In Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, Elinor Noel, an unassuming bookshop owner and lover of secondhand books, heads back to her hometown in the English countryside for a pre-wedding celebration hosted by two of her high school friends. Her private school classmates have taken over a castle for the week, but, as is sometimes the case as friends grow older, friendships and relationships have changed and things that once seemed acceptable turn out to be not. And Elinor, the former scholarship student of the bunch, still struggles to find her place in this group, her family, and among the members of her childhood hometown.

Expect to find some discussions of class in this one, a reunion with a childhood crush / brother's best friend / sort of former enemy, plenty of Christmas trimmings, and some rightings of wrongs.

The setting was lovely; the dynamics were interesting; and I rather enjoyed the epilogue. But I found myself not as engaged in the main storyline as I had hoped to be. I was more invested and interested in the outcome of Ameerah and Dev's storyline than in Elinor and Isaac's. Unfortunately, I found the reading of this 400+ page novel to be a bit slow going at some points.

That being said, the antics in the snow, the town tree lighting, the shop window decorations, and the copious garlands at the castle are sure to put you in the Christmas spirit.

I received an advance copy from Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

Nory, a used bookstore owner, is back in her hometown staying in a castle for her posh friend’s wedding. Reunited after years apart, this group of high school friends have lots of secrets and shared memories.

But during the week-long festivities, Nory is drawn to her former childhood nemesis, Isaac, who now runs the castle grounds and gardens.

I thought this would just be a charming Christmas romance, but it deals with the fallout from one of the friends in their group who had committed suicide a few years prior. Mental health, adultery, and classism are just a few of the heavier topics discussed in this book.

This one is the perfect Christmas book club pick for 2022.

Jenny Bayliss just truly KILLS the Christmas Romance, however this one was not quite the winner that I was hoping for! I really struggled to get going with this book, and I found myself putting it down a lot. We have Nory who runs a second hand book shop in London, and as a book lover this grabbed my heart. However, we follow Nora's she is struggling with going to her friends wedding in a castle, and this brings up old memories and she starts to realize that she has feelings for an old friend. Overall, it was cute, but not a binge able read that i was looking forward to.

MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE is a standalone contemporary romance by Jenny Bayliss. This story definitely gives off The Big Chill and Four Weddings and a Funeral vibe. Elinor “Nory” Noel is preparing to leave her beloved London bookshop to spend a few days at a castle with old school chums. Most of these friends she hasn’t seen or had any meaningful encounter with in years. They’re getting together for their mutual friend’s wedding extravaganza to another of their old friends. Nory has mixed feelings. Part of her is looking forward to it, and part of her is dreading seeing her old friend guy after he screwed her over (literally). Her BFF Ameerah finally convinces her to take a chance. I found MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.

One thing I really appreciate about this story is that the female protagonist doesn’t spend time agonizing over the “nice guy” and the handsome jerk or wind up having a fling with the jerk in order to finally realize the defects in his character. Nory pretty much knows whom she likes and doesn’t like, and the obvious reasons why. The friends are all realistically flawed – some more than others. Nobody’s entirely good or entirely bad. Ameerah is my favorite of the friend group. She’s a hoot and always supportive for Nory. Isaac is a delightful and unexpected blast from the past. While at school, Isaac was on the outside of Nory’s friend group – having not attended her posh school – and a misunderstanding kept them from ever forming any type of deep attachment. Now Isaac has taken over for his late father as head gardener and the two of them are thrown together in all sorts of delicious ways. They find they have many similar interests and are wildly attracted to each other. Sigh. The sexual tension and flirting is superbly written.

MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE has a healthy mix of holiday magic, the messy minutia of everyday life, and a swoon-worthy romance. I loved it! The dysfunctional family dynamic between Nory and her brother felt very authentic and added another layer of depth to these characters. Jenny Bayliss does a wonderful job of creating complex characters and having relationships that seem to evolve very organically. I look forward to reading Jenny Bayliss’ next book.

