What happens when there’s no room at the inn, and your potentially demonic cat becomes roommates with your grumpy one-night stand?
Part-time adult film actress/one-time adult film director/makeup artist Sunny Palmer has accidentally sold her very first screenplay to the Hope Channel. Six months ago. Fast forward to a looming deadline and an uninspired Sunny, who returns to the source of her inspiration in Christmas Notch, Vermont, to immerse herself in the local Christmas miracle on which her fever dream of a movie pitch was based.
Isaac Kelly, former boy band heartthrob and the saddest boy in the music biz, is the latest owner of the town’s historic mansion. After years of heartbreak following his young wife’s passing, Isaac’s record label is done waiting for new music. What better place to attempt his first holiday album than a snow-covered mansion where he can become a hermit in peace?
But after their best friends’ wedding leads to them waking up together in a freezing motel room with questionable wiring and a broken shower, Isaac takes a chance and asks Sunny to stay with him at his home. Surely the place is big enough that he’ll hardly see her or her unhinged cat.
But when the two discover they’re both creatively blocked, they make a handshake deal: Isaac will help Sunny hunt down the truth behind the local lore, and Sunny will find Isaac a new muse.
And with these two opposites under one roof, there’s no way this jingle bell mingle could go off script…right?
Say it isn’t so that the Christmas Notch series is complete! Oh, how I have devoured this fun series with adorable and raunchy stories that get you in the perfect mood for the holidays. Though this book can be read as a standalone, Julie and Sierra gave the series a great send-out with a romance between the part-time stripper/make-up artist/screenwriter and the “sad boy” rock star.
It was one of my most anticipated new Christmas romance books of 2024 and did not disappoint. I went into this book with three goals in mind: hilarious moments, heartwrenching depth, and spicy tension.
I found myself laughing out loud throughout the book as Sunny and Isaac’s personalities clashed and then melded together perfectly. From discussions about Barbies scissoring together to how vibrators are dependable but maybe not the best cuddle partners, Sunny kept me engaged and giggling. The humor was infectious. What struck me most was the author’s ability to balance the lighter moments with heartfelt exploration of grief and loss. Isaac’s introspection about his mourning was raw and heartbreaking. I could see both characters hesitant to love again for fear of experiencing pain like they already had, yet Sunny and Isaac just FIT from their very first one-night stand!
The forced proximity of living together and working together to learn more about the town’s “Christmas miracle” story inevitably made it hard for both to keep their hands off each other, and that’s where the delightful spiciness came in that I KNEW Julie and Sierra could deliver. These two were so compatible in their interests and desires, and they were SO HOT together! Of course, I loved the dirty talk and the choice locations for some of their trysts. Well done ladies….well done!
The Christmas miracle story was a cute side-story to include that was also a surprise in how it unfolded. It was just enough to make this a fun holiday romance but one that honestly could be read any time of year.
While I mentioned that this can be read as a standalone, I think you get more perspective for the town and the background as to how adult film stars got involved with a holiday movie channel if you at least read A Merry Little Meet Cute. As the final book in the series, you get a great send-off for all of the characters you’ve met in the past books, including Teddy’s happily ever after which was great!
This book was such a blast to read and I cannot wait to chat about it in the She Reads Romance Books Book Club this October and chat with both Julie and Sierra in our Author Q&A on October 22. Be sure to join so you can join in the fun!
Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.