A review by lisaluvsliterature
A Jingle Bell Mingle by Sierra Simone, Julie Murphy

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-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? Yes

4.75

I have enjoyed the two other novels in this series and still need to read the novellas. Normally I love the steaminess of these, but I realized when the chapter 2 hot scene kind of was so in my face that I’d read 3 clean/sweet romances right before I started this and my brain was not used to that! LOL 
So Isaac, the final member of the boy band INK, was our hero in this story. He was not from Kansas City like the other two, because his mother was an actress. He was the sad sack, the guy whose wife had died, and he didn’t want to do anything but be sad and alone. Sunny, Bee’s best friend, and also a porn star, was mostly a lot like her name. She was always seeming to be upbeat, had lots of questions or crazy things she was talking about, just fun to be around. However she had her own issues like Isaac, and so the two were almost perfect for each other in that way.
They reconnected at a wedding, for a second night stand. While their first one had been a threesome with Jack Hart, another porn star I believe, this time it was just the two of them. Both Isaac and Sunny are bi and attracted to both men and women. Isaac decides that Sunny might be able to bring him out of his funk enough to be his muse so he can finish his final album, a Christmas album, and then he can go back to being a hermit and not having to deal with the world. Sunny doesn’t want to be anyone’s muse. She doesn’t want to get close to anyone because she lost her parents in a car accident, and can’t stand to lose anyone or let anyone be important enough to her that losing them is like that all over again.
So she says she will help Isaac find his muse, while he helps her write this screenplay she pitched an idea for that the Hope Channel bought and wants to produce now. Isaac bought the mansion in Christmas Notch where they’ve filmed many of these movies, and when he sees the state of the Inn that Sunny is staying at with her cat, he tells her she should just come stay in the huge house with him, no strings attached. Of course that leads to roommates with benefits. As she tries to find the perfect muse for him, men, sexy librarians, former hook-ups, he helps her search to find out the true story behind the Christmas Angel miracle that is a legend in the town. 
As with the other books we have all these wonderful other characters that add so much to the story. Whether it is the people we’ve met before from the other stories, the strippers from the North Pole, Teddy the former porn producer turned Hope Channel movie producer, or the new characters like Isaac’s online sleuth buddies, all of them made for so much fun to be added. I loved the cat’s name, Mr. Tumnus – I mean who doesn’t love the reference to the Chronicles of Narnia? And then the fact that there was honeymoon role-playing in the flavor of the Twilight movies cracked me up to no end. 
I know these books won’t be what some people are expecting for a Christmas rom-com, that much is obvious from some of the reviews. But I just have to wonder if those people read the other books or knew what they were getting into with this series. The only reason I marked it to 4.5 stars on my blog is because of the third act break up, if it was really that. I totally got it, and it fit, but it still just bugged me with the stubbornness of Isaac that it for me personally dropped it from perfect. 
I also know this is the last book in the series, because obviously all of our boy band members are partnered up. I’m sad to be done with this world. I don’t know how or who they would write more books about, but I’d definitely be down for spending more time in Christmas Notch in the future. Now to read the short story/novellas that go with the series that I haven’t fit in yet!
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