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4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
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4 star
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The Trouble with Mistletoe: A Heartbreaker Bay Novel (Heartbreaker Bay, 2)

The Trouble with Mistletoe: A Heartbreaker Bay Novel (Heartbreaker Bay, 2)

byJill Shalvis
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Top positive review

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Lenoreo @ Celebrity Readers
4.0 out of 5 starsSolid Christmas read with great secondary cast of characters!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 6, 2017
3.5 stars — I’ve been wanting to read this one since it came out last year, and was so excited when I snagged a copy on sale (not to mention a paperback copy). It was definitely a delightful Christmas romance, but it started stronger than it finished for me.

My one major problem with the book is that I ended up getting tired and confused with the constant forward and backward progress by BOTH Willa and Keane. I wanted to see consistent growth, but it felt like 1 step forward, 1 step back over and over and over. When one would get their crap together, the other would lose heart/get scared/doubt and the cycle would begin again. I don’t mind it happening, but it happened about 2 times too many, kwim? Once or twice, fine…it does take people time to grow and change. But at a certain point I was ready to throw in the towel on these two. Which is honestly too bad, b/c I really enjoyed their story otherwise!

They were both very likeable characters, and both very damaged in their own way (hence the long road towards trust and love). I loved how their pasts were kind of similar in that they both felt without love and safety, and they learned to cope in much different ways. I loved the way Willa collected her strays, and tried to be for others what she wanted for herself (particularly with the girls she rescued and employed). And as an animal lover myself, I loved the way she couldn’t resist any animals that came her way. And I loved they way Keane couldn’t help but love so many people in his life, even as he told himself he was emotionless…from his Great Aunt, to Petunia/Pita, to his staff, to, of course, Willa.

And they had great chemistry. While I did hate the forward and backward movement of their relationship, I do like how the relationship progressed otherwise…it made every stage very believable. And I LOVED how much time we got with the two of them together. So many times in romances it’s kind of wham, bam, thank you ma’am, and I’m not talking about the sexy times. This felt more…natural or something. Occasionally it made the book feel long, so it was a bit of a mixed blessing, you know?

One other time thing I was a bit disappointed in was the resolution of the high school stuff. Maybe it was my own expectations, but I expected it to play a great role. It was an undercurrent in the first half, but then it just kind of resolved fairly easily and that was that. So it kind of seemed pointless and unnecessary in the end.

The thing that made this book stand out above the rest, despite these few little annoyances for me, was the amazing cast of secondary characters. Some books just feel like cast books, if that makes any sense. And this was definitely one of them. I absolutely ADORED how many varied and oddball characters there were in this book. They were all hilarious and all very different. I loved that they *both* had such great people in their corners, I genuinely felt the love each of these characters had for the other. I love when our heroes and heroines actually have other strong relationships going for them. And I can’t even tell you how many times I laughed or just smiled like a big loon at their antics, whether it be Keane with Sass and Mason, or Willa and her tribe. I’m genuinely curious about the other books in this series, I want to see all the HEAs. I am a bit sad knowing that the likelihood we’ll get Haley’s book isn’t very high…who knows, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

And speaking of secondary characters, can I just give a shout out to Petunia/Pita? I love when an animal plays an important role in a book, and they don’t just become a plot device. Her attitude towards Keane made me laugh so hard, and she really helped show the reader what Keane was going through and how he was struggling…perhaps in a way we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

So yeah…solid Christmas read. Heck, solid romance read despite the season you’re in. But it did make me feel festive.
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Top critical review

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Rachel
2.0 out of 5 starsRomance series normally delight me far more than standalones because there's nothing I ...
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 13, 2017
Romance series normally delight me far more than standalones because there's nothing I like more than revisiting the same beloved and familiar friends over the course of several books. (Yes, I'm lame enough to consider many fictional characters "friends"!) Sadly, reading Jill Shalvis' series actually makes me like each individual installment even less than I normally would. That's because the series format just highlights how incredibly contrived and repetitive her plots are, how flat and unoriginal her prose is, how often she recycles the same exact alleged humor, how annoyingly similar all of her sex scenes are and, most egregiously, just how generic and indistinguishable her characters are.

