First things first: I received this book through NetGalley.
This is the third book in the North Pole, Minnesota series, but can be read on it's own. Same town, different characters. But mentions of some of the characters in the earlier books.
In my mind, I'm actually packing my bags and moving to North Pole, Minnesota. This town just seems so damn magical and beautiful, with wonderful people in it and a christmas vibe all year long, something that doesn't sound bad to me at all. I'm writing this review while listening to christmas music (in october, gasp!!!)
This review is going to contain spoilers, cause I can't contain my feels!!!
Summary: Danny Garland is so out of Holly’s league. And her family is only back in North Pole, Minnesota, long enough to sell Grandma’s house and say “Merry Christmas.” So telling her basketball-star, too-hot-to-be-real long-time crush that she’d like to kiss him under the mistletoe just isn’t going to happen.
And now he’s asked out her cousin, Elda. Elda is a mess at flirting, so when she begs Holly to intervene, she does. Holly helps her flirt with him over text. And then again. And again. Now she’s stuck texting him as her cousin, and Elda is the one going on the date. Holly thought she could settle for just conversation with Danny, but talking with him is some kind of magic. He’s got the perfect comebacks, she makes him laugh, they text until everyone is asleep.
She just can’t ever tell him it’s her he’s really texting.
I still haven't read the first book in the series but I LOVED the second one. And now the third one sucked me in right away. This series is just greatly written and so easy and fun to read.
The characters.
The two main characters are Holly and Danny.
I loved them both right from the start. Holly broke my heart so many times in this story, just her being super selfconsious and always thinking that she will never be good enough. And Danny, breaking his leg and having to give up on basketball for a while, finding out his girlfriend is cheating on him. Give these two a break. And then they met, and because Holly is Holly and she's thinking that he will never be interested in her, she's trying her best to set him up with her cousin, Elda. On the topic of Elda, I love that girl, she's weird, she talks about gross things. She's wonderful.
So this story is basically about Holly trying to set up Elda with Danny, doing everything in her power to avoid her own feelings and making things happen between these two. She's writing him texts, pretending to be Elda (who knows about it), they pretty much make him believe that Elda is the one their grandma tried to set him up with. When Elda and Danny actually have to talk to each other face to face, it's just painful and awkward. But because Holly is trying to keep her distance, he actually things that she strongly dislikes him.
I love this story. I love the whole thing. Yes, some lies are being told, some feelings get hurt along the way. But I was living for every little moment between Holly and Danny. These two are just such beautiful idiots that I was really rooting for. LOVE THEM.
I also really loved Elda and Dinesh. I mean things between them happened really fast, but these two weirdos work so well together that it was just so THEM to jump right into the relationship. Wedding bells and all.
I also very much LOVED the whole gingerbread competition. This is coming from someone who loathes gingerbread. But this element to the story was just so cute. And I loved the little moments of Tinka (from book 2) that we got through this. Girl was not happy about her placing in the competition. Haha, loved it.
I HIGHLY recommend this book for everyone who is in need of a little bit of christmas-y cuteness!!!
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