Book Summary: 

Nothing says I love you like trespassing, public humiliation, and a town-wide Christmas spectacle to win your crush back.

Atlas “Max” Maxheimer did not sign up for this. One minute, he’s anxiously trying to keep his family’s Christmas tree farm from imploding. The next? He’s passed out in the snow after getting clocked by a suspiciously strong bottle of soda.

Enter Betty: new in town, full of holiday cheer, and helping her uncle open a rival tree farm next door. Max is convinced she’s out to destroy everything Evergreen Farm stands for. Betty thinks Max might be one sleigh short of a winter parade.

Cue the holiday chaos.

Between blizzards, blown reputations, wildly misguided romantic plots, and one stolen ornament with a seriously tragic backstory, this small-town war turns into something far messier―and much more delicious―than either of them expected.

Mini Review:

Ugh – I wanted to like this book so badly! I absolutely loved How My Neighbor Stole Christmas and how Max was portrayed in that book. The narrator was one of the highlights, and everything about it was fun, original, and completely perfect. Needless to say, my expectations were incredibly high when I read Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal – and I hated it. I kept hoping it would get better, funnier, less p*rn on the page (and I read A LOT of spice, so that says a lot), but it wasn’t.

It was the exact opposite of Magic Mike (when they inserted a plot, but we all know exactly why we were watching the movie – don’t deny it). The plot was so thin in the story and so overshadowed by a 466-page romp-fest that just made you throw up your hands and say, “Forget it!” Add to that the childish pranks, the immaturity of the characters (and again – I loved the back and forth between Storee and Cole), and this book just felt more cringe-worthy than a sprinkle of holiday spirit.

At no point in time did I feel like this was love between two people – lust, definitely. Infatuation – 100%. But convincing me these two were head over heels for each other when they didn’t come up for air long enough to get to know each other was somewhat of a stretch.

OK, a bit harsh, so I will pull back a little and say there were some sweet, memorable moments – especially when Atlas (Max) came to Betty’s rescue – but again, it was grossly overshadowed by the spice, which is what made this book so frustrating. It had the potential to be sweet AND spicy, entertaining and igniting, but it swung too far into bow-chica-bow-wow that everything else fell to the wayside.

Meghan has another book in this series coming out, and at this point, I’m not sure if I want to read Christmas Staycation or call this series quits.