Set in a town called Lake Pristine, this pristinely written story will make you laugh and make you cry, sometimes at the same time.
The female main character Jasper is neurodiverse, which is both a blessing and a curse for her and is echoed brilliantly throughout the book.
Her Autism is handled expertly by the writer reflecting how she responds to the other characters in the various scenarios and indeed how she is responded to by different people.
Do read this book, I believe the demographic aimed at is late teens and young adults but I am an 'ahem' older adult and enjoyed this story immensely, so whatever your age and whether autistic or allistic there is something here for you in this charming tale.

"Some Like it Cold" by Elle McNicoll is a captivating and thought-provoking novel that masterfully blends wit, charm, and depth. McNicoll's storytelling is both engaging and insightful, offering readers a fresh perspective on themes of identity, acceptance, and the courage to stand out in a world that often demands conformity. The characters are vibrant and relatable, each bringing their own unique flavor to the narrative. With its clever dialogue and compelling plot, "Some Like it Cold" is a delightful read that not only entertains but also leaves a lasting impression. McNicoll has once again delivered a story that resonates with readers of all ages.

A lovely small town romance, I loved the complex characters and their development. A lovely read. I will be reading more from this author.

"Some Like It Cold" by Elle McNicoll is perfection 😘👌. If you're into books that give you all the warm, fuzzy feels while also making you want to scream into a pillow, this one's for you.
I’m giving it a solid 4.5 stars, and here's why:

So, first off, let's talk about Jasper. SHE. IS. EVERYTHING. Jasper is autistic, and McNicoll does such an amazing job of showing what that looks like, especially for girls. We see her struggling with sensory overloads, masking, and all that exhausting people-pleasing she does to make everyone else comfortable — and honestly, it’s heartbreaking. Like, I legit teared up because Jasper deserves ALL the hugs. She’s doing so much for others, while everyone just takes from her (side-eyeing you, Christine 👀).

The way she navigates her relationships had me clenching my jaw in frustration because she’s so selfless, but at the same time, I was cheering for her to finally put herself first. You can’t help but feel every bit of pain she goes through. McNicoll nailed it when it comes to showing how someone like Jasper tries to fit into a world that just doesn't "get" her.

Now, Arthur Lancaster. SWOON. This boy is the ultimate enemies-to-lovers, brooding love interest that we all deserve. His POV? Golden. It’s rare to find a love interest who isn’t just there to pine but also has his own fully fleshed-out story. He’s dealing with loss, running a cinema, and is busy being a phenomenal big brother to Grace, which just made me fall harder for him. The little things he does for Jasper, like the movie screenings of old romances his dad used to show just for her? My heart couldn’t handle it. 😭 And even though he’s moody, he’s SO protective of Jasper, like, he truly SEES her in a way no one else does, and that slow-burn romance? Absolute gold.

Okay, let’s talk about the rest of the characters for a sec. The older folks of Lake Pristine? Love them. You really feel the warmth and affection they have for Jasper. But those younger ones? Ugh. Sophie, Saffron, and even Odette at times made me want to throw the book. Sophie and Saffron were two whole villain arcs that I didn’t need, and Christine? Don’t even get me started. She’s Jasper’s sister, but honestly, some of her actions were so nasty that I couldn’t get over them, even with her so-called redemption arc. She can keep that, thanks. 🤚

And Jasper’s mum? She’s that "hard-to-love" character we all know too well, while her dad is definitely the better parent. More chill, more likable.

One thing that made me love this book even more is how it didn’t shy away from tough topics. The dynamics between the siblings—both Jasper and Christine and Arthur with his family—felt so real. I loved that McNicoll didn’t sugarcoat the complexities of those relationships, especially when it came to grief, distance, and moving on.

The only reason it’s not a full 5 stars? The redemption arcs for some characters just didn’t hit the way they were supposed to, especially Christine’s, but that's on me - it wasn't that it wasn't done well... I just couldn't forgive some of these characters. I was like, "Girl, no amount of apologies will fix what you did." But hey, that’s life, right? 🤷‍♀️ People are messy, and not everything wraps up in a perfect bow.

All in all, this book is SUCH a vibe. It’s got all the charm of small-town romance, serious Gilmore Girls energy, but with that YA depth that makes you think. If you love a book that breaks your heart just to glue it back together with the cutest slow-burn love story, then trust me, "Some Like It Cold" is the one for you. 🥰

Mentioned a few times on Twitter a few times this year, will shout about it again closer to publication but now on bluesky. A gorgeous, classic teen romance book with a wonderful autistic protagonist.

I was so excited to receive a copy of this to read, as I have enjoyed McNicoll’s previous work. The setting, characters and plot are amazing. I can’t wait for other people to get a chance to read it when it’s released!

