Okay so this book was a bit of a surprise. I was so excited for a holiday read and I loved it. I really enjoyed what was here but I felt like I only read 1/3 of it. The relationship didn’t truly develop and their feelings fro each other weren’t real until the end of the book. I wish we could have seen more of that romance instead of just the pact aspect of it. Still a great read though.

Evie is about to turn twenty two and her glamorous mother is determined to set her up at the annual Christmas Eve party. The guy she makes a connection with ends up getting together with Evie’s mother. Evie turns to her friends and a few more drinks to cheer herself up.

Dan Evie’s best friend Sasha’s brother insists on walking her home. The two find themselves under the mistletoe and are cajoled into a kiss by Sasha and her siblings. Dan and Evie make a pact on the way home to get married on Evie’s 30th birthday if they are both still single.

Fast forward to the night of Evie’s 30th and the two end up married in Vegas. The pair then navigate the next year following that night. There are many twists and turns in their story but ultimately the pair have to decide what they actually want.

A lovely feel good story, perfect for enjoying with a cup of tea. Lots of laugh out loud moments and a few tears are shed coupled with shouting at the book it’s the perfect way to unwind.

When friends make a pact to get married it seems like a good idea until the love they thought would develop as more than friends doesn't, but then does? The main character is a writer and is using her "love life" as inspiration for her own expense but when things start to go sour, so does her writing.
I can appreciate a friends to lovers, slow burn, and finding inspiration for a love story poured into their own career but this book missed the mark. I was sad that they didn't really start having true feelings towards each other until the very end and then you are left wanting more. I also kept getting confused and annoyed that the book or story was being told within this book but I kept having to remind myself that it was the book she was writing not their actual story. Overall, I gave it a 2 starts because I was left with a huge build up and felt the story was more about her wanting inspiration for her own expense of the story instead of seeing what love was in front of her.

"The Mistletoe Pact" by Jo Lovett
Release Date: 10.1.2021

Evie and Dan made a pact on Christmas Eve eight years ago -- if they weren't married by the time they were 30 years old, they would marry one another! Both thought they were joking, even though each of them fancied the other.

On Christmas Eve eight years later, the night before Evie's 30th birthday, she wakes up in Vegas, in a honeymoon suite with way too many heart-shaped pillows! Evie and Dan are married! Even though a quickie divorce is the easiest solution, both are not sure if it is the best choice.

This is a slow-burning love story between two friends. The novel went between past and present of the Mistletoe Pact, learning about bad decisions, family troubles, and friends. It also switched point of views. I was disappointed that there was not more Christmas spirit in the novel, but it was a cute story.

Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #netgalley #netgalleyreads #2021bookreleases #contemporaryromance #christmasromance #2021romancebooks #themistletoepact #jolovett #bookouture

<b> thank you netgalley and bookouture for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. </b>

dnf @ 30% in.

i tried so hard to get into this book, especially considering how promising the entire premise is, but honestly i really couldn't do it.

the timeline is messy, the plot is so scattered and random, and the writing style was so difficult to get into. usually in romance novels the dual povs tend to help, however in this case it only made everything much more confusing. the timejumps and skips between the various chapters also don't help, seeing as it just makes you get lost.

the plot has no coherence to it. the two characters are introduced as distant friends (her best friend's brother), but then within our first flashback they have an intense makeout scene and the next chapter shows that they have crushes on each other??? huh? the idea of their pact actually seemed so cute, but then we end up getting a drunken wedding in Vegas and them struggling to get it annulled? what?

beyond that, the weird flashbacks that show "pining" threw me off so much. we know nothing about these characters and yet we're supposed to just know they like each other? they barely interact!

overall, the characters were also extremely unenjoyable. you're hit with the cliche "gay best friends" trope and the "girl bestie that actually is crushing on the guy too so she's mean" trope and it just... why.

(also, there's a line where dan makes a comment about living above "very fragrant indian restaurant" and one of the chacters sasha has herself & her fiancee dress as egyptian pharoahs, and i know these are miniscule details but they made the experience of reading worse.)

The Mistletoe Pact by Jo Lovett is a slow-burning love story between life-long friends who find themselves fulfilling a pact they made years ago and dealing with the anticipated fallout. A somewhat disjointed ride of a story, readers are thrown back and forth between past and present day and find themselves wading through a list of life-long friends, difficult family members and bad decisions. Although everything works out in the end, getting there is quite a journey.

Oh boy! I am so sad that this book just did not take me to a happy place. I have come to expect a certain magical realism to fit with the whole idea of the Christmas Spirit.
I found the characters were very one-dimensional and the story had little to no story development.
I found a few plot holes and confusion with the timeline.

I really wanted to like this😔

A bit of a misleading blurb. It was definitely a cute almost concept for a book. Loving the cover though.

It definitely did not reach my expectations. I felt like the book synopsis was a bit misleading and sold a certain view, that to me was it all! Although the writing was fine, it felt a bit over the place. I also felt bored when reading it, it was not exciting, it felt bland and vanilla. This book was not for me.

Sadly not what I expected from this book. It didn't make much sense in relation to the book blurb and I was hoping for more of a good feeling holiday rom-com!

I really liked this sweet story , about Evie and Dan and the joking pact that they made that if they were still single on Evie’s 30th birthday, they would get married. They surprise themselves by waking up the day after Evie’s birthday very hung over and married in Las Vegas. The story jumps back and forth from the time of the mistletoe pact and present day and many instances in between. This is a fun feel good story with Christmas themes interwoven. Very enjoyable. Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel.

