lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

Once I was finally able to pick this up and start reading, I really did enjoy it, even with it being 3rd person instead of my preferred 1st person. Even in third person we had alternating chapters from both Evie and Adam’s viewpoints. That helped me too, as it was definitely told from their viewpoint even in the 3rd person. I honestly wish if this was a real thing it was something I could afford to do. Even if I didn’t plan to fall in love, just being able to go on a tour like this would be incredible. It reminds me of how perfect my Scotland/Outlander tour was, even as expensive as it was.

Evie was a poet, kind of stuck in her writing. Her background was a father that had passed away, and her mother kind of stepped back from any challenges, or anything that was her husband’s culture. Fortunately for Evie, she still had her Auntie Hao, her father’s sister, to keep her in touch with not only that side of the family, but with putting her out there and trying to do the things she loved. But she had fallen into the easy side of life, especially once her aunt passed away. She had a boyfriend that was easy, no stress. At least until it turned out he was going to fire her because her unusual methods of teaching and lack of publications had made the school look elsewhere. Honestly I think her awesome creative ideas would be great for high school students. If only those teachers didn’t now almost have to completely follow scripted curriculum in so many places. 

Adam came from one of THOSE rich families. Where it all had to be proper, and things had to look good. Only when he’d been humiliated as he asked his girlfriend to marry him, he’d been the one blamed by his parents. So right away that made me dislike his parents. His sister was the golden child as far as he could tell. Their parents seemed to think she could do no wrong. She’d married the right person and kept with him. Even as we found out that maybe her life wasn’t as perfect as she let on with her parents. Adam went along on their inaugural first matchmaking tour. Mainly just to be the face of the company with his sister, but he ended up having someone there his sister had thought would be a perfect match for him. Instead, he and Evie had sparks between them, even as their meet-cute wasn’t necessarily the best. 

It was impossible not to adore Evie though. Even with her craziness. The way she was so sweet around the kids and so friendly, and just so willing to try all kinds of things. The banter between her and Adam was really good at times too. I got so frustrated with Adam though for how he went all hot and cold with her. Even as his misgivings with his family and what he was “expected” to do might have made sense for him, it was frustrating.

Of course this is a romance, so even with the third act breakup, we know there will be a happy ending. This is another book for me where the third act breakup made sense. With the two of them being from different countries, it was really hard to see how in the world they could be together. I mean who was going to give up their life? So I loved the way things became possible for one of them to go to the other one and do what could help them to be together. 

I really enjoyed this, and I know my review is a bit after the pub date, but it was definitely worth fitting in!

This was a pretty quick read, definitely one for YA, maybe a little younger than high school in the difficulty of reading, but still the topic or the age of the characters at the time and things they thought about could be considered more high school. But it you really read Anne Frank’s diary, you know she was definitely the age and thinking about things sometimes we think middle school age shouldn’t be reading, even if they are all thinking and wondering about some of that anyway at that age.

But I digress from my review. World War II and the holocaust especially is something that when I actually spend time reading about or thinking about, it’s just so hard to imagine the enormity of what happened. Yeah, I’ve seen the pictures, and I’ve been the holocaust museum in DC. But every single time I read or hear about the experience from an actual survivor it just completely messes up my brain trying to even imagine what it could be like. Some of the things the author talks about, how in the camp they were able to ignore or learned to not be in so much pain from things like that, and then once they had been liberated immediately those pains and hunger came back. Thinking of how the body adjusts to things in even that type of situation, the hunger that I can’t imagine. Being able to have hope in the concentration camp and even while on the march or while they were forced to ride on top of a train car to protect weapons. Yet when they were finally free it was hard to hold onto that hope thinking about things they’d lost. 

