Oh my goodness, I have a new favourite holiday romance! It is cute and laugh-out-loud funny at times, mixed with holiday cheer, a destructive Santa moose, and a town that is not exactly on side. I have not read the first book in the series, but this one can stand alone. (I did find the first book after because of how much I enjoyed this one). You fall in love with the town and the inhabitants especially Rick and Lana. The mishaps and accidents the two have are hilarious and you may want to reread.

If you want a fun, light, festive read, I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are all my own.

Thank you to @Netgalley and Sourcebooks for sending me an ebook copy to take me back to Moose Springs! The Tourist Attraction was one of my favorite reads in early summer, and I was so excited to get a chance to read the second in this series.

I absolutely adore books (and movies) set in Alaska. It’s high on my list of places to someday travel, and I love the small town element within this series as well. This go around our beloved Graham and Zoey are supporting characters, but they get a couple of big moments that you’ll love.

Lana and Rick are both lonely in a small town and have an undeniable attraction to one another. This is a slow burn romance (low on steam), but it’s very sweet and endearing. Where Graham and Zoey’s relationship seemed to come to fruition quickly, Lana and Rick are resistant to give in to their chemistry. Lana because she doesn’t know if she’ll be around long, and Rick because of his low sense of self worth. When they finally give in, things are adorable.

This one didn’t make me laugh out loud quite as much as The Tourist Attraction, but I found it just as sweet, and I am looking forward to the next, which I have an ARC of as well!

This is again a 5 stars read by @sarahmorgenthaler.author ! I have decided that anything written by her gets a 5 stars from me.

It is the story of Lana (a businesswoman trying to save the town by investing in it and receiving hatred from the locals) and Ricky (a shy businessman) and how they come together in the beautiful scenery of Moose Spring. It was a sweet love story with lots of hilarious moments (the stuffed squirrels and B&B) and the Santa Moose ! It was also great to see Graham and Zoe again! The best thing about this book was that all the characters seemed real and all the scenes seemed genuine and not forced. It is the honesty of the writing that makes me really enjoy the book!

It is the perfect book to get into the Christmas spirit and I totally recommend it!

Yawn.

The cover and setting are so cute, but overall this book was a real snoozefest. If you want a chase, boring romance set in a cute town at Christmastime, go for it. Otherwise, I’d recommend skipping it.

This is my least favorite trope: two people meet and they immediately like each other. Usually, there is some sort of artificial obstacle keeping the two people apart, but that wasn’t even really the case here. They casually date throughout the book, fall in love, and then 95% of the way through, something finally happens to cause them to split up, but as you can guess, it gets resolved so damn quickly that I’m not sure why it was even considered an obstacle in the first place.

This book is the second in a series, and I found the secondary characters in this book to be vastly more interesting than Rick and Lana (especially Ash, Jax, and Killian), so maybe there is some hope for the future of romance in Moose Springs.

A powerful business woman, with sentimental ties to Moose Springs, Alaska, meet Lana Montgomery. Lana is the heiress and hardworking leader of the Montgomery Group (aka her parent's company), but she is always called back to a town they vacationed at in her childhood, due to her fond and happy memories.

Lana longs to get the townsfolk of Moose Springs to accept her as one of their own, and not as the evil conglomerate they make her out to be. She has the town's best interests at heart, not to mention an eye on the local pool hall owner.

I thoroughly enjoyed this festive romance, as Lana is never a damsel in distress (sometimes just a damsel, but never in distress), but a strong, competent woman who knows what she wants. This would be the most fun holiday movie, it has every element for a successful Christmas movie: caught out in a snowstorm, a divorcee looking for love, a hotshot with an affinity for small towns, oh yeah... and a destructive "Santa Moose".

Follow along as Lana navigates balancing her place in the company, catching a moose to win the favor of the town, a close friendship, and woo-ing that bashful pool hall owner. Most definitely recommend reading this one, this holiday season (and any moving forward!).

P.S. I even shed a single tear during a scene in this one, so clearly I was invested.

Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Sarah Morgenthaler is a fun, festive romp in Alaska. The antics with the moose had me laughing. I loved Rick and Lana's story.

This is the second in the Moose Springs, Alaska series, following The Tourist Attraction. I haven’t actually read the first book yet, but I was just gifted a copy so expect a review on that soon!

Our leading lady, Lana Montgomery, works for a property development company working on a project in sleepy little Moose Springs, Alaska. Basically, the town hates her and everything she represents so she has her work cut out for her trying to win them over. She gets it in her head that if she can capture the rogue moose who has been destroying everyone’s Christmas displays the town will be more accepting of her. The moose has been dubbed the ‘Santa Moose’ and is as elusive as he is anti-Christmas.