The Mistletoe pact is a story about 2 friends Evie and Dan. At the ripe old age of thirty two, they wake up one Christmas Eve morning to find out they got married in Vegas. Throwback, eight years prior Evie and Dan made a pact that if they weren’t married by thirty they would marry each other. All jokes aside, they did it. They discuss divorce but end up following their hearts instead only to realize they are meant to be.
Honest opinion, this novel was not what I expected and just couldn't get into it. I'm a sucker for a good romance so this is a pretty strong review. I wanted to like it but was never able to connection with Evie as a main character and really had to force myself to complete the book.

I have mixed feelings about this romance book. This is my second ARC provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and while the story description drew me in - best friends brother, a marriage pact under the mistletoe, a crazy drunk Las Vegas wedding - this had me in the feels, but also wasn’t the cute corny cheeseball Christmas romance I was expecting.

The story line - pure gold. Loved it! This was like the mocie What Happens in Vegas meets a Hallmark movie (so super cute). The characters were also super adorable and flawed, but some moments seemed to slow or dull or the slow romance build up just took too long. Like ten years, yikes. And some of the conversations were lacking.

Although, called the Mistletoe Pact, it wasn’t really a Christmas book. Did a lot of the scenes happen around Christmas - yes in parts, but I didn’t get so much of the Christmas magic.

Overall, it was a quick and easy read, if you need a cute semi Christmas setting book for your winter holidays - then I suggest this quick filler.

The Mistletoe pact follows best friends Evie and Dan. It is told in third person. Both thirty two they wake up one Christmas Eve morning to find out they got married in Vegas. Eight years ago Evie and Dan made a pact that if they weren’t married by thirty they would marry each other but they were not expecting it to happen. They are going to get a divorce but they have a romance instead. This novel was not what I expected and to be completely honest I didn’t enjoy it. The writing felt very forced and I didn’t find myself wanting to keep reading. It was nothing special.

This is my first Christmas book of the year. The first few pages of the book is fun and exciting, where the mess happened in Vegas. But as the story progresses, I have mixed feelings about it. The story becomes too tedious. It switches back and forth between present and the memories. The POV also switches in every chapter. At 50% of the ebook, I find myself debating to continue up to the end or just jump into the epilogue since I’m sure the ending is predictable. The slow burn romance is too slow; but still a page turner for me because of those secret glances that Dan and Evie do to each other during special occasion gathering, a stroke of serendipity of events and the interrupted kiss scenes.

Overall, the reading experience feels like a whole complete season of a TV series through a book. There are great themes such as family relationship, friendship, comedy and of course, romance. I whoop into small sweet gestures done by Dan Marshall in the story.

If you wish to swoon yourself over cozy holiday romances, The Mistletoe Pact by Jo Lovett could be a good read for you. This book is to be released on October 1.

Thank you @netgalley and @bookouture for the opportunity to read an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First let me say thank you to @NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this book for my honest opinion.

Evie and Dan have been friends for basically forever. There has always been an attraction between them, but neither of them acted upon those feelings until Evie's 22nd birthday. They somehow manage a major make out session AND the adorable mistletoe pact to get married on Evie's 30th birthday if they were both still single. Which subsequently they were and they did.

I wanted to love this book so much based on the premise. I mean, who doesn't love a good friends to lovers trope?! Throw in a drunken Vegas wedding and I'm totally here for this.

Sadly, the angsty build up of attraction between the two main characters seemed to drag on and on and on. They make terrible decisions over and over, obviously, and somehow manage to live out their mistletoe pact wedding only to mess it up again. And again. I found myself frustrated with them often, and wishing they would stop all the moping and just get it together already.

3/5 stars for me

I couldn’t connect to the main character and the relationship between the main character and the mom. I also didn’t feel the relationship between the main character and the person she ends up with . The writing was okay but not my style

2.5/5 stars

The book had a great start and set-up for a great premise. Evie and Dan wake up, married in Vegas. We come to find they made a pact eight years ago and in one drunken night they follow through with it. This story is told though flashbacks in time, and the current year to see how Evie and Dan's relationship develops and builds, including relationships with other people, and development of their selves.

I felt that this book had a lot of flashbacks and move forwards that were meant to move the story along, but it just seemed to carry on for so long. This book had so many things going on in it, in both Evie and Dan's lives that just one incident could have built the story, with more added romance, rather than throwing every obstacle possible in their place. This book seemed to have the ultimate miscommunication trope and really, if either Dan or Evie even talked to each other for a minute and were honest with each other, so much heartache and heartbreak could have been avoided.

I just didn't find this a book that I connected with. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book in exchange for an open and honest review. All opinions are 100% mine.

I really enjoyed the progression of both Evie's and Dan's characters. I did feel like I would've liked to see their actual romantic relationship develop more than what we saw. However, I love the story told through the years, and how the timeline jumps back and forth. It was such an easy read and is a feel-good book for sure!

Festive Romcom…
Evie and Dan made a pact. Eight years ago. If neither were married at thirty then they would marry each other. Neither expected that to happen. Did they? A festive romcom for the Christmas season with some nicely drawn characters and some amusing moments, albeit with much to-ing and fro-ing and perhaps a little long winded, although generally a feel good, warm hearted slice of festive escapism.