Reviewed by Lesley

TITLE:  Once Upon a Mistletoe Kiss

SERIES:  Once Upon a Holiday Story

AUTHOR: Sammi Cee

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 77 Pages

RELEASE DATE: November 19, 2024

BLURB:

There’s no place like home for the holidays…

Especially if you hate them and want to pretend they don’t exist.

When the older man moves in next door with his two loud children and irritating pets, I ignore them. I don’t want my life to change.

Except it does. Between him and his kids, someone’s always knocking on my door needing something.

Or wanting to share delicious baked goods or a meal. I don’t need nice neighbors. I don’t want people in my space—especially ones with small, dirty fingers and a million questions.

But there’s something about his smile. The twinkle in his eyes and his merry laugh when it comes to all things festive…

He’s making me wish and dream and hope for holiday magic and mistletoe kisses. He’s making me believe in family.

Once Upon A Mistletoe Kiss is a part of the multi-author series Once Upon a Holiday Story. Each book can be read as a standalone and in any order. What links these books together is The Hook’s Book Nook Traveling Library, a library on wheels owned by two old ladies in love.

REVIEW:

This is a really sweet grumpy/ sunshine Christmas book. It is part of a series but is definitely a stand-alone story and you do not need to have read any of the others in the series to enjoy it .

Sometimes only a child and her dog can see what’s really going on with a person.

Adrian lives in his house on the edge of town backing on to the woods because he doesn’t like people. He just was wants to be left alone and only leaves his house if he absolutely has to. He has one friend left in the world Josh who he went to college with and has moved away so he doesn’t even go out to see him.  He still has his mother, but he will always be a low priority to her.

Adrian is really upset when the previously empty house next to him is bought by a guy and his two children and Josh cannot convince him it’s a good thing. It gets even worse when they get a dog, Goldie.

Victor shares custody of his two children, Jeremy and Marissa, with his ex-wife Mary. They all get along well still but when Mary’s relationship with her new partner Paul starts getting more serious, Victor feels it’s time to move out of the room over the garage and buy his own place. He settles on the house next to Victor’s because Marissa loves nature.

Victor has a type of person he is attracted to and that type is grumpy. However it takes Marissa and Goldie to point out that maybe Adrian isn’t really a grump after all.

Interestingly it’s the younger character in this book that is the “grumpy” character in this book and I really like that this breaks the stereo type of grumpy old man/ sunshine youngster. Even in this short book you get a good feel for Adrian and why he is how he is and actually it’s rather sad, However the book as a whole is a really warming, comforting, happy Christmas read.

The reason the rating isn’t higher is because I really feel that this story has so much more potential and could easily be turned into a full length novel rather than a novella

RATING:

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