Review: All By My Elf (Under the Mistletoe #3)

All By My Elf (Under The Mistletoe #3) by Olivia Dade

Published By: Amazon Original Stories
Publication Date: November 12, 2024
Date Read: December 6, 2024
Genre: Adult – Romance
Source: Loaned from KU
Format: E-Book
Pages: 55

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Secret crushes, spicy Christmas treats, heinous holiday traffic, and a fateful snowstorm bring good friends together in a funny, heartfelt short story by bestselling author Olivia Dade.

Nina and William are underpaid adjunct professors at the same university, where winter break is no break at all: ’tis 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 secret for long…

Olivia Dade’s All by My Elf is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.

After being super disappointed in the last novella, I was apprehensive going into this one. I have read quite a bit by Olivia Dade before and while I absolutely love her full length novels, some of her novellas have been hit or miss for me. This one was a bit of both… I enjoyed it, it was cute, but much like the Ali Hazelwood one I feel like it just didn’t give me the festive Christmassy feel that I was looking for. The only Christmassy element here was that the characters were professors at a University and had found a seasonal job over the holiday period. Other than that, once again there was nothing Christmassy and it’s just left me feeling sad and deflated a little bit about this whole series of novellas. They are just really not what I thought they were going to be.

All By My Elf was sweet and fun and definitely worth reading if you want a quick read to boost those reading challenges, but if you’re looking for a super festive, hallmark-y read, these novellas are just not it for me. I feel like they’re just normal novellas and they’ve just show-horned something winter-y in to make it a Christmas novella. It didn’t feel normal or natural to me. I think this will be my final Under the Mistletoe novella, they’re just not what I was hoping for.