CBR17 Book 63: "Magically Generated" by Jackie Lau

Page count: 85 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR17 Bingo: Arts (Everett makes detailed sketches before making his amazing snow sculptures)

This was an ARC from the author. My opinions are my own. 

Nora Blackburn no longer believes in love and is super wary of anything that might be a fraud or scam. Her previous relationship was with a man who scammed her out of thousands of dollars, and she's determined not to be fooled again. Her state of constant hyperawareness and scepticism of everyone and everything also means she isolates herself, and she certainly doesn't want to go out to experience new things. Now it's coming up towards Christmas, which was never her favourite time of year, but which is extra hard after her mother passed away during the holidays last year. 

When pictures of a large, elaborate snow sculpture that has appeared in a Toronto park start circulating, Nora is convinced it's all just AI fakery. But then, more pictures from various angles, and even videos of people with the snow sculpture are shared, and her curiosity is piqued. When she visits the first one, to see it for herself, she runs into her neighbour across the hall, Everett Sun, a man so positive and full of Christmas spirit that she's been avoiding him in self-defence. As always, Nora is deeply wary of him at first, in case he is another scammer, but he seems so gentle and genuine that she is drawn to him. As more snow sculptures appear, they go to visit them together, and the park visits develop into more elaborate dates. 

What Nora doesn't know is that it's not some mysterious team of performance artists making all the sculptures; it's all Everett. He discovered his strange, magical ability to manipulate snow when he was younger, and has been going out to make the sculptures partly as a way of spreading holiday cheer, but mostly to actually impress and entertain Nora. She's been hurt before by dishonesty. What is going to happen if she discovers that Everett has been withholding the truth about the sculptures?

This holiday novella is a quick read of fewer than a hundred pages. Nora is the grumpy one, not quite having sunk into Grinch territory with her pessimism and impatience about Christmas, while Everett is the cheerful, sunny one, who's always smiling, positive, friendly and welcoming. He doesn't like having to keep the secret of his ability to create the sculptures from Nora, but since no one appears to be able to see him actually "do" the magic, just the results of it, it's not like it's an easy thing to demonstrate to her. Making the sculptures requires a lot of advance planning, and he expends tremendous amounts of energy while doing it. One night, Nora finds him collapsed in the hallway outside their apartments, and starts to worry that he has a health condition. Having to deceive her makes him uncomfortable, but he's also worried she'll think he's crazy if he confesses the truth to her. 

This might be the first Jackie Lau romance in a while, where food doesn't seem to focus heavily in the story, even though Everett has to eat a lot to keep his energy when creating snow art. It's also a very quick read, and as is often the case in novellas, the characters don't have as much space to develop. If it hadn't been an ARC, I think I would have saved this to read closer to Christmas. It felt a bit weird to read Christmas stories in mid-October, but it's very sweet and well worth picking up if you want a little touch of magical realism as the days get darker (both literally and figuratively).

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 5: "Stargate - en julefortelling" (Brightly Shining) by Ingvild H. Rishøi

Page count: 144 pages

Audiobook length: 2 hrs 38 mins

Rating: 3 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 25: Local author (the story takes place about 15 minutes from where I work)

It is impossible for me to review this book without spoiling parts of it, so if you don't want to know how it ends, and why I can't rate this book higher, skip the paragraphs I've highlighted. 

Ten-year-old Ronja and her sixteen-year-old sister Melissa are used to disappointments, living alone with a father who only occasionally sobers up long enough to hold down a job for a month or two. They're used to pretending they've forgotten their food at home and taking care of themselves. Close to Christmas, it looks like this year, their luck may change when their dad gets a job selling Christmas trees. Sadly, it doesn't take long before he returns to the local pubs and Melissa takes the job instead (at much less pay, of course). Since Ronja ends up spending her afternoons near her sister, she's soon recruited to look pitiful and round up customers for Christmas wreaths and decorative pine branches, for an added share of the profits. While the owner of the stand seems ok with turning a blind eye to Melissa's being barely old enough to work, he's not going to risk his business by outright using child labour, so every time he comes around for an inspection, Ronja has to make herself scarce.

