A review by booksare42
All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

1.0

This review was originally posted on https://booksare42.com/

Based on what I mentioned in my post intro, it’s safe to say that I did not love All By My Elf. I went into this novella with low expectations because the average rating on Goodreads and Amazon isn’t that great, but I wasn’t expecting to dislike it as much as I did.

The first thing I want to mention is that this was not a Christmas novella. Yes, it took place at Christmas, but Christmas was not relevant to the story. It took place in winter and the dates happened to be around Christmas.

Despite not enjoying the novella, I didn’t hate the romance. I didn’t hate the awkward miscommunication and mixed signals that were going on. I can appreciate that people are awkward and might not realize that there’s some mutual pining going on. I also appreciated that the male main character tells the female main character that he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want her to feel forced or uncomfortable since they were working in close proximity.

My main issue with All By My Elf is the refurbished wienermobile. Firstly, why? Secondly, WHY?! Thirdly, why did they have to do that in the back of the wienermobile? I don’t want to get into details about what happened in the back of the refurbished wienermobile while it was stuck on the highway in the middle of the snowstorm, but it’s a romance novel so you can probably fill in the blanks. A lot of the dialogue during this scene was more cringy than usual.

The most believable part of All By My Elf is that three people working in academia would have to take on an extra job promoting mincemeat pastries during the Christmas holidays to make ends meet. It also very believable that their manager would tell them they have to drive in terrible weather conditions and that it was non-negotiable.

Overall, All By My Elf just was not for me. The refurbished wienermobile was too much, but it did make this novella memorable.