Are you searching for a holiday romance to melt your cold heart? Do you feel a bit grinch-y? Then you need to read You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince this holiday season. For all my adult romance fans who love holiday romances, keep reading this book review.
Summary
Bring a little joy to the world?
Not today, Santa.
Matthew Prince is young, rich, and thoroughly spoiled. So what if his parents barely remember he exists and the press is totally obsessed with him? He’s on top of the world. But one major PR misstep later, and Matthew is cut off and shipped away to spend the holidays in his grandparents’ charming small town hellscape. Population: who cares?
It’s bad enough he’s stuck in some festive winter wonderland—it’s even worse that he has to share space with Hector Martinez, an obnoxiously attractive local who’s unimpressed with anything and everything Matthew does.
Just when it looks like the holiday season is bringing nothing but heated squabbles, the charity gala loses its coordinator and Matthew steps in as a saintly act to get home early on good behavior…with Hector as his maddening plus-one. But even a Grinch can’t resist the unexpected joy of found family, and in the end, the forced proximity and infectious holiday cheer might be enough to make a lonely Prince’s heart grow three sizes this year.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
TW: anxiety
I will forever be in the mood to read a holiday romance. So when I found out about You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince, I knew I had to read it. This holiday romance combines small town, spoiled MCs who have to evaluate themselves, and unexpected romance. While it took me a long time to get to like Matthew – talk about someone who has a life I will never have and is pretty spoiled – by the end, I fell in love with him. I think what helps is that You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince is just one POV, Matthew.
So we’re deeply invested in seeing his side of things, when he’s wrong, when he’s misguided, when he’s trying. All the vulnerabilities you wouldn’t see or be able to tell from the surface. At the same time, You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince becomes about this distance between who he used to be, and who he is now. While You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince isn’t a Christmas Carol reimagining, so much of it is influenced by the story at its core.
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This idea of needing a reminder to show us who we are, who we wanted to be, but couldn’t be. You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince becomes about having to confront ourselves in the mirror. To see that the world can require us to be people we aren’t. Versions of ourselves through layers of illusions. But You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince becomes about self-development. About needing a push sometimes, a new experience, to inspire self-reflection. That we could discover something we may have been too afraid to want and become someone we were too scared to become. Find You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.