Nearly every single Shalvis heroine is haunted by a past that usually isn't even her fault and is dragged down by characterization that's about as shallow as a kiddie pool: into junk food, likes giggling about sex with her equally flat and juvenile friends, has a cute pet by her side, and...and...sorry, I've got nothing, because that's pretty much a comprehensive description of all of these heroines' personalities. (Though those pets ARE absolutely adorable, by the way---I can say without exaggeration that the animal characters nearly always have more personality than Shalvis's human ones and are far more enjoyable to read about!)

Yet these heroines can almost be considered layered, compelling and distinct characters compared to Shalvis' astoundingly identical, cookie cutter heroes. I get that there are only so many tropes and types out there, and someone who writes as many novels as Shalvis has is bound to create some similar characters along the way. But these heroes are all literally almost EXACTLY the same guy---and it's not even a guy I find interesting! They're all bland, stock alphas (Shalvis is very into the supposedly cool alpha type and routinely has other characters remarking in clunky dialogue about how very ALPHA these guys are just in case we made the mistake of thinking otherwise), they're all commitment phobic and wary of softer emotions (because, again...alpha! Or something), they all like cursing and sex and doing vaguely juvenile, eye rolling things in the name of being brave and 'macho', and I swear that they all have the exact same personality---or lack thereof.

So Willa and Keane (I literally just finished this last night and still had to look up this guy's name, which tells you all you need to know about how much of an impression he left!) are flat, embarrassingly immature and vaguely unlikable. As with nearly every Shalvis couple EVER, the "plot" of this book consists of them running in to each other and having the same conversations over and over, having sex, miscommunicating in contrived and frustrating ways, taking turns randomly and inconsonsistently deciding that they don't want to be in a relationship for reasons that make little sense before changing their minds 5-10 pages later anyway, and FINALLY, after a gazllion or so pages, confronting some past 'secret' that the reader has known about the entire time and which is never nearly as big a deal as the characters make it out to be. The foreplay/sex scenes aspire to be steamy but just feel vaguely cringe-inducing to me, especially because they always seem to substitute for any real love and connection between the H and h rather than reflecting it. There's a lot of cursing (which I'm not necessarily opposed to but feels somehow gratuitious and obnoxious in these books, like Shalvis is trying too hard to 'edgy'), friendships among these poorly defined characters feel forced and shallow and nearly always consist solely of trading juvenile sexual innuendo that even most middle school students would roll their eyes at, and, as with the vast maority of the other Shalvis books I've read, I'm never swayed that the characters feel anything more than purely hormonal lust. Love?! Please. I honestly wasn't even sold on these two LIKING each other or knowing each other beyond what each was like in bed, let alone feeling a deep emotional connection and genuine love.

I'm really not nearly as picky and exacting as this review might make it sound :) When it comes to romance novels, I can happily overlook the frequently lackluster plotting, the excessive length (seriously, WHY are so many of these 400 pages these days?!), and the repetitive, excessively explicit sex scenes that ironically make it all LESS sexy in my admittedly unpopular opinion. As long as I love the characters, dialogue and prose, and just generally get that joyful, "makes me believe in love and feel happy to be alive!" feeling that the best and even not quite best romance novels provide, I'm a very satisfied reader. The problem is that these books just don't give me any of that. The characters are pitifully flat and one dimensional at best and downright unlikable at worst, the 'humor' feels really forced, unfunny and juvenile, the book is poorly written and in dire need of editing, the plot is...nonexistent, and all of her characters and storylines are becoming totally indistinguishable.

