Faking Under the Mistletoe

Olivia Langley is the human embodiment of Christmas Cheer, and she has absolutely no problem spreading it around for all to hear. Christmas sweaters? She has twenty. Christmas cookies? She’ll take three dozen. Christmas movies? Yeah, she’s seen them all. So it’s no surprise when she is put in charge of Loveridge & McGowan’s holiday festivities. Secret Santas? Yep. Ice Skating? Of course. Holiday trivia Duh. Christmas themed bar crawl? That’s one big jingle bell hell yes.⁣⁣Kissing her boss at a Christmas tree lighting in front of his ex-girlfriend? Well.. it is the season of giving. And Ol not come with a gift receipt. No exchanges. No returns. No refunds. All sales are final.⁣⁣In an effort to ungrinch the grinchiest man she’s ever met, Olivia enlists herself, Santa’s Executive Helper, to scheme up a plan that includes sleigh rides, snow days, and one too many mistletoe kisses, which certainly gets Asher’s tinsel in a tangle. She’s pretty sure that she sleighed this whole fake dating thing. Well.. until she realizes there’s nothing fake about her feelings for Asher, and suddenly tangled tinsel, unsolicited Christmas trees, and celebrity heartthrobs are the least of her worries. ⁣⁣If you are looking for the perfect holiday novel to get you in the spirit.. Look no further! This one packs a punch! Enemies-to-lovers, Fake Dating, Boss and Employee, Slow Burn, and tons of witty banter! This book has all the romance tropes and I am here for it! Olive was the most amazing, quirky, and perfect person to be spreading holiday cheer. ( I went out and bought christmas PJ’s and hot chocolate after finishing this). Asher could not be more opposite than Olivia but is the perfect person for her. I think we all love a complicated and brooding male lead. I loved how their relationship progressed and I was 100% invested in it. I will probably re-read again next month! I also appreciate the sexual assault trigger warning the author has put in there for readers! Indie authors are KILLING IT lately and I am loving it. ⁣⁣

Read this. You won't regret it. Read it again. You won't regret that either.Olivia LOVES Christmas and has been put in charge of all the Christmas festivities for her PR firm's office. While at one of the events, her surly boss Asher shows up but so does his ex-girlfriend. Olivia has a heart of gold and the best intentions, so she pretends that she and Asher are dating. Only, the ex-girlfriend doesn't seem the slightest jealous and invites them to a party in the Hamptons and shows up at Olivia's spin class. While Olivia deals with catching feelings for Asher, they realize the inappropriate nature of their relationship, which breaks them apart. Olivia then has to deal with re-readjusting their relationship at work, juggling her waitressing job (which no one at the PR firm outside of HR knows about), and fending off advances from once-was-hot-now-is-creepy Levi. In a lot of ways, her fake relationship with Asher is a turning point in how she realizes she wants to hold/handle herself, and that was great to see.Olivia is great. She's probably one of my favorite female leads I've read in a really long time. She's confident, oh lordy is she confident! And it's great! How long has it been since I've read a book where the MC knew her worth, knew she was good looking, and went after what she wanted rather than waiting on the guy? Olivia is spunky and forward - maybe a little too forward, given that she's an intern and Asher is her boss? But who am I to judge? She speaks her mind - actually, I think this is literal. I'm not sure she leaves many thoughts contained in her mind. I LOVED this. I loved how much dialogue there was. Definitely a high dialogue to description ratio, but I seriously LOVED that. It made this book such an easy and quick read but a highly engaging one. I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to reread their fast paced banter and let it play out perfectly in my head.Asher was such a great complement to Olivia. The Grinch to her Who. He was not on board with the fake dating idea, but he also doesn't do a whole lot to discourage Olivia. The downside with his surly disposition was that we really don't get to see a lot of his feelings develop. We know he's attracted to Olivia, we know he doesn't stop her advances, but other than that, we don't really know what/how deep his feelings are. Which is tragic, because that would've added to the story.On that note, however, I loved that this book was simply told in Olivia's first person POV (until the epilogue. So cute.) As much as I want to have some knowledge into Asher's POV, I'm fully aware that having it be dual POV would've completely changed the second part of the story because the reader would've been fully aware of what was happening. Which brings me to...This novel deals with sexual harassment and assault. It's the secondary part of the plot and book. I'd skimmed through enough reviews to know it was coming, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. SPOILER in case you want to know before you read: Olivia learns through her roommate and roomie's friends that Levi is known to drug women and assault them, making them sign NDAs the next day. Olivia finds herself alone with Levi in a private room at a club, desperate to get away. Nothing happens to her, but when she gets to work the next day, Levi's team wants her to sign an NDA. She is, rightfully, furious that the company she works for is protecting a predator, but she feels slightly powerless to do anything. Olivia's boss at the restaurant definitely sexually harasses her on her shifts. You see that in the way he speaks to her. Olivia gets a table full of hotel execs, I think it was, who very blatantly harass and put hands on her. She refuses to take it, costing her her job. /SPOILER Both of these get resolved by the end of the book. I thought the topic was handled tactfully and tastefully in an, unfortunately, realistic manner. I almost stopped reading midway because of reviews I'd read mentioning the trigger warning, but I am so glad I kept going until the end. Olivia doesn't shrink back but instead becomes more confident in her already fairly confident self.I loved this book. I was sad when it was over because I wanted to just soak in it for a while. It was so cute, so quick paced, and despite the heavy topic in the second half, light. I wanted to reread it immediately. I do wish that we'd been given a little more from Asher in terms of what he was thinking or feelings, but I also recognize how that would've done his character a disservice and completely changed the tone of the book. But still... The only other complaint I have is that I wish the romance between Asher and Olivia had a little more. Not necessarily sex scenes (you get a hookup scene and a closed door sex-alluded scene), not even necessarily another or bigger hookup scene (but I wouldn't say no to it...), but maybe even just a little more talk about them and their feelings? And not in the forward jokes Olivia always makes but in a serious more-than-lust way.I only have complaints/critiques like these about books I truly love. And I truly loved this book. The next time someone asks for recommendations, they will be getting this title. Buy it. Read it. Love it. I can't wait to see what else Ms. Shepherd produces!!

