ARC Review: The Trouble with Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis

“I’d say this is my favorite book of the series so far.”
~ Under the Covers

THE TROUBLE WITH MITLETOE is book two in the Heartbreaker Bay series by Jill Shalvis. I had high hopes for this book because the last few releases have come up a little short for me. However, I was immediately entranced by Willa and Keane’s story. Willa is a dog groomer, and an adorable one at that! She’s spunky, full of life and an all around fun person to read about. The same goes for Keane Winters who is a little bit mysterious, but still very charming and friendly. Having both come from the same high school, Willa expects Keane to remember her when he walks into her store with a hellcat in a carrier, however, Keane doesn’t appear to remember her at all to the mortifiation of Willa.

There’s some cute banter, and a well-done romance in this book so I was very happy to see that. As of lately, I felt like some of that spark was missing from Shalvis’ books, but it’s definitely here in this one.

However, apart from the hero, the heroine and the romance, I did have some issues. In the first book of the series, there was quite a lot of time with side characters and because it was the first book, I overlooked it because the author was undoubtedly trying to set up future books in the series. However, the same thing happens here. We already have Willa’s sister who happily chimes in whenever she wants, but there is also Willa’s rowdy group of friends that act like a peanut gallery whenever she and Keane are together. Don’t get me wrong, they are a fun bunch, but the author utilizes them too much that they become a distraction to the romance. I wouldn’t mind if they were there in some scenes, but their constant throwing in of opinions can become a little grating, especially as they break up the flow a lot. It’s a nice way to incorporate humor, but I’d prefer if it was used more sparingly so it has a bit more impact. Other than that though, I’d say this is my favorite book of the series so far.