I've finally given up on learning to love Jill Shalvis books like nearly everyone else does, but hopefully if a few other people out there share my complaints about this series, this review will at least let them know they're not alone and save them a few bucks :)
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From the United States

Rachel
2.0 out of 5 stars Romance series normally delight me far more than standalones because there's nothing I ...
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 13, 2017
Verified Purchase
Romance series normally delight me far more than standalones because there's nothing I like more than revisiting the same beloved and familiar friends over the course of several books. (Yes, I'm lame enough to consider many fictional characters "friends"!) Sadly, reading Jill Shalvis' series actually makes me like each individual installment even less than I normally would. That's because the series format just highlights how incredibly contrived and repetitive her plots are, how flat and unoriginal her prose is, how often she recycles the same exact alleged humor, how annoyingly similar all of her sex scenes are and, most egregiously, just how generic and indistinguishable her characters are.

Nearly every single Shalvis heroine is haunted by a past that usually isn't even her fault and is dragged down by characterization that's about as shallow as a kiddie pool: into junk food, likes giggling about sex with her equally flat and juvenile friends, has a cute pet by her side, and...and...sorry, I've got nothing, because that's pretty much a comprehensive description of all of these heroines' personalities. (Though those pets ARE absolutely adorable, by the way---I can say without exaggeration that the animal characters nearly always have more personality than Shalvis's human ones and are far more enjoyable to read about!)

Yet these heroines can almost be considered layered, compelling and distinct characters compared to Shalvis' astoundingly identical, cookie cutter heroes. I get that there are only so many tropes and types out there, and someone who writes as many novels as Shalvis has is bound to create some similar characters along the way. But these heroes are all literally almost EXACTLY the same guy---and it's not even a guy I find interesting! They're all bland, stock alphas (Shalvis is very into the supposedly cool alpha type and routinely has other characters remarking in clunky dialogue about how very ALPHA these guys are just in case we made the mistake of thinking otherwise), they're all commitment phobic and wary of softer emotions (because, again...alpha! Or something), they all like cursing and sex and doing vaguely juvenile, eye rolling things in the name of being brave and 'macho', and I swear that they all have the exact same personality---or lack thereof.

So Willa and Keane (I literally just finished this last night and still had to look up this guy's name, which tells you all you need to know about how much of an impression he left!) are flat, embarrassingly immature and vaguely unlikable. As with nearly every Shalvis couple EVER, the "plot" of this book consists of them running in to each other and having the same conversations over and over, having sex, miscommunicating in contrived and frustrating ways, taking turns randomly and inconsonsistently deciding that they don't want to be in a relationship for reasons that make little sense before changing their minds 5-10 pages later anyway, and FINALLY, after a gazllion or so pages, confronting some past 'secret' that the reader has known about the entire time and which is never nearly as big a deal as the characters make it out to be. The foreplay/sex scenes aspire to be steamy but just feel vaguely cringe-inducing to me, especially because they always seem to substitute for any real love and connection between the H and h rather than reflecting it. There's a lot of cursing (which I'm not necessarily opposed to but feels somehow gratuitious and obnoxious in these books, like Shalvis is trying too hard to 'edgy'), friendships among these poorly defined characters feel forced and shallow and nearly always consist solely of trading juvenile sexual innuendo that even most middle school students would roll their eyes at, and, as with the vast maority of the other Shalvis books I've read, I'm never swayed that the characters feel anything more than purely hormonal lust. Love?! Please. I honestly wasn't even sold on these two LIKING each other or knowing each other beyond what each was like in bed, let alone feeling a deep emotional connection and genuine love.

I'm really not nearly as picky and exacting as this review might make it sound :) When it comes to romance novels, I can happily overlook the frequently lackluster plotting, the excessive length (seriously, WHY are so many of these 400 pages these days?!), and the repetitive, excessively explicit sex scenes that ironically make it all LESS sexy in my admittedly unpopular opinion. As long as I love the characters, dialogue and prose, and just generally get that joyful, "makes me believe in love and feel happy to be alive!" feeling that the best and even not quite best romance novels provide, I'm a very satisfied reader. The problem is that these books just don't give me any of that. The characters are pitifully flat and one dimensional at best and downright unlikable at worst, the 'humor' feels really forced, unfunny and juvenile, the book is poorly written and in dire need of editing, the plot is...nonexistent, and all of her characters and storylines are becoming totally indistinguishable.

