Review | "Mistletoe in Manhattan" by Talli Roland

This week's review is over a seasonal novella that's available for free download on Amazon for anyone looking for something Christmas themed this time of year.
Before I begin my review, though, here is the Goodreads description:

As Little Missington's first Christmas baby in fifty years and the daughter of 'Christmas When You Like It' party-planners, Holly West has been surrounded by the holiday spirit since birth. Trouble is, she's not exactly filled with festive cheer. In fact, Holly can't wait to ditch the tinsel and Santa suits for champagne and celebs, and become a party-planner to the stars. 
When British film star Dean Layton hires her parents' company to throw his holiday bash in Manhattan, Holly jumps at the chance to help, confident she can handle a little Christmas in exchange for access to Dean's exclusive world. 
But New York and Dean's over-the-top demands are more than Holly bargained for. Can Holly deck the halls and make it a party to be proud of, or will this Christmas be one she'll never forget . . . even if she wants to? 

This is a pretty predictable light read that is meant as a nice little holiday story to quickly fly through during an otherwise very hectic time of year. My condensed thoughts are that it's a cute story. A one-sitting read to get through between other books. However, it's very far from perfect and there are a few small issues that readers will easily pick up on if they are doing more than just casually reading through. 
Right away Holly is a contradictory character. On the one hand she thinks she is ready for higher level clients, yet she has no idea how to organize things or get her bearings. She is frazzled beyond the point of being believable and yet, she thinks she's the professional member of the family business. Her lack or preparation is painful to read about if you try to analyze it and she trusts a random stranger with an event she makes a very big deal about pointing out her career depends on to go well. She is clueless about things, yet is annoyed her mother doesn't know the very things she was clueless about not a few paragraphs earlier. She knows Alex for less than a week and yet is surprised that there are details about him she doesn't know.
Elsa's character pushes the mean girl generic qualities too much. I find it hard to believe an A-list celebrity assistant wouldn't realize that if her boss's party goes badly, she looks bad, not just the party planners. She's the one who hired the people to do the work, after all.
Alex is supposed to be the ultimate good guy which directly contradicts the way he judges Holly for making a choice career wise that is the entire reason she is in America at all...also, he's known her for a matter of days!
The ending was rushed and tried to tie it all together and end all the conflicts, but there must be repercussions for some of the actions the characters took.
In the end, it's a free book, only about 60 pages, so if you want a quick holiday read, go for it...but I'm sure there are better Christmas stories out there.