Review: Blame It on the Mistletoe

Title: Blame It on the Mistletoe
Author: Beth Garrod
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: November 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Tweet Cute meets the movie The Holiday in this funny holiday rom-com where two very different girls swap lives for a Christmas adventure.

Elle is a social medial star with the #DreamLife…or so it seems. Determined to shake up her content and gain new followers, she’s on a mission: can she find a British fan to swap with for Christmas?

Holly loves everything about Christmas. But after a mortifying mistletoe disaster with her ex, her perfect plans unravel like a bad Christmas sweater. Can Holly save the holidays when she switches places with favorite social media influencer?

Elle gets more than she bargained for when she meets the cute boy from across the street. And Holly wasn’t expecting Elle to have a handsome twin brother. This holiday is full of surprises.

Review:

Elle is a teenage influencer who wants to grow her social media followers to 30,000 by the end of the year. She decides to do a holiday swap with a fan in Britain to change up her content for the holidays. Holly is obsessed with Christmas in her small British town of Little Marsh. She’s getting over a tough breakup, and finds comfort watching her favourite influencer on social media. When Elle announces that she wants to trade places with a British fan for Christmas, Holly decides she has to live out her dream Christmas in New York City. Luckily, Elle and Holly have a family connection, so trading places is easy. However, they didn’t expect to find romance during their holidays: Elle with Holly’s cute friend and Holly with Elle’s twin brother.

This story was a fun look at social media and the lengths that influencers will go to to get followers. This was an extreme tactic, switching places with a fan, but it was an interesting technique. Elle also had to deal with trolls and fake people on social media, so it also showed the dangers that teens and any influencers can face online.

Holly’s narrative began this story, and her voice reminded me of the Georgia Nicolson books that I loved when I was a kid. She was quirky and funny. However, she lost this humourous outlook throughout the story as things became more serious. I would have loved to have more of that funny narrative voice.

One thing that I didn’t understand is the cover. I didn’t count this against my rating for the author, because I know it wasn’t completely her decision, but I’m not sure why there was only one male and one female character on the cover when the story was mainly about two girls and two different couples. It always bothers me when the cover doesn’t match the book. It would have made more sense to have both the main characters on the cover.

Blame It on the Mistletoe is a cute YA rom com.

What to read next:

Have you read Blame It on the Mistletoe? What did you think of it?