There’s Something About Merry by Codi Hall
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Publication date: September 5, 2022

Merry and Clark knew each other in high school, but kept their mutual crush on each other a secret. Now, several years later, they find themselves as neighbors and working together. They both begin messaging a stranger on an online dating site, not realizing they are talking to each other. Will life get in their way of connecting with each other?

This book is the second in a series about a family in Mistletoe, Idaho who have a Christmas tree farm. Book 1, titled Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist, was a popular read released last October. This one tells the story of Nick’s sister, Merry, and how she finds love.

This is a cute romantic comedy that felt very much like reading a Lifetime movie. I loved the welcoming family, Christmas tree farm, and single dad trope - but the dialogue felt a little forced to me and the pacing was odd.

It felt very realistic in the sense that the main characters said awkward things to each other while first dating. 😅 MMC, Clark, will have readers swooning over his adorable son.

Perfect for you if you like:
Single dad trope
Dual POV
Small town romance

Thank you to sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for the advanced review copy. There’s Something About Merry is also available as an audiobook on Audible.

This might be my favorite holiday read of the year. Think Hallmark if only Hallmark was rated R!

There's Something About Merry follows the story of Merry and Clark. Clark is a single father, and while I usually find children annoy irl, his son Jace was a bright and cute spot in the story that helped Merry and Clark see each other's true intentions without a long, drawn out confrontation. Merry's sugary sweet personality and Clark's guardedness complimented each other in the best ways. The things I truly loved about this story were that 1.) I didn't have to wait until halfway through the book for them to figure out they were chatting with each other online 2.) there is room to continue their story and 3.) the SPICE!!. This was by far the spiciest holiday romance I have read and has now set the standard of what I want in a holiday book! @authorcodihallgary please give me more books like this one!

I started reading this book and didn’t realize it was #2 of the Mistletoe Romance series. I didn’t read the first book, but I really enjoyed this one! This book gave me all the feels, it was super cute. I loved the two MC’s, Merry and Clark. Clark is my maiden name so right away I knew I was going to like this book🙌 I suggest going in blind, I just read the synopsis and it gives it all away. Let’s just say, Merry doesn’t have the best of luck in the boyfriend department and Clark is a single dad who works for her families Christmas Tree Farm. Loved the small town feel and how family doesn’t have to be something your born into😍

Highly recommend this book! It made me laugh out loud, smile and tear up.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publish date: September 6, 2022

This was a cute, small-town, holiday romance, set in Mistletoe, Idaho. Merry was a great main character, as she was relatable and funny, but you could understand some of her angst about dating and men. Clark, in my opinion, was a fantastic love interest. He was cute, charming, and a great father to his 7 year old son, Jace. I enjoyed a lot of this story. The setting, the flirting, the angst, the will they or won't they, and the family dynamics. I also enjoyed the online dating aspect, kind of relating back to the 90s movie You've Got Mail. This book was a quick read for me, and I think it would be a perfect Christmas romance. It kind of reminded me of a Hallmark movie, just in book form.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

* I received an arc in exchange for an honest review
This book was so cute. Definitely gave me hallmark movie vibes with how the characters and setting came together. The pacing was weird as it was very slow and then BAM instant romance but other than that it was a good read! The story was interesting enough that it wasn't instantly predictable

I was excited to get this ARC from netgalley as I loved the story of Nick and Noel by this author. This book follows Nick's sister Merry and her love interest Clark. It was a very cute Rom-com and a perfect Christmas read, as the whole town seems to be built around Christmas. It times it got a little cheesy, but for the most part I enjoyed the journey of Merry and Clark.

This is a very slow romance build. I stopped reading at 7%. DNF


*******************************I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion.*************************************

This is the second book in the Mistletoe series. I haven’t read the first one of the series, but I’m definitely gonna snag it after this one!

This was such a cute holiday story! The town of Mistletoe sounds like a dream, especially at Christmastime. I really enjoyed all of the characters - the Winters family and Jace were so lovable. The relationship between Clark & Merry was adorable and so sweet. And of course, the best part was Merry’s side business making & selling crocheted voodoo peens 🤣

There is most definitely something about Merry this Holiday season. This book was so much fun to read. It was a laugh out loud Rom Com with the holiday flair this Christmas loving reader couldn’t put down. The winters family Christmas tree farm was the perfect setting for this story. Clark the single father to Jace is hired as the new Forman on the winters family farm. Merry is back home after several failed relationships, and a year long dating hiatus. Sparks fly between the pair but Is the chance of love worth taking the risk? Find out for yourself and pick up this book!

