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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
You know what? I think this takes the tie with The Kiss Quotient as my favourite romance read of the year, if not all time. Clearly shows I’m a sucker for the ‘let’s pretend to be in a relationship’ trope. This is exactly what I would want from a romance novel, it was heartwarming, it was had just enough of a hint of steam and it had the best description ever of realising you love someone. The way Toffolo wrote about that moment put into words how I felt when I first realised I was in love.
This is a beautiful story not only about our star couple, Victoria and Ollie, but also a tale of the strength of female friendships and how valuable they can be. I feel like we read so much about men being mean too woo a woman or women putting each other down, it was wonderfully refreshing that there was none of that in this book. It had great snippets of London, such as getting fabric at Liberty, and is honestly just the most perfect Christmas tale.
I CANNOT WAIT for the next instalment and Malie’s story. I hope we get updates on V and Ollie though!
This is a beautiful story not only about our star couple, Victoria and Ollie, but also a tale of the strength of female friendships and how valuable they can be. I feel like we read so much about men being mean too woo a woman or women putting each other down, it was wonderfully refreshing that there was none of that in this book. It had great snippets of London, such as getting fabric at Liberty, and is honestly just the most perfect Christmas tale.
I CANNOT WAIT for the next instalment and Malie’s story. I hope we get updates on V and Ollie though!
The audiobook narrator talks too fast and is not engaging. Like take a breath every so often. 13% into the book and I have no attachment to the characters.
Romance is in the air with this fun Christmas read.
Victoria might work in a bar but her dream is to be a clothes designer with her own local boutique to sell them in on the street she works. She almost had a chance once but an ex seemed to put a stop to that. Just when she was thinking things could start to look up news comes that a new department store is opening on the same street as all the small local shops. Thinking that she needs to take charge of things in her life she decides to make a stand and talk to the people in charge to see how they are going to handle joining this small local shop street. Little did she know that a chance encounter would change things for the better, that is if they can both get out of their own ways to see what is right in front of them.
Oliver really isn’t in the Christmas spirit, which is a bit of a problem as he is launching a new department store right in time for Christmas so that is very much the theme. The launch may be running late with his mid focused on that alone but that doesn’t stop his mother from wanting his attention by getting to meet his new love, one that he most definitely didn’t make up of course. One that he is going to need to find sharpish to keep his mother happy so that he can focus on what is important. Funny thing about things that seem important is that most of the time they aren’t and you are only focusing on them to keep your mind from thinking about what you really want.
So when Victoria and Oliver meet they both have issues that they think the other can help them with. She can help smooth things over with the local vendors and he can help get her designs noticed, all she has to do is to pretend to be his girlfriend for a few days to appease his mother until the launch is done. How hard can that be? Well, what starts out as a simple business agreement soon starts to change after spending more time together. You can’t deny that the chemistry is there from the start, no matter how much they try to hold back, each for very different reasons. If they can get past what is trying to hold them back they both might get what they really want this Christmas, someone to spend all future Christmases with and every day in between.
Sweet romance that you can chill out with this Christmas season.
3 out of 5 stars
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.
Victoria might work in a bar but her dream is to be a clothes designer with her own local boutique to sell them in on the street she works. She almost had a chance once but an ex seemed to put a stop to that. Just when she was thinking things could start to look up news comes that a new department store is opening on the same street as all the small local shops. Thinking that she needs to take charge of things in her life she decides to make a stand and talk to the people in charge to see how they are going to handle joining this small local shop street. Little did she know that a chance encounter would change things for the better, that is if they can both get out of their own ways to see what is right in front of them.
Oliver really isn’t in the Christmas spirit, which is a bit of a problem as he is launching a new department store right in time for Christmas so that is very much the theme. The launch may be running late with his mid focused on that alone but that doesn’t stop his mother from wanting his attention by getting to meet his new love, one that he most definitely didn’t make up of course. One that he is going to need to find sharpish to keep his mother happy so that he can focus on what is important. Funny thing about things that seem important is that most of the time they aren’t and you are only focusing on them to keep your mind from thinking about what you really want.
So when Victoria and Oliver meet they both have issues that they think the other can help them with. She can help smooth things over with the local vendors and he can help get her designs noticed, all she has to do is to pretend to be his girlfriend for a few days to appease his mother until the launch is done. How hard can that be? Well, what starts out as a simple business agreement soon starts to change after spending more time together. You can’t deny that the chemistry is there from the start, no matter how much they try to hold back, each for very different reasons. If they can get past what is trying to hold them back they both might get what they really want this Christmas, someone to spend all future Christmases with and every day in between.
Sweet romance that you can chill out with this Christmas season.
3 out of 5 stars
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Such a cute and enjoyable read!! I couldn’t put this down! I’m a sucker for a fake relationship turned into a real one and this one did not disappoint! These characters had a lot of depth and were very relatable. I can’t believe I finished another book in one day but these holiday romances are truly so much fun to read!
