.

Publication Date-November 12, 2024
#UndertheMistletoecollection #NetGalley

I mean with this group of authors I didn’t expect less than 5 stars all around!! If you’re looking for short, sweet(and spicy) Christmas books - here’s your collection! You truly can’t go wrong with any of these

With thanks to the publisher, Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Ali Hazelwood - met the brief in 80 pages or less. This read as if this was the premise for a full length novel that didn't go anywhere. AH writes a truly delightful emotionally intelligent book boyfriend. The push, pull and the coming together between characters is authentic and true to style. Highpoint of the collection.

Tessa Bailey - maybe the author has a fantasy about extra large blokes talking like cavemen? Had a sweet enough first 100 words but the rest was cringeworthy. Not my cup of tea with some clangers including “…they don't make jeans that fit me, and they don't make women to fit me either”.🤮

Olivia Dade - Idiots in love with plot holes the size of a supernova. A repurposed Weiner-van provided puns a plenty but, ultimately read more like a 2nd year BArts creative arts task.

Alexandria Bellefleur -A cocky fireman saves distressed damsel more times than is reasonable until they go on a date, fall into freezing water and then just have to get warm. Banter was having a red hot go.

Alexis Daria - cute secret crush neighbours to something; Christmas ornaments as flirting; a couple of meddling (in the best way) older neighbours.

This collection of short stories was perfect to get in the holidays spirit!! Some authors I’ve read before and love and some are new to me authors. Each story is u pique and keeps with the holiday them. They are all around 50-60 pages. They are all pretty quick and fun Holiday reads!

Ali Hazelwood, thank you for finally making the girl know that he’s in love with her 😭😭😭
No one does big strong grumpy man like Tessa Bailey but that dirty talk was not necessary girl 😭
Olivia Dade you will never ever ever fail ilysm🥹
The 911 vibes in Alexandria's story were incredible 🤌🏼
Alexis did so much world building and i loved every second of it because it was just so well done🔥

Ali Hazelwood: Cruel Winter with You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #1) -- Best friend younger brother. This is a must-read holiday romance.
Tessa Bailey: Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #2) -- Very spicy and filthy.
Olivia Dade: All by My Elf (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #3) -- Crushes, miscommunication and hidden truths.
Alexandria Bellefleur: Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #4) -- Insta-love, humor heat and romance.
Alexaria Daria: Only Santas in the Building (Under the Mistletoe Collection, #5) -- Neighbors to lover's trope. This was sweet and cute.
Thank you Amazon Original Stories for the ARC through Netgalley.
#UndertheMistletoecollection #NetGalley

Thank you to Amazon Books for providing me with an early copy of this novella collection!

Cruel Winter with You / 2⭐
This year, I've come to learn that Ali Hazelwood in short-form does not work well for me. Marc was a total creep... I found so much of what he said to be totally cringe-worthy and not the least bit charming. Jaime was totally right in her hesitancy to jump into something with him, because this boy went from zero to sixty SO FAST. I get that this is essentially a second chance, childhood friends to lovers romance, but jumping right into potential I love you's was too much. Oof.

Merry Ever After / 3.5⭐️
This was much cuter than the last. I was definitely smitten by our bumbling big guy! But I think it was the dirty talk that was a bit too much for me. At times it felt out of character and not just in a “this guy has a hidden link” kind of way. Still a super cute story!

All by My Elf / 2⭐️
The cheesiest forced proximity I’ve ever read. I still don’t really know what mincemeat is and I really don’t care to find out. At times this felt like the reenactment of Jessica Day’s prom night in New Girl with them asking “May I touch you?” “Yes, you may.” Definitely took me too long to get into and not enough happened. There were also no chapters, so that also kind of drove me nuts.

Merriment and Mayhem / 4.5⭐️
I could read a full length novel about these two!! I really loved this novella with our accident prone heroine and the hot fireman who swoops in to save the day! Griffin was perfect and I loved their little meet cute! Ahhh, so cute!

Only Santas in the Building / 4⭐️
This was a super sweet conclusion to this novella collection! I thought this neighbors to lovers story was charming, especially with all the other neighbors playing a little role in the matchmaking. I always want more, but I thought this one was done well!

A delightful collection of holiday themed short stories by some of the best authors in romance today. If you like a holiday romance. then you can't go wrong with these short spicy reads. All reads are MF.

Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood is a friends to lovers with a bit of caught in a snowstorm. It's got big feelings packed in to its 73 pages.

Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey finds a single mom and a giant of a farmer making kind gestures at each other until they become a family.

All by My Elf by Olivia Dade is one of my favorites, in part because of the ridiculousness. We've got colleagues (adjunct professors) who have taken a seasonal job (driving a repurposed Weinermobile for a mincemeat company) and are secretly into each other. Do they do it in the not-Weinermobile? Yes.

Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur is my other favorite, with a disaster prone girl being repeatedly rescued by the hottest small town firefighter.

Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria features mysterious ornament deliveries, a hot upstairs neighbor, and a party where everyone dresses as a santa.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Super fun collection. All of your favorite romance authors knock it out of the park, but my personal favorite was Only Santa’s in the Building. Sweet, sexy, and the most Christmassy of the lot - it was everything I want in a holiday novella.

I LOVED these books! They all were cute and entertaining and I enjoyed the little bit of spice each book gave! All the authors are writers I enjoy dreading and felt their individual voices in their books perfectly. Totally will recommend this set to any romance lover looking for Christmas novella’s!
Overall: 4.75⭐️, 2🌶️

Cruel Winter With You:
4.25⭐️, 2🌶️

This was so cute! I really loved the dynamic Jamie and Marc growing up together & he always having crushed on her (bless a best friends brother romance where she isn’t judgemental of it!) I liked how this took place around Christmas versus a Christmas romance and how adorable Marc was!

🎄Snowed In Together
❄️Childhood Friends to Lovers
💙 Right Person, Wrong Time

Merry Ever After
4.5⭐️, 2.5🌶️

Anything Tessa writes I’m gonna eat up and I loved how cute but hilarious this was all at the same time! A farmer so big he needs custom jeans?! Like I’d just love to live inside Tessa’s mind for a day 😂 Toed for second fave of this novella pack.

🩷Single
🎁 Insta Love/Lust


All By My Elf
4⭐️, 2🌶️

This was so cute of a story and the best part was the fact that the location was based on my hometown area and the snowstorm these two get stuck in definitely happened like two years ago. Even as a single POV I enjoyed both MC’s and the romance was pretty cute!

🌭 Co-Workers/ Forced Proximity
💚Snowed “In” together
🎄Mutual Pining

Merriment and Mayhem
4.5⭐️, 2.5🌶️

I really liked this story! I loved all the chaos our FMC kept getting herself into and saved from. The romance was cute and the little bit of drama/ with-they-won’t-they kept me really entertained. Tied for second fave of this pack.

🔥 Firefighter + Damsel in Distress (multiple times)
💛Insta-Lust

Only Santa’s in the Building
5⭐️, 2 🌶️

My favorite book of this collection! I loved the backstory for our FMC and the secret pining both characters had for each other was so dang cute. Theo is such a cinnamon roll and I just adored him. I wanted more of these two!

❤️Neighbors
🎅🏼 Holiday Party
❤️ Secret Pining

Thank you Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for an eARC of this collection in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, this was a fun collection of spicy holiday short stories. Short stories aren't my favorite especially if they are romance because I like to see the buildup and these were so quick. Despite the length, they were well rounded for what they were and they did get a whole story across well.

Cruel Winter With You by Ali Hazelwood
This one was about Jamie and Marc, childhood friends (Jamie is best friends with Marc's sister) who have reconnected over a pan Jamie's dad needs for a ham and a blizzard. We actually get a good feel for Jamie and Marc's history from when he was born to their miscommunication 4 months earlier. This one was actually one of my favorites. I like friends to lovers.

Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey
Thrift store worker and budding clothing designer Evie is new in town and bonds with Luke over the fact that he is too big for any jeans at the thrift store, so Evie makes him some. Evie is independent and a single mother. Luke is a shy farmer. Luke was very nice and thoughtful guy, but I feel like that didn't really match the spicy scene. I did love how he accepted Evie and her infant son Sonny immediately.

All By My Elf by Olivia Dade
This was one I enjoyed too. It was set in a ridiculous repurposed hot dog mobile. Colleagues Nina and William are driving this Weiner mobile to a Christmas parade and get stuck in traffic for literally the whole night. They have had mutual crushes on each other for months and play never have I ever to get their feelings for one another out in the open. They had good chemistry in such a short amount of time.

Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur
In this one, Everleigh is getting ready to sell her late grandmother's house, but has a series of misfortunes that involve getting the fire department called several times. Griffin is the firefighter that comes to the rescue. There is instant chemistry and flirting. This one was fun just because Everleigh kept getting caught in these ridiculous situations. I liked this one because I feel like it's something everyone thinks in the back of their mind, if firefighters were needed, they would hope it was a really hot one.

Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria
In this one, Evie is on a tight comic book deadline. She has a huge crush on her upstairs neighbor Theo who always seems to show up unexpectedly when she is looking her worst. After going to a building wide Christmas costume party, their feelings for each other finally come out. Theo was sweet. I feel like he was the ideal guy. He had a cat, he liked things clean and he was a handy man. Evie was so worried about how she looked due to her deadline and it was sweet to find out Theo didn't even realize that she looked so messy which I feel like people also would think is ideal.

Love these stories so much, they were fun, spicy and cozy and the narrators were great! Even though it was weird to have some stories with dual narration and not others, all narrators transitioned seamlessly

Romance fans, get yourself this collection, put on the twinkle lights, get your boozy/non boozy winter drink of choice, and ENJOY.
I really enjoyed this collection of short holiday stories,

Ali Hazelwood: way to somehow make a short story filled with satisfying tropes, forced proximity, snowstorm, he falls first, slow burn (if you can have slow burn in a short story... ), and it all works, even a very short and thus not annoying miscommunication theme that is finally for once dealt with in quickly. Win! Alexis Daria's story was a top read, there is something about secret crushes and hot neighbor themes... and Olivia Dade, my favorite of the set, with a funny and sexy story that hit all the right notes for me and nailed the Virginia 64 driving experience.

Thank you Amazon Publishing for the early review copy!

Under the Mistletoe Collection is a set of 5 short stories by popular romance authors. It is hard to give an overall rating to a set of 5 different stories, so I averaged the individual story ratings to get the overall rating.

Cruel Winter With You by Ali Hazelwood: 3/5
Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey: 2/5
All By My Elf by Olivia Dade: 3/5
Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur: 5/5
Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria: 4/5

My absolute favorite was Merriment and Mayhem. This was my first Alexandria Bellefleur story, and I will definitely be checking out more! I loved the firefighter MMC x accident-prone FMC. The small town was so cozy, the side characters were friendly, and it felt like a complete story.

Merry Ever After was a miss for me. The spice was cringey and it felt like half the story was describing how big/tall the MMC was.

It was fun to have short stories with a hint of Christmas spirit for this time of year, and I enjoyed the variety in the stories. Thank you to Amazon Original Stories, the authors, and Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Truly a fun collection with authors who all know how to hit you in the holiday feels! This was just the read you need to get yourself out of a rut and into the merriment spirit. Each story had an individual voice that was clearly defined.

Cruel Winter with You – 5 stars – I had a good time. I loved the forced proximity and the past miscommunication aspect was perfectly executed and revealed.

Merry Ever After – 2 stars – this was by far my least favorite of the anthology. Tessa Bailey's dirty talk is either the hottest thing on the planet or icky and this one was on the icky side for me.

All by My Elf – 2.5 stars – This one was just weird. I liked that Olivia enjoyed researching the wienermobile but I was mostly just confused the whole time.

Merriment and Mayhem – 4 stars – Alexandria's take on the too stupid to live heroine was fun. I'm very pleased that Everliegh now has someone to keep her alive.

Only Santas in the Building - 5 stars - I found this one to be really really cute. This one actually felt like a complete story and I had a good time.

This was a fun collection! I loved almost all of the stories.

Ali's gave me a lot of big feelings and I got very emotional by the end.

Tessa was Tessa. Nothing too out there.

Olivia's was wonderful. I always enjoy her writing and how she captures certain anxieties.

Alexandria's was funny, charming, and very entertaining.

Alexis was a five star reading. I absolutely love her writing and she always delivers.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Fun, ridiculous, whimsical, merry, mayhem, just holiday whimsy in the best possible way! I’ll be reading and rereading these stories all season long.