Well, as I listen to the last couple of minutes of The Engagement gift (also included at the end of this book) I'm just about ready to listen to the whole thing again!

Lauren Blakely is just an expert at romance, every one of her books have you swooning, or giggling away at the banter between the characters, and this one is no exception.

Jason Clarke has the most gorgeous voice and his character Josh is a force to be reckoned with, but who is the person to do that? Haven that's who!

I love the fact that we have a woman, working in a 'man's world' and she's killing it, and is just as good at her job, if not better!
The full cast KILLS IT, and there are lots of cameos from previous books that pop in to say hi.

The 2nd book included in this is a short novella The Engagement Gift, and Holy Steaming Panties Batman! This one was hot AF, so if you like sweet and nice, listen to the first story and stop right there, but if you like a little spice with your audio, strap yourself in for some steamy times!!

I wanted to read this book because I follow Rose on Twitter and I wanted to read more about her.

She is a fiercely strong woman and gives exactly zero f*cks, and I love her for it. She is not scared to pull you up and say "No, This is wrong."

And the reason for this, the reason that she is so outspoken, and chooses to be 'that person?' Is how she has been treated her whole damn life, as not important, as a hindrance, As A Woman!

I knew about her rape by the disgusting pig that we all loving know as Harvey Wienstein from the news, but I didn't know anything else about her, I'd obviously seen her in movies, and of course on Charmed, but she seemed to just...fade away after a while, so I wondered why this was and where she went.

This book starts right from the beginning, where she was born into the cult The Children of God, in Italy, the family moved around Europe and eventually Rose managed to escape and took herself to the U.S.A, thinking that she will be discovered and become famous.

And she was, but before that she was abused, she was abused by boyfriends, she was abused by strangers, she was abused by her father, and this set her spiralling into an eating disorder, and a drug habit, the only things that she could control.

After then getting into the Hollywood rat-race, she was once again abused, well lets say it as it is, she was RAPED, and she was then made not to say anything by throwing money at her, and as she says "I was young, and $100,000 seemed like a lot of money"

Now you could say that 'she accepted the money' but she was a young girl, a fish in the shark tank, and those sharks knew how to keep her terrified enough not to say anything. But she did, she told a few close people, including her then boyfriend Marilyn Manson, but to say anything was to lose her acting career, and HW had made this clear to her.

So she didn't say anything, but she also didn't play nice anymore, and HW took it upon himself to taunt her, in the public eye he made her out to be some sort of mental case, and behind closed doors, he sent letters to directors telling them not to employ her because "she's trouble"

McGowans career took a nosedive, even after working with directors like Tarantino (who she has a few choice words about) so her only choice in her eyes was to go to TV, so that she wasn't working with directors anymore, and so she became Paige Matthews in Charmed and stayed there for 5 years, but even this had it's downfalls.

This is an incredibly moving memoir, and Rose is angry, really bloody angry, and I don't blame her one bit.
She is the one person that got the ball rolling on the HW take-down, and her life was made hell for it, even down to HW hiring ACTUAL RUSSIAN SPIES to follow, befriend and steal parts of her book while she was writing it.

And still she said NO!!

Of course HW denies all of this and said it never happened, but Rose has something to say about that

"Don’t gaslight me, motherfucker. My vagina remembers.”

Narrated by Rose, this book is VERY frank, it has explicit descriptions of her rape and sexual abuse, it does not shy away from this, it isn't just a word.

Be Better, Be Brave!

I am writing this book because I want to have a real conversation with the public and most especially you. I am honored that my words will enter your consciousness and conscience, that my thoughts will rest in your mind. I take that responsibility seriously.
Call what I’m doing a public service and you’d be correct. It is.
Hollywood is a dirty town up to some dirty tricks.
This is not a tell-all.
This is a tell-it-how-it-is

This was a lovely slow burn romance book told from the POV of Jess and Alex.

Jess is 29 and has recently moved to London for a new job opportunity, she can’t afford to pay the extortionate rental prices there, so she rents a room in a house with new housemates.

After arriving at the house and being introduced to everyone, she notices Alex, the male nurse who is sharing her floor with her and thinks Yummy!

There wasn’t insta-love so much as an insta-connection, but Jess is fully aware of the house rules that have been set for everyone, and one of those, is NO RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HOUSEMATES.

So that’s that!

But is isn’t quite, Jess and Alex bond as friends and often go around exploring London and all of it’s hidden gems, but Alex is secretly seeing one of the housemates Emma, much to Jess’s dismay, and because she has been ‘friend-zoned’ decides to try her hand at online dating, to which Alex is a little crestfallen as he secretly likes Jess.

Although this is called We met In December, it is not a Christmassy book as the book spans a whole year between the characters, and throughout gives a will-they-won’t-they vibe.

But I will say that the snippets about Christmas and the way that the author describes London at that time of year, really got me into the Xmas spirit.

Review coming soon