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is not a bad book. I enjoyed it, I read it, I was gripped by it. However I have some irritations. The most important irritation is that I was alive in 2023 and remember it. Apparently this character Victoria who was also alive in 2023 was living in a completely different world to me. Victoria has a tablet. Which apparently she carries around in her bag and whips it out randomly in her workplace (given that her workplace is below her home address maybe it's not quite as unbelievable as the other place she whips it out) and on a bench on a street in Paris to video chat with her best mates??? Sorry what? What kind of data plan do you have on that thing? Why are you carrying it around with you? I'm sure people didn't do that.
Also like Victoria is cool,she teaches the man who also has a posh name - Oliver and his family to be more communicative but the central obstacle in the book is that Victoria is infertile. Victoria has been with this horrific ex who has acted like she is some kind of evil witch for not telling him this at the beginning of the relationship. As a result Victoria is sort of riddled with all this self hatred that she can't be enough for Oliver. Oliver grows in the book and does some communication with his family but until the last chapter Oliver and Victoria can't communicate. Maybe I'm out of touch but it made me sad that Victoria lives in a world where she feels she's not worthy because she's infertile. I don't know it just makes me feel a bit icky like we value women more than just as ovaries and fallopian tubes and uteruses and if we don't we are doing something massively wrong as a society.
I wasn't actually entirely convinced by Victoria's friends, if I was Victoria's friend I would have told her around page 15 that I am so sorry you are infertile and I will support you with all your feelings about that but there is not a man in the world that should make you feel that you are not worthy because you can't carry a baby. Victoria's friends don't say any of that and sort of agree with her feeling in some way "less than" or "unworthy of love". Genuinely that was my biggest issue with the whole book actually. I didn't think Victoria's friends were actually that supportive.
My final complaint is that there is a bit of like Victoria feels like Oliver is SOOOO much better than her and has SOOOO much more money than her and lives in such a different world. Victoria lives in a 2 bedroom flat (with what appears to be 2 floors) in Chelsea. There's a bit at the beginning where we are supposed to believe that Victoria is in some way financially struggling. Victoria manages a bar and does some cool fashion design teaching but seems to have an awful lot of free time. I dunno like I haven't done any maths on it but I think Victoria is probably doing pretty alright for herself.
However despite my gripes I did enjoy the book. I liked Victoria and Oliver and I liked Oliver's family(except Andrew who perpetuates this "women are egg layers" nonsense). I'll probably read the others in the series to see if I can get to the bottom of these friends but probably wouldn't recommend the book.
Also like Victoria is cool,
I wasn't actually entirely convinced by Victoria's friends, if I was Victoria's friend I would have told her around page 15 that I am so sorry you are infertile and I will support you with all your feelings about that but there is not a man in the world that should make you feel that you are not worthy because you can't carry a baby. Victoria's friends don't say any of that and sort of agree with her feeling in some way "less than" or "unworthy of love". Genuinely that was my biggest issue with the whole book actually. I didn't think Victoria's friends were actually that supportive.
My final complaint is that there is a bit of like Victoria feels like Oliver is SOOOO much better than her and has SOOOO much more money than her and lives in such a different world. Victoria lives in a 2 bedroom flat (with what appears to be 2 floors) in Chelsea. There's a bit at the beginning where we are supposed to believe that Victoria is in some way financially struggling. Victoria manages a bar and does some cool fashion design teaching but seems to have an awful lot of free time. I dunno like I haven't done any maths on it but I think Victoria is probably doing pretty alright for herself.
However despite my gripes I did enjoy the book. I liked Victoria and Oliver and I liked Oliver's family
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility
A bit predictable, but a cute story, nonetheless. I'll likely read other books in the series. It was fun on audio because it was read by the author.
The cover and title on top of the synopsis appealed to me so much. It's such a perfect combination of what appeals to me heading into the winter months.
I wasn't in love with this book for the bulk of my read and listen. It seemed to me like the chemistry and general feelings of attraction between the MC's took precedence over character and plot arc depth. I do have to say that the ending was very sweet. Had the middle of the book carried a similar set of feels for me, I would have devoured this easily in one sitting.
I mostly listened to the audiobook and was surprised that it was narrated by the author, which seems rather uncommon. I thought her passion for her work came through clearly. I think that she could do great things and I'm interested to see what she writes in the future.
Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for the advanced copy and Harper Audio for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.
I wasn't in love with this book for the bulk of my read and listen. It seemed to me like the chemistry and general feelings of attraction between the MC's took precedence over character and plot arc depth. I do have to say that the ending was very sweet. Had the middle of the book carried a similar set of feels for me, I would have devoured this easily in one sitting.
I mostly listened to the audiobook and was surprised that it was narrated by the author, which seems rather uncommon. I thought her passion for her work came through clearly. I think that she could do great things and I'm interested to see what she writes in the future.
Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for the advanced copy and Harper Audio for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced