Lizzie Huxley-Jones

As its title pretty much gives away, this novel is a Christmas Romance - I was craving something cosy and comforting and this fitted the bill very nicely. It took some time to really warm up - the intitial transactions between Christopher and Nash, the two protagonists, are as irritating for the reader as the characters are to each other, and I was just not feeling the chemistry between them and they both remained strangely fuzzy in outline.

Also, this is sort of a doubly queer novel - not only is it about a MM couple, but one of the main protagonists is a trans man. Weirdly, however, Under the Mistletoe with You makes barely anything of this; it is fairly late in the novel before it is even mentioned, and then only in passing and is only foregrounded very briefly even later on. One might view that as the author attempting to normalise transitioning (and this is more or less the reason Huxley-Jones gives in a brief afterword), but if it was, she failed at it and it only comes across as an inexplicably blurry spot in the narrative.

Thankfully, things improved once the novel widened its scope beyond the main protagonists to include the village community, and the main couple gained contour when set against the background of a variety of quaint villagers - of particular note is an abolutely wonderful and heartwarming episode involving newborn puppies and the reconciliation of quarreling lovers which alone is worth the price of admission. Clearly, this is what Huxley-Jones intended conceptually: Christopher and Nash discover the respective other's true character and their love for them not so much vis-a-vis each other but in the other's interaction with others, as part of a community. It is both sweet and clever; and I just wish the author had not waited for half of the novel to get to this point..

This is then followed by a third part which is somewhat of a mirror of the first one and shows how the deeper knowdledge Christopher and Nash have gained of each other transforms their intimacy from constantly annoying each other to a deeply felt love. One might even go so far as to see a dialectical structure at work here, with the novel posing intimacy as the thesis, moving to community as its antitheses and finally achieving true love as synthesis. Admittedly, that may be stretching things a bit, however.

In any case, after a rather bumpy start, Under the Mistletoe with You ends up as a sweet heartwarming Romance, just right to make its reader glow with Christmas spirit. And somehow I'm also feeling the urge to bake some Christmas biscuits now.… (more)

This book. I loved it.

All the unlikely-yet-predictable shenanigans of a Christmas rom-com with lovable characters - not just the leads - and a steady flow of awkward/funny/snarky/yearning dialogue.

Haf (it's Welsh) is in her late twenties. She runs social media for an animal welfare group and is still wounded after a painful breakup. She is "plus size" and identifies as bisexual. Author Lizzie Huxley-Jones tells us Haf is autistic and dyspraxic (both undiagnosed and never mentioned in the novel, though observable in Haf's actions).

Haf and her flatmate, Ambrose (pronoun: "they", influencer), crash a Christmas party where she meets Christopher. They immediately 'click', though not romantically/sexually. When a rom-com misunderstanding™ leads Christopher's ex to believe they are a couple, Haf agrees to accompany Christopher home for Christmas with his family in the traditional rom-com role of fake girlfriend™.

Shenanigans ensue. Everyone is a joy to spend time with - well, everyone but Christopher's ex's rebound guy, who is an irredeemably terrible human being.

And we know, because it is written on the book cover, that Haf will fall for Christopher's sister. Because of-course.

This book kept me grinning and chuckling through a mostly sucky time of year, and I've told my wife she has to read it immediately.

This is Lizzie Huxley-Jones' first published romance. I can't wait to read whatever she comes up with next.

Very highly recommended!… (more)