I always feel the need to preface a romance review with the fact that I am aromantic. I really enjoy the friendship aspect of romance books (if there is any) and then it goes down hill for me once they start hooking up. The Mistletoe Motive is no exception. 

 

I picked up this book because it is a holiday themed read about an Autistic main character is demisexual. For that aspect I loved it. The autism representation was on point for me. It was an important aspect of her identity and how she navigates the world, but not the story. It was the same as her demisexual identity. 

 

The novella was well written. It was nothing fancy, but not bad. The characters were well developed and very flushed out. The love interest, Johnathan, has type one diabetes that again impacted his life, but was not the story. 

 

The plot was one big cliche after another. It didn’t contain every romance troupe, because it was only a five and a half hour audiobook. It did contain a lot of them. Beyond the representation there really isn’t anything new here. Since I read this for the representation I was perfectly good with that. So, I guess know why you want to read it before reading it. 

 

For me, personally, the majority of the book was a fun lighthearted, holiday themed, read that I wanted it to be. The last few chapters were graphic sex scenes and over the top romance. I finished it, but I could have just as well done without them. To be fair, they are probably a romantics favorite part.