Lana starts spending time with grumpy local bar-owner Rick Harding, and the two start to develop a friendship along with some flirtier feelings, despite Lana accidentally shooting him with a tranquilizer dart during one of her attempts to catch the Santa Moose. Their budding relationship isn’t without some challenges, but what good romance is.

Overall I found this story super cute, and Christmasy, and it had everything I was looking for in a book at this time of year. I’m really looking forward to reading the first in the series, and I’m already anticipating the third one that comes out, Enjoy the View, in January.

After enjoying the first in this series, I was antsy to get to this one too. Lana and Rick were adorable and it was fun to watch Lana navigate Moose Springs in all of her wonderful ways. It was a joy to read more about Zoey and Graeme from The Tourist Attraction, and of course there is a moose in this book too! (Or several, haha). I enjoyed these characters' backstories and the role Rick's nephew Diego played in the story as well. A fun Christmas read set right around the holidays with some laugh-out-loud cute moments :)

I’d love to visit Moose Springs!

This is a friends to lovers heartwarming romcom. I loved how Lana ( her family’s business) who owns most of the commercial properties and is an outsider is sensitive to the residents feelings and tries to find an even balance as well as be accepted into the fold. Rick is a divorced struggling business owner and raising his nephew. The sparks are there as well as the flirting and hilarious banter.

I liked the romance better in the first book however I did enjoy this storyline and secondary characters so much better. I liked the slow burn between Lana and Rick, I was hoping for a bit more intensity given Lana’s character.

This series is full of quirky fun characters. Someone is always up to something and there is always a mischievous animal causing havoc. What I loved the most is how the residents all come together for the love of their town.

As a thriller addict I love reading these light funny romantic comedies in between.
This is a great sequel to The Tourist Attraction and am excited for Easton’s story.

If you're looking for snowy and sweet this one is great. I just had a hard time getting over her use of the word "dearest" all the time. Who talks like that?

The scene at the B&B is hilarious though.

After finishing The Tourist Attraction, I didn’t really have any motivation to read Mistletoe and Mr. Right. TTA was just a so so read for me and my idiot self thought MaMR was a continuation of Zoe and Graham’s story. Probably would help if I ever read the synopsis’s of books.
I was happily surprised when Mistletoe and Mr. Right followed Zoe’s best friend Lana. I loved Lana in the first book and was thrilled to dive more into her life. I loved Zoe’s story and learning all about her ticks and what made her a Montgomery. I related to Lana and Rick’s characters more and liked their story line way better than Zoe and Graham’s. Their slow burn relationship was so cute and wholesome, and left me smiling at parts. I loved the continuation of the Moose Springs story line from The Tourist Attraction.
My favorite part of the book definitely had to be when Lana and Rick went on their first date to the Bed and Breakfast. It had me giggling and I could imagine being there. It was the perfect first date for those two.
There were a couple things that held me back from loving this book. I feel like all the drama with her cousin was just thrown in there for some extra pizazz and didn’t really add anything to the story line. I don’t feel like it was wrapped up very well either. Just kind of breezed over that he had surgery and was doing better. I also hate that her and Rick had to break up. I feel like the breakup of main characters, because of not communicating, and then realizing they can’t be without each other once they’ve broken up, is so over done and predictable. I feel like Rick and Lana were more mature than that and definitely could’ve had a less cliché ending. I also liked Zoe and Graham less and less throughout this book. Their relationship is so cheesy and cliché. Barf. Their proposal.. eye roll. The last 20% of the book went down hill for me.
Overall, it was a 3 star book for me. Just like the first, I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. The Christmas theme isn’t as strong as I would have preferred. More just a book set during winter time.

A sweet romance about two lonely people but it lacked some of the quirkiness of the first story.

Lana Montgomery is the most hated woman in a tiny tourist town that hates tourists. Lana wants to build luxury condos next to the luxury resort. A resort which the town already hates, which brings enough of those damned rich tourists flocking to their town. But coming to Moose Springs every year has been the highlight of Lana’s life since she was a child. She wants to share that love of Moose Springs with others and she wants to see the town succeed. Most people in the town don’t realize that the resort is struggling on the verge of bankruptcy and if there are no more of those annoying tourist dollars coming in, Moose Springs will suffer and die out of existence.

Rick Harding owns the local pool hall and is one of the business owners who has tried to keep his business as locals only. But his local only policy isn’t keeping his business in the black. He can barely keep the rent paid on his dilapidated building which is now owned by the Montgomery Group. He’d like to ask Lana on a date but how do you approach your landlady when you are a month behind on the rent?

In a desperate attempt to win over the town, Lana volunteers to try to locate and trap a moose which the town calls Santa Moose who keeps destroying everyone’s outdoor Christmas decorations.