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Books | First Ink and Elle McNicoll for gifting me a digital arc copy of Some Like It Cold in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Sadly, the format of this digital arc made it terribly difficult to read and I ended up DFNing Some Like It Cold before 30%. From what I did read I loved this alternative angle on classical romance story and bring it from the prospect of a neurodivergent character who conceals her difference to try fit into the small town community. I struggled to engage with the characters as they didn’t seem to have much substance apart from being rich people. The pacing and plot felt rushed and bumpy – paired with the poor copy I received I decided to put the book down until I could pick up a physical copy.

Small town setting, true romance, Neurodivergent representation everything I needed and more. Jasper is a wonderfully developed and complex character. I enjoyed watching/reading as she finally allowed herself to be vulnerable and to stand up for herself. I also liked the Jasper - Arthur dynamic. The story even contains a redemptive arc for Jasper's family, especially Christine.

Jasper and Arthur have been each other’s nemeses since childhood. Told through current date events and reminiscences of the past, we hear the backstory of Jasper and Arthur, we see the honest truth of who they are in the present day, and we suspect they want more from their lives than they are getting.

Jasper is the most loved member of a small town community, A kind, generous woman , full of integrity, who is always happy to help out anyone who needs assistance . Jasper’s diagnosed Autism is the reason that she is such a rule keeper, as it’s part of her safety and masking. Unfortunately for Jasper, her family are not always as supportive as they should be, especially her mother who prefers to avoid any mention of autism This means that Jasper spend most of our life hiding her own feelings, hopes, and ambitions. Life with her demanding sister is also difficult

Arthur runs the local Cinema, sadly missing his now deceased father. Arthur also has a secret, And this is exposed when his cousin makes a documentary about the town.

This is a really excellent story of some amazingly lovable characters set in a small town in America. Jasper reveals to the reader, an in-depth detail of the autistic mind, and how masking affects Jasper, how she wishes to be truly herself in front of her family and peers, yet feels that she is unable to be who she is, without causing upset to her family. We see she hopes to forge her own path in life, and some of the sacrifices she might have to make in order to do so.

This is a genuinely beautiful old-fashioned love story with a wonderful twist, a fantastic and honest insight into autistic anxiety, the truth of two people finally ‘seeing’ each other, and the shared hope of a happy ending.

For anyone who loved #AKindOfSpark.
This book would appeal to autistic Youths and adults alike for whom there is often poor representation in literature. This is also a fantastic story for Neurotypical people to read in order to better emphasise with the real life experiences, of genuine strengths, and difficulties faced by autistic people. At heart, it’s a romance, and therefore a wonderfully lovely story.
This YA novel is a breath of fresh air. I loved it.

Thanks to #NetGalley For the opportunity to read this ahead of publication and exchange for an honest review. Well done, Elle McNicholl For writing such a lovely story. I shall be recommending this to many people.

I really enjoyed A Kind of Spark so had high hopes for Some Like It Cold and it didn’t disappoint!
Cute small town, enemies to lovers, YA book with neurodivergent representation & good characters with depth!

I have read all 5 of Elle McNicoll’s published Middle Grade books and loved them all so had very high expectations going into this and was very excited to have an early copy to read.

Some Like it Cold follows Jasper who has come home from uni for the first time after 18 months and with secrets she's keeping from both her family and the town that means she’s back to stay goodbye. Arthur who runs the local cinema with his brother and is attempting to create a film about Lake Pristine, but to Jasper he is looking like a reason why saying goodbye might not be the best idea.

This is Elle McNicoll’s YA debut romance book and I love that she has made the decision to write romance because I loved this so much and we need more autistic romances. This is definitely for the upper end of YA but it still feels like it’s for YA which YA books don’t always feel like they are.

We get the perspective of both Jasper and Arthur throughout the story which I liked to see. It was nice to see the feelings build up during the story but also I really connected with Jasper and a lot of that came from being in her head. It was also nice to see Arthur’s perspective on a lot of things that went on with Jasper. This worked really well for the story as a whole.

Something else I really liked about the writing was how many of the things that Jasper struggled with were written, including masking, which I don’t think has ever been discussed as much in any book I have read before, the way she has learned to read people and the way she experiences sensory overload. There were so many quotes I connected too and wrote down so that I can look back on. Often books describe things that I am unable to in ways that I really connect to, so those quotes are great ways to describe how I feel with specific things to people that don’t experience things in the same ways.

Along with Arthur and Jasper we see a lot of other characters who live in this town and they went to school with. You see a wide variety of characters that live in town, whether they be older than Jasper, her age or younger. You see how big of a range of people live here which was great because there were characters you liked, you understood and you think needed a stern talking to.