Super cute holiday romance in an English castle. Some of the English slang was very unusual to my American ears, but I think I enjoyed that part the most! There were a few too many side characters without enough differentiation—Pippa and Jenna were basically the same person to me, and Jeremy was gone for most of the book. But the main two characters and their romance was fun, and I’d recommend it!

I find myself going back and forth for my rating between 3-4 stars so I'll settle on 3.5.

Am I the only one that feels like Bayliss books feel really long? It took me about 30% to finally get invested. It also could've done without 75-100 pages. This is actually my one gripe about all of her books. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot. The group of friends were delightful to be around and each one brought something to the group dynamic. I loved that Bayliss didn't shy away from heavy topics between them all such as: suicide, discrimination, infidelity, alcoholism, social inequality. It definitely felt based more on the wedding and the group more then Nory and Isaac. Their romance took the back burner with how many characters there were. I would classify this as more of a contemporary/general fiction. Also, I didn't really get a Christmas vibe, because the wedding overshadowed most of the "season vibes" but it still helped set up the castle image for me. Which leads me to my final thoughts: feel free to read this anytime of year.

I think Bayliss books might be moving to library holds for me. Not in a negative way but only because they are hit or miss with me. Still enjoyably though!

I loved this book so much!
 
We meet Elinor “Nory” Noel who runs a bookshop called Serendipitous Seconds. (Obsessed with the name!) Andrew is her coworker. Her family is in the plant nursery business and she has an old cat named Mugwort. Nory is a woman who went to a local private school, Braddon-Hartmead, on scholarship and has a group of friends from that time called “The Shits and Giggles” gang. The group is gathering at the castle that is connected to the grounds of the private school they went to for Jenna and Charlie’s wedding. The book takes on an adventure of meeting all of the “shits and giggles” gang, reliving old memories and making new ones.
 
To avoid a run-in with Guy, Nory heads to the restroom, to inevitably get caught by Guy who tries to talk to her. She runs outside to get away from him and ends up in the garden. She notices a type of hellebore that she doesn’t know. Isaac sneaks up on her and causes her to fall into a wheelbarrow full of manure, YUCK, and the rest is history. Just kidding. But this is when they get reacquainted with each other and get to know each other. They only really know each other from back in the day when they had a mud war going on.
 
There are so many different characters in this book that it was hard to keep straight at times, so I made a list. They each play their role and I really did enjoy all the different dynamics, but Isaac and Nory are my favorite (of course).
 
Note: the full moon and snow ritual is everything.
 
If you are looking for a cute wintertime romance then look no further! This book was so cute! And I don’t want to give away the reason for the title, so you need to read it to find out!

Thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss.

I've enjoyed her previous books and the unique charm and picturesque settings so I was excited to read Meet Me Under the Mistletoe and unfortunately I was disappointed in this one. The beginning was too slow for me with too many characters to keep track of - I lost interest and didn't really like Nory very much.

This was more of a 3.5 for me, but will round down for review purposes. I really enjoyed Jenny Bayliss' first holiday rom-com so was looking forward to reading more from her. The language in this one was a much sassier than I remember in her debut novel, but it's all bark and no bite, with all of the action happening behind closed doors. TW for suicide/depression, though it happens in the past and is only alluded to. The story follows Eleanor "Nory" Noel, who grew up a working class scholarship kid at a prestigious boarding school, who returns back home from her London secondhand vintage bookstore to attend the wedding of two of her school day friends at the castle estate bordering their alma mater. Once there, she has to navigate her relationship with her old brother, who resents her for the opportunity she had that he did not, and avoid Guy, a friend who she had a one night stand with the last time the group all got together without knowing that he was married with children. After having to run out in the middle of the night to avoid his advances, she stumbles into Isaac, the castle's head gardener and her brother's best friend, who then helps her clean off after a mishap involving a wheelbarrow full of manure and they catch up in his cozy garden cottage. The sparks immediately fly between them, but both Nory's brother and Isaac's boss have forbidden any fraternization between the two.

