Short and sweet holiday romance.

Declan has feelings for his executive assistant Maddie. He's wary to start anything with her because he's afraid that he'll mess things up. When his family insists that he come home for Christmas, he decides to ask Maddie to pose as his girlfriend and she eventually agrees.

This book was cute and kind of funny, but I wish it had more depth.

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series featuring Eddie and his best friend Birdie. ( )

Kayley Loring does it again. The humor and banter between the two main characters makes this book worth the listen all on it's own. Add in the story, side characters and sexy times and you have a five-star listen. I hope to get more books including stories for Declan's siblings.
I listened to the audo version of this book. Mackenzie Cartwright and Connor Crais were fantastic. Connor does an Irish access in part of the story and it is everything. Mackenzie is so great and I hope to continue to hear more from her. ( )

I don't spend a lot of time, or any I guess, reading synopses. It was a little unfortunate here that I very near rage quit - and I guess fortunate I didn't. The story quickly moves away from the workplace, thank god, and Declan as a toxic, demanding (but funny) ew boss, thank goodness. Once it separates, by and large, and doesn't drag it out this is just funny, sexy fun. Declan is a fun hero, and I really loved his POV in this.

But my plea: Can we move romance out of the workplace, the bosses (especially the ones that exploit their salaried employees) and that level of just ew? Because I do not care, and this book could have been successful anyway. ( )

Sexy, festive and so much fun
5 stars

When I imagine a book about a sexy, grumpy boss falling in love with his long-suffering assistant, I immediately assume that the hero will be a quiet and broody while the heroine is quiet, somewhat submissive and hiding her light under a bushel.

This is so not that story.

From the first page, you realise the relationship between Declan and Maddie is full of bickering, sarcasm, eye-rolling and taking little digs at each other. This is clearly foreplay which is obvious to everyone except Declan and Maddie. That’s not to say that Declan isn’t a little bit of an asshole to Maddie. She’s strong enough to dish it right back to him but he does deserve a slap every now and then.

For the first wee while, like I said, Declan was an asshole. But he tempered it with joking, teasing and bantering with Maddie. Yet as the story progresses, we begin to see something deeper with Declan. It’s so subtle, but little things he thinks and says, little looks he gives and his actions begin to show his vulnerabilities. My heart started to hurt for him and I began to really root for him. And want to give him a big hug, obviously!

I liked Maddie from the start. She was no nonsense and while she gave as good as she got with Declan, she was still infuriated by, and attracted to him. It was hilarious to watch her battle with herself about what she should do and how she should play things. And like Declan, with each chapter, we learn a little more about Maddie and she becomes more human and more open with her thoughts and feelings. And how she and Declan interact. My hurting heart began to swell.

The foreplay/banter is on point with this story which leads to an unbelievably hot sex session when things get to a head. Wow! Merry Christmas to all of us! There was more sex in the book after that and while nothing compared to that first time, it was all still hot, sexy and still fun.

This story gave me lots of Christmas feels. It’s not festive in a ‘snow falling, sitting by the fireplace sipping hot chocolate’ kind of way. It’s just got heart to it - especially in the family scenes. And we get lots of references and puns with Christmas songs and carols. Good grief - who knew that so many Christmas songs could be made to sound so dirty? *Slow clap*

It took me a couple of chapters to get fully into the story (don’t worry, the chapters are short) but once I did, I devoured this story. I liked the change up of traditional storytelling, text message conversations and, once or twice, hilarious diary entries from Piper - Maddie’s niece. All these elements worked so well and were just what I needed. This was definitely an ‘ach- I’ll just read one more chapter’ kind of book.

This is my first Kayley Loring book but it certainly won’t be my last. Her writing is fast, sassy, fun and filthy. It’s packed with fun references, tons of sweary words and moments of absolute hilarity. And the banter - oh the banter! You could practically hear the character voices coming through the pages, they felt so real.

While this book stands alone with its own HEA, I did make a note to myself to demand a book for Eddie, Declan’s brother (hopefully with nerdy Birdie) in the future. Imagine my delight to hear it’s already in the works and coming in April 2021. Yay - a new series to indulge in.

This book was an absolute delight. Characters that grow with the story, a believable relationship and sass, sex, shenanigans and Christmas - what more could you ask for? Highly recommended - definitely a 5 star read. ( )