Kay's Obsessions

Welcome to our first book review post together! Aren’t you so excited, we get to discuss our favorite pass-time? Well, mine at least. So let’s jump in to the book by Meghan Quinn, called “How My Neighbor Stole Christmas“. This is a very cute, funny, romance set in a Christmas town in Colorado. It has great writing, an interesting plot based on the Grinch storyline, and some pretty good dialogue between characters. Overall, it is a very fun read!

And now here comes the part of this post where I try my absolute hardest not to spoil anything for you. This book is about a Christmas town in Colorado that decorates for and celebrates Christmas all year long. The main characters are childhood friends turned lovers and the plot covers a competition that is the start of their romance.

Now, the town, called Kringletown, is pretty cheesy. Even for me, mind you. I love a good Hallmark Movie, or Lovemark movies as they refer to them in this book world, but this was a heck of a lot cheesier than my usual read. There is a lot of good humor and good character development though so I did like that. I liked how the author, Ms. Quinn, created a lively small town feel within this world and it worked very well. I still don’t know how I feel about Bob Krampus being an all year round Santa Claus though… what do you think about that?

The main characters of the story are very likeable. We have the main lovebirds, Cole and Storee. They are childhood friends who reunite ten years later after a tragedy. And then their families. Storee has a sister, Taran, and a great aunt Cindy. The three women live together in Aunt Cindy’s home during December and are neighbors with Cole.

Cole lives alone next door, but his honorary family is with the Maxheimers on their nearby farm. His best friend, more like brother, is Max. I really enjoy the relationship between these two. They have a great supportive relationship and are always there for each other. Max is good at noticing his friend’s struggling moments and stepping in to help him. He’s the best wingman. And Cole is one pretty good book boyfriend.

As for the ladies, I love Storee. She is a fiery character who is bossy and sure of herself. I love how empathetic she is and how she admires the little things. She is more down to earth compared to her sister. Taran, on the other hand, is not my favorite character. I did not particularly care for her due to her harsh nature. But I did appreciate how the author added in a bit of character development for her in the end. You will have to read and find out, no spoilers here! And last but not least, Aunt Cindy is comical! Best older woman character ever. She is a feisty one and I got quite a few laughs out of her scenes. Just wait until the end when the big secret about Cindy is revealed. Your mind will be blown.

Normally, I will find something wrong with every book’s ending. But this one I actually enjoyed. I felt like the author wrapped up the Kringle Competition nicely, it did not feel rushed. I thought she took her time writing through each competition phase and made sure not to skip over parts of it. Although, I do wish she would have added a chapter or scene for Christmas Day when the winner would have been announced. Instead, it jumps to the Epilogue and we find out the winner then. That is my only comment on the ending, just to include Christmas Day. Other than that, I was happy with it’s ending and felt like the loose ends were tied up. I thought it was nice that in the Epilogue, we got to meet Taran’s boyfriend, Guy! There was a nice family aspect at the end there and so I liked that coming together moment.

As for the length of the book itself, I felt like it was an appropriate length. It went through the whole month of December and through the whole Kringletown Competition. We got to see before, during, and after the competition and what that looked like for the characters. In my opinion, it was really hard to get into the book in the beginning. I think this was because the start was a little slow. It took a while before we started to get past the irritated bantering which I thought went on a little long at first. But once the competition really got going I thought it ran more smoothly! But as far as the rest, it was great!

Overall, I would definitely recommend reading How My Neighbor Stole Christmas. It was a fun and light Christmas-y read with lots of romance and spice. I enjoyed the relationship development as well as the family aspects of the book. Both blood and non blood family which I personally loved. Although a very cheesy storyline, it was cute and spicy and hilarious. We got to read about some real characters with lives and pasts, and read on as they developed their own selves. Meghan Quinn did an amazing job with this one! Now you better get to the book store so you can join me in discussing Cole Black and his candy cane fascination.