Holly Winters is a quirky Youtuber who runs the holiday shop located beside her grumpy nemesis Declan’s hardware store. Their increasing hostility towards each other ends up starting an epic prank war. But when Holly desperately needs help setting-up her Christmas lights display, she is forced to hire Declan, the only handyman available on such short notice. Forced proximity, because of working together and being in Holly’s sister’s wedding party together, causes the pair to form a truce and develop a temporary “enemies with benefits” agreement. But the pair starts to doubt the temporary status of their arrangement when real feelings start to emerge.
Along Came Holly is the third installment of Hall’s Mistletoe Romance series; I highly recommend reading the three books in order as Nick and Noel’s (Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist) and Merry and Clark’s (There’s Something about Merry) stories continue in Along Came Holly. Along Came Holly is a contemporary Christmas romantic comedy featuring the “enemies to lovers”, forced proximity, and grumpy with sunshine tropes. Themes and topics present include family roles, marriage and divorce, Alzheimer’s, social media, privacy, growing up, miscommunication, appearance versus reality, as well as loneliness and isolation. I would recommend Along Came Holly to fans of Christmasy rom coms like Jingle Wars by R. Holmes and Veronica Eden, The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox, Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison, and Booked for the Holidays by Chelsea Curto. Along Came Holly was fairly lighthearted and very Christmasy; Holly had an Elf-like vibe whereas Declan’s vibe was more like The Grinch, which made for a humorous read. The prank wars definitely added a touch of comedy to Holly and Declan’s story, and I liked their spicy “will they, won’t they” relationship. In my opinion, it would be the perfect book to read by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate during your Christmas vacation or to listen to via audiobook whilst doing your holiday wrapping or baking. On the downside, for some reason I just didn’t feel as connected to and invested in Holly and Declan’s story, especially in comparison to the other two stories in Hall’s Mistletoe Romance series. As a result, I found that Along Came Holly kind of dragged at moments and didn’t really grab my attention overall. Furthermore, this book was very much a slow burn, which isn’t my favourite, and I personally found the ending to be a little cheesy for my tastes. Overall, Along Came Holly was a fun and humorous slow burn romance that’s perfect for the upcoming holiday season!
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February 2024
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