North Pole Reform School by Jaimie Admans

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.

Review:

Another brilliantly unique story by Jaimie. Who've thought you would get Santa Claus and Zombies together in the same story?!

Mistletoe really hates Christmas as her birthday falls on Christmas Eve and her Dad is too busy out  playing Santa Claus to other children in her area. She also hates her name, what kind of parents call their child Mistletoe?! So she prefers to be called Mis. One night she is woken up by a purple moose sitting in the middle of her bed, telling her he is the Ghost of Christmases ruined come to take her to the North Pole Reform School. Here she meets the elves of the North Pole that want her to mend her ways and make her love Christmas again and the other people they have brought there to also make them hate Christmas less. Things aren't quite what they seem at the North Pole, with a horrible Santa Claus who seems more interested in his title than the spirit of Christmas and Mis may end up leaning more than just now to like Christmas!

As soon as I read about the purple moose turning up in Mistletoe's bedroom I knew I was going to like this! And it had extra zombies thrown in, but instead of this being a very strange addition to this festive story, it actually worked and we find they had a brilliant purpose towards the end.

I really liked Mis in this. She starts of a surly teenager just like the boy Luke that she meets, but slowly as she goes into each class that the elves make her do, we see her character change. Luke is also really likeable and you see why he and Mis hit it off so quickly. Their romance development is so lovely to read, but not in a soppy way.

There were also some really laugh-out-loud hilarious moments in this. Not great when your on a public train trying your hardest not to guffaw! This is the second novel I have read of Jaimie's and she has so far not failed to make me laugh. I love how Jaimie can throw in a bit of crazy in this, but still make it work.

The magic and real meaning of Christmas really shown through in this and it left me feeling really festive and feel-good. A definite recommended read for Christmas!

8.5/10