It’s hard to write a review of a memoir like this. Just know that it is one worth reading if you want the basic story. I feel like I would probably want to read the full adult memoir called The Choice at some point. If you’ve read the adult memoir, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

How did I not realize this was an Amazing Race type of story? This was the perfect read for me as I have been totally in the mood for another season, but I think they only do one a year, unlike Survivor, my other guilty reality tv pleasure. And you know what? I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVEDDDD this book! It was one that I wish I’d been reading on a weekend that I could have just sat and read it from cover to cover with no interruptions. 

The romance between the two was a perfect exes/enemies to lovers trope. With so many misunderstandings for why they split up, and how things went for the other after they broke up. Both had things in their lives that didn’t go the way they’d planned. And both of those things totally made you feel for both and root for both of them to figure things out! And when they did figure things out and make up, that was so perfect as well. Just the right amount of steamy for my tastes and in this type of story. 

There wasn’t a ton of the story, hardly any that actually took place in Green Valley at the school where Court was a substitute teacher and the other books in this series took place, so the cover might have been a bit off, even though I still loved it. And I love how the way the competition ends isn’t how you’d expect it to end in a story like this, but it was real. And then when the actual finale/reunion show took place, well, that was so awesome too! The settings in the story and how they traveled and competed just like The Amazing Race was so much fun. It got me trying to remember if the real show ever went to Egypt and did anything with the pyramids? Now I have to go back and see.

This is my first book by this author, and I’m sure it won’t be my last. In fact I already went and added one other title for now to my TBR list on Goodreads.

I have enjoyed the two other novels in this series and still need to read the novellas. Normally I love the steaminess of these, but I realized when the chapter 2 hot scene kind of was so in my face that I’d read 3 clean/sweet romances right before I started this and my brain was not used to that! LOL 

So Isaac, the final member of the boy band INK, was our hero in this story. He was not from Kansas City like the other two, because his mother was an actress. He was the sad sack, the guy whose wife had died, and he didn’t want to do anything but be sad and alone. Sunny, Bee’s best friend, and also a porn star, was mostly a lot like her name. She was always seeming to be upbeat, had lots of questions or crazy things she was talking about, just fun to be around. However she had her own issues like Isaac, and so the two were almost perfect for each other in that way.

They reconnected at a wedding, for a second night stand. While their first one had been a threesome with Jack Hart, another porn star I believe, this time it was just the two of them. Both Isaac and Sunny are bi and attracted to both men and women. Isaac decides that Sunny might be able to bring him out of his funk enough to be his muse so he can finish his final album, a Christmas album, and then he can go back to being a hermit and not having to deal with the world. Sunny doesn’t want to be anyone’s muse. She doesn’t want to get close to anyone because she lost her parents in a car accident, and can’t stand to lose anyone or let anyone be important enough to her that losing them is like that all over again.

So she says she will help Isaac find his muse, while he helps her write this screenplay she pitched an idea for that the Hope Channel bought and wants to produce now. Isaac bought the mansion in Christmas Notch where they’ve filmed many of these movies, and when he sees the state of the Inn that Sunny is staying at with her cat, he tells her she should just come stay in the huge house with him, no strings attached. Of course that leads to roommates with benefits. As she tries to find the perfect muse for him, men, sexy librarians, former hook-ups, he helps her search to find out the true story behind the Christmas Angel miracle that is a legend in the town. 

As with the other books we have all these wonderful other characters that add so much to the story. Whether it is the people we’ve met before from the other stories, the strippers from the North Pole, Teddy the former porn producer turned Hope Channel movie producer, or the new characters like Isaac’s online sleuth buddies, all of them made for so much fun to be added. I loved the cat’s name, Mr. Tumnus – I mean who doesn’t love the reference to the Chronicles of Narnia? And then the fact that there was honeymoon role-playing in the flavor of the Twilight movies cracked me up to no end. 

I know these books won’t be what some people are expecting for a Christmas rom-com, that much is obvious from some of the reviews. But I just have to wonder if those people read the other books or knew what they were getting into with this series. The only reason I marked it to 4.5 stars on my blog is because of the third act break up, if it was really that. I totally got it, and it fit, but it still just bugged me with the stubbornness of Isaac that it for me personally dropped it from perfect. 

