#m. ullrich

I have to say that I've never been in the situation that Genevieve finds herself in exactly, but, one of my mottos in life is if I can't do, fake it 'til I make it. When I use the phrase it's not so much a lie until you figure it out, as it is present a confident in command outer shell until it (hopefully) becomes real comfort and confidence. So, I was intrigued by the title and I wound up really liking the book. It's the story of Genevieve and Harper. Genevieve finds a job posting for a journalist job at a magazine called Out Shore, and she doesn't look closely enough at the details of the posting, and so doesn't realize that it's an LGBT centered magazine until she's sitting in the interview with the owner, Harper. She then compounds her mistake by lying to Harper and saying that she's a lesbian. Where could that go wrong? It's a fairly straightforward sorta lesbian romance after that, although there were a couple of places near the end where I was surprised by the turn that the story took. I liked the characters. They were all interesting. Especially Clarissa (not one of the twists that surprised me unfortunately). It was a fun book that I started because of the title and stayed for the solid writing and plot. Fun. I got this ARC through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.

Holiday Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses by M. Ullrich. Rating: 2.5 stars averaged.

Read on October 28th.

Before getting to the review, I want to say thanks to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Bold Strokes Books for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I saw this one make it to my NetGalley shelf this morning and immediately started reading it. In Holiday Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses, we have four stories around four holidays. On Thanksgiving, we follow Billie and Leah as they go to Billie’s family home to meet the parents. On Christmas, we follow Liv and Theo as they struggle to host a holiday full of cheer despite the troubles in their marriage. On New Year’s Eve, we follow April and Gemma as they meet at a party and instantly hit it off. And for the final story, on New Year’s Day, we follow Eloise and Jesse as they try to start the New Year on the right foot despite not ending the last one on a great note. Holiday Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses comes out on November 16th and is available for preorder now.

Despite my rating, there are a lot of things this author does right as far as representation in genre fiction goes. All of the romances are f/f romances which I was surprised and happy to discover as I kept reading. I also really enjoyed how a lot of the people in the LGBTQIA+ community of this town seemed to gather together. If you’re LGBTQIA+, you know that we tend to seek each other out sometimes. I also think that it was great that this collection of romances had sex scenes. I appreciate that the author didn’t shy away from showing positive depictions of people of the same sex having sex. I feel like that alone takes this books leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of other books in the romance genre.

However, there were just as many negatives for this collection of stories as there were positives for me. I think the first thing I have to point out after praising this author’s inclusivity in the LGBTQIA+ community is the fact that it wasn’t all that inclusive for one of our letter friends. Many times throughout the novel, because we are centered around an extended group of friends who discuss their work lives, we see mentions of one of the characters’ work with creating an inclusive group at the school they work at. Except that any time it’s mentioned the author has dropped just the A from LGBTQIA. Which is a bit frustrating when you’re reading this and you are the A that’s been dropped. I know it’s still unclear for some people in LGBTQIA+ spaces whether the A stands for ‘ally’ or ‘asexual’ and I’m tired of the asexual erasure. Maybe that’s nit picking at this book. Possibly. But I could not look past the book referencing ‘LGBTQI’ groups and talking about all the positive work this character has done for inclusivity at their school and it not even being inclusive for a whole group of people who belong there. I could stand on this soap box all day. Asexuals belong in LGBT+ spaces. Period. End of sentence. Other flaws I found in this novel are less nit picking and more style problems. I felt like these were all too short for me to get a real feel of these characters and their situations. Even the last couple, despite the fact that we got small tid-bits about them throughout the other stories. As a personal aside, I also didn’t enjoy the fact that three of the four stories were established romantic relationships. I personally enjoy the angst of a will they/won’t they story. But that one really is just personal preference. I can get down with an established romantic relationship if there’s some angst in there.

Overall, this is a cute collection of stories that can put anyone into the holiday mood. There’s some spicy sex scenes for anyone who enjoys those. And there’s a lot of love and family to enjoy as well. I think there were just a couple of things that got to me personally as a reader that other people may not have any problem with.

I have been through active shooter training myself, and so I sort of understand where this novel came from (see book's acknowledgements). It was sometimes an intense book, and then sometimes it seemed like a happy go lucky sorta book. And that's most of the reason why I gave it only three stars. It's about Peyton and Tory. Tory is a realtor and Peyton a police officer. But,they meet when they're both being fitted for bridesmaid dresses and then their lives change forever when a gunman comes into the store. I did very much like that the two women met before everything went all to hell and made a connection (although a small one). It made them getting closer seem realer than it may have seemed if they were introduced during or after the incident. I didn't really like too much the stuff from the shooter's point of view. I know why it was there, but, every time I saw his name at the top of a chapter I was like, 'ugh'. It was a thrilling book, I wondered if he'd be caught at all, or what else would happen after the big event at the beginning. There were just a couple of things I didn't enjoy as much. I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books.