A new winter holiday, enemies-to-lovers romance, from the undeniably funny and always spicy, USA Today bestselling author, Meghan Quinn.

Living in a year around Christmas town has it’s drawbacks. The caroling, the decorations, the insanely cheery spirit, it never disappears. It’s why I like to hibernate away in my cave–I mean house–keeping a healthy distance from the holly jolly spirits.

And all was going according to plan until my nemesis, Storee Taylor, moved in next door to care for her Aunt Cindy. Without blinking, she turned my simple world into a real nightmare-before-Christmas, especially when she decided to enter the town Christmas Kringle contest – which she was determine to win.

Well guess what? Over my cold-hearted body.

There was no way I was going to let her win, not after the history we’d shared.

So despite my promise to myself of never participating in the sickening Christmas season, I entered the competition as well. That’s right, I planned on beating Storee at her own game by pretending this grump’s heart grew three sizes this season.

And it was working until feelings between us started heating up.
We pretended to date.
We kissed.
And well, sparks flew from there.

Which led to one explosive night involving Christmas lights, the competition, and a ladder. Don’t let me convince you who stole Christmas, I think you need to find out for yourself . . .

We all know the story of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, and many of us have seen the animated classic from the 1960s, the Jim Carey film, or the latest Dreamworks animated film. I have been a fan of the Grinch for years (even though he used to terrify me when I was a kid), and through the years, I’ve even started to identify with him in several ways. Naturally, when I read the synopsis for this book, I had to check it out.

While it’s not an exact retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss tale, the author offers several clever nods to the original. It starts with a narrator giving us an overview of the Christmas war that is about to play out, and it is very reminiscent of the narrator who tells the story of The Grinch in the original book. These rhyming intros are interspersed throughout the book, providing a cheeky throwback to the original.

We meet Storee right off the bat. Storee is a young woman who edits holiday movies for the Lovemark Channel (think Hallmark). Storee is perfectly happy living in sunny California but has agreed to return to Kringletown, Colorado, to help her sister, Taran, care for their aunt Cindy, who recently fell and broke her hip. Kringletown is a town that celebrates Christmas year round – and things get even more intense around the holidays when people around town compete in a contest to win an award for something (I forget what it was called), and Aunt Cindy consistently comes in second. She is determined to win this year and is relying on Storee to make it happen for her.

When Cole runs into Storee, a conflict from several years earlier reignites, and when he learns she has entered the contest, he, too, enters only to bring her down and embarrass her. As the two war against each other through eggnog making, house decorating, talent shows, candy cane (that poor candy cane) making, and singing competitions, the heat rises, and the two will either break each other down or reconcile their differences before the contest ends.

The book is really clever and witty and had me laughing out loud several times. Storee is hilarious, and Cole is definitely sexy, and while the enemies-to-lovers and fake dating tropes are overdone in rom-coms, they work here. Was there anything new? Not really, but as I’ve said before, I tend to be very forgiving when it comes to holiday rom-coms. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and thought it was super cute, but it also felt unnecessarily long. It’s close to 500 pages, and I think at least 150 of those pages could have been cut out, and the book would have been just as good. This book is also super spicy – like make me blush spicy. I’m not a prude by any means, but these two were ridiculously horny, and – the candy cane scene? Ummm, yeah…

If I had to classify this one, I think I would put it in the “Hallmark After Dark” category. It feels like a Hallmark movie, but then when the spice kicks in, it goes from rated G to rated X very quickly. Once the sexy times start, they pretty much stay for the rest of the book. If you’re looking for a fun, spicy holiday read, then this is definitely for you. If you don’t like them spicy, you should stay away. The candy cane scene alone will scar you for life.