SPOILERS START HERE:

Ingvild H. Rishøi wrote this Christmas novella back in 2021, and while it sold well, it didn't become an instant sell-out until it was translated into English. After singer Dua Lipa raved about it in her Instagram stories and said she'd be buying it as a Christmas present for several loved ones, and then Oprah Winfrey included it among her best books of 2024. Since the Norwegian press wrote enthusiastically about this (as they do about any Norwegian thing that becomes popular internationally), suddenly bookshops all over Norway kept selling out their copies, and the book needed to be reprinted more than once. Having now listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author herself, I can see why it's become very popular. I was mentally bracing myself for the book because I have a hard time reading about alcoholic parents (my own father having been one until I was ten - now he hasn't drunk a drop for 35 years), and if I'd been paying attention more closely, the multiple mentions of H.C. Andersen's The Little Match Girl throughout should have given me an idea of what to expect. I read for escapism, and to feel good, and am in no way a fan of books with sad and tear-jerking endings. I keep seeing the plot of this book described as poignant and heart-warming, and I don't see what's heart-warming about dead kids. 

Yes, it's lovely when for a brief while, the girls appear to be making enough money to possibly have a proper Christmas (even though Melissa has to work something like 10 hours a day, pretty much every second she's not in school). It's nice that their elderly neighbour comes to support Ronja during her school's Christmas concert and pretends to be her grandfather so the mean girls can't snipe at her. But just before Christmas, everything starts going horribly wrong. Their almost constantly drunk dad has dragged his drinking buddies home with him, Ronja is badly sick with a fever, the supportive neighbour is away, and the owner of the Christmas tree stand has discovered that Melissa and the other employee have been making money on the side, so fires them without paying them a dime. The writer doesn't straight-out say that the girls die while curled up under a Christmas tree in a massive winter storm, but them waking up in a magical forest just a short, idyllic walk from the cabin they've kept dreaming about throughout the story certainly seems like some "reunited with grandmother" bullshit while the little Match Girl freezes to death on a Danish street corner.

SPOILERS END HERE

I'm very glad that something from Norway that isn't dark and grisly crime fiction is becoming a publishing success and wish the author nothing but good luck, but this story was not for me. They've apparently turned it into a movie, being released at the end of October this year (just in time for people to be depressed while going to the cinema too), so I have no doubt the book will keep selling. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover of the edition my co-worker lent me was just a plain red book with title and author name in gold, accompanied by a Christmas tree topped by a star. The English version seems to feature a snow-covered tree in a winter landscape, which doesn't exactly convey the tone of the story. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR15 Book 86: "Make You Mine This Christmas" by Lizzie Huxley-Jones

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 5 stars

#CBR15 Passport Challenge: Recommended by a friend (I'm not sure if I would have ever discovered this book if it wasn't for the amazing Narfna/Ashley

A lot of contemporary romances get described as rom-coms, and in a lot of cases this is just lies, spouted by the publishers to get more people to pick up the books. Make You Mine This Christmas, on the other hand, is both romantic and very funny. I could easily see it as a film in my head.

Haf (it's a Welsh name) lives in York and is overworked and underappreciated doing social media for an environmental charity. She's depressed because her parents are going to Madeira for Christmas, and she is probably going to have to face Christmas all alone. Her non-binary flatmate and best friend Ambrose drags her along to a holiday party, where she meets the handsome Christopher, who is clearly very posh and admits to working in finance in London. The two hit it off, in a deeply platonic way, but quite a bit of booze makes them decide to kiss (awkwardly) under a piece of mistletoe anyway. Because fake relationships have to start somewhere, they are seen kissing by Christopher's ex-girlfriend Laurel, who is there with her boorish new boyfriend Mark, and Laurel just assumes that Haf is Christopher's new girlfriend. To save her new pal from a mortifying explanation to his ex, Haf plays along and agrees that yes, they are dating.

By the next morning (the two fell asleep on Haf's couch watching TV), Laurel has apparently told everyone who knows Christopher about his new flame, and his parents insist that he bring her along to family Christmas. Haf doesn't have any plans, Christopher clearly doesn't feel comfortable telling his parents that what Laurel saw was just a big understanding, and the agreement to fake date is formed. Ambrose thinks they are both idiots. Ambrose is not wrong.

