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The Mistletoe Secret by Richard Paul Evans Review

 Hello Friends :)

I hope you're all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me today here on The Preppy Book Princess.

Do you have a certain genre of books that you turn to for comfort? As weird as it sounds, if I'm having a really bad day or bad week, one of my favorite things to read is Christmas stories. I love that they're usually uplifting, and point to Jesus, and I love that they remind me of one of my favorite times of the year.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going through a really hard time, and I decided to borrow a Christmas audiobook from the Libby app to listen to while going for my walks at my favorite park. This was such a simple thing to do, but definitely brought back a smile to my face, and I'm actually currently still listening to Christmas themed audiobooks on my walks as I'm continuing to enjoy doing so.

All of this is a really long winded way of explaining why exactly I'm choosing to share a Christmas book review in May. 

I'd read the first two books in Richard Paul Evan's Mistletoe trilogy a few years back, (reviews here and here), but I'd never gotten around to reading the final title. It seemed a good choice for my first Christmas audiobook to walk to, and today I'm going to share with you all what I ended up thinking about it.

Also, it seems a pretty fitting day to be sharing a Christmas book review as my area is supposed to get hit with a crazy winter storm the next few days. We're predicted to receive as much as 30 cm of snow between tonight and Friday night, and I'm not exactly looking forward to it. If I remember, I'll share a photo in Friday's post as to what my yard ends up looking like, but for now let's go ahead and dive into today's review. 

The Mistletoe Secret by Richard Paul Evans:


Source: Libby App

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Publication Date: November 15th, 2016

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Adult Fiction

Series: Mistletoe


Synopsis:

Dear Universe,
Is anyone out there?


Thinking no one is reading, a blogger who calls herself LBH writes about her most personal feelings, especially her overwhelming loneliness. She goes from day to day showing a brave face to the world while inside she longs to know how it would feel if one person cared about her.

Alex Bartlett cares. He’s reading her posts in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nursing his own broken heart and trust issues, he finds himself falling for this sensitive, vulnerable woman whose feelings mirror his own. Following a trail of clues LBH has inadvertently revealed, he discovers that she lives in the small town of Midway, Utah. He makes his way there just after Thanksgiving, determined to find LBH. Maybe she’s a Lisa, Lori, or a Luanne. Instead, he finds a woman named Aria, a waitress at the Mistletoe Diner, who encourages Alex in his search while serving his pie along with some much-needed sympathy and companionship.

Alex finally finds his LBH, a woman who is as beautiful and kind as he imagined she would be. How can he tell her that he knows her secret? What’s holding him back? Could it be his feelings for Aria?

(synopsis from goodreads)



My Review:

I'd enjoyed the first two books in Richard Paul Evan's Mistletoe trilogy, and even though they aren't truly a series in anything more than the themes, I still wanted to give the third and final story a try. I'd appreciated that the first two both dealt with some harder hitting issues, while still stressing the love and joy associated with the holiday season, and I was looking forward to reading the final book in the trilogy.

However, I didn't think this one quite lived up to its predecessors. A lot of the story fell flat for me, and seemed more shallow and forced than anything else. I really enjoyed Nate as a side character, and the great influence he is on our main character Alex. I started off enjoying Alex's character, but over the course of the story he started to make some decisions that were hard for me to sympathize with, and it seemed like a lot of the mess could have been avoided if he'd just thought twice before doing the things he was determined to do.

I also had a really hard time accepting the romance in this one as it all happens so fast, and it ended up giving off a lot of insta-love vibes, which I'm never a huge fan of. I also could have done without some of the included content, but was thankful that most of the rest of the story was pretty clean. 

I did especially love the setting of Midway, Utah, and I loved the Blue Boar Inn and the various characters that keep it running. They really brought a fun dimension to the story, and I enjoyed all of their interactions with Alex.

Overall, this was a cute, quick read that had it's heartwarming moments, but I don't think it can really compare to the other volumes in the series, and it really wasn't what I was either expecting or anticipating it to be. I'd personally recommend the other two books in the series over this one, but it's still a cutesy Christmas read to look into if you're looking for a holiday themed romance.

Final Rating: 3/5.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners. 

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