Cruel Winter With You - Review

Cruel Winter With You (Under the Mistletoe Collection, # 1)

By: Ali Hazelwood

Publication: November 12, 2024 by Amazon Original Stories

73 pages

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Holiday, Christmas

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--For two former childhood friends, a blustery winter storm stirs some frosty—and scorching—memories in a delightful short story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

All newly minted pediatrician Jamie Malek wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc—her best friend’s troublemaking brother, who’s now a tech billionaire. He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night.

Ali Hazelwood’s Cruel Winter with You is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.

I got the Under the Mistletoe short story collection from Amazon Prime. I love that I can both read these books and listen to the audio exactly where I left off reading. Love this technology. I was able to read a little, and then listen in the car going to pick my kid up from school. Now, I will say that this is only the second of this series that I've read. And I haven't read them in order. I read book 4, Merriment and Mayhem first and was disappointed in it. My biggest issue is that with a short story, the characters don't feel like they have adequate time to get to know each other before jumping to the spicy scenes that actually feel like the point of these books--based upon these two. 

That being said, Cruel Winter With You felt different. Because the characters have a history with each other, the chemistry between them felt realistic even though the page count was so low. And I say "so low" 72 pages is a good bit better than 50 like the other one of these I read. I can't help but continue to compare them since they are a collection.

Jamie shows up next door to her best friend's parent's house hoping to ask to borrow a roasting pan. However, the weather is ridiculous, and the only one home is Marc. Marc is Jamie's best friend's brother and her ex. These two have so much history, baggage, and tension. I really appreciated how much Ali Hazelwood accomplished in relationship building in such a short amount of pages. I was hooked. And I would have loved a full-length book for these two characters.

I don't read for the spicy stuff so be warned if that's an issue for you. Thankfully, it didn't take up 30% of the book as it did with Merriment and Mayhem.

Cruel Winter with You gets 4 Stars. I really appreciated the amount of development in the characters in such a short space of pages especially considering they were stuck in a house and the events happened basically in 24 hours (minus flashbacks). Have you read Cruel Winter with You? What did you think? Let me know!

PS. I haven't read any of the others in this series, but I'm not sure they're worth it. I think this might have been the best one of the entire collection, and I might decide to end on a high note. Have any of you read the others? Are they worth a read/listen? 

Merriment and Mayhem - Review

Merriment and Mayhem (Under the Mistletoe Collection, # 4)

By: Alexandria Bellefleur

Publication: November 12, 2024 by Amazon Original Stories

58 pages

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Holiday

Source: Amazon Prime

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--This Christmas, a hot fireman makes a holiday rescue and sparks fly in this funny, sexy holiday short story by bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur.

When Everleigh Dangerfield’s baking disaster necessitates a call to 911, firefighter Griffin Brantley douses the flames in the kitchen, but the ones he stokes in Everleigh are an entirely different story. Unfortunately, Everleigh’s only visiting and doesn’t do casual hookups, no matter how smoldering the temptation. But Everleigh’s holiday mishaps have just begun. And Griffin is seemingly always on call. If Everleigh is game for a change of plans, he can give her the merriest Christmas of her life.

Alexandria Bellefleur’s Merriment and Mayhem is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.

I didn't request this book from NetGalley when I saw it available for review because I don't usually do short stories. But when I saw it free on Amazon for Prime I figured I would snag it for a short Christmas story. I didn't even read the description. This was doubly exciting when I realized that I also had access to the audiobook which would sync with my reading. So I could read when I had time and then switch to the audiobook while driving or cooking. 

The beginning of Merriment and Mayhem was good. I liked the repeated 911 calls that forced Everleigh and Griffin together. I liked that there was an instant attraction that prompted Griffin to pursue Everleigh. But I felt like the pacing was completely off. I don't know this author at all. And I know this was always intended to be a short story, but so many pieces were mentioned that went nowhere. It felt like this was written for a longer story and things were cut or not addressed to force it to fit the short story needs. 

Because it was a short story, Everleigh flipped quickly from rejecting Griffin to being "so, so tired of pretending this is not what I want." Thankfully there were no declarations of deeper feelings at this point.

However, it felt like half the story was the sex scene. Granted it was only about the last 30%. Regardless, I wasn't a fan of these two jumping into the sheets. It felt jarring to me. Too much, too soon. Of course, as a Christian, my preference would be for them to wait until they get married, but that's not today's culture. I spent this entire section of the book skipping ahead and rolling my eyes. 

I also felt like the language was excessive for this story. And all of these things put together turned me off the idea of searching for more books by this author. 

Merriment and Mayhem's pacing felt completely wrong to me. The plot and details didn't fit the story length. The characters went from one thing and then completely flipped to a different thing. And things progressed in their relationship (physically and relationally) entirely too fast. Thankfully no "I love yous" were thrown out, but one character is considering a move to be with the other after three/four encounters. Merriment and Mayhem gets 2 Stars. Have you read Merriment and Mayhem ? What did you think? Let me know!