On her way to meet Christopher in London, Haf browses a bookstore at a train station and has the perfect meet-cute with a very beautiful and mysterious woman, with whom she flirts awkwardly, and who recommends she buy Carol by Patricia Highsmith (excellent lesbian flirting strategy there). Unfortunately, the alluring bookshop woman disappears before Haf can get any contact details from her. Cue a little time later, when it turns out that the sexy bookshop lady is none other than Christopher's older sister, who will also be spending Christmas with the family. Haf is pretending to date Christopher but fancies the pants off his sister. Neither sibling seems able to be entirely honest with or able to stand up to their wealthy, but well-meaning parents, who welcome Haf into the family with open arms. 

This book has:

- Fake dating, and the many lies that accompany such a scheme

- A whole bunch of excellent queer representation, including our bisexual heroine and her non-binary bestie (Ambrose is amazing, and they steal every scene they are in or mentioned in)

- Lovely fat representation. Haf is plus-size and entirely unashamed about it. The imposing Laurel ends up sewing her a ballgown (for reasons) and there is quite a bit of conversation about how hard it is for larger-sized women to find clothing that isn't either a sack or purchased online

- A very nice sibling relationship between Christopher and Kit 

- The awkwardness of pretending to date one sibling (who you feel nothing sexual about at all) and wanting to jump the other sibling (who you very much feel a lot of sexual things for)

- A lot of rich people, who mostly are very nice, if a bit clueless

- Disastrous gingerbread house construction

- Successful gingerbread house construction

- A ridiculous chase sequence through an outdoor Christmas fête, which ends with our heroine having to wade into an icy cold and slimy duck pond to save a baby reindeer from a vicious goose

- A fair amount of pining

- An actual, honest to god, Christmas ball

- Loyal dogs

- Children forced to pull on their big-person pants and be honest with their parents about what they want to do with their lives

- Some final act complications, resulting in a very touching declaration of love at a London train station

There were absolutely parts of this that gave me the same feeling as when reading Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. That is by no means a bad thing. I absolutely see why Narfna/Ashley was so enthusiastic about this book, and the many quotes she included in her own review of the book are so much funnier in context. This is clearly going to be a book I revisit for comfort re-reads in the years to come. Now I need to see what else this author has written - I want more!

Judging a book by its cover: As cartoony covers go, I actually think this one is very sweet. We only see the characters from the back, yet to the reader, it's very obvious who each of them is supposed to be. I love that the little cartoon Kit has her walking stick and emerald green coat and that it's obvious that Haf is indeed plus-size. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 82: "A Christmas Affair to Remember" by Mia Vincy

Page count: 202 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Sylvia Ray was married to a charming, persuasive man, who died and left her destitute. Because he lied to his family, they believed she was the reason he had ended up with massive debts, so they refused to give her any financial assistance after his death. After years of trying to support herself and keep herself from starvation, she's found a man who wants to marry her, and who can give her a secure future. 

Isaac DeWitt went to see as a young boy and was forced to leave his career in the navy when he damaged his leg. Now he works as an investigator and would like to settle down with a wife - but having grown up surrounded solely by men, women are a complete mystery to him. He enjoys flirting, but has absolutely no idea how to go about actually kissing or wooing a woman - what if he turns out to be disappointing?

Sylvia discovers Isaac's dilemma, and though she knows she shouldn't, she makes him a wicked proposal. The man she is marrying is sickly and her future union is unlikely to be passionate. Having one final fling before she marries again may be irresponsible, but she can't help herself. Isaac is more than happy to take her up on her offer, he'll get experience and confidence enough to find himself a wife, and she'll get some pleasant memories to think back on once she's married in the countryside, taking care of a hypochondriac.

It's been a few years since I read any romances by Mia Vincy, but she always writes her characters so well. In this holiday novella, which was free on her website, we meet the younger brother of Joshua DeWitt, the erstwhile grouchy hero of A Wicked Kind of Husband. Here he is an affectionate older brother and dotes on his wife and children. 

Several of my reading challenges for December asked for books set around winter and/or holiday time. This seemed like a good fit (and made me realise I probably want to re-read some of Vincy's novels). The older, experienced partner who offers to tutor the younger, virginal character in the amorous arts isn't an unusual trope, but the gender reversal where the woman is the experienced one and the man is the virgin is not one I can remember coming across very often. Of course, Sylvia is a widow and all of 33 years old. That's an OLDER woman in historical romance. I'm basically a crone now. 

