<b>Festive Holiday Bliss and Scorching Chemistry Abound In This Romance</b>

5 Stars

What you need to know about “The Mistletoe Motive”:
✔ Bookshop/workplace romance
✔ Holiday Romance
✔ Enemies to Lovers Romance
✔ Gabriella DiNatale, co-manager of Bailey’s Bookshop
✔ Jonathan Frost, co-manager of Bailey’s Bookshop
✔ Slow Burn
✔ First person narration by Gabby
✔ Epilogue narrated by Jonathan

Get swept up in this festive delight by Chloe Liese.

Gabriella and Jonathan co-manage an independent bookstore. They do not get along.

“I hate him. He is the prickly holly leaf in the Fraser fir garland of my life.”

Their one part-time co-worker quit because he found their dynamic “toxically hostile”.

Gabriella has trouble reading Jonathan’s facial expressions, although she’s memorized many of them after working with him for a year.

“I’m a neurodivergent girl in a neurotypical world, and my autistic brain doesn’t read people the way Jonathan Tactical-Mastermind Frost does.”

She fears that this gives Jonathan an advantage over her even as she admits that they need each other (he’s the brains, she’s the soul of the bookstore) and that the shop’s owners will soon have to choose one of them over the other with the shop's declining financial returns.

“Meaning that while our feud might have started out as a clash of personalities, it’s now a duel to the death.”

Gabriella lives with her best friends Eli and Jane but she sadly foresees a time coming when they will move out and she’ll be alone with her cat. In the meantime, she has a great found family.

Gabby grapples with revealing her neurodivergence to others and thus becoming vulnerable in an uncharitable world. It was really encouraging and satisfying to read about a neurodivergent character unsure of who to let in as I struggle with this as well. Neurodivergence is not very well understood by the majority and it makes it difficult to confide in people and be authentic.

The bookstore that Chloe Liese has conjured is also the shop of my dreams: built-in bookshelves, warm wood everywhere, stacked shelves and an operational fireplace with wingback chairs.

“...the comforting smell of books mingling with fresh-cut evergreens, wraps me in a blanket of festive bliss.”

The Mistletoe Motive is also a blanket of festive bliss with sympathetic and real characters who have undeniable chemistry.

Chloe Liese’s prose, as always, is beautifully crafted and filled with heart, insight and passion.

The relationship between Gabby and Jonathan grows as they learn new things about one another and have their preconceived ideas turned on their head. Liese accomplishes this turn from loathing to loving in an incredibly graceful way allowing the reader insight into the realities of neurodivergence and Type 1 Diabetes. She also gives us profoundly intimate and quiet glimpses into Gabby’s and Jonathan’s hearts.

Gabby and Jonathan’s electrical connection leads the reader happily through this evergreen-scented, magical winter wonderland that is The Mistletoe Motive.

WRITING STYLE: 5/5
PLOT: 5/5
WORLD-BUILDING: 5/5
PACING: 5/5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 5/5
ROMANCE: 5/5
HEAT: 5/5

I received an e-ARC of this book, my opinions are 100% my own.

I'm a huge fan of Chloe Liese's books and I knew this book wasn't going to be the exception.
It's a little shorter than her other books, and we don't have Jonathan's POV, our hero, until the epilogue, but still keeping the essence that Chloe puts in all her books.

The relationship of Gabriella and Jonathan is adorable, they start with a relationship of enmity that little by little takes turns in a relationship where they trust each other.

It’s not a strong enemy as people might like, but if you’re looking for a simple book to read, adorable and with the essence of Christmas, I highly recommend it.

We have a heroine who loves Christmas and romance books, a hero who plays hockey and hates Christmas, not to mention that he also likes to read. You also find, in addition to their adorable moments, their hot moments, in the line of chloe, so if you have already read something of it you know how they are, perfect for these characters and the story.

Finally, I want to mention the representation of characters and tropes in this book, I loved it.

Thank you Chloe, Kobo and Valentine PR for this arc!

