Montana Mistletoe (The Wildes of Birch Bay #4.5): Book Review

• Author: Kim Law  
• Published: 2019  
• Genre: Holiday Romance  
• Rating: ★★★   

Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to finally get "the one that got away" despite you trying your best to forget that they ever existed? What if that special someone used to be your best friend? What if your best friend has a traumatic past that prevents them from getting close to you despite everything? Then this just might be the book for you!

Set in Montana, with little description of what Montana is like besides saying "mountains!", this feisty little holiday piece is a lot packed into a small book. Think Nicholas Sparks level of complicated and sordid relationships mixed with tragic and traumatizing events, muddled all together in a quick-to-digest book. What I'd wished from this book though is that the author had taken the time to put a little more into it. I wish she'd gone a little deeper into the traumas and past, a little more into the setting itself, especially since I've never been to Montana and am not likely to be there anytime soon. I wish she'd full committed to the Nicholas Sparks path she was on and didn't hold back quite so much. I know that this is a novella to go along with an existing series, but the things its lacking in this novella do not make me excited to read the main series.

Our leading lady in this one to me is wholly unrealistic. Without getting into spoilers, there are actions and things that happen at the very beginning, coupled with the fact that she traveled solo for years, plus a confession she gave the leading man in this that all didn't add up. I'm not saying that what happened in this novella isn't something that could happen, but given the type of person that she's supposed to be, outgoing, impulsive, artistic, etc. it just seems highly unlikely to me. This isn't me knocking on those sorts of people either, on the contrary, these are my sorts of people. I understand that the character was built this way to up this "perfect", romantic story, but it jut wasn't believable to me.

The use of Christmas in this, much like the previous book I reviewed, was nowhere near the main focus, it just happened to be that time of year and played a part in being the catalyst in the romance - much appreciated! This could have gone very holidays heavy but it didn't, focusing instead on the characters and their personal lives which I much preferred. It added just enough festive cheer to it to get one thinking of being in the Christmas mood without going all-in on Christmas.

The romance itself was iffy to me. Much like the leading lady, the leading man was unbelievable at times to me. Their first interaction, and then some questionable interactions thereafter to me did not seem cute and romantic but more on the creepy side, so the fact that she was all gooey eyed about it confused me. I did however like that the author presented the relationship from both viewpoints and not just one side, so it at least felt balanced and you could kind of understand why certain things happened the way they did. I still would have liked for this novella to be an extra 40 or-so pages so that some of these issues could have been flushed out a bit better and maybe certain things could have been presented a little differently so they weren't quite so creepy.

All-in-all, a decent book if you want something a little on the steamier side of a holiday romance.

What do you think? Are holiday romances your kind of read or is there a different genre you prefer?

Cheers!