Isaac and Sylvia have excellent chemistry and of course, start to fall for one another. The main conflict in the story is Isaac's inability to understand why Sylvia is determined to go through with her marriage to a sickly man who will never appreciate her, and why lust, and even love, isn't going to be enough to make her change her mind.

If you haven't read any Mia Vincy, this is a nice place to start. While there are cameos from other couples from her books, you don't need to have read any of their stories to enjoy this one. 

Judging a book by its cover: Mia Vincy's covers always seem to be done in gentle watercolours, with one specific colour dominating. On her other covers, there's pink, yellow, purple, and blue, while here the dominant colour seems to be a sepia-tinted orange. The covers always seem to suggest much more gentle stories than Vincy often delivers, but they are pretty. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR14 Book 37: "Duke, Actually" by Jenny Holiday

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

CBR14 Bingo: Holiday (a Christmas romance written by an author called Holiday - boom!)

Maximillian "Max" von Hansburg, popularly known in the tabloids worldwide as "the Depraved Duke", is in fact, merely a baron. He is the eldest son and heir to the Duke of Aquilla, however, and he doesn't really mind his playboy reputation very much. While in New York to fulfill family obligations and meet a prospective bride that his parents might approve of, he decides to have some fun instead and contacts Dani Martinez. Dani's best friend Leo now lives in Eldovia (the fictional European country that Max hails from) and is due to marry its crown princess Marie. Before meeting Leo, Marie was going to marry Max and they had a whole plan for a marriage of convenience. So it's not like Max is pining for his lost love. While he knows Dani finds him a bit insufferable, Max really enjoyed spending time with her before (in a past story that I assume all happened in A Princess for Christmas, Holiday's previous romance involving the fictional Eldovia) and would like to see her again. 

Dani, a New York English professor, is in the middle of going through a thorny divorce (her fellow English lecturer spouse ran off to Spain with one of his students) and isn't exactly looking forward to the faculty Christmas party where her cheating spouse and his potential childbride are also going to be. However, Dani needs to impress the heads of faculty if she ever wants to get tenure, so she has to appear. When Max texts her out of the blue, she initially tells him to sod off, but when he offers to accompany her to her dreaded faculty do, the thought of showing up to the Christmas party with one of the most famously handsome men on the planet (Dani likens him to the handsome Swedish vampire on True Blood, and Alexander Skarsgård is certainly a snack) makes her change her mind, despite being firmly post-men, post-romance now.

Dani finds herself having a surprising amount of fun with Max, who is self-deprecating, charming, and very attentive to her and when Max leaves to go back to Eldovia, the two keep texting and exchanging messages, building a real friendship. Max is supportive of her when she decides to try her hand at dating again, giving her advice and funny anecdotes about his own love life. Dani is supportive of Max's challenges with his family and finding a meaningful pastime besides being an international playboy and minor European aristocrat. As the royal wedding gets closer, Max invites Dani to come for an extended stay on his family estate, so she can find peace and quiet to work. By this point, Dani's been on a bunch of failed dates with over a dozen men, while Max has found himself strangely celibate for a very long time. Could it be that neither is really interested in anyone but the other? 

So, while this romance novel both starts and ends at Christmas, it's not really a holiday romance, as such. Nevertheless, Christmas, with its many different traditions in many cultures, not to mention the existence of Love, Actually (a movie Max has never seen until Dani introduces him to it) plays an important part in the story. It was really refreshing to have a book where the couple doesn't fall into insta-love or insta-lust even (although there is a clear acknowledgment of the other's attractiveness from the start), and instead, they grow a solid and mutual friendship before they ever get to the kissing and smexy times. 

I'm always fascinated with the fictional European countries that North American authors tend to invent for their romances. I guess it works better than having fictionalised versions of actual European countries, especially if you can't seem to do your research well enough (A Duke by Default, I'm totally talking about you). Based on the descriptions given in the book, Eldovia must be in the southern parts of Europe, it's described as having a lot of mountains (so probably near the Alps) and its main exports appear to be luxury watches and some minerals only found in the country's many mines. Max's family is very involved in the mining industry, and after rebuilding his relationship with his younger brother, Max also begins to take a more active part in the family business. 

