The Mischief of the Mistletoe

So I know this is technically meant to be a holiday/Christmas romance sort of thing, but I???m reading this series in order right now so whatever - but also it???s coming on to summer right now where I am and any thoughts of the cold and the snow sound WONDERFUL when the heat index is in the 40s Celsius.

Thoughts of the cold aside, this reread actually made me love this book so much more than when I first read it! A lot of that has to do with Turnip and Arabella???s romance: how Arabella manages to see through Turnip???s seeming buffoonery to the kind, earnest man he actually is, and Turnip seeing Arabella for the playful, witty woman she can be underneath all her no-nonsense sensibility. Their romance is about them being actually, genuinely SEEN for who they really are - and being loved for it, rather than judged or, worse, mocked. I don???t know anymore why I wasn???t raving about their romance when I first read this book, but now I definitely am, because I love how Arabella and Turnip fall for each other when they finally see each other for who they really are, and encourage each other to be their truest selves even if the rest of the world thinks them strange.

I also liked the inclusion of Jane Austen in this novel. There was a nonzero chance that this would be an awful idea, but the author handled this pretty well, a nice little wink by the author to the genre this series belongs to. After all, without Austen, the Regency romance genre might not even be a thing. Plus, including Austen and making Arabella belong to more or less the same social class as her opened up a chance for the author to highlight how different the lives of highborn/wealthy women are, versus their lowerborn/poorer counterparts. In all the previous books the female leads have been titled and/or wealthy, whereas Arabella is neither. Thus, she and Austen offer a glimpse of what the life of the ???average??? Regency woman was like, which is a glimpse I appreciate.

Another interesting thing about this particular novel is that, unlike the previous six books, this does NOT include Eloise Kelly and Colin Selwick???s storyline. And honestly, I didn???t miss them, but that???s mostly because I???m more hooked on the Regency-set storylines - which is kind of the point of these novels anyway, at least in my opinion.

So overall, this was a lovely diversion from the usual format this series tends to follow, with a focus on a romance that is absolutely touching and squeeworthy in equal measure.