Audible Book Review: Along Came Holly by Codi Hall

This is a fun (if steamy) romcom.

Along Came Holly
By: Codi Hall
Narrated by: Veronica Worthington , Skyler Hutchinson

Series: A Mistletoe Romance, Book 3
Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
Release date: 11-17-22
Publisher: Audible Originals
Categories: Romance, Contemporary
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.0; Narration 4.0.

About This Audible Original
How can Holly Winters, the Queen of Christmas Cheer, stand to be neighbors with her town’s resident Scrooge?
Holly owns the merriest holiday shop on Main Street. But right next door is the hardware store run by Declan Gallagher, the grinchiest man in all of Mistletoe, Idaho. With Christmas fast approaching, the small-town rivals engage in an all-out prank war, sending each other not-so-friendly season’s greetings.
But when Holly’s ambitious plan to win the town’s Festival of Lights falls apart, she has no one else to call but her handy sworn-nemesis. They say Christmas is a time for miracles, after all. As Holly and Declan work together, they slowly warm up to each other. They might just end up spending Christmas Eve cuddling by the fire.
Along Came Holly is the perfect enemies-to-lovers rom-com sure to warm hearts this holiday season. Curl up with a beau and a cup of hot cocoa and listen to the latest in A Mistletoe Romance series by author Codi Hall.
©2022 Codi Gary (P)2022 Audilble Originals, LLC

Review:
Holly is one of the Winter family who are a close family who enjoy Christmas. Holly herself is ‘Queen of Christmas Cheer’ and is at odds with her shop neighbor, Declan, who is a grinch in their charming town of Mistletoe, Idaho. Holly loves to play Christmas music but Declan bangs on the wall to get her to turn it off. Annoyed by his attitude, Holly sets off a prank war with Declan giving as good as he gets.

Holly is always an active participant in the town’s Festival of Lights. This year the company that is supposed to do the set up calls out sick. No one else has time to take on the job so her last resort is to ask handy man Declan to help put up her many decorations/lights.

Declan is a man with a chip on his shoulder. His mom left when he turned 18 and Declan blames her for tearing apart the family. He loved art and planned to open a studio after college but instead returned home to manage his father’s hardware store when his father broke his hip. Now there are other reasons Declan stays but he isn’t sharing his history with anyone. When it comes to helping Holly with her lights, Declan thinks he can handle it alone. He soon realizes he really can’t manage without help.

I enjoyed the clear tension between Holly and Declan that developed into a more than a light friendship. The bantering and family relationships are fun and engaging. I didn’t necessarily care for the blatant sexual innuendos but that didn’t overcome the fun in the story. This showed as only available until 3/31 so I chose to read it even though it is book 3 in the series and clearly a Christmas story. I’m glad I listened to it and will look forward to the first two books when I’m ready for more Christmas reading. I recommend this to fans of contemporary romance.

Audio Notes: Veronica Worthington, Skyler Hutchinson do a fairly nice job rotating the narration between the primary characters. My only complaint on the narration was that the male voice was joltingly loud. This did distract a little initially, but I adjusted for it. I was still glad to listen to the audio while it was available.

Source: 12/3/2022 Audible Plus Catalog. This qualifies for 2023TBR and 2023Audiobook goals.