While a lot of the book is focused on Max and Dani, there are also some nice supporting characters, and an adorable dog, amusingly also named Max. While I loved the slow burn and developing friendship before having the protagonist start bonking, the ending seemed rather rushed, and I'm not super enthused about the rather melodramatic way that Max is prevented from going to New York to pursue Dani. I'm pretty sure that that whole plot strand could have been resolved in a slightly different way, especially since Max's brother might find himself rather emotionally scarred and swamped with guilt in the aftermath. 

Nevertheless, this was a very cozy book and I'm glad I chose it for my Holiday bingo square. So far, I've very much enjoyed Ms. Holiday's romances, although I find myself more intrigued by the sequel to this rather than the earlier story where Leo and Marie meet and become a couple. The various clever references to books and films throughout (there's a whole extended subplot with Max and Dani trying to do the lift from Dirty Dancing, as well as the Love, Actually call-backs) were also fun. 

Judging a book by its cover: See, this is a cartoony cover where I don't think either of the protagonists is given enough justice. Neither Max nor Dani look as attractive as described. I do like the inclusion of dog Max, however, and the big sign with the title is a nice nod to the movie from which the book cheekily takes its name. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 98: "Wrapped Up in You" by Talia Hibbert

Page count: 127 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Official book description:

William Reid is nothing special, except for his billion-dollar acting career and his, you know, face. (Apparently, it’s a good one.) Winning ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ was nice, but this Christmas, he has more important goals in mind... like finally winning over his best friend’s little sister, the super-smart and kinda-scary Abbie Farrell.

When a blizzard leaves Will and Abbie alone at Grandma Farrell’s house (if bunking with 27 pets counts as ‘alone’), it’s the perfect opportunity to pull off a Christmas miracle. Convincing clever, frosty Abbie to give Will a chance will take more than mistletoe, but hiding his lifelong crush on her is no longer an option.

Will and Abbie have known each other since they were children. Will and Abbie's twin brother are best friends. It turns out that both Will and Abbie have been in love with each other since they were teens, but neither had the guts to tell the other. Will went off to become a big-time movie star in Hollywood, Abbie met and married someone else (and later went through a painful divorce with said someone).

It's been two years since they saw each other, as Abbie isolated herself after her divorce and didn't even come to family Christmas (yes, Will is basically honourary family by now). Will has quit acting and decided to move back to the UK. He has a plan for how he's going to woo and win Abbie. Abbie's brother thinks the plan is absolute rubbish (mainly because Will's plan has a timeline of a YEAR) and says he should just tell Abbie how he feels. It doesn't quite work out like that, but when the rest of the family are prevented from arriving as planned because of a snowstorm, at least they get more time alone together (especially because Abbie's grandmother keeps pushing them together every chance she gets).

Discovering Talia Hibbert is one of the things I'm grateful in 2020. I really liked Get a Life, Chloe Brown and I absolutely adored Take a Hint, Dani Brown. So when this Christmas novella was free on Kobo, it felt like a gift from the universe. Unsurprisingly, it was fun and well-written. There's not too much angst and the characters are grown-ups who really just need to talk to one another. Now I just need to start counting the days until the final Brown sisters novel comes out. 

Judging a book by its cover: There's certainly no doubt that this is a Christmas story, what with the tartan wrapping paper and the cheerful green background with snowflakes (I would totally wrap presents with either pattern, by the way). The body language of the two people also gives you an impression of the tension between Will and Abbie at the start of the story. 

Crossposted by Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 89: "Her Pretend Christmas Date" by Jackie Lau

Page count: 104 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer! I was given an ARC of this book by the author. That has in no way influenced my review.

Julie Tam's sister Charlotte is an engineer and has an outgoing and charming boyfriend, the guy who lived next door when they were young. She is everything their parents could want. Meanwhile, Julie works as a waitress in a Cider Bar and designs her own jewelry. She goes on a blind date with Tom Yeung, which starts out badly and ends even worse. Tom is a pharmacist, wears a tie on a first date, doesn't like eating tacos (because they're messy) and is way too strait-laced and uptight for Julie. Nevertheless, the next time she talks to her mother on the phone, she tells a little white lie, which keeps getting bigger. Now her parents want her to invite her boyfriend Tom to come home with her at Christmas. 

