This was just what I needed after the last heart wrenching book I read! About an ex boy band member trying to make a comeback in a hallmark type Christmas movie with a (secret) pornographic actress trying to make the leap to mainstream, this romcom would be a perfect read for Christmas. The characters are mostly likeable (perhaps a bit too much giggling for my liking but I think that comes with the genre) and the story is really well plotted. I love cheesy Christmas movies, boy bands and salacious gossip so this book hit a lot of marks for me. Very steamy! I’d recommend if you are in the market for a Christmassy romcom!

To say that I love everything that SS has ever written, it’s an understatement and I couldn’t wait to read this new book co-written with Julie Murphy .
Hidden identity, meet cute and cheerful characters that put a smile on my face at all times while reading this book. I loved how while looking frivolously for some, it packs the well known deep feelings and topics that I’m always looking forward from the author. It made me laugh, it made me want to slap their heads and it made me want to hug them at times. And that steam is so well balanced exactly when the story needs it.
It’s sweet and sexy, hilarious and beautiful at the same time. Body positivity all way around and I honestly can’t recommend it enough.

🆓📖Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through NetGalley

I would read Sierra Simone’s grocery list, so this book was a must have for me. Such a great sex positive book and I will definitely be re-reading this winter.

It's fun, inclusive, and festive. A fast paced story with two interesting characters and a lot of things going on.
i liked it and had fun, there's a lot of graphic details about sexual activities that I skipped because sex in books bores me to tears.
Entertaining and compelling.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thoroughly surprised by this book!

Loved the Christmas vibes & definitely enjoyed all the steam! (Still more plot based though don’t worry)

Very fun & entertaining overall - different to any holiday romance I’ve read before

Sweet, sexy and funny, a fully loaded Christmas treat.

When a twist of fate lands Bee Hobbes the starring role in a wholesome Christmas movie she knows she must not get involved with anyone on the set, must not tell anyone about her secret past and most definetly must not fall in love.

Not even with her costar Nolan Shaw a former boyband bad boy who is in desperate need of career reboot.

Not even if he’s gorgeous and funny and not even if she had a crush on him for most of her teenage years….

Can she resist this festive temptation, can he put his wild days behind him and will Christmas ever be the same again??

I really liked Bee and sympathised with the difficulties she faced as a plus sized actress and Nolan was so cute and lovely nothing beats a bad boy turned good trying to support his family.

The chemistry between the two MCs was electric the banter was witty and the setting and side characters were well developed. I especially liked Bee’s two mums and also the representation of Nolan’s family and the difficulties he had in supporting his bipolar mother.

The seamless switching of povs ensured this was a quick sensual experience of a story.

Overall a delicious festive treat and a must read for romance lovers this fall/autumn.

Do be warned tho this one comes with a giant helping of festive spice. 🔥🔥🔥

A Merry Little Meet Cute is a refreshingly cute story that brings together a former boy band singer and a porn star for the making of a family friendly Christmas romantic movie. The writer certainly didn’t hold back on the steamy moments, describing them in intense detail. The book covered inclusive elements of LGBT and plus sized women in a very accepting manner, The middle part of the story was a real page turner but I found that it dragged a bit towards the end to the point that I was skim reading.

A spicy modern feel good Christmas book

The pacing was perfect, characters were likeable, and the story was great. I’d only comment that the main love interests seemed to fall for one another rather rapidly without fully getting to know each other. They had both developed infatuations through their public images, but I felt the characters needed more time to learn their real selves.

Will definitely be re reading at Christmas time.

A Merry Little Meet Cute is an utterly charming and decidedly steamy holiday rom-com that I found refreshingly funny & thoroughly entertaining! With nuanced characters and an emphasis double standards, sex and body positivity—set against the backdrop of a squeaky clean, Hallmark-esque Holiday movie, Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy have crafted a heartwarming, inclusive and sizzlingly spectacular rom-com that steamy romance fans are bound to enjoy!