This story breaks down to two very lonely people who live in completely different worlds. Lana may be up for the next head of the Montgomery Group, but even she needs to go wherever she is told to for the benefit of the company. Her luggage might be Gucci, but the lives out of it like a nomad. She is never anywhere long enough to make a relationship work. Rick’s wife, his high school sweetheart, left him and Moose Springs years ago, leaving him to take her of her orphaned nephew. Growing up in a small town where you know everyone leaves something to be desired when the few eligible woman were more like your sisters than potential romance. Even though they knew their chances at a HEA were doomed from the start, Lana and Rick are drawn to each other and both hope to enjoy their time together while they can.

I liked Rick and Lana together although the whole story was shrouded in that oppressive “we can only be temporary” sad vibe. I also understand that stories require that defining moment or the conflict which splits the characters up but I have a problem when it feels forced upon us to accept. In this case, Rick is supporting Lana in a “I don’t want you to be alone moment” (something which will effect one of the other characters which we really liked) but then someone gives Rick the “Lana’s too important for you” speech (which he already knew), Rick suddenly walks away leaving Lana to suffer alone in her trauma. This was not only out of character, but more of a WTF moment to me. Rick went with Lana to support her and less than 12 hours later he abandons her with an excuse they both know is BS even though she is still dealing with bad shit. Really? The Rick we were given up to this point would have sucked it up for another day or two until Lana was steadier because he was there to support her. Whether her family believed he was unworthy of her wouldn’t change if he stayed with her for two or three days more. It was a jerk move to abandon her suddenly and if I was Lana, I wouldn’t have fought so hard for someone who abandoned me when I needed someone to lean on.

While Rick and Lana were a nice couple, this story lacked some of the magic that we had in the first story about Moose Springs. We were also given an opportunity to see behind the curtain and where The Tourist Trap run by Graham was always busy and lively because they were flooded with annoying tourists, those businesses like Rick’s who catered just to the small population of locals, were struggling to survive and his only options were soon going to be to sell his soul and open to the tourists or close up entirely. It painted a sad picture of tourist driven areas where the locals hate the people they depended upon. The desperation of the town paired with Lana and Rick’s loneliness made for an overwhelmingly sad story.

I struggled with this book. I have a hard time wanting to read a book with chapters so long. I also did not really like Lana in Tourist Attraction so having a whole book about her was hard.

Lana Montgomery thinks Moose Springs is the perfect place to set up her families business condominiums. The townsfolk do not seem to agree, and are not a fan of Lana. Rick Harding is behind on his payments to the Montgomery Group, and is not sure he will be able to open next year. Lana decides to strike up a deal with him, to help him keep his bar open. She loves Moose Springs and wants everyone to succeed. To try and win the townsfolk over, she decides she’s going to capture the Santa moose, that has been eating all the holiday decorations.

This is the second book in the Moose Springs, Alaska series, and I was so excited to read it. I loved the first book so much, I couldn’t wait for the second. I thought this book was cute, but I did not love it as much as I wanted to. I loved being back in Moose Springs, the characters, and the addition of the Santa moose. But, this one fell a little flat for me. I thought Rick and Lana were a cute couple, but I didn’t really feel the chemistry was that strong between them two. Overall, it’s a cute book and I would recommend if you’re looking for a light holiday read!

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Full review: https://www.inabookshell.com/2020/11/review-mistletoe-and-mrright.html

A compliment from him felt like a warm brownie & a mug of hot tea in front of a fireplace.”

I finally got around to finish this book. I’ve been wanting to since September but couldn’t. This was a slow read, with emphasis on the exaggerated slow. I have the most mixed feelings about it in the history of mixed feelings. I’ll probably use that line, again😃. I liked and disliked Lana. Her character seemed inconsistent at times. Not at times, all the time. To start with something basic, she’s got rules as to what Montgomerys are supposed to behave but she acts the opposite way when she gets nervous in board meetings, doesn’t follow propriety when it comes to sitting, and hugs her friend Zoey.

“Montgomerys didn’t hug either, but some rules were made to be broken.”

She speaks of being good at managing her company but doesn’t specifically enjoy it. She’s not highly ambitious either, which is why the climax of the story isn’t justified. If Lana was shown handling other business aspects that don’t include Moose Springs, her business savvy would've been believable.

“Negotiating a million-dollar deal over cocktails was a normal thursday for her.”

Rick was fine. I liked him more than Lana even though he was a pretty routine character. His strengths, pain, and his love felt real. I enjoyed all his scenes with his family, friends, and Lana.

“They’d been doing this for three years now. Cereal. Roger. Sitting on the couch to watch TV and eat in silence. Pissed-off cat on one side, pissed-off twenty-year-old on the other. Rick picked up his cereal bowl and took a bite. Unbelievably grateful for them both.”

I liked the ensemble characters and their stories more than Lana and Rick. Zoey and Graham, Quinn and Diego, I sincerely hope they have their books. My least favorite part was the moose. In the beginning, it was fun, bizarre, and weird but the entire moose concept got annoying quick.

