𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4/5⭐️⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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𝗪𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝: The setting of this book was so dreamy. Meet Me Under the Mistletoe brings a group of friends together for a wedding at an old castle in the town where they went to school. As a secondary location, Nory (Elinor) also works at a charming little used book store in London and calls back there to check in frequently, giving readers flashes of our favorite type of space. The cozy English countryside setting and bookish elements made this one a really lovely winter read and doesn’t rely too heavily on Christmas.

I really loved the relationship between Nory and Isaac and wish that even more of the book had been focused on them because every scene with the two of them had me swooning. Isaac was such a sweet and caring love interest, and I loved the forbidden partnering of him and Nory together.

I always appreciate a MC’s complicated family relationships and the balance of their “found family”—this book delivered on that, not only with Nory’s eclectic group of childhood friends, but also with her bookstore colleagues and castle staff. Nory’s balance of all the different groups in her life felt very realistic, and that added element of tension made for a great subplot.
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𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞: There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this book and most weren’t particularly likeable. The book spend a significant amount of time focused on the multiple sub-plots and it felt like we were often just skimming the surface of too many stories instead of getting a complete resolution of one. I would have preferred to spend more time with Nory and Isaac.

Did I read this back in August and hold the review to post with my tree? Yes.

I love Jenny Bayliss Christmas books, they’re Christmasy without being over the top and Under the Mistletoe (out now) is no exception.

Nory and a group of boarding school friends meet up for a week of parties before two friends marry. While at the manor house, Nory reconnects with childhood crush, Isaac.

What I liked: The friendships was really well-done and made me long for a meet-up with my college friends. The traditions were cute and I liked how they still loved each other despite differences and disagreements.

Bayliss does a great job of building a small town, manor house, or bookstore, so that you feel like you’re actually there.

Mistletoe is a Christmas book without being over the top holiday focused.

What didn’t work for me: it really bugged me that the main character, Elinor, says she goes by Nory and then the author flips between Elinor and Nory constantly, sometimes in the same paragraph.

The timeframe seemed short from the time Nory and Isaac reconnected to falling in love. In general, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed in the novel or how many days before the wedding.

Then the conflict… I don’t understand why Nory did what she did.

Who should read it: You loved Bayliss’ other books and want a fun friend centered romance.

Thank you @putnambooks and @netgalley for my arc.

This one was perfectly fine. The setting for the story was fun but there were entirely too many characters to keep track of. And many of the characters were just unlikeable and it was tough to imagine them ever being friends. It also tried to tackle too many big issues in one book I such a way that didn’t feel natural. I liked the small town setting, the castle, and the family nursery which lent itself well to the plot. I enjoyed the experience but I wouldn’t rush to recommend it to folks.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 for this British holiday romance. I liked the setting especially the book shop! Oh how id love to visit. There are some tougher topics that were touched on but I didnt mind it. What I didnt like; Nory was a bit frustrating and hard to root for. There was one too many side characters and secondary stories going on that it was a bit tough to keep track of it all. This was marketed as a feel holiday romance and I'm not sure thats true. I didnt exactly get the warm Christmas vibes i wanted to. I enjoyed it for what it was but not sure id recommend it to others

I hate that this is my least favorite Jenny book yet because I was so looking forward to it. There were just SO many side plots and characters that I felt like it really detracted from the main story. It was more contemporary fiction than romance which is fine, but it is marketed as holiday romance and I felt it was lacking in that front so I was left disappointed and underwhelmed.

I can't possibly rate this well. The characters are unbelievably immature and childish. I wanted a lovely yet romantic Christmas novel. Horrible characters.

I wanted to love this one as I'm a sucker for a Christmas book involving books. However this one fell flat. While I did like the hero, the heroine was too much of a pushover and it kind of made her unlikeable. And I found myself caring more about secondary characters who were only in parts of the book more than the main female character.

The main character Nory (Elinor) Noel is a used book shop owner in London used- bookshop owner. Which already makes for a delightful setting for the Christmas season - old and special editions of the Christmas classics are discussed and Christmas display is set up and completed. But the main part of the story takes place in a castle in Nora’s hometown where she is staying for a wedding in her small group of friends from school.
She had a hard time growing up in a working class family while being the scholarship kid at a local posh boarding school. There was always a divide between her two lives and she felt a bit on the outside in both environments. But now years later and fully grown up she's back stuck between the two.
She‘s surprised to see Isaac the former gardener’s son now the head gardener at the castle himself. They were enemies during school time but now Nory is falling for Isaac- is the divide still too big all this time later?
Christmas time in a London book shop and and Christmas time wedding in a castle in one book. This book has all the best seasonal settings - and hellebores are discussed especially pink ones, I love hellebores and have them on my front steps, their sturdy winter blooms are just the best !

