I really enjoyed this book, very
good cast of characters all with their own particular faults and foibles. Extremely well written, I could see the bookshop and feel the snow. Lovely feel-good read, with drama , romance , family and friends. Highly recommended.

I love the way that Jenny Bayliss writes. This is not my first and will not be my last. This book gave me soo many Christmassy vibes I loves it.

The book is written in a way that you just flow along at a pace where everything is timed perfectly. The characters (and there are a lot of them) are all parts of the story, it does take some time to get to know them all . Nory is the main character and I liked how her friendship with Isaac developed it made me feel all warm inside! I liked the kind of enemy to friends thing that Jenny creates in this story through these two.

It was a fun read, with some low moments but I liked that there was a focus around loved ones and loss. Especially at Christmas this is nice to have been included.

This book ticks all the boxes for me for a festive romantic comedy and more!

It's got snow, a bookshop, flowers, a wedding, castle, picture perfect small village, interesting mix of childhood friends, quirky family, love interests, hidden secrets, laugh out loud and make you cry moments.

Nory and her childhood friends are all back in the area where they went to school for Jenna and Charles's wedding. Nora bumps into Isaac (literally) an old adversary, sparks fly and they realise they have more in common than they thought.

There are so many great characters in this book and the settings are perfect.

Another great book by Jenny Bayliss who is fast becoming one of my favourite authors for this genre.

Thank you to Netflix and Pan MacMillan for the ARC.

This was a quick read, filled with light-hearted humour.

Having previously read Christmas novels by this author, I was excited to get stuck into this one too, but sadly it was a little disappointing compared to how much I loved the prior two.

The settings were wonderful - I particularly loved the descriptions of the bookstore! However, the characters didn't really hold too much appeal for me.

This hasn't put me off looking forward to a new Christmassy read from Jenny Bayliss, but sadly, I don't think this is one that I would re-read.

Returning home but with a group of friends. Not just any friends but your friends from the local private school.
Old divisions between brother and sister, and old attractions reignite.
The dynamics and issues are still there simmering below the surface ready to irrupt..
An interesting and entertaining tale. Enjoy I did.

Meet me under the mistletoe has got me feeling conflicted. At first, I really struggled to get into the book. I honestly didn’t think I would get to the end of it and was dreading picking it up. The whole concept of a group of school friends all still being so close that they were to spend a week in an expensive castle before two of them got married made me think, this is extremely far fetched. I found I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, they were all too posh and none of them had qualities that made them seem like a “real” person! The fact that they were all supposed to be so close yet didn’t know that one of the characters was married with children is ridiculous!

However, once I got to the middle of the book some of the characters seemed to develop qualities that I could relate to and I started to enjoy the book. Just when you think the end is upon you the books goes down another route and the story continues which I really enjoyed.

The book was extremely long and as I said before hand I struggled to get in to it at first. However, I am glad that I read the book as the ending had me smiling and feeling all Christmassy.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as Jenny's previous novels, but it was a cosy enough Wintery romance nonetheless. I found it a little slow in places and somewhat predictable almost to the point of cringing in others. A good depiction of characters even if some were a little unlikeable but a good balance overall. What I actually found the most annoying was, the naming of the main character, Elinor also known Nory, which interchanged throughout, and which was quite disconcerting especially at the beginning, if it had just been confined to the speech parts as a term of endearment but in hopped about everywhere.

This os one of those books that puts you into the right mood and helps you get out of the slump. I already see myself re-reading it. There’s something so intriguingly special about this book; from the vibes, atmosphere, characters, story and the ending. I can’t get enough of it. Would highly recommend everyone. All in all, it deserves 5 stars and so much more

I was very invested in the story arc and character development in this wonderful Christmas story. It felt quite unique in how many different people were involved, with it being a school reunion/ wedding party, and the different elements really kept things interesting. I adored Isaac and Nory's backstory and how things fizzed between them as the story grew. The only thing that threw me initially at the start was the constant swap between using Nory/ Elinor almost like they were different characters until I got to grips with it, I'm not sure using both names in the narrative was necessary.
It's a great feelgood wintery party of a book with lots of love and joy

Lovely warm Christmas novel. Nory and her old school friends get together at a castle for a wedding. Full of detail about Nory and the other characters, with a ruggedly handsome lover thrown in. Of course the path of true love doesn’t run smoothly, but there’s a HEA to warm your heart.

I love this author, her Christmas books are perfect for the winter season! Nory comes from a homey family and was lucky enough to get a scholarship to the local private school in her youth. With that comes posh friends and local friends and a feeling of displacement when they eventually finish school. The pressures that come with the expectation of her education lead to Nory starting to crack and after a tragedy in their friendship group Nory gains some perspective. Cut to the present and she has her dream job owning her own book shop, and when she returns home for a friends wedding sparks fly with her brothers best friend, the head gardener of the wedding venue.

I adored this book! Nory and Isaac have some delicious chemistry with their kiss anticipation. This book is not a steamy romance but all the fizzle and feelings are there in the build ups which make for a gorgeous read!

A must-buy Christmassy read out on September 29th in ebook and November 10th in paperback! Get your preorders in now!

I have read Jenny Bayliss previous Christmas novels and thoroughly enjoyed them, so I had high hopes for her latest Christmas novel and it did not disappoint..
Nory and her friends are attending a week long pre wedding get together in a castle where she and her boarded at school. During the week, Nory meets Isaac, someone who she knew from school and they begin to develop a relationship.
There are also issues with Nory's friends and as the week progresses we get to see what happens to the characters.
An enjoyable , warm, cosy read ideal for the Christmas season,
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book.

