Scan barcode
amlibera's review
3.0
Cute novella in the "Family Holiday" series. The sort of sex scenes where you know all about which parts are going where but also, hmmm.... it feels like the sex scenes and the people scenes are taking turns. I like the Canadian setting and the diverse characters.
jessoehrlein's review
2.75
This has a lot of themes I'm now used to from Lau, but they weren't quite as developed as usual (even for her novellas).
pn_hinton's review
3.0
While still cute (inflatable T-Rex costumes always are) I didn't love this one as much as the others in the anthology. I think it's because the synopsis was misleading on the one-sided aspect of the attraction. Still it was sweet and steamy with a good friends to lovers story.
readingwithhippos's review
4.0
I love that the trope is right there in the title! Wes has been into Caitlin since college but never made a move, thinking she’s way out of his league. Now she’s a CEO and he’s paid by a barbershop quartet to dance in a T-rex costume for their performances (don’t ask, it really doesn’t bear scrutiny—just accept that it’s a cute way to work a few goofy old men into the cast of characters and move on). When winter weather hits and Caitlin is stranded, Wes does the gentlemanly thing and invites her to stay at his place. Unplugging from her fast-paced life and relaxing into holiday activities with Wes is just what Caitlin needs—or maybe what she needs is Wes himself.
islandbookwyrm's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
elenajohansen's review
3.0
It sets out to be cute and succeeds admirably, but it takes a lot of shortcuts to culminate a friends-to-lovers scenario that has a backstory over a decade long, which we only see the very beginning of. But the story leans hard on that first meeting and doesn't do much to sketch in what happened in the twelve years between, relying on telling us that Wes has been in love all that time without going into their dynamics.
There's a lot of telling anyway, because this is structured in a dual first-person POV format, so we're treated to both Wes' and Caitlin's internal monologue. There isn't all that much time to really differentiate their voices, but in a novella, I wouldn't expect in-depth character studies. I think the overall tone of the narrative is relatively simplistic because of it, they really do just say how they're feeling (to us as readers, if not always to each other) and it's not terrible, but I guess I wanted a little less transparency and a little more showing through body language, tone of voice, etc.
I got this as part of the complete series bundle, and I like it well enough to keep going, to see if expanding the stories to full-novel-length fixes some of the issues I had with the writing.
There's a lot of telling anyway, because this is structured in a dual first-person POV format, so we're treated to both Wes' and Caitlin's internal monologue. There isn't all that much time to really differentiate their voices, but in a novella, I wouldn't expect in-depth character studies. I think the overall tone of the narrative is relatively simplistic because of it, they really do just say how they're feeling (to us as readers, if not always to each other) and it's not terrible, but I guess I wanted a little less transparency and a little more showing through body language, tone of voice, etc.
I got this as part of the complete series bundle, and I like it well enough to keep going, to see if expanding the stories to full-novel-length fixes some of the issues I had with the writing.
ria_mhrj's review
3.0
Jackie Lau has been on my radar for a while now, so when this festive novella was available as a freebie it seemed like destiny. And this story was short and sweet, I enjoyed the dynamics of the heroine being the exceedingly successful CEO, whilst the hero is an adorable goof who danced around in a T-Rex costume. My one grumble is that sometimes the writing felt like more of a summary than immersive storytelling. We have countless cute moments that are succinctly summed up, and I would have loved more dialogue and internal monologue as the characters experienced things first hand, but I appreciate that this was just a novella and maybe there wasn't time.
turtleberry's review
5.0
Cute
This was cute. I love how oblivious Caitlin was. Wes was such a sweet friend. I really enjoyed their love story.
This was cute. I love how oblivious Caitlin was. Wes was such a sweet friend. I really enjoyed their love story.
whatcaitreads's review
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0