Book Review: How My Neighbor Stole Christmas

Meghan Quinn’s latest novel is a spicy romcom spin on The Grinch and is called How My Neighbor Stole Christmas.

The novel follows Storee Taylor and Cole Black. Cole lives in his hometown of Kringletown – a town in the mountains of Colorado that leans into the Christmas spirit year-round. Storee’s aunt lives in Kringletown and she used to come every Christmas, but hasn’t been back in 10 years. Now she’s back with her sister, Taran, to help her aunt recover from a broken hip. Storee and Cole were friends growing up and used to look forward to seeing each other every Christmas, but haven’t spoken since Storee’s last trip to Kringletown. What Storee doesn’t know is that Cole has been upset with her since the last time they spoke over something she said while she was upset about something that happened to her in town and he is not too happy she’s back.

The town may love Christmas, but Cole does not. It only reminds him of his late parents so he has become sort of like a Grinch over the years. However, when he finds out that Storee has entered into the Christmas Kringle content he enters too because there is no way he’ll let his enemy be named the most festive person in Kringle. Not only will the two have to battle it out to win, the gossips in town believe the two have a thing for each other so faking a relationship can help them gain some points in the competition even though they can’t stand one another. But will spending time together lead them to become friends once again? And will it possibly lead them to becoming more than friends?

I loved this book and loved Cole and Storee. The storyline was great and I loved all the side characters, especially Max – Cole’s best friend. He was so entertaining, which is common with Meghan Quinn’s side characters! And she just announced that her next Kringletown book is going to be about Max so I’m excited about that.

My only critique of this book is that it was a little long for a romcom at close to 500 pages. So while I loved the story and the characters, it did start to feel like it was dragging on at certain points. And if it were me, I wouldn’t cut anything from the 2nd half as that’s where I was the most hooked. I would maybe shorten some parts in the first half when they were really enemies because the whole enemy section lasted for about half the book. But other than that, I really liked the book and can’t wait to return to Kringletown next year!

Read this if you want a spicy enemies to lovers, second chance Christmas romance.

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