3.5
I wanted to love this book I really did, I am a big Tessa Bailey fan and why I enjoyed parts of this it just wasn’t my favourite of hers. I did enjoy both main characters and liked them separately and together, melody was probably my favourite out of the two. I I thought she had great character growth, and just felt like a sweet women. I loved how the relationship with her mother was done and how it wrapped up during the end it was probably one of my favourite parts of the book! I felt like Beat had a lot of emotional trauma and issues that couldn’t just be fixed because he found true love. The reason he was being blackmailed in the first place is heartbreaking, and I don’t think enough on how it effected him was put there with more focus on how it would effect everyone else. I also felt like their love was a. It insta love and usually I don’t mind that but this just felt a little cringy, especially paired with their spicy scenes! It just kinda felt like Tessa is known for writing spicy books and that’s what people want so she threw things in there but it didn’t feel like it went? I also listened to this on audio, and why I don’t think I mind reading 3rd person narrative hearing it spoken just threw me out of the story. I also thought for a Christmas theme book there was not enough holiday/Christmas in it all.