Title: North Pole Reform School
Author: Jaimie Admans
Date of Publication: November 6, 2013
Genre: YA rom-com, fantasy
Mistletoe Bell hates Christmas. So would you if you had a name like hers. Her Christmas-mad parents make the festive season last all year, and with another Christmas looming, Mis doesn’t think she can take any more. After her carelessness causes an accident at school, it seems like things can’t get any worse.
Then she wakes up to find The Ghost of Christmases Ruined in her bedroom.
She is taken to the North Pole, to a reform school run by elves determined to make her love Christmas. Stuck in a misfit group of fellow Christmas-haters with a motley crew of the weird and even weirder, watched over by elves day and night, she doesn’t expect to meet cute and funny Luke, who is hiding a vulnerable side beneath his sarcastic exterior. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him.
But all is not as it should be at the North Pole. A certain Mr Claus is making the elves’ lives a misery, and pretty soon Mistletoe and Luke are doing more than just learning to like Christmas.
A YA romantic comedy in which Santa is the bad guy, teaching reindeer to fly is on the curriculum, and zombies have a fondness for Christmas music.
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Suitable for older teens and upwards due to bad language.
Purchase link: Amazon
It started with a purple moose.
At least I thought it was a moose. On
reflection, it could have been a reindeer, but it didn’t matter at
the time because it was obviously just a dream.
“Mistletoe,” the moose-reindeer
said.
Yep. Still hate my parents for naming
me that.
“Mistletoe,” it said again in a
spooky echo of a voice, “I am the Ghost of Christmases Ruined, and
I have come to tell you something.”
“Go away.” I turned over in bed.
“Mistletoe Bell,” it said sharply.
“Listen to me right now.”
I sat up, suddenly wide awake. God,
what a freaky dream.
“Mistletoe Bell,” it said again. I
jumped out of my skin. I clutched the duvet to me as I turned around.
Of all the things I expected to see, the purple moose sitting in the
middle of my carpet and looking annoyed was about the last of them.
“Wh… what are you?” I asked
quietly. I didn’t really believe my eyes. I must still be dreaming.
“I’ve tried to tell you already. I
am the Ghost of Christmases Ruined.”
I tried to pinch myself awake without
the moose noticing. It didn’t work. I didn’t wake up and the
moose noticed.
“It won’t work,” the moose said.
“You’re already awake.”
“I’m looking at a talking purple
moose. I don’t think so.”
“You are Mistletoe Bell?” the moose
asked.
I dropped my head into my hands and
edged closer to the other side of the bed.
The moose continued to look at me
expectantly.
“Unfortunately, yes. I couldn’t be
anyone else with that stupid name.”
“It’s a very nice Christmas name.”
“That’s exactly the bloody problem.
You try having a stupid Christmassy name in the middle of July or
something.”
“Ah yes, but it’s December now.”
“Screw December,” I muttered.
“Aha,” the moose said. “This is
exactly why I’m here.”
I gave it an angry look. “What the
hell are you going on about?”
“Well, if you’d be so kind as to
allow me to get to my point, I will enlighten you.”
I sighed in frustration.
“Mistletoe Bell,” the moose said,
“you have been charged with ruining Christmas. Multiple counts over
the years, but a particularly aggressive case this year when taking
into account the fire—”
“The fire was an accident.”
It gave me a glare and I rolled my
eyes. “Please go on,” I said, complete with a sarcastic hand
gesture.
“As I was saying…” The moose had
an annoyed tone to its voice now. “Ruining Christmas, multiple
counts, we can’t let it continue. We’ve been keeping an eye on
you for a while now. We were actually hoping you might grow out of it
now you’re nearly seventeen, but the fire this year is the final
straw. Mistletoe—”
“Please stop calling me that.” I
interrupted it again. “It’s Mis, Misty, or nothing.”
The moose rolled its eyes. “I am
required to call you by your proper name at all times. Now, can we
get on with it?”
“Get on with what?”
“Mistletoe Bell, tomorrow you will be
taken to the North Pole where you will stay until you can learn how
to behave acceptably and stop ruining Christmas for others. You will
be part of a group who will learn the value of Christmas to all
involved.”
“That’s ridiculous. Who’s going
to teach me? The polar bears?”
“The elves will teach you.”
“Of course they will.” I smacked my
forehead. “Of course there are elves. I don’t know why I expected
anything else from a purple moose.”
The moose made a frustrated noise.
“Mistletoe, do you understand?”
“I will be taken to the North Pole
and taught by elves? Yes, I understand perfectly.”
“I must be on my way. Sweet dreams,
Mistletoe.” The moose got up and jumped out of the window.
I rolled over and went back to sleep. I
must’ve eaten cheese before bed last night or something.
There were more weird dreams. I dreamt
of flying above the rooftops and over the oceans, and it was really,
really cold. I’m pretty sure I could hear strains of “Walking in
the Air” in the distance.
(*Received a ecopy for this tour. I'm not a paid reviewer. All Thoughts expressed are my own.*)
I found North Pole Reform school to be a fun, witty tell about what happens to those who inadvertently ruin Christmas for others.
In NPRS we follow a girl name Mistletoe Bell ( yes mistletoe! I actually think its kind of cute name) However she doesn't like to be called that and prefers Mis or misty. She hates Christmas..with her name sake being related to the Holiday, she was also born on Christmas eve. It seems fate it out to ruin her forever. One night she is visited by some sort of purple moose who claims to be the ghost of Christmas ruins.. one thing leads to another and she finds herself landing in a place filled with Christmas cheer..where you may ask is she? Why but the North Pole ,of course. There she meet a few others that have seem to ruin the Christmas Holiday for others. There they must learn how to not ruin others people's Christmas' even if they hate the Holiday.
I enjoyed alot of the characters in this story. It was a lot of fun banter and laughs as the story is told. I think Luke is my favorite of course... He sounds so cute with his pointy ears :P The story flowed easy. I found it easy read and understand. I loved the ending it was super sweet what Luke does with the mistletoe. ( okay I probably just said to much..sorry..I just thought it was so cute! )
All in all I enjoyed NPRS..Little bit of every joy a story needs wrapped into one..there was romance, comedy, action and even Zombie..yes you read right zombie...No wonder I haven't seen any Zombies around they all live up at the North Pole..lol :D Would I recommend it? yes probably for those in the Holiday spirit or who need some Holiday cheer!
About Jaimie Admans
Jaimie is a 28-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps. She has been writing for years but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people. Afterlife Academy is her third novel and she hopes you enjoy it. There are plenty more on the way!
Twitter: http://twitter.com/be_the_
Facebook: http://facebook.com/
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Thank you so much for such a lovely review! I'm so glad you enjoyed the book! Thank you for joining the tour too!
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing it and giving me the opportunity to review :)
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