Mint to Be by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc
Genre: Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Published By: Scholastic Press on 7th October, 2025
Format: Paperback
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Book Synopsis:
It’s been eight months since seventeen-year-old Emma left the quaint town of Briar Glen to attend boarding school in New York City. Now, she’s back – and she’s not alone: her new boyfriend, Sam, has come to visit the most picturesque village in New England during the most magical time of the year.
But there’s a chill in the air, and not just because it’s winter. Emma’s best friend, Aiden, isn’t all too happy to see her after she left without so much as a goodbye. He and Emma have known each other since elementary school, and they used to do everything together. They even share a favourite drink: a peppermint hot chocolate from their favourite coffee shop, Cup o’ Jo. This was where Emma first told Aiden she was thinking of leaving Briar Glen. It was also where Aiden had planned to confess his growing feelings for Emma – before she showed him her acceptance letter and everything changed.
With Emma back in the picture – and with a new boyfriend in tow – will she and Aiden be able to break the ice?
Book Review
I was apprehensive going into this one after reading her previous book but I thought I’d try it out for the Christmas season…
I owned this physically but I straight away went in with the audiobook instead. I’d definitely suggest listening to her books rather than reading them physically.
This one was slightly better than her previous book and I enjoyed being back in Briar Glen. However, again my main issue was with the romance element of the book. I just didn’t feel any romantic connection between the main characters. I personally don’t think they went together well romantically and it felt very surface level.
This book is a dual timeline book, dual perspectives book. I typically LOVE dual perspectives, but I honestly believe the book would have been fine without the dual timeline overlap. The dual perspectives allowed me to connect with the characters a little more but I still feel like they lacked depth overall.
This book is very YA and that isn’t a problem because the book is promoted as YA. That being said, I think this book is a good transition from middle grade to YA because of the simple plot and romance. I understand that I am not the target audience so the writing isn’t meant for me. However, I do think the author is good at writing books that are for younger audiences!
I bumped up the rating from a 2 to a 2.5 purely because of the Christmas/wintery vibes. This is the only part that I think the book delivered well on.
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