There’s Something About Merry by Codi Hall
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This cutely crafted Hallmarkesque holiday read features favoured festive tropes including: seasonally thematic names; a Christmas Tree farm; a single father; an adorable kid; forced proximity; a couple that “𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵” get together; meddling loved ones; feel-good family vibes and a happily ever after — but with an intriguing plot twist and a little more 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘦 than is typically included in the made for TV movies.

❤️ The pros
The characters are a uniquely lovable, dynamic and well-matched pair. A combination of cute and comical moments punctuate the easily flowing plot. There is a dash of deeper content at play, but overall this is a lighthearted and easy holiday read.

💔 The cons
At times the story dragged a bit for me and could have been a little bit more tightly edited to ensure it entirely held my attention through to the end.

❣️ In summary
In a few words this quirky, family-centred romcom is marvellously merry and brilliantly bright. Highly recommend for holiday romance enthusiasts who adore festive films everyone “loves to hate” — but deep down really just loves.

❄️ 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘌-𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸. ❄️

SUCH a cute book, I am not a hallmark movie watcher so while I thought this was gonna be a cute and fun read I was not expecting to love it as much as i did!

This is a lighthearted feel-good holiday story following Merry and Clark, who had fleeting feelings for each other as teenagers and now once again as adults. The story can be a bit chaotic at times, there was definitely a scene or two that felt like it should’ve been taken out but over all it was such a good read and I devoured it. The way Merry and Clarks relationship bloomed was really precious,

I absolutely loved the maturity of everyone in this book, and that the “dramatic” scenes didn’t feel too over the top because they were handled correctly; also the fact that there was no third act break up. I would however have liked to see a little bit more spice thrown in.

If you love small towns, supportive family and friends, Christmas, and HEA’s this book is definitely for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. This was my first by Hall and I loved it! If you are a Christmas Hallmark movie fan, this will be your jam! It is a tad cliche and predictable, but the story and wonderful characters make up for it. Can't wait for more.

3.5 Stars This was such a cute second change (or third chance?) romance! I haven’t read the first book in this series of standalones, but luckily it wasn’t necessary and it wasn’t difficult to understand who the characters were or their backstories. Merry Winters is coming off a year of being single after a series of bad boyfriends and decides to try online dating. She connects with a guy on a dating app, who turns out to be Clark Griffin, her neighbor, high school crush, and her parents’ employee at their Christmas tree farm. Clark is a single dad who had a crush on Merry when she was in high school and when he discovered she was his online crush, he was shocked and made a mistake. Now he has a second chance (or maybe third chance if you count their high school selves) to make things work with Merry. I loved the dual POV in this, especially when you heard Clark’s thoughts about seeing Merry take care of his son. Definitely recommend this one!

Be sure to be in a Christmas mood for this one since it reminds me of a Hallmark movie in reference to absolutely everything being Christmas-y. Not a bad thing, it’s just currently 100 degrees here with the heat index and I guess I’m just not 100% in the mood for a full fledged Christmas story.
With that being said, I thought this story was well written and I enjoyed the characters very much. He’s a single dad who has came to her family’s farm as the newly hired foreman. A job Merry wanted. They knew each other in school, but were never friends. What starts off as friendly become more when they meet in a dating app…

Easy read, relatable characters. Enjoyable to read although not very compelling.

Suitable for ya

There’s Something About Merry by Codi Hall is a book that reads more like a school assignment with a minimum word count. It’s long, really long, but despite all those words, the author has somehow forgotten to include a plot. Basically, Merry lives in a tiny house on her parents’ farm. She’s recently returned home after spending some time elsewhere dating men who were bad for her. Now, however, she’s ready to find that one person who fills her heart with joy.

For those of you who don’t recognize it, the above is a mangled quote from You’ve Got Mail because I think this book is supposed to be an homage to that movie. Our two LIs meet via a dating app that, oddly, doesn’t include pictures of the people searching for partners. The pictures have to be excluded since our LIs live on the same farm, practically next door to each other. This stretches credulity but we’re going to move on anyway.

The two characters write to each other frequently and they’re really boring pen pals. Their notes include such interesting topics as favorite vegetables. If you’re familiar with You’ve Got Mail, you know that the correspondence the audience experiences is either related to the business conflict or charming expositions on fall in NYC. Also … and this is key to the success of You’ve Got Mail … only one of the LIs knows the truth until the very end of the movie.