Tom is rather surprised when Julie contacts him again after their rather disastrous only date, and rather amused when she explains her dilemma. To her surprise, he accepts her proposal that he pose as her fake boyfriend over the holidays. Tom really likes Christmas and his parents are away, so he'd be spending it alone. Both of them are rather surprised when Julie's parents announce that they can share a room (where there is not only the one bed but it's a narrow twin at that). 

While Tom and Julie didn't exactly hit it off the first time they went out, they manage to pull off the fake dating charade rather well, making Julie's parents very happy indeed. The couple even manages to combine Tom's planning skills and precision and Julie's artistic flair into sculpting an excellent gingerbread house, winning one of Julie's parents' strange Christmas competitions, fuelling the rivalry between Charlotte and Julie. After a few days in close confines, Julie no longer thinks Tom is all that annoying and is trying her very best to tease him until he loses his closely-held control. The results are rather spectacular, and soon Julie wishes that her fake arrangement was reality.

This novella works fine as a standalone, but is also the third part in Jackie Lau's ongoing Cider Bar Sisters series. Charlotte's book (where she reunites with her childhood bestie Mike) is the second book and came out about a month and a half ago. So if you were to start with this story and get curious about how Charlotte and Mike became a couple, that's the place to look. This isn't the first time Ms. Lau has written a holiday novella involving fake dating either. The third story in her Holidays with the Wong series had the hero bringing home a fake girlfriend for Chinese New Years to avoid his parents' failed attempts at matchmaking. As these are romances, I'm sure it comes as no surprise at all both the novellas end with the fake relationship becoming something real. 

Writing a romance that takes place over a short space of time is always tricky, and I am not a fan of insta-love, but since Julie and Tom first meet quite a while before they actually spend Christmas together (on a blind date set up by Julie's best friend, who claims Julie and Tom are perfect for one another) and Julie spends a lot of time thinking of Tom (even if she makes up a heavily fictionalised version of him over the phone to her parents), it didn't feel that strange that their feelings developed quickly - especially if you think how intense family holidays can be. 

I really liked Julie as a supporting character in Charlotte's book and was so happy when I discovered she was getting a story of her own. She's very different from her sister and really suffers because she feels she can never live up to her parents' unrealistic expectations. During their first date, Julie's very strong reaction against Tom is in part specifically because he's so very much the sort of man her parents would want her to end up with, and she rebels against that and keeps reacting to thinks she assumes he thinks about her, rather than to things as they actually are. When she has more time with Tom, she sees that she was rather quick to draw conclusions and he's not at all the stuffy killjoy she initially imagined.

Tom is one of those deliciously buttoned up and proper heroes who become all the more fun once they let loose a little and allow themselves to give in to passion. While this is just a novella, there are still some really steamy scenes once Tom and Julie see past each other's differences and give into the attraction between them.

Pretty much my only complaint with this novella is that I wish it had been a bit longer. I enjoyed reading about Julie and Tom together and would have liked more time with them on the page. I suppose I shall just have to wait impatiently for the next full book in the series instead. Her Pretend Christmas Date is on sale now, and a quick and satisfying holiday read. 

Judging a book by its cover: This may be my favourite Jackie Lau cover so far. In fact, if I were to do some sort of rating involving the covers of the books I read this year, this could very well take top spot. I just love the cover model's incredibly grouchy facial expression, and the way he's glowering out at the reader, seeming very resentful about having to even exist. The best part is that Tom, the novella's hero really isn't very grumpy and grouchy at all, just a bit slow to loosen up and very fond of having things tidy and predictable. So it's not really even representative of the contents of the story, but I still love it.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR9 Book 126: "Miracle on 5th Avenue" by Sarah Morgan

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Perpetual optimist Eva Jordan loves the Christmas holidays, but this year, still mourning her beloved grandmother who passed last year, it's getting more difficult for her to summon up her holiday cheer. Now that her two best friends and business partners are both in happy relationships, Eva's goal for the Christmas season is meeting someone she might find happiness with too. But first she has a job to do. One of her elderly clients has hired her to decorate her grandson's luxurious penthouse apartment while he's away at a writing retreat. Eva's job is to make it cheerful for Christmas and fill his fridge and freezer with delicious meals, so all is ready for him when he returns.

