A review by justmevictoria
Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood

4.0

When you're snowed-in with the one who got away… 

 

After making the trek to her best friend's house during a brewing storm to borrow a roasting pan, Jamie finds the last person she wants to spend a single second with - her bestie's tech billionaire younger brother Marc, who she didn't part on good terms with the last time they spoke. He's always said they'd be together when he felt worthy of her, and she's always kept her feelings close to her chest. But with the storm ranging on outside, Marc puts her in a position where she finally has to be honest with him and herself. 

 

This was a really enjoyable novella! I've actually never read anything from Ali Hazelwood before (she's been collecting dust on my TBR but I've just never gotten around to picking one of her books up), and I thoroughly enjoyed getting a taster of her writing with a sweet little forced-proximity romance! 

 

Ali's approach of telling Jamie and Marc's story through flashbacks was actually such a great way to build their relationship and how their love for one another has evolved since childhood. Since it is such a short novella, the majority of the story is made up of these flashbacks, with only small snippets of current time. It was an interesting writing choice on Ali's part that could have gone either way, but it actually kind of worked - we jump into different moments in Marc and Jamie's lives and their relationship, and in those snippets it was enough to flesh out a sweet and swoony relationship. 

 

If you're looking for a quick romance read in the lead-up to Christmas, this is definitely one to pick up. It's not overly Christmasy as the majority of the story is the flashbacks that don't take place at Christmas, but it's festive enough to add a little festive fun to the Christmas period.