Reviews

Faking Under the Mistletoe by Ashley Shepherd

selliot's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

anabellalee's review against another edition

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2.0

Not horrible but didn't like the characters and plot

melinda1962's review against another edition

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1.0

DNF at page 164. Just not my style of narrative. The heroine seemed to talk to the reader all the time and everything was sarcastic. I’m all about sarcasm but this was over the top. No real dialogue, just sarcastic remarks, jokes and idioms.

liareadsalot's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

smalltownbookmom's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a really fun grinchy/sunshine, fake dating, slow burn, workplace Christmas romance that takes place in NYC. I loved Olivia's enthusiastic Christmas spirit! She oozed all things Christmas cheer, trying her best to get the whole office in the mood. Unfortunately as an intern she also has to cater to her grumpy boss Asher's every whim.

In an attempt to help Asher save face with his ex, Olivia poses as his fake girlfriend, forcing them into a number of situations where they have to pretend to be a couple. The chemistry between these two was sizzling and I am always to here for a guy who secretly pines for the girl!!

Throw in a cute niece, a serious sexual harassment side plot and TONS of high octane Christmas energy and this was an above average holiday romance with great emotional depth! Highly recommended for fans of Sally Thorne's The hating game.

My only real complaint was that I was expecting more steam than we actually got. Other than a couple kisses and a platonic only one bed scene, nothing really happens until the epilogues and even that is generally fade to black. This was a personal taste thing though and didn't take away from my overall enjoyment.

Extra points for the bonus epilogue told from Asher's perspective in the new edition. I LOVED it and the new cover too!! Would definitely suggest making sure you check out the 2022 version!

illstoptheworldandreadwithyou's review against another edition

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5.0

Laugh Out Loud Holiday Romance with Heart

This book is for you if you enjoy grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, only one bed, workplace romance goodness. It has both clever banter and depth.

Content Warnings: sexual harassment, sexual assault, grief

yayas_shelf's review against another edition

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2.0

The trigger warning at the beginning says "This novel contains mentions of sexual assault." But the entire second half of the book was about multiple sexual assaults and the characters dealing with the main one?

The one thing I liked about this book was Olivia and Asher's banter. But other than that, the characters were annoying in their own and had no chemistry together. Olivia is way too cheery and too naive, especially for a city like New York. And Asher is actually kind of an asshole. There's nothing romantic about how he treats and speaks to Olivia. Like the best he can do is mildly tolerate her. There's a point where Olivia is heartbroken when things have seemingly ended and I literally said "over what?" out loud.

brycerocksmysocks's review against another edition

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3.0

will be filing an HR complaint. why are they acting like it's cute that she regularly bought things he didn't want for him on his credit card? like, ma'am, that's a federal offense.

cheese level:

lvoekat's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was so cute

juliannaofgreengables's review against another edition

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2.0

I enjoyed some parts of this one but I also didn't enjoy other parts of it. I liked the Christmas element and I thought Olivia was fun at first but the more I thought about it the more I realized how full of herself she was. She seemed to always be talking about
boobs and butts. With that she was always trying to get Asher to do stuff that he obviously wasn’t sure about.
Also their relationship just didn't seem to make a lot of sense. Like he's her boss and he's like, hey you should stop buying all this Christmas stuff for my apartment. She's all like no, haha.
I also felt like the romance and everything went too fast. It felt like bam!fake dating! Bam! Fighting! Do I have feelings! Bam lets do the dance with no pants etc. It just seemed so fast.
Lastly there’s parts to deal with sexual assault and standing up for yourself when it comes to that.
Overall, I though it was okay.