They make me happy. And happy and formulaic are not incompatible with smart or important.
A Merry Little Meet Cute
by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone
Genre: Contemporary Romance
About: Bee Hobbes has made a lot of movies. Usually naked and under a paywall, but this time she's landed a role in a wholesome Christmas movie with frills not thrills, and bells not balls. It will also see her co-star with former pop idol Nolan Shaw, who's looking to change his bad-boy image. For the movie to succeed, there's just one thing they'll have to do: keep their clothes on and have thoughts as pure as the driven snow...
The Good
This was a fun read. I went in expecting a cosy holiday romance (based on the cover alone) and instead got... smut with a snow backdrop. There was romance, and there was Christmas, and there was also a suitcase full of vibrators, period drama costumes complete with boners, and literal porn on the page. But that's on me for not reading the synopsis. The writing was funny, sexy and I had as much fun reading it as it felt like the writers had writing it. I love when you can feel an author fangirling over their characters and that's what I felt here.
And what a fantastic advertisement for gingerbread lotion.
The Bad
It did veer into fanfiction territory with Bee having been obsessed with Nolan when she was a teenager, and Nolan having been obsessed with Bee from her online content. I get that it's a common and beloved troupe in romances, but I personally would find it so weird in real life. And the fact that Bee still had the posters of Nolan on her bedroom wall... that's just too weird for me. Never meet your heroes - not because of fear they'll be an asshole, but for how weird it would be to fuck them.
The Olympics scandal is brought up a lot and is a big plot point for Nolan, but I thought it was a weak part of the backstory. I liked that Nolan isn't ashamed of his scandals, but this wasn't actually his scandal as he didn't do anything that night so for it to be made into such a big deal just didn't read super interesting to me.
The Somewhat Iffy
I was a little thrown that they were actually filming the Christmas movie over Christmas because I thought those movies were made out of season so they can be released in time for the holidays.
And I did have to suspend my disbelief a bit when the director is so decided to recast the squeaky-clean leading lady with Bee after seeing her nude pic... That didn't make a lot of sense, especially given that Gretchen is knee-deep in the industry and must know that in no context would a casting headshot have tits included unless the actress did adult movies.
Overall
A spicy read: I was expecting nutmeg and marshmallows, and instead got hit by the chilli. But it's a lot of fun and has some great representation.
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