Ok - so I liked the concept but fell foul of my issue with YA sometimes were the characters keep making stupid decisions - I know they’re young and immature but they don’t have to keep doing stuff that is always going to end in tears - I know it creates plot and conflict but there are other ways. Also this is too close to cheating for me as well which can sometimes be mitigated but it just added one thing too many for me. Never mind.

Today, it is very wet and very windy, and this was the most perfect distraction / pick me up. Yes it's currently August, but I am so glad I didn't wait until Christmas season to read this book. It was exactly what I needed today.

Such a lovely, eye opening story. I love the dual person narrative used, it makes me feel like I can understand the plot and characters much more.

A perfect example of the importance of family, the spirit of Christmas and the power of community.

I don't think a trigger warning is needed, but a small warning for people who have lost a loved one, there are some very touching moments within, that took me right back to how I felt, for all the firsts without them. Such a powerful book, I would hands down recommend.

Love in Winter Wonderland is a heart warming, Christmassy feel good read that will leave you smiling. With easy to connect with characters it's a lovely book for all ages to enjoy.

Such a sweet Christmas YA novel, which you can't really go wrong with right?

It was well written and adborable and really got me in the Christmassy mood.

Such a cute festive romance centred around a bookshop on the brink of closure. Great to have a black Christmas romance set in the UK and this was a cute, wholesome read. Ariel is so relatable - would love more of her story!

Love in Winter Wonderland.

Hands down did what it needed to do.

Black rep in this niche of cute Christmas romcoms in YA is solely needed and Love in Winter Wonderland is a great addition.

Whilst the story isn’t new or groundbreaking, Bello executes everything you love about a Christmas romcom story near perfect. So you can’t help but in enjoy Trey and Ariel’s story.

I’m very interested into seeing what Bello has next to deliver in the YA world.

What a lovely, lovely read. Love in Winter Wonderland is the magical, YA, holiday romance that I needed in my life. This is definitely going on the re-read shelf.

To be honest, I’m not really a big fan of romantic fiction. It’s a genre I find can be a little cringe-worthy. However, this book was fantastic! Yes, it’s romantic, but it’s also funny, fast-paced and full of characters who remind me of those I’ve met during my school and college years and in the workplace. And not forgetting, it’s so Christmassy! While reading Love in Winter Wonderland, I finally had that festive feeling.
Each character stands out and interacts perfectly with the other. I love the banter. Reading this made me feel like a teenager again. Even though I’m not particularly romantic, I couldn’t help but wonder if Trey and Ariel would finally get together – despite the devilish dealings of a certain ‘it’ girl called Blair.
Overall, this is a heartwarming, entertaining festive read.

3.5 rounded up!

I enjoyed this one. It’s a YA romance about two young Black friends trying to save a Black-owned bookshop in London. It’s Trey’s family’s bookshop and he’s always found it and inconvenience that he has to work in it, but when there’s a risk it could be sold, he steps up to save it.
Ariel is an artist who is looking for a part time job and knows Trey from college. She starts working at Wonderland, the bookshop, and helps Trey come up with new and innovative ways to modernise the bookshop, promote its story and fundraise to save it!

I loved all the bookshop content and the things they did to modernise it. The focus on celebrating Black authors, artists, talents and achievements was incredible. The characters were great and I really enjoyed the connections they built throughout the book. The ending was so cute, if a little predictable, but I really enjoyed it.

I absolutely love reading Christmas / festive romance books throughout the month of December. So, I was beyond excited when I saw this YA romance that is set over the festive period. Not only that, but the fact it focusses on an independent family-owned bookshop and saving it from closure had me wanting to read it immediately.

Trey Anderson is one of the most popular people in town and works at his family’s well-loved Black-owned bookshop, Wonderland. Ariel Spencer is creative and desperately in need of a holiday job to cover her tuition for art school. When there is an opening for a job at Wonderland, it seems too good to be true. Especially when Trey and Ariel learn that Wonderland is on the brink of shutting down. Can they get past their differences and help keep the shop open before the Christmas Eve deadline?

We follow Trey and Ariel in alternating POV chapters throughout this book. Both Trey and Ariel are wonderful main characters. Ariel in particular is such a lovely character. She is dealing with an awful lot of grief throughout this story and at times it is difficult to read. The discussions this brings up are truly heart-breaking, raw and incredibly emotional. Whilst all that is being discussed, we see Ariel’s determination to follow her dream and her amazing passion for art shining through which was lovely to read. Trey is an interesting main character who is also dealing with his own demons throughout the book. I love reading about his family and how close they are and how determined they are to keep their family-run bookshop open.

