The Nightmare Before Kissmas

"Holy SWOON, I loved this book! I picked it up because it was summarized as “Red, White and Royal Blue” meets “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and I was immediately intrigued. This was clever, fun, witty, political, sweet, spicy and full of made-me-giggle banter. I just loved the relationship Coal had with his brother, Kris, and friend, Iris. Hex was such a grounded person. I found myself writing down quotes of his because they were so beautiful. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series! "

"Romance felt rushed and dissolved into basically ****. Ending didnt feel really weapped up but overall a lighthearted simple and enjoyable book. "

"If you read this book for the romance only, then this is absolutely 6/5 stars. It’s so magical and the imagery is vivid and creative. The way the main characters look out for each other and care about each other is so beautiful. They understand each other without having to explain themselves and it adds so much to their relationships. The reason I give the book 4 stars is because the rest of the plot outside of Coal and Hex doesn’t get much closure so I was a little disappointed. The actual ending of the story was a bit anticlimactic because it was set up to reveal more answers and it never did. However the bulk of the important stuff follows through just before the last chapter and it was very satisfying. There is a sequel coming out next fall so we will probably get the missing pieces then so I would still definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes romance, holidays, family drama, spice and the hiding a relationship from the public trope."

"I feel there were two plots and they both got slighted. We have the romance aspect, the main reason I imagine most would pick up this book, and then this court intrigue, holiday villainy going on. The romance goes from 0 to 100 way too fast, meanwhile the other plot, I wasn't really interested in and eventually skimmed, but I think part of the issue was there wasn't enough world-building. Like there are holiday worlds and I guess people who live there but also the real world which they go to school in? I dunno, it was vague and I was confused what exactly the real world knew or didn't or how much this affected them. <br/><br/>I agree with the comparison to Red, White and Royal Blue because the dialogue is cringy in both of them. This is why I struggle with rom-com--it was sarcastic banter, until finally they decided to be serious and talk about deeper things. As for the sex scenes, I appreciated wanting to show enthusiastic consent, but this was overkill, ruining any heat of the moment. <br/><br/>I feel bad being negative after reading the author's note--she wrote this to have a fun escape from the real world, but maybe she should've focused solely on the romance? I feel she could've still done fun stuff with the holiday element. The court intrigue plot needs more to it to make it work, and then I think that would take even more away from the fun, light-hearted aspect she was going for."