3.53 AVERAGE

jennarowton505's review

4.0

This book is everything you want in a Christmas book. There is spice, they are enemies to lovers. And the ending will have your mouth wide open.
smalltowncutie's profile picture

smalltowncutie's review

5.0

Damon is a mean rude CEO boss! Kate is his helpful assistant and when her car doesn't start to deliver the coffee and the pastries for the morning meeting, Damon calls saying get back or your fire. She abandons her car to get to the meeting on time and to later find out her car gets towed and she cant get it in time to go home for the holidays. When she runs into Damon at the bar and they start drinking together she tells him what a jerk he is and her problem with trying to getting home. So when the next morning Damon picks her up to take her back home for the holidays. Kate's cheating ex still is friends with the family and thats when Damon gets introduce as her boyfriend. What happens when faking a relationship stops being fake and starts to feel real? What happens when the jerk of a boss isn't such a jerk after all?

I absolutely adored this book. It was a very classic take on a hallmark movie with a great amount of spice! I really enjoyed the vibe of Damon and how he just treating her like crap because he wanted to get rid of the feeling of loving her. I love that Kate really just started to slowly fall when all the sweet things started happening. It was all so sweet and simple! Great story!
cat_theodore's profile picture

cat_theodore's review

1.0

This was a dumpster fire. And all because Damon was a complete jerk. He treated Kate like garbage for years, humiliating her any chance he got, and threatening to fire her countless times. And all because... what, she was hot but would never fall for him? But he's lowkey crushing on her, even though her attitude turns him off (?????), so why not torture her and force her to hate him ? That's messed up. And once he realizes he ruined Christmas for her, he decides to drive her home, and takes control of the situation? Decides he's not her friend who's dropping her off, but actually her boyfriend who's spending the holiday. Decides to make her ex jealous by becoming her fiancé. Decides to use her grandma's ring in a fake proposal when he knows she's struggling with her family situation.

And the fact that Kate ultimately falls for him, giving him a second chance baffles me. Only because he writes her a letter blaming his past behavior on ~tRaUmA~?? After she went home crying so many nights because he was being hurtful and making her life hell. Not once did we see her flirt back at work. But we sure saw how all her friends and family knew how much she despised her boss.

pageswithpayten's review

5.0

QOTD: Have you put up your Christmas decor?
My A: Yes!! We have a five month old kitten who is VERY curious (read: destructive) and I was going to skip putting up a tree. The FOMO was too extreme so I pulled out my tree and just hoped he’d leave it alone! Thankfully and very surprisingly, he has! WhenI was a kid, there was a year where our cats would stop knocking over the Christmas tree and my mom got so mad she put it on the deck for 3 days.
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Is anyone else slightly obsessed with holiday novellas?! I read my first last year and I’ve been trying to sprinkle them in this year before Christmas. IMO, there is no better palate cleanser book than a Christmas romance. I LOVE the holiday traditions, the family drama and the extra dose of love that comes with it. It also helps that *usually* these books are faking dating, friends to lovers, forced proximity, etc. and those are my favorite tropes! I’m a sucker for romances packed full of tension and lingering looks/thoughts and the holidays seems to be the place for that! If this isn’t already on your Holiday Reading List, it should be!!
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BLURB:
“Sweetheart, I know exactly how to handle you.”
Those eight little words whispered in my ear by my boss were my undoing.
And what we did after he said them, most definitely landed me on Santa’s naughty list.

If there’s one man who can suck all the joy out of Christmas—it’s my boss, Damon Wells.
I should have known when fifteen minutes into our first interview, he told me that nothing about me stood out from the fifty other applicants. Yet somehow, I’m sitting shotgun in his fancy sports car on the way to my family’s house for the week.

You’d think he’d show a little mercy this holiday season after my day from hell.
Car towed? Check.
Spilled coffee on my white blouse? Check.
Soaked in Chicago slush by a cab? Triple Check.
Instead, he threatens to fire me.

So now I’m stuck spending the holidays with my boss by my side…Until two minutes into meeting my family, Damon introduces himself as my boyfriend and my minor panic turns into a full fledged five-alarm holiday meltdown.
He wasn’t supposed to pretend to be anything. He absolutely wasn’t supposed to stick his tongue down my throat when he promoted himself to fiancé in front of my entire family.
And I sure as hell wasn’t supposed to enjoy it.

Suddenly, our fake little fairytale is starting to feel too real when Damon slides my grandmother’s diamond ring on my finger.
The same ring I thought my ex was going to give me last year when he dumped me.
The same ex who shows up to my family’s holiday party. All I want for Christmas this year? To forget just how good my boss is in the bedroom before my heart starts to get other ideas.
dellyreads's profile picture

dellyreads's review

4.0

Such a good book

This was my first read by alexis winter and it wont be the last! This was such a good read i enjoyed every minute of it! This was legit like a hallmark Christmas movie (except this book aint PG)
ttpwcait's profile picture

ttpwcait's review

4.0

Fantastic book to get you in the Christmas spirit!

I absolutely adored this book and all of the holiday traditions that Kate does with her family. I loved the banter, and teasing. Damon is definitely an ass at the beginning, but he more than redeems himself. And it's spicy too!
rbharath's profile picture

rbharath's review

4.0

This book was almost exactly the way I expected it to be. A light breezy feel-good read.

Kate is Damon’s secretary, and he is a nasty and inconsiderate boss. At the time of her interview, he tells her that he sees nothing unique in her capabilities, which he cannot find in any other candidate, but still ends up hiring her. Kate gives it back to him on and off, and yet she is limited by her role. On one occasion as her car breaks down, Damon keeps calling her repeatedly, snapping that she is delaying important work & people. She leaves the car on the road in a 15-minute parking slot and rushes to work in a cab, spilling some of the coffee is getting while hurrying to the office. Damon does not care, and insists she pick up her car the next day, as in any case it had been towed and she was to be on leave over the next few days to visit her parents. Imagine her surprise though when he suddenly offers to drop her to her parents’ place for Christmas.

The first 35%-40% of the book is a delight to read – the character development is good, there is a nice touch of humour with the interplay between Damon & Kate written very well. It does go largely downhill after that though with very typical writing you will find in tons of romance books & movies. It recovers somewhat towards the end, with a cute little epilogue.

Overall, a charming book, which you can complete pretty quickly.

My rating: 3.5 / 5.
whitwein's profile picture

whitwein's review

2.0
lighthearted fast-paced

dreamliner_reads's review

2.5
tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
torydarius's profile picture

torydarius's review

2.0

the premise was EXTREMELY promising but it was executed so horribly