This gave me a lot of Gilmore Girls' vibes. It could be because of the Town-Hall meeting, single town officer, mayor, diner... This novel is set in the town of Moose Springs, a tourist spot in Alaska. While slow-paced, the writing is engaging and has excellent flow. The author made it easy to imagine the situations. It's written in the third person in Lana and Rick’s perspectives. It would’ve worked better if the perspectives switched chapter-to-chapter instead of in between them.

Mistletoe and Mr.Right is recommended to all rom-com book lovers. Overall, a good, holiday read. ARC provided by Sarah Morgenthaler and Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley. Thank you.

Just when I thought I couldn’t love Moose Springs more.. you meet a wealthy socialite who can take on anyone that crosses her while wearing a flawless outfit or showing a single ounce of how badly it truly hurts her. And the rugged bar owner whose heart broken, scraping by, and torn in too many directions.. and you will.. you will somehow fall in love with this town and this community all over again.

Being back in Moose Springs is such a treat. I love this town. If I was Lana, I too would have fallen in love with it.

I love the Christmas setting of this book and the element of Lana hunting this elusive moose. I also loved getting to know more about Lana and her family. I don't exactly love her family but I do love seeing where she comes from and what's led to her wanting to create this sense of home in Moose Springs. Rick is so sweet. He's kinda a reluctant grump, but then he goes home and talks to his pets and tries to do his best by Diego and you can't help but fall for him. He's an absolute sweetheart.

I loved watching them build this relationship and see what it could truly be through his reluctance to get back out there and Lana's family obligations. Also, I'm a huge fan of the town and everyone in it so that aspect certainly didn't hurt.

Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Sarah Morgenthaler is the second book in the Moose Spring series. I did not know it was part of a series until I started reading and realized the town and characters had already been explained in the previous book. I did catch up quickly, and think most other newcomers will be able to as well.

Lana Montgomery is everything the quirky small town of Moose Springs, Alaska can't stand: a rich socialite with dreams of changing things for the better. But Lana's determined to prove that she belongs...even if it means trading her stilettos for snow boots and tracking one of the town's hairiest Christmas mysteries: the Santa Moose, an antlered Grinch hell-bent on destroying every bit of holiday cheer (and tinsel) it can sink its teeth into. The last few years have been tough on Rick Harding, and it's not getting any easier now that his dream girl's back in town. When Lana accidentally tranquilizes him instead of the Santa Moose, it's clear she needs help, fast...and this could be his chance to finally catch her eye. It's an all-out Christmas war, but if they can nab that darn moose before it destroys the town, Rick and Lana might finally find a place where they both belong, together.

Mistletoe and Mr. Right is a book that captured my attention with the promise of quirky characters and a quirkier town. I loved the Santa Moose, taxidermy squirrels, and a town full of interesting but stubborn people. I found myself quickly caring about Lana and her struggle to balance family, business, and herself- particularly since family and business were so intertwined. I was equally interested in Rick, his need to balance friends, business, and his nephew. I really liked the story building and getting to know some of the residents of Moose Spring. I will say that I think returning readers to this series will have a better understanding of most of the characters and the dynamics of the small town, going in. So they will likely enjoy the read more than newcomers like myself. I also found Lana's speech patterns a little distracting. I know some people use chosen words quite often, but her use of 'dearest' seemed odd to me. It just became distracting to me after awhile, particularly when being used towards just about everyone. I liked Lana and Rick together, and the cute animals involved even if they felt a little gimmicky in the bigger picture of the story. I found myself smiling often while reading because of them regardless. I was a little annoyed that I still do not know how everything with Lana's business side works out, and I have several unanswered questions about the town, the moose, and the resort. I hope those questions are answered as the series continues.

Mistletoe and Mr. Right is a fun romance with good characters and interactions. I was a good read, but will be even better to fans of the series.

I didn't love this one- I really enjoyed the first book in this series but I felt like the romance here didnt feel as natural and I didn't love Lana's character as a protagonist. It was overall cute and I enjoyed revisiting the town and characters from the first novel.

Mistletoe and Mr. Right is the follow up to The Tourist Trap which I read earlier this year and absolutely adored, so I was pretty excited to read this and return to Moose Springs, Alaska. We have Lana who works for a company that recently bought a lot of the businesses in town and is trying to find a way to help them out but the town wants nothing to do with her. We are also following Rick who owns a small bar and is one of the businesses in need of help. Overall I really enjoyed this one, I loved seeing a softer side of Lana who wasn't my favorite character in the first one. Lana really loves the town and just wanted everyone to be successful there. I wasn't a huge fan of the Santa moose plot line that seemed to take up a lot of this book, the reveal of the Santa moose was a bit of a let down for me. I still really loved the writing and the town and the characters and can not wait to read the third book in the series! Thank you to netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for my complimentary copy for my honest review.