How My Neighbor Stole Christmas

De: Meghan Quinn

Narrado por: Vanessa Edwin, J.F. Harding, Robert Hatchet, Emma Wilder, Shane East

A new winter holiday, enemies-to-lovers romance, from the undeniably funny and always spicy, USA Today bestselling author, Meghan Quinn.

Living in a year around Christmas town has its drawbacks. The caroling, the decorations, the insanely cheery spirit, it never disappears. It's why I like to hibernate away in my cave - I mean housekeeping a healthy distance from the holly jolly spirits.

And all was going according to plan until my nemesis, Storee Taylor, moved in next door to care for her Aunt Cindy. Without blinking, she turned my simple world into a real nightmare-before-Christmas, especially when she decided to enter the town Christmas Kringle contest - which she was determined to win.

Well guess what? Over my cold-hearted body.

There was no way I was going to let her win, not after the history we'd shared.

So despite my promise to myself of never participating in the sickening Christmas season, I entered the competition as well. That's right, I planned on beating Storee at her own game by pretending this grump’s heart grew three sizes this season.

And it was working until feelings between us started heating up.

We pretended to date.

We kissed.

And well, sparks flew from there.

Which led to one explosive night involving Christmas lights, the competition, and a ladder. Don't let me convince you who stole Christmas, I think you need to find out for yourself . . .

©2024 Bloom Books (P)2024 Meghan Quinn

Narration was great

The narration was the best part of this audiobook. The story was very cute. Meghan Quinn is a creative and clever writer. I tend to like all her books, but this one was too long.

Not my cup of egg nog

How My Neighbor Stole Christmas by Meghan Quinn has one of my favorite new book covers of the season but unfortunately it was not one of my favorite reads. Our book club read this as one of two books for December, and this was not the favorite.

Cole Black (how clever is that name for a Christmas book?) doesn’t really celebrate Christmas but lives in a town that celebrates it all year long. Storee, who he hasn’t seen for ten years, comes to care for her Aunt Cindy Louis (how clever is that name for a Christmas book?) and her broken hip.

This book is delightfully Christmassy, and the Christmas Kringle contest put on by Bob Krampus (how clever is that name for a Christmas book?) brings about a lot of competition. In chapter five there are wonderful quotes about experiencing life that I will keep forever. Aunt Cindy gives me the spirited elder I always crave as a side character.

To me, this book was a little too long, and the love scenes that come at us gangbusters did not fit in with the rest of the book or the characters. It’s like we had this book until about 60%, and then someone cut out every Tessa Bailey dirty-talking man “love” scene and put them all back-to-back for the remaining 40%. I’m exaggerating but that’s how it felt to me. The OB GYN in our book club DOES NOT recommend doing one of their more memorable and unique bedroom acts. Somehow we never hear about the yeast infections and other problems we know are on their way for these characters.

Narrator does Grinch- like poetry and breaks the fourth wall which I thought was GREAT. It was performed induet by JF Harding and Vanessa Edwin with full cast including Shane East, Robert Hatchet and Emma Wilder. It wasn’t the most natural-sounding duet, but I still prefer duet over any other audio option!

My friend gave me her paperbook to put in my LFL, and it is fun to see that there are a few drawings within. I LOVE THIS.

The Highland Fling remains my absolute favorite, 5/5 star Meghan Quinn read.

3/5 stars
13 hours 26 minutes at 1x on audio
Open door
Location: Kringle Town, Colorado

A funny, spicy, heartwarming holiday romance!

How My Neighbor Stole Christmas by Meghan Quinn is guaranteed to get you in the holiday spirit! Cole is a grinchy grump who hates Christmas, and while Storee isn't thrilled to be in Kringle visiting her aunt, she has so much more holiday spirit than Cole does. They both are entered in the town's holiday competition, which brings out the best and worst in them...and as the competition moves along, as well as some fake dating, the sparks start flying, and fake dating becomes real pretty quickly...and Cole finds the holiday spirit he had been missing for quite some time.

Even if you don't listen to audiobooks or if you haven't tried any before...this is definitely one of those stories that should be listened to. Performed in duet by JF Harding and Vanessa Edwin, with a full cast including Emma Wilder, Robert Hatchet, and Shane East...this audio is just a pure delight to listen to. Hearing the banter at times between JF Harding as Cole and Shane East as the narrator was hilarious, and even though it would have been hilarious reading it on my Kindle, hearing it was even better. The cast was perfect and all of them did an incredible job.

And can I just say...the candy cane scene Meghan has been talking about did not disappoint.

Fun holiday romance!

This was such a fun holiday read! I had a gifted copy of the ebook, but 100% recommend the audiobook which was narrated by a full cast.

Storee and Cole were childhood friends whenever she was in town to visit her Aunt Cindy. When Storee and her sister return to help take care of Aunt Cindy, she’s shocked to find Cole seems to strongly dislike her. Storee is forced to enter the town’s Kringle contest for her aunt. When he learns she’s entered, Cole decides he must enter so he can beat her.

In typical Meghan Quinn fashion, the banter and chemistry between Cole and Storee was perfection. They start as enemies but begin to develop a rapport into much more. They’re able to rekindle their friendship and deepen it into a romantic relationship. This was definitely steamy, but you’d expect nothing less from a Meghan Quinn book. I really can’t recommend the full cast audiobook enough. It will have you laughing, swooning and smiling non-stop.

Spicy Holiday Read

This was a fun and at times spicy read following Storee and Cole’s restoration of loving Christmas and finding love in each other.