Mistletoe Pledge

The Only Thing Worse Than Twelve Days of Christmas? Twelve Days Trapped with Your Childhood Nemesis.For Clara, the annual Winterwood Holiday Gala is the key to escaping her small-town life. Her mission is clear: flawlessly execute the historic "e;First Kiss Under the Mistletoe"e; tradition, prove she's more than just the bookstore owner's daughter, and win the scholarship prize that guarantees her future. She has the binders, the schedule, and the unwavering focus.There's just one monumental, infuriating, and charmingly chaotic obstacle: Finn O'Connell.Finn, the town's golden boy, star athlete, and the smug thorn in Clara's side since he sabotaged her third-grade science project, needs that same scholarship to secure a future he desperately needs for his family. And thanks to a spectacularly ill-timed planning snafu—a structurally unsound gazebo—Clara's meticulous plan crashes and burns. The committee demands an unprecedented merger: Clara and Finn must join forces as co-chairs.For the next twelve days, they'll be trapped together, tasked with restoring the dilapidated town gazebo to its former holiday glory. It means late nights, accidental touches, and arguing over everything from structural integrity to the proper amount of hot cocoa. Clara can't stand Finn's reckless creativity and effortless charm, and Finn thinks Clara needs to loosen up and stop trying to control every variable of the universe.But the closer they get to the deadline—and the more they uncover the true, heartfelt motivations beneath their rivalry—the harder it becomes to ignore the electric tension sparking between them.The scholarship is the future, but a kiss under the mistletoe is a promise.Can two rivals survive twelve days of forced proximity without falling for the one person they swore to hate? Or will they discover that the best kind of love is the one you have to fight for?