Bestselling crime writer Lucas Blade has a crippling writer's block, and he's promised his publisher that his new book will be done by Christmas Eve. He's told his entire family that he's away on a writing retreat in Vermont, so they'll leave him alone. The time coming up to Christmas is always particularly hard on Lucas, since he lost his wife in an accident three years ago. When he tackles what he believes to be an intruder, he's surprised to see that she's in fact a petite and curvy blonde, who seems as frightened to find him in the apartment as he is shocked to see anyone arrive. He quickly figures out that his grandmother is meddling and tries to persuade Eva to leave, but she's adamant that she will carry out the job she's been hired for. While Lucas is initially annoyed, he finds that Eva, contrary to his fears, is not a distraction to his writing, but that her presence in fact inspires him to write for the first time in months.

Once Eva completes his grandmother's commission and leaves, Lucas discovers that he's entirely unable to write without her in the apartment. He hires her for the weeks up until Christmas and even promises to take her to a swanky society ball, so she has a chance to possibly meet her Prince Charming. By the time the ball comes around, however, Lucas isn't so sure he wants to watch Eva flirt with someone else.

This is the third book in the From Manhattan with Love series, and there are two full-length books and a novella preceding it. I started with book 3 because it fit into this month's keyword challenge, and because it was set around Christmas and I felt like reading something fluffy while ignoring my father and brothers bickering and the pain in my inconveniently broken rib. It's clear that the previous two books deals with Paige and Frankie, Eva's best friends and the two women she runs a business with. Their business, Urban Genie, seems to be some sort of events planning firm, where they arrange everything from elaborate proposals, birthday parties, weddings, help people get dog walkers and more.

Eva's friendship with Lucas' grandmother was clearly established in one of the earlier books, and it seems as if Lucas himself has been mentioned more than once, with several people being huge fans of his gruesome and chilling crime thrillers. While it was clear that I was missing some references from earlier books, all the information I really needed to appreciate the story was available and all it did was make me even more eager to go back and read the earlier books now, so I have the full story of the three friends and their romantic adventures.

Eva and Lucas are set up as pretty much diametrically opposite. Eva is eternally optimistic, tries to see the good in everything and everyone, likes to read romance novels, is a vegetarian and is kind and gracious to absolutely everyone. Lucas is a pessimist and a recluse, deeply cynical and sceptical about the motives of everyone around him (not just because he writes truly spine-chilling crime thrillers about ruthless serial killers). The death of his wife was clearly an incredible blow to him and he's not over the loss of her yet. He's the one who tells Eva that it's ok to grieve and be sad, even nearly a year after losing her grandmother. Having always been taught that it's better to be sunshine than a rain cloud, Eva has not really been letting herself grieve as deeply as she needs to and has been afraid of burdening her friends with her occasionally gloomy thoughts. Since Lucas is a stranger, she finds it more easy to open up to him.

Another way in which the two are different is that Lucas grew up supported and surrounded by a big family, while Eva's mother died at birth and her grandmother raised her. She's always been pretty much alone, except for her grandmother, so when she died, Eva lost the only real family ties she had left. Now she's trying to honour her gran's memory as best she can.

There is insta-attraction between Lucas and Eva (they are trapped together in his apartment for several days together because a snow storm starts raging shortly after Eva arrives, and it's not safe for her to leave), but the book takes place in a bit more than a month in the run-up to Christmas. While that isn't the longest time to get to know someone, they do spend a lot of time together, since Lucas basically hires Eva to be his live-in housekeeper once he discovers that he can't write his new novel without her around. He has a lot of issues to work through after the death of his wife, especially since even before she died, their relationship wasn't exactly the most calm and harmonious. Eva is so incredibly different from his former wife and to begin with, he's not sure how to handle all his new emotions.

This was a quick, satisfying and fun holiday read, and I am very happy that I have the earlier books in the series already, so I can go back and see how Eva's friends found their HEAs too.