I liked seeing Odette and Jasper’s friendship, how it’s changed due to Jasper being at university and how much they still mean to each other. Odette was a character whose actions felt very understandable and it’s really nice to see how much they still have a strong understanding of each other after this time away and over the course of the book you see Odette make some realisations and Jasper and Odette come back together after some distance between them that felt complete real between these characters in a way that you would expect to happen when one moves away.

Both Arthur and Jasper’s families were heavily involved in the story. I really liked both of Arthur’s siblings, the three of them were close in ways that were great to see and Grace was a character who I was always happy to see. Jasper’s family on the other hand are known to be one of the top families of the town and have struggled to accept her diagnosis properly and what it means for Jasper. I had mixed feelings towards Christine at many times because she was great to Jasper but also really mean to Jasper and many others in the town but by the end of the book she had definitely grown in my opinion she still wasn’t my favourite. Jasper’s parents also improved over the course of the story but I again I can’t say I was their biggest fan by the time I got to the end.

There were many other characters in town that I liked including Hera that I would like to see more of and I’m so glad Elle McNicoll is writing more in Lake Pristine but I would love to know which character’s we will be following because I love Lake Pristine and it’s residents so so much.

Jasper and Arthur were both flawed and had things that they were aware weren’t perfect about them but they were still characters that I really liked and wanted the best for at all times in the story. I really connected to Jasper as a character and was so glad to have read her story because of how much I connected to her and her struggles.

You could see how much the author loves rom coms when reading, it comes right through into the story when reading about both Jasper’s special interest and the love story between Arthur and Jasper. There was fantastic neurodivergent representation in this book which is exactly what I have come to expect from Elle McNicoll in six books, it discussed masking in an amazing way, sensory overload and social interactions it didn’t feel like it was just added in because she wanted to have people understand what being autistic is like instead it felt like it was authentic to Jasper and who she was as a person and how her life was as an autistic girl in a small town that wasn’t the most understanding. Jasper’s family and their views on her diagnosis was also interesting to see because it’s not something that I think I see often in books in the way that it was represented here and how Jasper’s opinion on it differed to theirs.

This book made me feel so seen in such an amazing way that I haven’t felt so strongly in any book before and I know the story will stick with me for quite a while. I would highly recommend it to all readers because the romance is fantastic as is the representation and it’s one that upon release I definitely think you should be picking up from bookshops. It is a new favourite YA romance that I will be rereading many times, and could not rate anything but five stars.

(Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review)

One of my favourite things in this book was the small details like the use of chapter headings that mimicked film script (which was even cooler as the main character loves old romance films). This attention to detail is something I love in books and really just shows the time and care that went into making it.

This book is definitely more character-driven rather than plot-driven which worked really well as the author makes the main characters feel real and they have a lot of depth. And the chemistry between the two main characters is fantastic and you can’t help but root for them. The small town setting also provides the perfect backdrop for the character development and romance. It is cosy and quirky and you can feel the love that the townspeople have for their home.

This book is the perfect winter read. I absolutely adored it and would pi k it up to enjoy again and again.

Elle McNicoll's debut YA has already solidified her as a genius of the genre!

Her love of rom coms bleeds through the page and comes out in how perfectly the tension (and swoon-worthiness) between Jasper and Arthur builds and unfolds. Some Like It Cold has the perfect rom com balance of heart and integrity, cuteness and cringe, and a romance that has you blushing.

Jasper stole my heart from her first, very awkward, entry and will stay with me for a long time after. She's a wonderful example of the struggles autistic girls face with the masks society pushes us to adopt our whole lives, and it was truly refreshing to read a representation so honest and so rarely portrayed. I had tears in my eyes at so many points from how much Jasper's story reflected my own experiences, and from wanting to just make life easier for her.

Overall a fantastic read that I devoured in one day and will stay with me forever.

This was cute! And that's as much as I think about it.

The neurodivergent rep was incredible. McNicoll's portrayal of masking and Jasper gradually breaking out of it was so well done and tender. It also helped that Jasper herself was a delightful main character, as her kindness and love she has for her family, friends, and Lake Pristine really shine through the page. It took me a while to like Arthur, for I found the motivations for his documentary to be dubious, but he did warm up to me as he became closer to Jasper and was being more genuine.

