holiday

Her Holiday Man by Shannon Stacey

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

22446793
Grade: A
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary , small town
Published: 11/3/14
Reviewed by Anne
98 ebook pages

Will is moving back home to help his mom out after his dad dies.  He’s been wandering for a few years.  He left town after his wife and unborn baby were killed in a car accident.  He’s a not excited about all the pity he left behind, but he’s glad to have a purpose helping his mom out.  He’s surprised and a little suspicious to find that a young single mom has moved in across the street and his mom has taken the new neighbor, Christina, and her seven year old son, Nathaniel, under her wing.  Then Christina turns out to be someone Will admires and is attracted to.  Neither of them is looking for a relationship, but some sex would be awfully convenient…

This book was everything I look for in a holiday read.  It was short (about 100 pages) and focused on Will and Christina and their relationship.  Christina was a woman who had her silver platter life yanked away from her, but landed on her feet ready to work hard and figure things out.  She doesn’t want to rely on anyone but herself again, but she’s smart enough to accept help when she needs it.  Will goes from being suspicious of Christina’s motives to admiring her determination quickly.  He’s a natural helper and caregiver, and they’re drawn to each other pretty quickly.

A series of small misunderstandings provides the conflict in this story.  Usually that annoys me, but in this case it really worked.  The author didn’t force the characters to jump through hoops to perpetuate the misunderstandings.  In fact, they’re resolved fairly quickly when the characters talk to each other.  That was refreshing!

I really liked Nathaniel.  He was probably a bit perfect for a seven year old, but it didn’t bother me.  In fact, nothing about this story bothered me.  I read it in pretty much one sitting and took very few notes.  It just sucked me in and made me smile.

It’s not connected to any of Shannon Stacey’s other books, though it has the same small town feel she writes in her Kowalski books.  I really enjoyed it and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a feel good holiday read!  How about you?  Do you have a favorite holiday romance?

Married for Christmas by Noelle Adams

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

*Note: So, I have a thing for reading holiday themed stories.  The thing is, I generally lag behind by a month or so.  So, here I review a great story set at… Christmas.  Enjoy! ~Anne
18801516
Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, Marriage of Convenience
Series: Willow Park #1
Published: 12/1/13
Reviewed by Anne
140 ebook pages

Jessica and her best friend Daniel agree to a friendly marriage.  Jessica has had a long time crush on Daniel (unbeknownst to him) and is pretty reserved socially and is despairing of finding someone to start a family with.  Daniel is a pastor who is being considered for the job to lead their small town church, but his unmarried state is a bit of a drawback for the church considering him.  Jessica talks Daniel into this marriage between friends.

So, I was really intrigued by a non-inspy book that featured people for whom religion was a large part of their life – a pastor!  I was lucky enough to get a copy from NetGalley and fired it up on my iPad one night at 11:30.  I was immediately hooked, and very emotionally involved in this book!  I was near tears – and HATE to cry while reading – but I loved it.  So I stayed up until 1:30am finishing the book, despite the fact that I’d be home alone with my four children the next day!  And I don’t regret it!

The thing that had me near tears was watching Jessica truly love Daniel.  He loved her back, but it was more of a friendship love, and he seemed to be working hard to keep a boundary between them.  Then they’d have a moment where they truly seemed close, and he’d pull back and distance himself again.  Even though the story is told solely from Jessica’s point of view, it seemed clear that he was developing feelings for her.  It wasn’t too clear why he was sabotaging those feelings, though!  It was especially painful because his unintentional hurts seemed to pile right on top of some insecurities she was holding onto.

As a character, Daniel was very interesting.  Jessica was almost too perfect.  She was shy and not good at cooking, but, really, who cares?  She was emotionally perfect and a bit of a martyr.  It was believable to me because they were trying to apply logic to a very emotional situation, so I’ll give her a pass on being an emotional Mary Sue.

There was a drawback to the single point of view of the book, and that was that some revelations about Daniel’s character caught me off guard when I read them.  I really did feel like there was much alluding to them.

Despite these drawbacks, the story really worked for me.  And as the cherry on top of this emo romance, there was really well written explicit sex!  What?  Religious people who have on page sex?  I loved it!  I recommend this book and I’ll be watching for more in this series!  (I’m rooting for a book about Daniel’s brother, Micah!)

Snowbound with the CEO BY Shannon Stacey

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Snowbound with the CEO

Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, Novella
Published: 11/4/13
Reviewed by Anne
66 pages

Rachel has a crush on her boss, Adrian.  Adrian owns and runs a very successful construction/rehabilitation company, and unbeknownst to Rachel, he has a crush right back on her.  When they get snowed in together at a mountain resort, they spend some non-working time together, which leads to a weekend fling.
 
If I had a crush on my CEO boss and decided to have some no strings sex with each other, but then ended up falling for him, I think this is exactly how it would go down.  It’s emotionally messy.  They work very well together, but when it comes to personal stuff, they stumble around and try not to step on the other’s toes.  That was a little frustrating, but it felt so real!
 
The story was still that great Shannon Stacey mix of sweet and funny.  It’s a quick and enjoyable holiday read that I recommend.