The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese Spoiler Free Review
Finished reading 1 – 13 December 2022
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Less than 5-word critique: educational, fun, relatable, romantic and unputdownable.
The Mistletoe Motive is a great book not only for the festive season, or any season for that matter, but because it’s perfect for fans of The Hating Game and You’ve Got Mail. It’s awesome to get back into reading Chloe Liese’s books. Speaking of which, I should at some point continue with the Bergman Brothers series, which I highly recommend too, even though I’ve only read the first one so far.
The novella centers on two coworkers in an independent bookshop that’s on the brink of closing down unless they can make enough money doing sales during Christmas while a bigger book franchise threatens to take them down. The heroine Gabriella is an intelligent, cheerful and strong young woman who sometimes struggles with social situations due to her autistic condition. Jonathan Frost is both a Scrooge and a Grinch who dislikes the festive season and appears to be cold mannered in front of Gabriella. This and their differences serve as the main hostility between the two. However, as they try to save their bookshop, they begin to see each other in a different light which unexpectedly blossoms into something…more.
The story I felt was brilliantly written as a good romantic comedy and the fact that the main work setting was a bookshop.
Almost all the characters were well-developed and the main romance was very well done. I relate to Gabriella a lot because of both neurodiversity and our love for books, being Belles, I love the fact that Liese writes unique characters in her stories, she herself being neurodiverse as well, because she believes everyone deserves a love story.
Recommended to those who enjoy:
*Neurodiversity representation
*Diabetes representation
*Demisexual representation
*Playlists in books
*Enemies-to-lovers
*Forced proximity
*Bookshop as a workplace
*Book nerds
*Strong and unique characters
*Great side characters
