Mistletoe Creek stories 💋💋💋

Below are my thoughts on three Christmas themed novels. They are all set in Mistletoe Creek. A small town that loves Christmas. (Shocker right) there are whimsical things in all of them. My main issue is I am realizing I don’t care for the novella format. The characters are always going to be less fleshed out. And let’s face it some of the setups don’t lend themselves to instalove, which most romance novellas go with. Anyway here are my thoughts:

Robbing From Mistletoe by Ember Davis

A MC novella that brings Friar (street name) to Mistletoe in search of the hacker that has stolen money from his MC (Devil’s Saints). He doesn’t expect to find out the hacker is a she. Robyn Locke is a computer hacker who is trying to right the wrong of human trafficking from stealing from bad guys and giving the money to good guys. (Ember leans hard it to the Robin Hood names). Except Devil’s Saints are not bad guys. And there is instalove from Friar. He is like ok we are getting married, you are my woman and that is that. It skated a touch close into noncon, but luckily veered back. She loves him and if they could just get rid of that pesky rival gang ( the real bad guys).

Overall is it a romantic Christmas adjacent novella that is worth a read if you are a motorcycle club trope fan. (I am fairly neutral on that trope). I enjoyed it.

All Snowed Gin by Claire Hastings

Rose drove to the mountains from Georgia right before Christmas to get a picture of the beer she sells in the snow. Pierce is a recluse that has shut himself away from the world because of his grief over losing his family. She gets stuck in a snow storm and his mountain home is the only place to go. She knocks on his door and he slams it in her face. (Which I loved the subversion of the instalove trope). Anyway they are snowed in and he makes gin as a hobby. Rose helps Pierce learn to love again. They sled and cook together. Cute couple. So the third act breakup landed a bit awkward for me. Like really, you two successful adult people couldn’t have worked out a solution before the breakup? But it is a quick and enjoyable read. The characters have enough complexity that you want to spend time with them. And honestly Claire Hastings has a knack for putting witty words in her characters’ mouths.

Once upon a frosty winter by Gail Haris

Hilda Queen (formerly White) is a young widow that has a reputation as the Evil Queen. Her estranged stepdaughter Eira (it means Snow) is trying to sell Hilda’s apple orchard out from under her. So yeah it’s a retelling of Snow White with the Queen as the FMC. I have to hand it to Gail Haris, she does a bang up job bring the fairytale in to the modern. There are great nods to the original story (best friend is Mira, who owns The Fairest of Them All Salon). The MMC is Jax Frost. And he is a jerk just like Hilda. But there is clearly a lid for every pot and so they find their own softness in each other). It really is a sweet (and steamy) retelling. No new ground is being broken, but it is a good companion on a cold winter’s day.

Mistletoe Wishes by Sasha Marshall

Whew what a journey! There is a lot packed into the short novel. (Maybe too much) drug use, vomit, broken legs, choking, blackmail, hallmark movies. Literally everything, in the span of one week.  I really loved the writing. I can’t wait to see what Sasha Marshall does in a long story. The characters were fun and the dialogue snappy. Fun Xmas weekend read. But the convergence of everything at the same time, makes it a little silly.