Things are finally looking good for Aris and Blythe. After twenty-seven years apart, they’ve found their way back to each other and are starting their lives over again, together. All Blythe wants now is a perfect Christmas to mark the beginning of their happily ever after, and Aris wants to give it to her. Too bad even Fate can’t control everything. Turns out they’ve located their home on land that is haunted by dozens of spirits. If they can’t help them move on, it will ruin everything. Find out if the happy couple gets a merry Christmas or a disastrous mess in Adalyn Grace’s final Belladona novella, Holly.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Little, Brown for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of Holly contains some spoilers!]
A Christmas ghost story to top off Adalyn Grace’s Belladonna trilogy
We all thought that the Belladonna series was done after Wisteria, but it turns out that the Hawthornes had one more story for us. In Holly we see the whole family come together for the holidays. Blythe and Aris are settling into their home and their life together. They’re happy, but still a little nervous. Twenty-seven years and different lifetimes are a long time to be apart. Both are determined to have everything perfect. Blythe hangs so much holly around the house it looks like a forest! This is to keep evil spirits away during the festivities. Too bad it doesn’t seem to work.
As the family continues to prep for the celebration, Signa realizes that there are a few extra guests, in the form of a couple of dozen confused ghosts! She and Aris both know how important this Chrismas is to Blythe so they try to get rid of the ghosts without letting Blythe know they are there. That goes about as well as you would expect, and suddenly the spirits are rampaging and threatening all Blythe’s hard work. If the family is going to help the spirits move on and still have a merry Christmas together it is going to take all of them, even dear old dad, working together to do it. And isn’t family togetherness what Christmas is all about?
Holly is a light-hearted romance for young readers
The Belladonna series has been touted as a new-age gothic romance perfect for today’s young reader. There is plenty of mystery and romance and a touch of horror with spirits and hellhounds and Death as a main character, so it certainly counts as gothic. But the whole feeling of Holly is much too whimsical and light to really fit what I think of as gothic romance. Don’t get me wrong, that isn’t a condemnation of Holly. I quite enjoyed it. It was the perfect mood for a Christmas romance. The ghostly mystery was whimsical and fun instead of heavy or scary, and there was a strong emphasis on family and love, just what you want in a holiday love story.
But keep in mind that Holly is a young-adult novella, and it seems aimed at the lower end of that age bracket. The characters are constantly longing for each other, but it reads like the most frustrated teenage wet dream ever because they never get any satisfaction. Some of the writing feels repetitive, too, as they just keep thinking about how much they love and need each other. Now I know that YA romance and soft-core are (hypothetically) different, but Grace’s writing is just extremely tame compared to most YA romance authors. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, there are younger readers who might not be ready to be exposed to heavier situations and there are some readers who enjoy the anticipation. Grace’s tamer style makes a nice entry for younger readers just coming into the romance genre that might not be ready for everything that some authors, like Yarros, come at readers with.
As the fourth in the Belladonna series, you might need some backstory
Originally, Grace intended to have the Belladonna series cap at three books, a classic trilogy. Whether because she couldn’t leave her characters behind or her fans wanted more, she decided to add this fourth story to assure us that Life, Fate, and Death really did receive their happy (if not restful) ending. Now you can read Holly without reading the rest of the Belladonna series (I did), but I don’t recommend it. There is just too much back story that is necessary to understand the relationships between the characters, and indeed who the characters even are (spoiler alert, they are NOT normal mortals) to easily follow Holly without it. I pieced together a lot of it as I was reading, but a lot of things didn’t make sense until later, and some didn’t until I finally looked up synopses of the first three books online (after I finished the reading, Holly, great timing on my part).
From what I’ve seen of Grace’s work and the synopses I read, Belladonna, Foxglove, and Wisteria are all great books that you will really enjoy, too, if Holly sounds like your thing. They should also be quick and easy reads. And it’s not like having a whole new series to enjoy is a bad thing. But I would really recommend reading the first three, or at least reading a summary of them, before you read Holly for maximum enjoyment.
A great holiday novella
Holly is the perfect book for the Christmas break. And no, I’m not just saying that because the story takes place at Christmas. Grace’s writing is a very easy-to-read style that flows quickly and easily. The story is fun and lighthearted, no heavy themes or (real) sad events that will weigh you down emotionally. And the novella is short. It clocks in at 371 pages, but there are a ton of full-page illustrations from LotusBubble, that cut it down to under 300 pages easily. You can enjoy the adventures of Blythe, Aris, Signa, and Sylas and still have plenty of time to spend with your own family enjoying the festivities.
Also, each page is topped with festive decorations and the font is printed in green. These little touches subconsciously lighten the already light story, meaning that you will feel happy every time you pick up Holly this holiday season. This might not be a life-changing story, but it was a life-enriching book for me. Pick up a copy today and add a little magic to your holidays this year!
Rating: 7/10
Holly is now available to purchase at your retailer of choice.
Learn more about the book at the official website for the title.
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