This was a cute read where the picturesque settings were also some of the better characters. God knows they were better characters than Guy. There was some depth to it with the themes of suicide and class, but it skirted the surface level and didn't feel heavy. The wealthy friend group was out of touch and hard to like with the exception of Ameerah, and I have a really hard time believing that for such a close group of friends, not one was invited to Guy's wedding and knew he was married when he came on to Nory. It packed in the brother's best friend, forbidden romance, third act breakup and miscommunication tropes, with the latter two not being my favorites, but overall it was still a sweet holiday read. I preferred her first novel and still have to read her second to compare.

I would like to thank NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for advance copy of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe in return for a honest review.

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by Jenny Bayliss is cute Christmas Romcom. Elinor( Nory) is the owner of a second hand book store. She reconnects with her school friends at week long reunion to celebrate their friends’ upcoming wedding. While there she runs into her childhood enemy Issac.
For me this book was slow moving with characters I didn’t care for. I especially felt like Nory has a lot of growing up to do and by that I mean figuring out what she wants for herself in life. I enjoyed that Nory owned a bookstore and Issac loved books. Over all Meet Me Under the Mistletoe was an average read for me.

I adored this book. While at its core, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is a Christmas romance between Nory and Isaac, what I especially liked were the interweaving of the love between Nory's school friend group and all their ups and downs and the love that is the foundation of Nory's family dynamics as imperfect as they are. It's a charming book with some humor, mystery, and drama. Did I mention there's a wedding, a castle and a secondhand bookstore? I'm very glad the stories of Nory's friends weren't dragged along to become 2 sequels as is the trend these days. Not everything needs to be a trilogy.

*I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and I am required to disclose that in my review in compliance with federal law.

"A city bookshop owner heads to the English countryside for a holiday reunion— only to face her childhood enemy."

THE POTENTIAL THIS ONE HAD. I have never been so physically angry over my disappointment in a book. It was supposed to be a fun cute holiday rom com, but instead this book tried too hard to do too much and ended up doing nothing at all. There were too many side plots trying to address too many complex social issues, to the point where I just felt overwhelmed and lost in the storyline. I ended up DNFing for my sanity.

This book was too long in my opinion. The premise was good but there were so many side things going on that it took away from the story for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

I loved The Twelve Dates of Christmas, but this one just didn’t live up to the hype. I was expecting a cutesy Christmas story and this is more women’s fiction in my opinion. I liked it, but I didn’t love it.

Because of the intricacy of the relationships in the story, it took a few chapters to really get into this book while the characters were still being set up. But once the story picked up I couldn't put it down. The characters are so lovable (even the unlikable ones!) and the plot itself is was so cute and cozy. For me, Nory's unique relationship with her friends is what really set this book apart from the others. With the dreamiest "English castle at Christmastime" backdrop, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe will 100% be one I reread every winter from here on out. Absolutely recommend to anyone looking for a light, wintry read!

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe is a great light read that follows Elinor and her childhood friends later in life. Many will be able to relate to issues raised either directly or through those they know. It’s not all cherry but Elinor finds herself and what she’s been missing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and recommend it as a good book to read in the evenings before bed!

Posted to Goodreads on 9/29

I really loved the twelve dates of christmas. It brought a smile to my face. I enjoyed this book. I love all kinds of christmas books and I really enjoyed the fact that it took place in a bookstore. I loved how she was having trouble letting go of the books because they were so special to her. It made me think of how happy you feel inside a cozy bookstore. I do think the book moved a little too slow.

DNF at 40%

This book didn't work for me. There seemed yo be a lot of extra conflict thrown in and too many side stories. I found the female lead to be rather unlikable.

What a cute story! I loved the dynamic between Issac and Nory. Such a feel good story to head into the holiday season

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC of "Meet Me Under the Mistletoe", written by Jenny Bayliss. It was released on September 27th, 2022.

Overall, I rated this novel 3/5 stars!

The story revolves around Nory, who owns a secondhand bookstore and previously attended an elite private school on scholarship when she was younger. She is spending a week with former classmates preparing for a friend's wedding festivities.

Some things I didn't enjoy about this book:
*it was incredibly long
*the main portion of the book did not involve romance, which I guess I was really in the mood for while reading. LOL I read more personality and chemistry between Nory and her friends than with Nory and Isaac.