Holly Winters is a quirky YouTuber who runs a holiday shop located next to 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 from working together and then being in Holly’s sister’s wedding party together causes the pair to form a truce and develop a temporary “enemies with benefits” agreement. However, 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 and I highly recommend reading the three books in order as Nick and Noel’s from Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist and Merry and Clark’s from There’s Something About Merry stories continue here. This 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 and privacy, growing up, miscommunication, appearance versus reality, and loneliness and isolation. This would of course be perfect for fans of Christmassy 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.
This was fairly light-hearted and very Christmassy; Holly had an Elf-like vibe whereas Declan was more like The Grinch, which made for a humorous read. The prank wars definitely added a touch of comedy to their 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 whilst doing your holiday wrapping or baking.
On the downside, I didn’t feel as connected to and invested in Holly and Declan’s story for some reason, especially in comparison to the other two books in the series. In some moments, it kind of dragged, but this may have been because this 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!
Along Came Holly is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Holly Winters is not about to let her grumpy neighbor Declan steal her holiday joy…even if he does look rather handsome under the mistletoe.
Holly Winters owns the jolliest holiday shop on Main Street and this season is shaping up to be the best yet. The only pit in her figgy pudding? Declan Gallagher, the owner of the hardware store next door. He’s the scroogiest man in all of Mistletoe, Idaho. Then Holly’s revenge prank escalates into an all-out war with her Grinchy neighbor, and the situation turns sticky when she realizes she needs his help.
Declan can’t believe the nerve of his oh-so-cheerful neighbor hiring him to set up her holiday lights display, but the money is too good to pass up. Despite his utter loathing of excessive decorations, he throws himself into getting the job done, only to encounter sabotage at every turn. To his astonishment, Declan finds himself championing the very woman who used to get under his skin. Then one rooftop kiss has him thinking maybe the season’s traditions aren’t as heinous as he believed. Declan’s heart has grown three sizes since Holly came along, but how can he admit he’s falling for the one woman he shouldn’t want?
