A review by beckyyreadss
All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

When Amazon announced this short series of books by some of my favourite authors, I was all for it. This is the third book that I've read out of the five and this is by an author I've not read before. This book was missing a lot of information and was too short and weird.  

This book is about Nina, and she has a secret crush on William, however she believes that William is hooking up with her best friend. Nina and William are underpaid adjunct professors at the same university, where winter break is no break at all: it’s the season to make extra money. When their holiday side hustle has them stranded by a blinding blizzard in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing to do but cuddle up for warmth and play a game of Never Have I Ever to pass the time. But in the game of love, secrets never stay secrets for long.  

The main issues I had with this book is that it jumps right in straight in and just confused the crap out of me. What the hell is going on with the weenie business and why on earth were they out during a blizzard? The friendship between Nina and her best friend isn’t a friendship surely a quick text to her best friend asking if she was hooking up with William would have helped and let her know if he was single or not? It just didn’t make a lot of sense. Also having a sex in the Weenie car was obviously supposed to be ironic but it just came across as cringy. I didn’t like the fact that it was just one long chapter. It felt like one massive monologue from Nina.  

William was a decent MMC, would have liked it to be dual POV and more chapters to see what he was feeling and thinking and his plan of action before suggesting “cuddling” to converse body heat.  

There wasn’t a lot of Christmas vibes or anything besides the fact that they must get the car or van to the Christmas Eve parade.  

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