She has male friends who are just friends and don’t get jealous or weird. Willa has a group of girlfriends who are wonderful and supportive. The thing I love about Shalvis’s novels is all the great details she infuses into her writing. Keane really likes Willa but he can’t figure out why she’s so salty around him. I don’t mind books set during the holidays but I hate when some nebulous idea of “holiday cheer” fixes all the problems the characters have.Īnyway, Willa is all set up to hate Keane, but finds herself liking him and being attracted to him despite their past. This is a book set around Christmas but it’s not a “Christmas book.” No one resolved their emotional issues because the spirit of Christmas hit them like a bad flu. Her employee, Rory, was also a foster kid and shuns all Christmas trappings for the same reason Willa embraces them. One thing I loved was that Willa goes nuts with Christmas decorations because she never had them as a kid. She hires other former foster kids and tries to help them find some consistency of their own. Willa was a foster kid with little stability in her life. It’s about two people who struggle with trust and commitment coming together. The conflict of this book isn’t “Keane stood Willa up in high school” – which is a good thing, as that would be pretty weak. Willa agrees to take Petunia for the kitty’s sake, but she’s pretty irritated at Keane. Even more embarrassing, Keane doesn’t recognize her. Willa is pretty surprised to see Keane–she asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance in high school and was mortified when he stood her up. So he stops at South Bark, the boutique pet store owned by Willa Davis. She’s already knocked his laptop and phone on the floor, breaking both, and crapped in his shoes.

Problem is, Keane doesn’t speak Petunia and Petunia is not happy with the new arrangement. Keane barely knows his great aunt Sally, but when she showed up at his place with a cat carrier asking him to watch Petunia while she recovers from an illness, he’s unable to say no. The book opens with Keane Winters desperate to find someone to help with his aunt’s cat, Petunia aka Pita (Pain in the Ass). I hope the publisher puts, “It made me horny and it made me cry”–Elyse, Smart Bitches Trashy Books on the back of her next book. That said, The Trouble with Mistletoe might be my favorite book of hers ever.

Jill Shalvis is one of those authors that I turn to for comfort reads her books are always sexy, funny and emotionally satisfying. Also I just realized how pervvy that sounds and I don’t care.įirst of all, it’s no shock that I loved, LOVED The Trouble with Mistletoe. Prepare the squee mop y’all: this review is going to be soaked.

Under the mistletoe by jill shalvis