Rating: 4.25/5
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Warnings: minor gaslighitng by an ex
Read if you liked: Bergman Charm meets You’ve Got Mail and Window Shopping
Steam: 3/5
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Grumpy/Sunshine, Slow Burn, Forced Proximity, Neurodiversity + Demi-Sexual + Diabetes Rep

Thank you to Kobo Books, Valentine PR and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. The Mistletoe Motive will be released on December 1, 2021 via Kobo.

I’m a Chloe Liese stan…we know this (if you didn’t, now you do)! So give me a holiday E2L, working in a bookstore and a cat named gingerbread and you HAVE ME!

Things I loved: I loved that Jonathan knew ways to take care of Gabby without her knowing…the flowers, the cologne and the peppermint hot chocolate. Gabby being Italian, demi and neurodivine was giving me LIFE. Pizzelle and Sufganiyah mentions…welcome to my holidays. I loved how far the epilogue was set out. The romance reading love. Gingerbread the cat! Friend groups and families. Hockey mentions. The Bailey’s and their sweetness. Mistletoe and all it’s magic. Their understand of each other being different and the beautiful acceptance of it.

Things I didn’t care for: The conflict was pretty mini in the end...but it was also a novella and we got our HEA! I also would have loved his POV but I’m a sucker for dual-POV.

This holiday novella was nothing short of a Christmas gift. I absolutely loved it! I am a huge fan of chloes writing and am obsessed with the Bergman series. I was worried that with this being a novella and not Bergman that she wouldn’t captivate me the same way but man oh man was I wrong. This enemies to lovers was so well written. I couldn’t of asked for a better holiday book. If you’re looking for a steamy, holiday read... look no further!

Thank you so much valentine PR, kobo & Chloe for blessing me with this arc. I will forever cherish this story.

🎄ARC Review🎄

Recently I asked for recommendations of steamy holiday reads or holiday reads that gave you all the feels, but didn’t have to necessarily be steamy. Well my friends, this book checks off BOTH boxes. Gabby and Jonathan, co-managers at Bailey’s Bookstore, despise one another. Or do they?

“I hate him. He is the prickly holly leaf in the Fraser fir garland of my life.”

What I Loved:
-enemies to lover’s x workplace romance
-autism and demisexual representation through Gabby. The reality of how difficult it is for her to navigate relationships and love is real and depicted beautifully
-The angst, but then the love!
-“Mr. Reddit”
-the car ride after the hockey game!!!!
-VERY slow burn and SO worth it ✔️
-steam ✔️
-banter and laugh out loud moments ✔️
-holiday cheer ✔️
-binge worthy ✔️

I will literally read this one every holiday season. It is holiday magic melded with the pure joy of finding love, and all that it entails. The fluid imagery that Liese does with her writing is breathtaking! But let’s also discuss the inclusivity, as she hits on multiple fronts here! The representation of autism, sexuality, and a chronic health condition were perfect in bringing fictional characters to life, ultimately getting a reader to connect even further. This book needs to be at the top of your list for holiday romance reads, and I need a physical copy ASAP, along with this being made into a movie!

✨Rating✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Steam: 🔥🔥 /5

A special thank you to Valentine PR and Chloe Liese for this eARC! The Mistletoe Motive is out December 1st!

Someone come scrape me up off the floor, I'm a puddle of goo.

I've been impatiently waiting all day for this advanced copy of the novella to drop into my Kindle app so that I could dive in. I actually set aside a few hours to read it because I wasn't willing to let anything else distract me. Am I glad I did!

My thoughts:
- This is quintessential Chloe Liese. She has a very distinctive voice and it shines through.
- Neurodivergence, asexual spectrum and type 1 diabetes: the representation is very well done and as a reader, it's always refreshing and eye-opening to read about those.
- Chloe Liese is a master at doing this thing where she throws the couple together, and just when you think things are going to get on, she pulls them away from each other. It makes the tension so delicious.
- Also the attention to small details that she peppers the story with, eg his thumb brushing the back of her hand, the way he drinks his beverage (which logically shouldn't be sexy, but is?), .. you get it.
- The story took some turns that I was not expecting, and made the story all that more interesting.
- I loved reading the story through Gabriella's POV, and the epilogue through Jonathan's POV was the cherry on this very delicious cake that was this holiday novella.

This was *chef's kiss*.

Thank you to Valentine PR for the ARC. All opinions are my own.