Reviews

Review: Blame It on the Mistletoe by Beth Garrod

I'm All Booked Up YA
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*We received this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Elle is a social media influencer in New Jersey and wants nothing more than to build her following. Holly is a Christmas lover, but after an embarrassing run in with her ex-boyfriend, she’ll do anything to escape her small town outside of London for the holidays.

Both wanting to shake things up, Holly and Elle virtually meet and come up with a plan to spend Christmas with each other’s families. Elle’s mom is from the same town as Holly and know Holly’s mom, which is why the two are allowed to live each other’s lives.

Elle hopes that sharing cute pictures of London will help her win an Instagram follow contest and Holly just wants to get into the Christmas spirit/visit Manhattan. But neither of these girls expected for their solo trips to change them and for unexpected romances to pop up. This holiday season is bound to be interesting.

We were in the mood for a cute holiday romance, so we requested Blame It on the Mistletoe from NetGalley. We have mixed feelings about this book though.

Since Blame It on the Mistletoe is told in dual POVs, we found we enjoyed reading Holly’s chapters a lot more than Elle’s. Holly was funny, quirky and relatable. She just wanted to prove she could move on from her ex and start to have fun again.

Elle was a lot more shallow. While she eventually got better, we still found her annoying and she didn’t always treat her family and Holly’s friends well. At the beginning she cared more about her followers and creating an online persona than having real meaningful friendships.

One aspect we did love were the settings. The dual stories set near London and New York City was a lot of fun, especially since both had snow and were decorated for Christmas. We love reading about characters who are travelling.

Now, the romances were the biggest part of the book. We completely shipped Holly with Elle’s brooding brother Nick. Nick was a little distant at first, but we love that Holly got him to open up. She even got him excited for Christmas. Then Elle also had a romance with Holly’s awkward best friend Fred. This one was a little boring to us since Elle didn’t always treat Fred well because he wasn’t “good for her Instagram contest.”

Overall, Blame It on the Mistletoe had a cute ending and wrapped up nicely. However, we would have enjoyed this book even more if it was just a book from Holly’s POV. If you’ve read this one, let us know in the comments.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Published by I'm All Booked Up YA

We write recommendations and reviews for YA books.

21 thoughts on “Review: Blame It on the Mistletoe by Beth Garrod”

  9. I always enjoy Holiday books around this time of year. They usually leave me with warm thoughts. I always like how there is some turmoil that can be resolved by the end. I wonder if having the shallow character was the intent of the author. To really bring a face to individuals who focus on a social media following and possibly have us reflect on our own social media practices and the way we treat others.

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