Judging a book by its cover: While the cover is cute enough, I really don't like the colour combinations much. The red and the almost turquoise sky seems to clash badly to me. Still, with the Manhattan skyline, it's clear that the book is set in New York. I think it should possibly have had some more Christmassy details, since the book is set over that holiday, after all.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 145: "Season for Surrender" by Theresa Romain

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

After Miss Louisa Oliver broke her betrothal to Viscount Matheson, her step-sister and former intended was subjected to quite a scandal, due to the gossipping ways of Matheson's friend, the dissolute Alexander Edgware, Lord Xavier. Matheson and Louisa's step-sister got married, and the scandal passed, but Xavier isn't really a favourite in the Oliver or Matheson family circles any more. So when Louisa, with her formidable aunt as chaperone,  receives an invitation to his house party, rumoured to be quite a raucous event, she's puzzled, but intrigued and accepts. Having accepted her likely fate as a spinster, she'd nonetheless like to experience a thrill or two, and what better way to practise flirting or stealing a kiss or two than at Xavier's wild party?

Lord Xavier was orphaned at an early age and has had the wealth and freedom to do as he pleased since for as long as he can remember. Drinking, gambling, debauchery and wagering, he's done it all, but it's starting to lose some of its charm. Yet he's known to never turn down a wager, so when his malicious cousin bets him that he can't make a proper lady of good family attend his house party, no matter how shocking, and stay the full two weeks, he accepts. He had never expected his cousin to pick the bookish Miss Oliver, whose reputation he's sure his cousin intends to tarnish. He needs to make sure that nothing too shocking occurs to scare Miss Oliver away, while guarding her virtue without being too obvious about it.

Early on in the visit, Louisa overhears Xavier and his cousin speaking about the wager and realises how much is at stake about her presence there. She decides to teach both the men a lesson and pushes herself out of her comfort zone, engaging in the festivities with an enthusiasm that surprises everyone. Xavier tries to keep her from harm by distracting her with his large and comprehensive library, but finds what he most wants to do is spend as much time as possible with her there. Louisa discovers that if you're going to improve your flirting and kissing, there's no one better to practise on than a rake in want of reforming.

My biggest problem with the first book in this series was that there just wasn't enough plot to fill a full novel. At least in this story, I didn't have to feel that, but there are still slow patches. The book starts a little before the house party with the wager, but the chief portion of the story is at Xavier's country estate, with a largeish cast of characters, among them Xavier's cousin, Miss Jane Tindall, whose mother is nominally the hostess of the gathering, but seems to spend most of her time drunk or asleep. Jane appears to be the heroine of the next book in the series.

Louisa is really quite happy with the idea of staying unmarried, but at the same time she's been organising the library at her new brother-in-law's house and several months of watching the newly-weds be sickeningly happy could make anyone feel a bit down, even someone who hadn't originally been engaged to the groom. Feeling very much the third wheel, she's quite relieved to be invited to a house party, even if the host is the duplicitous Lord Xavier. It doesn't take her long into her visit to discover that he wasn't quite as dastardly as to besmirch her step-sister's reputation to one and all, but he did confide in someone he shouldn't. Used to being in the background, quietly observing everyone else, Louisa is quite the study of human nature, and is amused to discover that much of Lord Xavier's behaviour is merely a clever veneer, applied to fool those around him that he's as carefree, rakish and dissolute as his reputation claims. She becomes determined to make him reveal the person he really is, and is willing to use any means necessary.

Lord Xavier does indeed do very little without planning and forethought. He has a series of numbered expressions that he pulls out at the appropriate occasions and having been quite bored by his lifestyle for a while, he's nonetheless careful to cultivate the appearance of being the consummate rake, because he can't yet imagine what sort of a person he could be instead. A victim of his reputation, he believes it would be impossible to change now. He's very aware of how easily Miss Oliver could be ruined by mere hints at impropriety, yet cannot keep himself away from her. Initially, he tells himself it's too keep her safe, but the more time they spend together, the more obviously the attraction between them grows. He still thinks she's far too good for him, and even tries to send her away to protect her, not that it does a lot of good in the long run.

Theresa Romain remains an author who is perfectly decent, but who as of yet has not truly wowed me. I really did like this book, but I doubt that I'll particularly remember the details of the story in a month or so. Still, I keep seeing her books highly recommended, and can't seem to stop buying them in e-book sales, so I will continue to see if there is an exceptional book in her yet.

Crossposted to Cannonball Read.