The big reason why I didn't like this more was the snide attitude the town gave off for the majority of the book. The rampant gossip, the in-group or nothing plights, the casual worship of the richest family in town, it all gave me the ick. The characters joke about it themselves, and this eventually is turned on its head to show the better, friendlier side of small towns, but the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. It also made it hard to come around to Jasper's family at the end, particularly her sister Christine. They show remorse and become more supportive, but it didn't really feel earned when they spent most of the book being the absolute worst type of family towards her (For Christ's sake, Christine forced her easily overstimulated sister to go to a club for her bachelorette party, knowing she would likely shutdown, and never even said sorry! Making Jasper maid-of-honor last minute doesn't make up for that at all.)

All in all, this was a cute romance, but there were some elements in the story I couldn't vibe with well.

a really wonderful feel-good ya romcom with so much HEART! the neurodivergent rep was fantastic, and it was lovely to see these characters fall for each other with a cosy christmassy backdrop!!

thank you so much to net galley, MacMillan for the arc! X

I loved this heart-warming rom-com so much. As someone with my own experience of neurodiversity I'm really enjoying reading books by authors who have a similar experience and yet celebrate differences too between people who have a similar diagnosis. The characters are sympathetic and I loved being in the 'small-town' world that McNicoll creates. This book falls nicely into that 'clean teen' zone and will be absolutely lapped up by voracious readers of rom-coms young and old. It would make a perfect feel-good Xmas movie- really hope it happens one day!

Having read Elle McNicoll’s other books, I was intrigued as to how her first foray into YA would fare. I will confess that I was little disappointed at first as I thought it was going to be the archetypal “rom com” churned out regularly on the Hallmark channel, with the golden girl loved by everyone, the evil older sister and the broodingly handsome Mr Darcy cipher. However, I soon realised that Elle had brought in many of the classic romantic tropes but there was much more to this story. For me, by far the best part of the story was Jasper’s neurodiversity which was described in an achingly effective way. I enjoyed the setting; who can resist a small-town vignette in the run up to Christmas? The characters were well written, and Elle fleshed out the selfish older sister and brooding boyfriend admirably. The minor characters also felt real. Best of all, there was a lovely happy ending, as you would expect with a rom com. I’m looking forward to recommending this to neurodivergent readers and those who love a great romance.

As a new reader of Elle McNicoll's work, diving into "Some Like it Cold" felt like an already favourite book and I will be reading more of her work.

This novel, which I would say is half coming-of-age novel, half enemies-to-lovers romance, and offers more than a love story. McNicoll brings together themes of family dynamics, small-town life, being on the spectrum, and loving someone on the spectrum, creating a story that offers heartwarming insight.

I found Jasper's journey to be authentic (sometimes, painfully so) but also enlightening. What truly touched me as someone on the spectrum who counts as 'highly functioning' was the way that living with autism was portrayed with sensitivity, honesty, and authenticity. If you have a child or close relative on the spectrum and you are not, I advise you to read this book for some insight on one experience with ASD.

The romance between Jasper and Arthur is nicely written, with a perfect balance of sweetness and personal history. Their journey from distant enemies to reluctant allies to something more is a classic enemies-to-lovers gambit. McNicoll excels at capturing the nuances of their relationship, making every moment feel authentic.

Jasper's relationships with friends and family are also deeply and insightfully explored. These threads and subplots make up the other half of the novel and are honest and compelling. Themes of repairing a strained friendship, the need to belong vs. the need to break away, and the personal price of keeping the peace are explored with brutal honesty without harshness.

Their hometown Lake Pristine, has that small-town atmosphere that adds an extra layer of depth to the story. It feels like a visit to a place where you would spend a charming weekend. If you fell in love with the place and moved there, you wouldn't be considered a 'local' until your family had been there for three generations, and that feeling is kindly but honestly conveyed, an authentic background for the novel.

"Some Like it Cold" is a delightful read that will tug at your heart and leave you with a smile. Elle McNicoll's storytelling shines brightly in this novel, and I cannot recommend it enough. Whether you're a fan of romance, interested in neurodiversity, or simply looking for a heartwarming story to brighten your day, this book is a must-read.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Thank you Netgalley for the free eCopy!

I adore Elle McNicoll's children's books and was nervous about trying out her novel for older readers. How I wish I had read it at Christmas time!! (You can of course read it at anytime but this book screams at you for being adapted to a Christmas movie!!!!)

It has that warm Christmas movie feel to it - is warm the right word??

Jasper - the main character is home to her small town. Having lived in a small town too she describes it so perfectly. The pros and cons of such a place. The trying to fit in and return to the face that the locals know.

However Jasper has a plan. Will she be able to tick off everything on her to-do or will the locals get in the way? Maybe Andrew - the grump? Christine - the sister? Odette - the best friend? Saffron - the sisters, friends sister? (See this is such a small town description!!)

A feeling good romantic novel, I suspect the start of many for Elle McNicoll.