Like many of us in the fandom of YA contemporary reads, I love a good, fluffy Christmas story, but I find that “fluffy” contemporary works best for me in short formatting, so that I can just focus on a cutesy love story without needing much back story. Needless to say, I was excited when I heard about this collection coming out, because it’s exactly that: fluffy, cutesy contemporary romances set around Christmas!

→ L I K E S :

Two of the four stories in this collection were really enjoyable to read:
→ Snow & Mistletoe — Kasie West ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
→ Grounded — Nic Stone ⭐⭐⭐

“I have a feeling I could ask you anything right now and you’d tell me the truth. This could be trouble.”
“I am about to be in a huge amount of trouble.”
— Kasie West

The first story, and my favorite, was Snow & Mistletoe by Kasie West. I’ve only ever read one thing by Kasie before and I enjoyed it, but didn’t get the “hype” around her romances until reading this. I laughed and “awwww”ed through the entire story. It’s literally one of the cutest things I’ve ever read in my life, and even though the ending felt super predictable to me, it was in a good way, like one of those stories where you knew who was going to be the happy couple at the end and you got to just sit back, get cozy, and watch it all unfold in the cutest and sweetest way ever.

“Might’ve had a little crush on you when we were fourteen…”
“It was definitely mutual.”
— Nic Stone

The other story that I enjoyed overall (though as you can tell from the star rating, still wasn’t perfect) was Grounded by Nic Stone. Unfortunately, as with everything else I’ve read by her, I was reminded that I simply don’t enjoy Nic’s writing style and I think her narrative voice is very cringe-y and cheesy. That said, two queer black girls falling for each other in an airport? Cute as heck.

→ D I S L I K E S :

Unfortunately, the other two stories in this collection? Awful.
→ Working in a Winter Wonderland — Aimee Friedman ⭐
→ The Magi’s Gifts — Melissa de la Cruz ⭐

“Wow. Are you always this cynical?”
— Aimee Friedman

I’ve never read anything by Friedman before Working in a Winter Wonderland and I definitely won’t be after this. The protagonist is so rude and childish to everyone she meets, the story is boring, and the romance at the end is a complete joke. She treats the guy like human garbage and then has the nerve to pick on him for not thinking he liked her. The only nice thing about this was the own-voice Jewish rep, but even that wasn’t enough for me to forgive how awful Maxine treats everyone around her.

But she was prettier than the whole lot of them put together, and after all, they couldn’t call themselves the Beautiful People if they didn’t count the most beautiful girl in school among them.
— Melissa de la Cruz

And then, there was the worst of the bunch: The Magi’s Gifts by Melissa de la Cruz. I’ve never had a problem with the original story—not my favorite, but not the worst—but this retelling is downright terrible. The characters feel straight out of the most cliché mid-2000s YA book you could possibly find, the girl-hate with the “rich kids” is so gross and overly simplified, and the main character frankly doesn’t deserve her boyfriend in the slightest with the way she treats him. The entire ordeal is just gross and I hated every single page of this story. I mean… did you see the quote I used above this paragraph? That’s the main character, talking about herself.

→ F I N A L THOUGHTS :

So, overall, a major mixed bag. If you could get Kasie’s and Nic’s stories on their own in the kindle store or something, I’d honestly tell you just to do that and not even bother with the two middle stories because they were so bad. Overall, the star ratings average out to 2.5, but I’m rounding up to a 3 just because Kasie West’s story was so good.

→ RECOMMENDING TO… :

People who love cutesy, fluffy contemporary Christmas romances.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Point for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!