There are a number of supporting characters in this book. In particular, I liked Santi and Boogs who I would have absolutely loved to have seen more of throughout the book. I enjoyed reading about Ariel and Trey’s wider families too. Every supporting character is well-rounded and excellently written.

This book tackles some important issues. The importance of independent bookshops, especially those owned by marginalised groups. It discusses bigger chains and the huge impact they have on our well-loved independent bookshops. It was refreshing to read.

This book has romance at its heart but it is so much more than that. It is a beautiful story about a community pulling together to support a black-owned bookshop. Also, discussing the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement and its importance with the readers.

Overall, Love in Winter Wonderland is a lovely book to read over the festive period. It is more than just romance though as it discusses some important topics and shows the need for independent bookshops. I would highly recommend giving this one a read.

What a warm and fuzzy read. It’s seasonal and I love how Black British it is. The first line is literally 'Trey’s Playlist" Boys II Men" - Let it Snow' it doesn't get blacker than that!

This was such a lovely book read. The characters were so fresh. I really enjoyed the fact that it was about love, determination, family and community.

This is exactly what the YA genre needs

As the title says this is a winter wonderland novel, through and through. Very enjoyable and didn't want it to end. I will be buying this for my friends and myself to read over the Christmas time. 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

3,5 ✨

First of all: Thank you to the publisher, for providing me an eArc via Netgalley!

I‘m usually not the contemporary reader, let alone a romance reader!
But the synopsis sounded very interesting, I don‘t read books that revolve around christmas - I like it warm and sunny 😌
But a book about an independent Black-owned bookshop? A family-owned bookshop? Count me in!

One thing that always annoys me about Christmas is how white it is (no, I don‘t mean the snow :‘)), at least the commercialised Christmas.
We see movies about white families, read books about white protagonists, hear music by white artists, man they even made Jesus a white guy.

What I really really liked was how every chapter is accompanied with a Christmas song by Black artists, such as Destiny‘s Child, Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo, Usher, the Queen of Christmas songs Mariah Carey and so many more Black artists I grew up with!
This highlights how not only white people pull off Christmas songs, but Black people do them too - in a WIDE variety! From Jazz over pop and r‘n‘b all the way up to rap.

However… I don‘t know but it just lacked something? There wasn‘t enough culture… I‘m used to white books having a lack of culture, but this book is set in London - a hella diverse place but we don‘t get to see anything of it :/
We have two Black families, there was a lot of potential to give us cultural insights but that opportunity was missed :/

Also, the Christmas vibes were unfortunately rather… I didn‘t really feel it.
This book could‘ve played in January or smth like that :/


The writing-style was very easy to follow, and we got slang in it, which makes it even more accessible for a YA audience.

I think the book addresses many important issues, such as the significance of independent bookstores - especially bookstores that are owned by marginalized groups.
The focus here is on the role of larger brands or chains and what role they play in pushing out smaller bookstores.
The story sort of starts with Trey's best friend Boogs giving his girlfriend a book as a present, admitting he got it from the competition who lure customers in with ridiculous coupons and discounts - much to the chagrin of smaller bookstores.

From there we see Trey doing everything he can to help Wonderland get started, with initial difficulties that only make Wonderland lose even more money, the SaveWonderland project begins to bear fruit after Ariel is able to land a part-time job and includes her own ideas (with the help of her friends) and includes suggestions that will actually make Wonderland stand out and even get the attention of well-known authors and stars like Rihanna.

At the same time, we accompany the two protagonists in their everyday life, which consists of university, friendship and love.

Ariel has been saddled with a lot of burdens since her father's death, while trying to enroll in art school and work her job teaching art classes.
And then there's love, her year-long secret crush on Trey - with whom she's suddenly been spending a lot of time since her job at Wonderland.
What I really liked about Ariel is that she‘s a plus-size Black woman.
I‘m neither a Black nor a plus-size woman, so I‘m not in the position to say anything regarding the representation.
But there were some scenes that made me rather uncomfortable, for example when Ariel spilled some of her food and scooped it up to eat it - I feel like this kind of plays into the stereotype of big people always eating? But Idk
Ariel is fierce and rocks her red braids, she‘s a talented artist and I wish I could see her mural of Black writers and the Anderson Family in real life 😩
There were some parts in which I found her to be rather… annoying :/ but nobody‘s perfect, right?

