| Title | : | A Mistletoe Kiss: A Young Adult Christmas Romance Novella |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 70 |
| Publication | : | Published October 25, 2018 |
High school dating, prom committees, and the popularity ladder are all hard enough to navigate when you're sixteen years old, but throw in some funky Autism and general geekdom and the game of life plays to a whole different set of rules.
Lara has never quite found her place, that was until she began volunteering at the local animal rescue shelter. But with Christmas approaching, the shelter faces its hardest winter yet and it might be that both Lara and the collection of abandoned animals find themselves with nowhere to call home.
And if that wasn't anxiety inducing enough, The Winter Prom is just around the corner and Lara finds herself suddenly with a prom date she has no idea what to do with; even though she's dedicated quite a bit of time studying the perfect High School romance between the beautiful Madison Green and drop dead gorgeous Mason Jonas.
But a girl like Lara could never get a boy like Mason Jonas, could she?
***
NOTES: 50% of the profits from all sales and downloads of this Christmas romance novella are going towards an 'Autism and Girls' project; providing educational material, research and sensory resources to schools in the authors' local community.
A Mistletoe Kiss: A Young Adult Christmas Romance Novella Reviews
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3 stars, and a little on the weaker side. "I liked this, but..."
I liked having an atypical heroine. Not just geeky, but autistic and socially anxious. I found Lara really likeable (and not just because I was predisposed to because of her name!). And the story wasn't so much of a romance as it was a girl trying to figure out teenage life. I really wish we'd had more time to go through that with her (it is only 70 pages, after all). There were enough story threads that would have made for a really good full YA novel.
Mason (I guess the H?) was a little bit of a nonentity, partially because of Lara's viewpoint, and partially because of the writing. I really wish we'd seen a little more of him from Lara's view, to make the ending a little more satisfying.
My biggest complaint was with the writing. While overall it was a cute story, there were several things that were lacking/irritating. The ending was a bit abrupt. I'd love to have had a little more post-Prom. Like I said, the ending was a bit weak and it would've been nice to have had a little more
As for the irritating things... where was this supposed to have taken place?? It talks about States and soccer, so one assumes US, but there were some very British terms used that were jarring. US kids use backpacks, not rucksacks, for example - rucksacks are much bigger packs to us, like what soldiers use on ruck marches. And we have coolers, not cool-boxes. It's parlor, not parlour. And I've never heard an American say someone "is sat eating" the way a couple people did in this story. Looking it up - that's a UK usage from the area where the author grew up. Biggest one was right off the bat though. No American kid collects "rubbers" unless they're really, really weird. Those are condoms in US jargon. I have no issue at all with writing a story someplace you've never been (how else would we get fantasy, for example). But make sure you're familiar with terms and slang because it is very jarring when things don't fit. And in this case, it wasn't necessary - the story would have worked just as well set in the UK where the author could have written more natural-sounding characters.
So, a cute story - nice and light holiday read. And a good intention behind it, too. I think it might have left more of an impact about autism is the story was a little more developed (maybe built into a full novel? enough time to draw in the reader to really connect with Lara) and if the reader wasn't distracted by incorrect slang or terms.