This story starts out light and fun but there are some serious themes in it about sexual harassment. Be warned of this is a trigger. I feel that it was important to the story and it was thoughtfully handled. The story did jump around a bit but all in all I really got into the relationship of Olivia and Asher and wanted things to work out in a happily ever after, which of course it does, but there are some twists and turns there which makes this a great read. And love that it has the holidays mixed in!

This super quirky holiday romance was really fun, but had some depth to it. I really liked the characters and their banter. I definitely recommend this one!I have one weird little concern: at one point I *think* the main woman character compares being stuck at work with her mom in the hospital on holidays growing up to sick children having to be in the hospital over holidays... that’s gunna be a no from me. If you’ve read the book, was that how you read that?Other than that though this book was delightful and a perfect holiday read.CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, grief

That good feels, humorous, can't put down type of book! It is that typical love story that begins as a fake relationship but UGH I loved it so much. Absolutely loved it. Does include sexual harassment situation(s).

Sometimes you just need to read a Christmas romance and this hit the spot! It was cute and fun, but does have some serious discussions on sexual harassment so proceed with caution if you're triggered by that!

This book is good - it has a lot more twists and roadblocks than I expected for our two main characters to get together. Both characters grow and there is a HEA of course. Recommend!

I really liked this cute Christmas story so much! Reminded me of The Unhoneymooners so if you like Christina Lauren...this is probably your jam.

Wow! This book had me hooked right from the beginning, I was up until 3.30am finishing it because I just couldn't put it down. I found the characters likeable and relatable, the story was really well written and as soon as I finished reading it I just wanted to pick it back up again! The only thing it lacked for me was a little more detail in the bedroom department, but that's just me! I wouldn't knock it down for that though.

I loved this!Let me tell you my crazy story with this book. I stupidly started reading it on my phone at 11PM (I had ordered a physical copy and I was waiting for it to arrive and decided to read the first chapter) and I could not stop reading! I was hyperventilating because I kept holding my breathe cause of the cuteness and gasping. At 1AM I decided to message 10 people telling them they had to read this book ASAP, immediately 4 people messaged me back saying they bought it (I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud). I finally forced myself to stop reading and savour the book for tomorrow.This was the cutest thing ever!It was so much fun and I loved the banter!I basically couldn’t breathe during this whole book because I was constantly holding my breathe and gasping out loud, everything was so cute and made me breathless. I thought I was going to pass out because it was so amazing.I loveeee Olivia she’s my favourite and I loveeee Asher!I do have to say at first I thought it was strange how Olivia bought her boss stuff without his consent and to his house because I was a publicity intern and didn’t do that but then again my boss didn’t make me get his lunch or coffee. You have to suspend your belief and think of it like a hate to love movie because those aren’t always realistic either.

Faking Under the Mistletoe is fake dating / enemies to lovers / work place relationship story that was exactly what my Holiday Heart and Reading Soul needed.Riddled with witty banter, perfectly placed humour, some fun quirkiness, a dash of drama, a sprinkle of angst, some serious eye-rolling, and a whole lot of Christmas vibes, Olivia and Asher's story both ached and warmed my heart, had me swooning, caused me to laugh out loud and let out a few unattractive snorts, and finally left me wanting to curl up by a fireplace in my ugly Christmas sweater watching Christmas movies while drinking hot cocoa and eating bagels.A super fun, hilarious and sweet holiday read!! I'm looking forward to Bree's book!! She has some redeeming to do but oh gosh Callum I think is going to be the perfect person to help her do it!!

Endearing, funny, heart warming - a delightful read that sucks you in and has you wanting to finish it in a single sitting.Two over the top characters, one borderline aggressively friendly and the other unnecessarily sour. The interactions between them, with an underlining Christmas setting makes for such an enjoyable read. The author has managed to weave current serious topics of sexism, sexual harassment and nods to the #metoo movement while still having an overall lighthearted tone with some unexpected plot turns.

This book was - in a word - CHRISTMASSY! I went in knowing three things: this book had a fake dating trope, a hate-to-lovers trope, and it was Christmassy to the max. And I came out falling in love with a new book! I truly adored this read, the writing was very well done and the story was so enthralling I consumed the whole story in one day, reading bits of it whenever I could at work throughout the day and then binged the rest of it when I got home. Highly recommend!!