Toby Kincaid loves being the junior librarian in his hometown of Sandy Lake, Ohio. He spends his days surrounded by books and chatting with the library patrons. He especially adores the head librarian, Mr. Miggles, who is kind, witty, knowlegable about everything, and hopelessly addicted to Christmas. Sean Miggles is also pretty cute—especially for an older guy who wears ties and suit pants every day.
But Sean keeps himself at a distance, and there’s a sadness about him that Toby can’t figure out. When Sean is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he gives up without a fight. Toby realizes that he alone can save the library—and their head librarian.
Toby will need to uncover the darkness in Sean’s past and prove to him that he deserves a second chance at life and at love too. And while Christmas miracles are being handed out, maybe Toby will get his own dearest wish—to love and be loved by Mr. Miggles.
It's an international unicorn group review! Miggles oozes Jizzmas seems to be the only agreeing consensus!
Adam - 3.75 Hearts
Toby Kincaid loves his job as junior librarian. He enjoys the work, and he’s also got a great boss. Sean Miggles gives his all to the library, but there’s a sadness around Sean, and he keeps himself distant from Toby. The only time Toby’s seen Mr. Miggles be truly happy is during the Christmas season. But Sean’s holiday cheer disappears when his concern for a child leads to retaliation.
Toby watches as Mr. Miggles gives up in the face of humiliation and town politics. Toby refuses to let Sean be taken advantage of, and sets out to rally the troops. Along the way, Toby and Sean acknowledge something they’ve been suppressing for a while - they want more from each other.
I look forward to Eli Easton’s holiday story every year. They always put me in the holiday spirit. While ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles’ isn’t exactly the light and fluffy book that I’d expect a holiday story from Easton to be, it still delivers a good dose of romantic Christmas feels.
This book is written by a library lover for other library lovers. The romance and plot revolve around the library, and both Toby and Sean live and breath for it. There are poignant observations throughout the book on what the library means for a community, which won me over early on.
While Toby and Sean share a love for the library, they have quite different personalities. Sean is reserved and cautious, while Toby wears his heart on his sleeve. Sean had fallen for Toby throughout the months working with him, but it takes Toby much longer to realize that his admiration for his older and very proper boss had turned into something more.
The romance doesn’t really kick off until the second half of the book. It’s clear through Toby’s POV that his feelings for Mr. Miggles aren’t strictly platonic, but the two have very firm boundaries set. Toby also happens to be in a relationship with an immature and inconsiderate man. There isn’t any cheating, but Toby doesn’t break things off until the halfway point.
The romance doesn’t move forward until after Sean has baseless accusations hurled at him, which a local politician decides to take advantage of. The author handled the situation with sensitivity, but I think the story could have worked just as well without going there. It’s just a very serious topic, and I can understand why it might take some readers out of the story.
Even so, I loved seeing how Toby brought the town together to protect the library and rehabilitate Mr. Miggles.
Once Toby and Sean finally admit that they’ve got feelings for each other, the romance is just the sweet and sexy kind that I hope for in a holiday read. I really liked seeing Sean come out of his shell and let his guard down for Toby.
While the relationship might seem fast, it had clearly been building over months between Toby and Sean. It took no stretch of the imagination to understand why they fell for each other, and it was easy to root for the two.
Overall, ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles’ is a very enjoyable and romantic holiday read. It takes a while for the romance to get going, but it doesn’t disappoint. Recommended if you’re looking for an MM holiday romance with some angst!
Sheziss - 2 Hearts
A Christmassy story!
It was a decent light book, if only a lacking one. It’s well written, and the moral is positive and warm. The characters are nice, the plot is nice, the development is nice.
Super nice.
Mr. Miggles is such a good person. Toby is also the best. Everybody in town is good and the bad guys are easy to find. Very black-and-white. If you are looking for a trouble-free love story, this is the one for you.
Unfortunately, it didn’t fill me with the myriad of emotions I was expecting.
Something was missing for me here. More passion, more love. More feelings coming out of this.
It’s very decaf, very dull. Very flat.
My reasons:
- Toby already has a boyfriend. And surprise, surprise, he’s an asshole. So fitting.
- The plot focuses too much on the major obstacle: a legal one.
- That means there is not much to see in terms of romance. A few sex scenes, a few “I’ve always been in love with you”, a short epilogue to say, “Yes, it worked out in the end, so no worries”.
- It’s extremely sappy. Both characters, yes, but more importantly, the people surrounding them. I mean, I know Christmas is a sappy time in general, but there is so much sugar I can take. And here, damn, here I OD’d.
So I’m sad to say this time Eli Easton wasn’t a win. Not bad. Just average. There were times when I had to do a conscious effort in order to pay attention to the story. It didn’t call me.
Not my cuppa.
Chelsea - 4.5 Hearts
Oh I was so excited about this year's Eli Easton Christmas story! They're always so sweet and full of love! Mr Miggles is definitely all those things but the story was more serious than I was expecting. Not a bad thing at all, hence my rating, just different.
Toby has been working as Junior Librarian to Mr Miggles for the past 2 years. He’s always noticed Mr Miggles has this air of sadness that seems to follow him everywhere, except at Christmas time when he’s finally in his element. A few unfortunate incidents and accusations cause Toby to need to step up and fight for Mr Miggles and in the process he starts to see Mr Miggles as more than his boss.
I enjoyed these characters a lot, Toby was sweet and brought a subtle humour to the novel that lightened the mood when the themes could have darkened it. But Mr Miggles, wow, he is such a gorgeous character. He’s had a fair few unpleasant things happen in his life, but he’s still all about love and giving to others who have less than him. He is like Father Christmas but a sexy 35 year old, glasses wearing, book loving version.
My only downside to this book was that the romance didn’t start at all until at least 50%, it took a backseat to the story of Mr Miggles’ drama. However, Easton books have these moments, these movie moments that are just like something from a fairytale. You can feel the joy radiating from the pages and it sucks you in with a ridiculous happy grin and watery eyes. The end of this book has so many of those moments and that's why this is 4.5 hearts, because I was left feeling full of love and ridiculously happy.
This isn't as fantastic as some of Easton’s previous Christmas stories, but it still has all the elements that you love from them, just towards the end.
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