Holiday Hi-jinks With Heart: Heed the Call of Codi Hall

Codi Hall loves a romcom pun.  As, of course, do I.  So Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist and There's Something About Merry were everything I wanted in lighthearted holiday romance.  And Along Came Holly is the star on top of this Christmas tree farm-themed trifecta.   

Mistletoe, Idaho's Holly Winters is all about taking risks.  As the Adventure Elf, she performs stunt after dangerous stunt for her legions of YouTube fans clad in -- what else? -- an elf costume.  Her success has allowed her to buy her holiday haven, A Shop for All Seasons, as well as her house in Mistletoe's most exclusive -- and lavishly decorated -- neighborhood.  Still, Holly is cautious when it comes to her heart.  So when she becomes embroiled in a prank war with the boy next door, she doesn't even consider that it could blossom into something more.  

Declan Gallagher is back in Mistletoe to take care of his curmudgeonly and ailing father.  Running the family hardware store is part of the deal even though Declan would rather be painting.  A holiday hater, he thinks that Christmas decorations and gifts are a waste of time and money.  That said, his burgeoning frenemy-ship with Holly is fun, but he's unsure about getting involved with someone who's Christmas crazy -- not to mention impulsive. 

Along Came Holly is a festive treat.  Spicier than a Hallmark movie yet twice as sweet, it doesn't get much cozier than following jolly Holly and dour Declan on their unlikely road to happily ever after.  

That's the magic of Mistletoe.     

Pop Culture Puns and Trees by the Ton

Print: Michaels

A cactus is a kind of tree, especially when it's dressed up for Christmas.  Even if it doesn't grow in New Jersey save for in print form on my wall.  Who knows.  If I saw real cacti every day, then maybe I wouldn't like them as much.  Luckily, I'm rooted in the Garden State, which means I'll never need to find out.

Cacti do grow in Idaho, which just happens to be the setting of the last book I read, Codi Hall's There's Something About Merry.  The sequel to Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist (which I read last year), it centers around the Winters Christmas Tree Farm and the festively-named family that owns it.  Middle child Merry loves the farm so much that she wants to run it someday.  So she's bummed when her dad hires someone else to do just that.  Clark Griffin (who, although not a Winters, isn't immune to the "merry" moniker theme; his favorite holiday flick is Christmas Vacation) is no longer the lanky, long-haired nerd that popular Merry crushed on back in high school.  Now a single dad, he's assertive but still reticent, his quiet nature masking a wound.  Yet when he and Merry connect on a dating app, their chemistry is palpable.  As a writer and an introvert, I love an epistolary getting-to-know-you, and this one is especially sweet.  But perhaps the best thing about it is that it doesn't go on forever.  Merry and Clark discover each other's identities early.  So instead of being the entire story, the online dating trope serves as more of a prologue, building tension and layers.  Because who says romcoms can't be deep?

Not this fool for love.  And cacti. 💖🌵