And then we have Trey, who is set to eventually take over Wonderland - much to his chagrin - he belongs to the popular students at university and has a complicated, toxic relationship with Blair - another popular student, who‘s also rather self-centered, petty AF and doesn‘t really give a shit about Trey‘s thoughts and the bookshop - hence why he doesn‘t even tell her about the problem at first.
As the book progresses, we witness his thoughts drift more and more towards Ariel.

The chemistry between Trey and Ariel didn‘t convince me at all - there was not one moment in which I was rooting for them.
Who I was rooting for were Boogs and Santi!

What also made me mad (not at the book lol, but at Blair and the others 😩) were the moments in which Ariel was bullied by Blair and her fake-ass, petty and shady friends, who even secretly bully each other.

Who I LOVED were Boogs and Santi - please, PLEASE let there be a book about the two of them - I NEED IT 😩

Santi is Blair‘s identical twin sister and the complete opposite - she‘s all sunshine, good vibes and just a pure soul, genuine, she loves books, is an intellectual, she actually cares about the people around her and she cares about the bookshop - She even scolds her boyfriend Boogs after Trey lets her know that Boogs didn't shop in Wonderland, he shopped at the competition!
Boogs is a former gang member and decided to turn his life upside down by staying away from all that and focusing on himself. He‘s also one of the popular kids in university - but above all he‘s a very good friend to Trey and will go out of his way to help Wonderland after learning that Wonderland is about to be sold - which goes all the way wrong at first butttt he‘s finally gotten the hang of it lol.

All in all this book had a lot of potential but it just didn‘t quite reach it fully.

Brilliant read to get you in the festive spirits and what a great scene to tell the story - a book shop! Any readers haven.

OK, full disclosure: I am 100% not the target audience for a romance novel, but I had to read #LoveInWinterWonderland coz it is @ABelloWrites's! I knew exactly what would happen and loved every second of it 😅 A brilliant #UKYA #Christmas novel, love the great friends & family.

I did not finish this book. I read a lot of YA novels and very rarely do I feel "too old" to read them. This was one of those times.

Additionally the idea that a 16year old, in 2022 would consider "Twilight" to be the best love story of all time when it has been being panned across the world for years for its unhealthy depictions of relationships, and when the last movie came out in 2012 - when our main character was 6? Just didn't make sense. Not only did I feel too old to read about the teenagers in this book - it felt like Abiola Bello hadn't met a teenager maybe since they had been one.

When I first got this book, I didn't know it would be written in British English. I am American, and because of a disability, it is hard for me to keep up with books written not in American English. If this book ever gets written in that format, I might actually be able to finish it.

Although this is a cute story, I couldn't follow along easily. And I couldn't get over the name "Boggs" which kept sounding like an inappropriate word.

A fanstastic story of a community pulling together, driven on by a couple of teens who are not even a couple but find themselves in the limelgiht as they try to save the bookshop. Trey is Mr popular and Ariel is Miss wallflower to start with but as each finds their voice they come together to work magic for both Treys family business and the wider community.
With chapters alternating between a group of characters each is headed by a Christmas song on someones playlist and this alone will get you in the festive mood as you turn to your music app to listen along!

On paper, Trey Anderson and Ariel Spencer have nothing in common. Trey is one of the popular boys at college, going out with one of the popular girls! Ariel feels like a bit of an outsider, mostly thinking about her art and often covered in paint. But when Trey's father has an accident and breaks his leg, they need help with Wonderland, their family’s beloved Black-owned bookshop, It just so happens that Ariel Spencer needs of a holiday job to go toward covering her tuition for art school. Things don't go too well to start with between Trwy and Ariel but they will quickly learn to appreicate each other, and more! And when the two teenagers realise that Wonderland is in difficulty and could have to shut down soon, they put their heads together to save Wonderland - all before Christmas Eve.

Love in Winter Wonderland has all the elements of the perfect romance novel - two characters who grab your heart and you really WANT to see ending up together, a mean girlfriend in the way of their love (!), impulsive actions and miscommunications that come between the lovers, until... the resolution and the long-awaited kiss!! But what I loved most about the story was the London setting, the palpable community spirit, the indy black-own bookshop struggling against the chain shop selling books on discount, and the fact that the indie bookshop wins. I hope it will inspire YA readers to fight for their community and indy shops.