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Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss

February 2, 2023 by

Source: gift
Paperback, 432 pgs.
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Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss is a fun holiday read by the end, but you have to get through some awkwardness first. That can be true of meeting your childhood crush after years away, or of reconnecting with friends of means after the tragic suicide of another. Elinor Noel is a young secondhand bookstore owner in London, whose family own a flower shop in a working class town surrounded by opulence, including a castle. Is that why she moved to London to get away from the snobbery? No. In fact, after she attends the prestigious private school, she falls into friendships with some really awkward and snooty people who have no idea what it is like for Nory and her family.

She does have one solid friendship with Ameerah, whose family is jet-setting all over the globe and barely comes to see her. Nory’s family just adores Ameerah and treat her like their own. This close relationship helped me to keep reading through all the cringy and yucky exchanges with her other high-class friends, but Guy was the worst. Pippa grew on me by the end and I kind of what a whole book about how she became so poised and stand-offish and practical to the detriment of her own emotions.

Throughout the reunion with her friends at the castle to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Charles and Jenna, Nory is feeling out of place and missing their mutual friend Tristan, but when Guy enters the picture with is smarmy comments and sleazy actions, Nory finds herself in the castle gardens in the cold looking for a place to hideout for a bit, but she ends up in a wheelbarrow of dung.

I’m not going to ruin the rest of this funny romance but I did enjoy Nory and the mystery of the paintings that she uncovers with the Head Gardener, Isaac, at the castle. Reading this as a buddy read on StoryGraph was icing on the cake, sharing thoughts and comments throughout made it even more fun. Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss will try your patience at times, but ultimately, it’s a fun read and a good romance with lots of tension and just enough heat.

RATING: Quatrain

Photo: © Dominic Jennings

About the Author:

A former professional cake baker, Jenny Bayliss lives in a small seaside town in the UK with her husband, their children having left home for big adventures. She is also the author of The Twelve Dates of Christmas, A Season for Second Chances, and Meet Me Under the Mistletoe.

Filed Under: challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Penguin, random house, Read in 2023, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Mailbox Monday #715

January 2, 2023 by

Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.

It now has its own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.

Emma, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.

Here’s what I received:

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss, which I got as a gift for Christmas from Anna.

A city bookshop owner heads to the English countryside for a holiday reunion—only to face her childhood enemy.

Elinor Noel—Nory for short—is quite content running her secondhand bookshop in London. Forever torn between her working-class upbringing and her classmates’ extravagant lifestyles at the posh private school she attended on scholarship, Nory has finally figured out how to keep both at equal distance. So when two of her oldest friends invite their whole gang to spend the time leading up to their wedding together at the castle near their old school, Nory must prepare herself for an emotionally complicated few days.

The reunion brings back fond memories, but also requires Nory to dodge an ill-advised former fling. When she falls quite literally into the arms of Isaac, the castle’s head gardener, who has nothing but contempt for the “snobby prep school kids,” the attraction between them is undeniable. And as Nory spends more time with Isaac during the wedding festivities, she finds herself falling hard for the boy she used to consider an enemy. Nory and Isaac explore their common ground, but pressures mount on all sides, and Nory must decide what kind of life she wants to live and what sort of love is worth the risk . . .

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: ,