4.5 stars
This is the first Jenny Bayliss book that I've read but it certainly won't be the last.
I loved that this book transported me to the castle and small village, even if we only get the occasional Christmassy vibes.
I will admit, there are a lot of characters to get to grips with, with it taking a bit to pin down exactly who is who.
But once you do, this was a really enjoyable story of friendship, reunions, romance and what life is like more generally when you are at this point in your life.
Even though this is technically an Insta-love style story, the connection that the two characters had when they were teens made this feel actually believable to me.
I also liked the tension that is built up and the longing that we get over the few days at the castle, so that when they do finally get together it feels like it has been earned.
I adored all of the scenes in Nory's secondhand bookshop and seeing her genuine love for books and what she does. Those were some of the strongest scenes for me and greedily, I would have liked even more of them.
I also liked that, despite this being marketed as a festive read, it touched on bigger and more important topics like depression, suicide, infidelity, misogyny and appropriation, in a sensitive manner.
I did get a little bit bored of how often the 'us versus them' narrative, of the Pomp versus the Comp, is brought up. I get bringing it up a few times but it felt like a constant throughout the book, which got a little tiring to keep reading over and over again.
But I definitely enjoyed this cosy trip to Nory's bookshop, the castle and her childhood home/family business.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A warm and cozy romance that’s easy to snuggle up with at Christmas. Nory and her old friends have a reunion, at the castle they spent a lot of time in when they were younger, for one of the friends wedding. It’s the perfect setting to make you feel festive, I mean who wouldn’t want a Christmas wedding in a castle!

When Nory bumps into an old acquaintance there, Isaac, a lot of flirting begins. Their dynamic was very cute and charming and Isaacs little cottage made me feel so cosy!

It was nice to read a romance that also focused a lot on the main characters friend group as well as the love interest. It created new dynamics and really built upon her character.

My only negatives with this book were that it felt a bit slow in places and I felt it could have been shorter. But overall it’s a really lovely and cosy holiday romance!

I’m sorry, but books + Christmas + love? Are we sure Jenny didn’t write this book solely for me?

I haven’t identified with a character as much as I did Nory. Every new thing she reveals, I can feel myself nodding. Her looks, her persona, her family life, it’s all me, and I think it would be quite nice to live her life in her world.

The chemistry between Nory and Isaac just springs from the page. They’re delightful separately and together, I was rooting for them from the off. I had mixed feelings about the rest of the characters. I liked Ameerah, Jenna and Camille, not so much the male characters (apart from Isaac of course, and Dev, Andrew and Seb were also in my good books), but the others, I found them to be so up themselves and pretentious that they had their work cut out to impress me. But for me, this really was a story for the girls - and Lettuce the dog obviously.

I liked the exploration of low privilege and high privilege. It led to several interesting scenes and interactions, and makes you think about how you would react in that situation. If you were in a privileged position, would you look down on others? And if you were not in a privileged position, would you hate the success of others?

I loved the family and friend dynamics, it felt very real. Every relationship, be it romantic, platonic or familial, has its ups and downs, it’s flaws and it’s triumphs, nothing is perfect. And I find, quite often, characters in books are made out to be perfect, because they’re fictional, so they can be anything the author wants. But the characters in this are not perfect and that’s what makes them identifiable.

From one ‘bigger’ girl to another, it was refreshing to see a curvier main character, and for her size not to be a plot point. She’s successful, has a large group of friends, and is in love. It shouldn’t be a thing that needs mentioning, but sadly it still is, so it was lovely to see a main character who just so happened to be on the larger size, rather than just being the large character.

There are topics you may not expect in a jolly festive read, including classism, racism, theft, adultery, fidelity and suicide. They’re not just thrown in haphazardly to shock the reader. They’re things that everyone goes through, be them fictional or real, and they really helped frame the main story and main relationships.

I did read another early review that said they would have preferred more of the story to be set in Nory’s bookshop and less in the castle at the reunion and I do agree. That’s not because those scenes are bad or boring or anything, they were very good. But, unsurprisingly, I love books and bookshops and book collecting and antique books and I would have quite happily read 400 pages of a bookshop at Christmas.

This was my first Jenny Bayliss festive novel and it was delightful. It’s an enjoyable read and exactly what I wanted from a Christmas book.

This was such a fabulous Christmas story and definitely gave me exactly what I look for in a festive book. Highly recommend for the upcoming festive season!

Really enjoyed this story and the sub stories that ran through it at the same time. You could really feel the emotions of the characters.

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe was a good read. It had a nice romantic story but also touched on friendship, loss, misogyny and racism. It involved Christmas, snow and a secondhand bookshop; how much more romantic could you get! I recommend reading it while drinking a big mug of hot chocolate.

A sweepingly beautiful read. Full of romance, Christmas joy, spirit and a wonderfully uplifting story. I adored this book.

This book is a great read if you are looking for something cosy with a winter feeling. The book focuses on the friendship dynamics and the romance is simply a part of the plot which I could really appreciate. I enjoyed the different themes that were brought into the story such as class, misoginy, mental health, motherhood and the challenges of running your own business.

I was really excited when I saw that Jenny Bayliss had a new Christmas book out, she has become a staple author that I read every year. I have loved her previous stories because of the way that she builds her female characters. They are often creative and natural leaders but also not your typical romance protagonist. Meet me under the Mistletoe was an enjoyable story that grew on me a lot as it progressed.

I personally wish we would have spend most of the book at the bookstore and not as much in their wedding / friendship reunion, but that is simply because I love books and It's a beautiful setting. Hopefully we will get even more of it in some of her future works.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read and review this book before the release date.