Mistletoe in Paradise
by Jill Shalvis
Release Date: December 1, 2020
Publisher: Avon
Book #5.5 in the Wildstone series
Number of pages: 89
Kindle
Source: MCL
Contemporary Romance/Holidays M/F
Rating: R
Read 12/31/20
Problem Number One – Getting There
Old childhood friends each fly separately to join their families on what’s been an annual holiday themed yacht adventure. Secret ex-lovers, Hannah and James are determined to make the best of things…
Problem Number Two – Getting Stuck.
When everyone but Hannah and James gets held up in an airport snarl, it leaves them stuck together for four days, making Hannah’s already problematic trip a whole lot harder to face. Especially because she comes bearing more than just gifts…
Problem Number Three — Falling In Love (again)
As the former lovers try to make the best of the Christmas snafu, they soon realize that the best things in life can’t be planned and sometimes love is sweeter the second time around.
As I’ve mentioned before with this series, all of the stories are standalone and you don’t have to read any of the others to read this one. It’s a sweet holiday story that, actually, doesn’t even take place in Wildstone since they’re out on a boat the whole book.
I’m always pulled into this author’s stories pretty quickly, and this was no exception. Although it’s shorter than most of Jill Shalvis’ usual stories since it’s a novella, there’s still plenty of chemistry. Yet, I found myself being pulled out of the story over and over. Most of it has to do with the timeline. I don’t want to say there are any discrepancies with the timeline, I didn’t notice any. Yet, the depth the characters were/are into their careers at certain points in their reminiscences, and the amount of time they spent together before incident that estranged them, didn’t make sense to me. Doesn’t mean anything was off. It was just something that my very literal and type-A brain couldn’t reconcile.
I still enjoyed this story immensely. I only wish it wasn’t a novella and we could have dug deeper into both character’s pasts. As it was, I was emotionally invested with the little I was given.
3 stars
All In Good Time 