Although it takes us a really long time to get to anything happening in this book, the author gives up the pen pal secret almost immediately, which pretty much – no, no, actually entirely – ruins the tension. After that, all we have is a “will they or won’t they.” And now …

We need to talk about the sex scenes. I’m sorry. I don’t want to either and right now I feel like Lady Bridgerton discussing sex with her daughter before the wedding. Haven’t seen it? It’s pretty funny but these sex scenes aren’t. They are awkward. They are uncomfortable to read. They are weird in the way that women’s body parts are sometimes written by men.

I expected an undulating breast to vibrate out of Mary’s dress and into Clark’s mouth but sadly that didn’t happen. Also, somewhere in there is a missed opportunity to re-use the word screw for the 324th time.

Don’t worry. We still have a loooong way to go before this book is finished. We need to acquire a pet, meet Clark’s baby mama, put Mary in front of a TV camera, have a weird encounter with the pet’s prior owner, meet Clark’s brother, take family photos, decorate for Christmas, have Thanksgiving dinner … I give up. There’s so much covered in this book. And yet it feels a bit like trying to walk through ankle deep mud while keeping your shoes on your feet.

The author also needed an editor or a friend to say something along the lines of “you can cut out the handwashing, the cars turning around, the majority of dog walks, the single highly stereotyped gay character.”

Don’t deny it. You already know that Clark is jealous of the gay best friend because, of course, the author went there. And also had the gay friend give clothing advice. I mean, don’t all gay men shop with their straight girlfriends and use jazz hands?

My recommendation? Get some popcorn and watch You’ve Got Mail. It’s more fun.

I received a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a really fun Christmassy book following Merry & Clark, and is a follow up to NICK & NOEL’S CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST. I really enjoy these small-town stories where each book follows a character in the town, or in this case, in the same family. While I liked this, I definitely preferred the first one. Merry & Clark have a cute romance over the course of the book, and I enjoyed the Christmas vibes and the big family elements with the Winters and their Christmas tree farm, and Jace’s relationship with his father, but the writing and dialogue in this was just not up to par. I can’t remember if the first book was like this, but I don’t think it was? There were just the cheesiest lines and the most stilted dialogue, and while I can ignore it here and there, it was one thing after another that built up to the point where I just cringed every few pages. Also, there was no third-act breakup, which I liked, but there was also just no really controversy at the end, which made me feel like the story was just trucking along for nothing? I like there to be a bit of a conflict, and while there was the potential for something, it didn’t pan out to the extent I expected. If you’re looking for a really light-hearted book, you should check this out, but it wasn’t my favorite.

This book is about Merry and Clark. It was just okay. I enjoyed the puns and fandom references but the story just a bit too over the top for me. It felt like I was reading a Hallmark movie. It was an easy read if you love all things Christmas.

I was given an Advanced Review Copy by NetGalley for an honest review.

From the author of Nick and Noel’s Holiday Playlist comes another holiday romance featuring a different member of the Winters Family. This Christmas story was like a hallmark movie on steroids. It was cheesy, and completely over the top, but I was here for all of it. It gave me all the Christmas feels - and had me smiling and dreaming of Christmas even though it’s 5 months away. I mean - you’ve got the Winters family, who own a Christmas tree farm. The children’s names were Nick, Merry, Holly and Noel. The love interest’s name is Clark (and his favorite Christmas movie coincidentally is Christmas Vacation). The setting, a town named Mistletoe, feels cozy and quaint. The parents are basically perfect, the dialogue is perfect, the banter is funny, and it’s just a really great, light Christmas rom-com that will have you ready for Christmas by the end of the book.

I did take off half a star because reading the sex scenes had me rolling my eyes so much I had to skip ahead through them, but for those of you that know my book preferences - I’m a bigger fan of a clean romance book anyway. So - this is probably just a me thing.

Thanks you to @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Release date: Sept. 6.

After reading Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist last year and loving it!! I couldn’t wait for the next book in the series and There’s Something about Merry was worth the wait!

Merry Winters has moved home to her family’s Christmas Tree Farm and wants to learn the business to take over from her father. Single parent Clark Griffin has taken on the Foreman job at the Farm and remembers Merry from High School. They are both looking for the one and unknown to them have been anonymously flirting with each other online.

I adored all the characters in this book. I love getting to spend more time with the Winters and in this town. The characters are so well written and will make you laugh out loud and then fall in love with them.

This is a heartwarming Christmas story that will make you feel super cozy and put you in the Christmas spirit.

Can’t wait to pick up a physical copy when this one releases September 6th. This one definitely deserves a spot on your Christmas TBR.

Thank you @netgalley and @sourcebookscasa for an early copy of this book for review.