Reviews - Finding My Elf | The StoryGraph

216 reviews for:

Finding My Elf

David Valdes

3.48 AVERAGE

thenextgenlibrarian's review

4.0

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda meets The Christmas Clash in this queer YA holiday romance.

I picked up Finding my Elf because I was very intrigued by the idea of a romcom set in a mall Santaland and the Elfmas competition truly is very fun! I loved the idea of a community coming together to vote on something like this!

I Finding my Elf is less focused on the romance than I expected and more about figuring out who you are once you leave home. Cam has just come back from his first semester at NYU and he is struggling to fit in. The theater program isn't what he expected.

I felt like I should really have connected to this storyline as I also went to college in the northeast to study theater and ended up realizing I missed things about my home I had looked down on but I didn't. I think it was because Cam was a pretty self-centered character. Now I know most 18-year-olds are self-centered and I did feel like he made progress but I felt so bad for his Dad who was already working so hard to pay for his college.

I also didn't find the romance in this book particularly compelling. I liked Marco but I felt like even once Cam realized he liked him we didn't get to know him very well. I didn't understand why he would like Cam who had spent most of the book being annoying.

This story is really fun and if you are looking for a holiday read about finding yourself this one is a good choice. However, if you want something more focused on romance or are picky about the likeability of characters I'd give this one a pass.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Teen for providing me with a copy of this book in order to review. All opinions are my own.

reneeereads's review against another edition

4.0

Again I LOVE Christmas so I was pumped to get this arc especially seeing the author loves Christmas too! Big thanks to NetGalley and HarperTeen for it in exchange for an honest review! I really enjoyed this YA romcom and fell in love with Cam and Marco. Their relationship is so sweet even with it starting off bumpy! Cam has some complicated feelings about college, hometowns, and secrets from his dad and best friend, but he is also funny and made me root for him the entire book. I loved his inner dialogue, and the mall/Santaland backdrop was so fun. Highly recommend if you're looking for a fun holiday themed rom com this season, but be sure to have some cookies ready because the cookie party had me dreaming of Christmas desserts. Overall definitely felt the holiday spirit even if I read this in April!

olsenc's review

3.0

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

kalira's review against another edition

3.25

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Some of Cam's 'I am an idiot' decisions were definitely I'm 18 with little life experience, but there were some that. . . Well. *sighs*

Also his incredible self-centeredness, among other traits - even when he was supposedly learning better! - made me less than giddy to root for him - and most of the other characters in the spotlight made little better impression on me, unfortunately.