I also know this is the last book in the series, because obviously all of our boy band members are partnered up. I’m sad to be done with this world. I don’t know how or who they would write more books about, but I’d definitely be down for spending more time in Christmas Notch in the future. Now to read the short story/novellas that go with the series that I haven’t fit in yet!

Earlier this year I read another story in this series by this author, That Thing You Brew, and enjoyed it enough I was looking forward to reading another book set in this world by this author. Once again I enjoyed this author’s characters and the small town setting, along with the hockey team and the fact that our main characters were athletes, but they were cheerleaders! As with the other book I read, all the family and friends that I know were from other stories, Penny and Xavier from the last one by this author in the series. It was so much fun with all of them around.

This story had a LOT going on. Yes, it was a romance between Monty and Tasha. But it was friends to enemies to friends/lovers, also a little Cyrano de Bergerac with Monty helping Vlad write letters to win Tasha, and throw in the billionaire aspect of Monty’s family, oh and the forced proximity with having to be roommates while Monty’s house was under renovation. It was also interesting to follow Tasha’s health issues, and I know I would love to maybe try some of her recipes, even though I normally am not a fan of gluten-free since I don’t have that issue and it is hard to find good food. But I’m guessing these recipes might actually be good! 

I loved when the two of them were living together. The routine they got into with the cooking and helping out with Monty’s Nana Booboo. Such a hilarious name, and such a fun story behind it! There was so much going on with the back stories as well. Monty’s younger sister and parents. Tasha’s sister and her friend. Then there was Vlad, the hockey player that Tasha went on dates with for a bit. It seemed he might really just want to get US citizenship and to get her to marry him for that. Not that he was a bad guy, he was nice enough, but there just didn’t ever seem to be a spark between the two. And Tasha in a way just wanted to find her own hockey player like her friends and sister had, partly to help with the bills she had for her health issues, and maybe so she didn’t have to work three jobs anymore. 

As I said, there was so much going on this story. It was a clean/sweet romance once again, as all in this series are. But I liked the kissing, and it didn’t feel too out of reality for me the way the whole story went. Another great story by this author in this series and I hope there will be more!

I’ve really enjoyed the first two books in this series, so was excited for this next one. And I think, even though one of the other books had a librarian character, that this one is my favorite so far! 

Once again both characters had an ex that had made them swear off dating, swearing to be forever single. But they were connected through both their friend and family groups as well as working together. In a way they had a fun meet cute, Iris hanging out a window, and Sebastian happening along and helping her get through it, also catching a glance at her cat paw underwear underneath her skirt in the process. Their friends in common also wanted to get them both together, even though the two of them fought it for so many reasons. Mainly that Sebastian had sworn he was just going to be single forever. 

Both of them had wonderful families, even with the little disagreement that Sebastian always had with his dad about his job. I loved the work dynamics and the whole intrigue going on at their workplace with hackers and will the new buyers of the company shut them down, etc. Even more that that though were fun co-workers, both annoying/hateful people as well as work besties. And this company had such a great thing they did with the Big Brothers and Sisters program, I loved that whole aspect of the story as well. 

I always join into the Secret Santa fun at the places I work when they have it. I love the way they called it Secret Snowflake instead. The gifts and finding out what to give someone else led to many crazy escapades, including a scavenger hunt at a baby store, with Iris pretending to be pregnant.

In the end the little breakup that started made sense as the two of them really had only been dating for a few days. But the way the author had them work that out was so realistic for me. Made so much sense. As I said at the beginning of this review, this is definitely my favorite in the series so far. And I can’t wait for the next one!

Just wasn't getting into it and it's 3rd person which makes it harder for me too.

It just didn't work from me, and the formatting was messed up in the e-galley so it was not making sense in some parts.