This one hurts because the premise sounded fantastic. My issue were the massive amounts of characters that were introduced very quickly into the book. I never felt connected to them, so I kept having to go back to figure out who they were. I've read The Twelve Dates of Christmas and didn't love it, but did enjoy the writing, so I had high hopes for this one. I'll def give her another shot though.

This was a festive Christmas read! Overall, I would definitely recommend it!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

This was quite depressing for a Christmas read and not at all what I expected. TW for suicide and infidelity.

This is a cute, very PG Christmas romance. I liked Nory and Isaac's relationship, and the side characters and plots were well developed (although there were a few too many of them). It's not going to be a new favorite, but it's a good choice if you're in the mood for something festive and light!

This was a fairly solid Christmas read, though it verges on women's fic more than romance some of the time, and it was a bit long for my preferences.

Given that I don’t usually read a book’s synopsis before I dive in I was expecting this to be a little more like her book The Twelve Dates of Christmas, which I thought was absolutely hilarious. This book is much more on the serious side, a little more in line with A Season for Second Chances.

Elinor Noel, Nory, runs a second-hand and rare bookstore in London, but she’s on her way to spend a week in the countryside in the lead up to one of her friend’s weddings. The wedding is taking place in a literal castle, and isn’t far from where they all went to school.

Nory doesn’t expect to run into Isaac, who’s father was the groundskeeper at the castle, when Nory was at school. Nory and Isaac had a tumultuous relationship growing up and things aren’t much better when they are reunited. Isaac is best friends with Nory’s brother, and they have a very poor opinion of Nory’s ‘snobby prep-school friends’. Nory finds herself in a position of having to defend the actions of her friends, while never really feeling like she fits in with either camp.

Isaac and Nory are thrown together a bit during the week and discover they have more in common than they realized. Nory breaks Isaac’s trust though, and whether or not she can win it back is the big question.

There were a lot of serious topics touched on in this story, maybe more than I expected in a holiday romance, but I did really enjoy it. It’s a closed-door romance, but there’s still lots of on-stage tension and snagging.

I spend the month of November and December solely reading Christmas books, and Meet Me under the Mistletoe was the perfect addition to my shelf. This British holiday romance revolved around the reunion of a group of high school friends as they come together for a week of wedding festivities before Christmas. This book was filled with not only romance between the main character Nory and the local estate gardener but also great stories of the friendships between the secondary characters as they all joined together to celebrate a wedding. Just the right amount of holiday romance sprinkled with friends and family! Thanks to Netgalley for providing me the ARC

This was my first holiday read of the year and I really loved it! It could of been a tad shorter just leaving out some repetitive lines but it was really well done. The romance was all fade to black so no spice but the chemistry was there. The characters were believable and their banter was great! I loved the friend group and their relationships. This book had me crying and laughing both. Can’t wait to read her again!

I really loved this book!! It was such a sweet story! I was hooked from the beginning to the very last page. I didn’t want to put it down
Thank you for letting me read this arc

This book had some great things and others that drove me a little batty.

Things I liked:
The depth of the characters and their interactions (no miscommunication here!)
Isaac and Nory's chemistry was perfectly sweet
The setting at the castle
The exploration of feeling like and outsider despite being an insider

Things I did not like:
Way too long (429 pages?!)
Too descriptive in parts (only added to its length)
A slow start
Instalove
The relationship between Nory and Thom felt unfinished

was fooled by this cover and title. I thought for sure this would be a sweet little Holiday romance. Even the Book Summary seemed to lean in that direction.

For me, this was actually a women's fiction that just happened to have a Holiday in it. The romance was way, way in the background so I can't even call this a romance.

The overall story is ok but everything was just so misleading about the book that it didn't satisfy really anything for me.

2.5 stars

Elinor Noel - brought up by a working class family and her fancy friends from boarding school. Returning to her school for a friends wedding Nory is bracing to dodge her former fling, judgements from her family, and passive aggressive comments from her friends. What she is not expecting is to run into old time crush - Isaac, friend of her brother, gardener and judger of snobs.
This book started out really solid, I liked that the chemistry between Isaac and Nory was immediately clear and their rivalry wasn't all that deep. I appreciated the comments on class and the arguments about still being allowed to struggle despite your financial situation.
But by the halfway mark I was just exhausted. The conversations became repetitive, characters continuously having the same arguments. Plot points were beaten to death and then dropped with no further discussion. Characters we hated the whole book made small apologies just so the book could wrap up with a happily ever after? No thanks.