I've finally given up on learning to love Jill Shalvis books like nearly everyone else does, but hopefully if a few other people out there share my complaints about this series, this review will at least let them know they're not alone and save them a few bucks :)
7 people found this helpful
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Maureen O.
2.0 out of 5 stars Repeat, repeat, repeat
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
I’m not a writer, I’m an avid reader. I hate to critique anyone that can do something so well. Jill Shalvis is a really great writer. As one of her readers this one just didn’t work for me. I was excited to read the second book of this series because I enjoyed the first book immensely. Unfortunately, the second book was really difficult to keep reading. It seemed as if the first 3 chapters were written and then repeated over and over and over again until the author had her required number of pages needed to submit. Willa and Keane briefly met in high school, he stood her up for a dance, Keane had no memory of this, Willa was heartbroken he didn’t remember, she forgave him. They both had commitment issues & crappy childhoods. They reconnect over a cute cat he’s taking care of for a sick aunt. They are crazy attracted to each other, physically and emotionally, and can’t keep their hands and mouths off one another. This was all pretty much covered by chapter 3 and was then repeated ad nauseam until the end. That was it. That was the whole book. There was a creepy ex-boyfriend that made a brief appearance via text that gave me hope that there might be something happening, but nope...never to be heard from again. I will read the third book and hope that there is more meat to the story, let’s be honest an actual story and plot.
7 people found this helpful
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Clio Reads
2.0 out of 5 stars Not feeling the love
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2019
Verified Purchase
I didn’t feel like either Keane or Willa had much depth, and the conflict in their relationship felt manufactured. They were poor communicators, especially Willa, who tended to freak out and rudely push Keane away without explanation whenever she got stressed out, which is both immature and annoying, and terribly unfair to Keane. I got bored by the smexy parts and skimmed past them. That said, all the things I reliably like about Jill Shalvis’s writing was present here: snappy pacing, zany supporting characters, and witty, fun dialogue.
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fanofmsjames
2.0 out of 5 stars She's written better
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 17, 2017
Verified Purchase
After reading Jill's earlier series I was quite looking forward to this one - but its been pretty disappointing so far. The characters are fairly repetitive/run of the mill and the books are blending in to each other. I find her repeating exact phrases and sentences across books. Her female and male characters are also very similar/ cookie cutter across books - would give this series a pass. Not worth the price
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Kindle Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars This was a Jill Shalvis book?
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 10, 2016
Verified Purchase
2* This one was worse than Pru and Finn's story. I skimmed through the second half. One was "in" while the other wasn't, then it'd switch and the one that "was ready and in" suddenly isn't and vice versa... Repeat several times. It did have some good one liners that made me giggle, but that's it. I don't think Shalvis will be an automatic buy anymore... How sad!
3 people found this helpful
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K. Geraets
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2016
Verified Purchase
What has happened to Jill Shalvis? I loved her other series but so far not this one. I did not like Willa at all. It was very difficult for me to finish this book. The best part in the story was the cat!
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Dawn M Falk
2.0 out of 5 stars I really love this author
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
I really love this author, but was disappointed. The story line felt rushed and mechanical. It was hard to connect with the characters.
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stc
2.0 out of 5 stars Meh
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
I'm used to cheese in romance novels but this was so much predictable cheese my eyes got tired from rolling back.
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ann zawadzki
2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 24, 2017
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed the book
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ChristiReadsALot
2.0 out of 5 stars The cat Petunia was the only saving grace for this read
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 3, 2021
I do not think this author is for me. This was my first time trying this author, read for a book club holiday pick. Starts off with the heroine being mad the hero doesn’t remember her from highschool and kind of went nowhere from there. Audiobook narrator was rough, I was not a fan of the style of voices and narrating she did (especially for the heroine). Cringe-worthy dialogue and writing, humor wasn’t my jam, the hashtags for chapter titles wasn’t it, felt nothing from the relationship or friendships, their issues were weak, and the plot was blah. The only saving grace for this was the cat Petunia, just saying.
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