Review: Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Sarah Morgenthaler (2020)

Moose Springs, Alaska, Book #2

Heat Factor: It was extremely ambiguous until they finally did go all the way because they were constantly fooling around but then the door closed

Character Chemistry: 🌲🌲🌲 (that’s pining, FYI)

Plot: Lana wants to save Moose Springs but ultimately answers to her family’s conglomerate. Rick is a local business owner trying to make ends meet with an uncomfortable crush on his new landlord.

Overall: aww

Mistletoe & Mr. Right begins about six months after the close of The Tourist Attraction, around mid-December. Lana, who is the bestie of the heroine and dear friend of the hero of The Tourist Attraction (and the reason they got together) is in Moose Springs for the holiday. She’s both working on her project to resuscitate Moose Springs, which we learned about in the prior book, and she’s trying to find a home after spending her whole life in a series of hotel rooms, so she’s also made Moose Springs her base of operations, even though she’s the heir to a multi-national conglomerate and can’t really stay in Podunk Alaska.

There are quite a few threads going in this book, from a Christmas decoration smashing moose to a backstabbing cousin to a moody new adult to a whole town full of people who think Lana is the devil incarnate. There are a few people in town who don’t think so. Her friends from book one, Graham and Zoey, are two, but Graham is perfectly willing to do whatever he can to sabotage Lana’s business project, even though her project was envisioned specifically to save the town. So that’s complicated. Then there’s Rick, owner of the locals-only pool hall, divorcé, and totally shy cutie pie who has a crush on the powerful millionaire who rolls right in and out of town. As I recall, most of the threads were resolved one way or another, but with everything going on, I’m not sure I’d say that they were all tied up fully to my satisfaction. That’s difficult when new things keep cropping up to be resolved later.

As part of her plan to rehabilitate Moose Springs, Lana purchased a number of properties in the town, so in addition to her building project, she’s the landlord for a lot of struggling businesses, one of which happens to be Rick’s. So when she finally wanders into his pool hall after a relatively uncomfortable town hall meeting, he thinks that the shoe is about to drop.

But Lana’s lonely. And Rick is lonely. And they both like the look of the other.

But Rick is super shy. And Lana is flirty but doesn’t really want to put herself out there maybe. So they skirt around each other for a while, flirting adorably, until finally Lana is essentially goaded into asking Rick out. I said it in my review of book one, and I’ll say it again: these books really feel like a normal relationship beginning. Flirting. Feeling each other out. Overcoming shyness and going out on a limb. Awkward dating mishaps. It’s fun!

After reading a ton of really sexy books, I appreciated that this book focused heavily on exploring the tentative beginnings of a romance with sexual attraction but without actual sex coming into play. There’s a bit of drama and a bit of playfulness, but it’s overall very gentle—not angsty, not dramatic, not OTT at all. Except for the B&B with the army of taxidermied squirrels… That was disturbing.