If you haven’t laid hands on the book yet, here’s your clue to stop reading. This review has spoilers.

THIS BOOK IS NOT A ROMANCE.

Or maybe it is, but it shouldn't be. This review is a complaint, not to the author but to society. Because this story, it's real. It's what happens in real life. It teaches you a lesson, it reminds you that happy endings do not mean there is no struggle. In fact, happy endings exist only because they're the end to the struggle.

The book talks about a people pleaser, a pushover, Olivia Langley. And I relate to Olivia more than I should. She goes out of her way to impress people, to keep them happy. She hides her emotions behind the mask of cheer she always keeps on. She works for more than 16 hours a day and survives on coffee but never complains when her boss goes out of his way to annoy her with his very specific order of bagels and coffee. She's had shitty Christmases all her life but she makes sure everyone in the office lives the cheer up to the fullest. She even fake-kisses her boss in front of his ex so he doesn't have to look miserable. And that's what we all are.

She adores Levi, maybe too much. She put him on a pedestal he never deserved to be at. And when she gets to know the truth, it hurts her worse that his boss knew all along when she simped for him, but would never tell her. Asher promises to be there for her if Levi is ever around, but the day she's assaulted, he's wailing in misery, all because he thinks her feelings are fake.

I condemn how the book is a romance. I do not hate Asher and Olivia together, I adore them a lot. And even though Asher is caring and protective, in my opinion, he's not ready for her. Worse, she isn't ready for him. When you love someone, you're honest with them. Regardless of how confidential he was supposed to keep his work, he never really assures her the way he should. And the part of being reserved, cold, it's not unreasonable but weird, considering he shared his deepest truths with her.

I love that action is somehow taken and everyone is brought to justice. But I hate how no one is upfront about the atrocities of Levi. No one questions him when he condescends Olivia, all because he's a star. And as much as I feel disgusted to say it out loud, this is the reality of life. And perhaps if I were to tag this book, it wouldn't be fiction, and DEFINITELY NOT A ROMANCE.
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I received an ARC for an honest review from the author.

Olivia is the Social Media Intern at a NYC Public Relations firm who stuffs the entire month of December with holiday themed activities for the employees of Loveridge & McGown International to take part in. What she didn’t plan was to was kiss her boss in front of his ex-girlfriend at one of the functions. What takes place is a hilarious, not-well-timed series of events that makes you want to kill and love Olivia all at once. “I’m the human embodiment of someone hitting play on every single Taylor Swift song at once.” was one of my favorite, well timed quotes in the book. Ashley does a really good job of bringing the reader into the folds of the story and grabs your heart with these characters and doesn’t let go! The book has it all: drama, humor, great one-liners, girl power, and a love story that makes your heart pitter-patter. This is the PERFECT holiday story, so grab your hot chocolate, find somewhere cozy to relax and get caught up in the holiday story of Olivia. ( )

This was such a nice idea: A Christmas romance! Ok, the author added “office romance”, “enemies-to-lovers” and “fake dating to evoke jealousy in an ex” but if that actually had worked out, I probably would have loved it.

The beginning is very promising even: The banter between our heroine, Olivia, and her grumpy boss, Asher, is amusing, sometimes even witty and almost always funny.
The atmosphere is charged between both of them and had Shepherd kept doing this, added some kind of conflict to solve before the “happily ever after”, everything would have been great.

»“Cozied up on the couch. Snuggled under blankets. Snow falling outside. Christmas movies. Cake. We’re living a Lifetime special.”«

When I read that, I was sure this had to be great! And it was until I came to the second half of the book which manages to derail it completely...

If you still want to read this book, take care, huge spoilers follow...

Unfortunately, every minor issue is blown out of proportion: Olivia and Asher are caught almost in the act in the office - and Asher’s reaction is to call it all off? What kind of guy does that? Ok, I thought, this shouldn’t be hard to salvage…

Olivia goes out for a kind of “girls night” to console herself and I expected something to go wrong. I did not expect Olivia to have poor enough judgement to accompany a known sexual predator, Levi, whom both her circle of friends and Asher warned her strongly about into a »curtained off rooms his handler is guarding«.

Olivia is sexually assaulted there and has to find out the next day that Asher knew exactly about said predator and his methods.
She decides that…

»Levi is never going to touch another girl the way he touched me tonight.
I’m going to make sure of it.«

At this point, I thought, ok, this will be harder to recover from because the man Olivia loves knew and didn’t do anything about it. I was still holding out hope because the book started out so well and Olivia’s courageous decision not to let Levi get away with it was something I appreciated.

Even though, I must say, I don’t think a book that’s basically supposed to be a light Christmas romance is the best place to deal with the very real problem of sexual harassment or assault.

Then comes the next sexual assault, Asher making a fool out of himself, Olivia allowing Asher (who knew and did nothing) and her boss, Ana (who knew and did too little), to lull Olivia into complacency and waiting for something big to happen about Levi…

This is the point where the book started losing me - further entanglements, e. g. a kiss, ensue - and when Asher and Olivia finally make it up with each other it’s just too late for me. Shepherd has already managed to completely derail her storytelling “train” which was moving along so nicely in the beginning…

Last and least, I do enjoy a certain amount of well-written smut in a romance. In this case, the “build up” is rather nice but (anti-)climaxes in a meagre »“Well,” I say after I’ve been sufficiently ravished.«…

Ultimately, “Faking Under the Mistletoe” started with a bang, went shortly serious and ended in a whimper.


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