It’s set in Christmas Notch, a holiday themed town in Vermont where the Hope Channel are filming their newest (family friendly) Holiday romance, Duke The Halls. But thanks to festival mishap which takes out half the cast and crew, the female lead is replaced with adult film star Bee Hobbs (aka Bianca Von Honey), who has dreamed of the change to work in mainstream media. This is her big chance—so long as her identity remains a secret.

Now she gets to work alongside her teen crush, ex-boy band member and reformed bad boy, Nolan Shaw. But her new co-star is already aware of her x-rated alter ego, as he’s secretly one of her biggest fans.

When things start to heat up on set Bee and Nolan must keep their steamy affair a under wraps or risk ruining everything…

This was such an entertaining, heartwarming and swelteringly spicy read that I really enjoyed. The characters were all really we written, I really enjoyed exploring the POVs of both MCs and loved that Simone and Murphy subvert the outdated standards of beauty and the misogynistic scrutiny that female celebrities must endure in comparison to their male co-workers.

I really loved Bee who was so incredibly confident, unashamed of her body or her profession and knows her self worth. She’s sure to be a role model in self confidence for many, including myself. And her character’s championing of body and sex positivity was something I’d love to see more of in fiction. I also liked the humanisation of sex workers—especially in seeing Bee’s adult film career treated just as much respect mainstream to and film actors. The sensitive way mental health is explored was also really good, particularly the way Nolan’s mother, who has bipolar disorder is portrayed.

The chemistry between Bee and Nolan was snow meltingly spectacular though the romance is explicitly open door so if that’s not your thing you might want to give this a miss.

The supporting cast equally as endearing and I would love to see more of Angel, Luca and Sunny in future. The LGBTQ+ rep was great particularly the Bi representation, with both Nolan and Bee self identifying as Bisexual.

Overall, a fun and sizzlingly good read that steamy romance fans and holiday rom-com lovers should definitely check out.

Also, thanks to HarperFiction and Netgalley for the e-arc.

3.5/5
ARC received with thanks to the publisher. Honest review below

I so desperately wanted to love this book but I couldn’t click with the MC’s and that’s why it was a lower rating.

I did really enjoy the plot and the Christmas vibes to this. I will say that the cartoon cover is v deceiving here! There was a healthy amount of spice and a great amount of sex positivity especially in relation to sex workers.

This book also had some great rep - LGBTQ, plus size, mental health. Whilst this book has a fluffy cover and a fluffy plot, there are also some themes that could be triggering to readers so I do advise checking trigger warnings out.

Whilst I didn’t LOVE this book, I did like it and I know why people would also love it. I do encourage you to read it also if it’s on your radar!

I went into this purely based on the cover, and wow, that cover is deceiving! I was expecting a cute Christmas romance, but instead, this was very very steamy! The writing is a lot of fun though, and I was fully swept up in Bee and Nolan's stories. I liked how the authors portrayed both of their past lives and how, despite coming from seemingly opposite backgrounds, their motivations for working on this project were very similar. If you're looking for an entertaining, steamy read, this is the book for you!

Overall I enjoyed the story however was shocked at the explicit nature of some of the "raunchy" scenes and feel that should have been much clearer in the synopsis.
It felt that the detail of the sex was more important than the story which let it down in my mind as it could have been a more agreeable read with less details.

A shunned ex-popstar trying fix his image ends up in a Christmas movie with his co-star: a porn star in disguise. Nobody knows about her adult films - except of course for him- who’s been her biggest fan.

What a concept. The potential was there from the beginning but unfortunately it didn’t work for me.

I’ll start with the positives: I loved the openness and ease in which sexuality, sex and body positivity are explored in this book. We got a plus size FMC who was completely sure of herself and I loved seeing the attention this book brought to both fat-phobia and slut shaming.

Now let’s talk what went wrong.

I found the first 50% slow, boring and off-paced but I wanted to give the book a full go because there were some parts I found somewhat unintentionally amusing and I was enjoying the characters so I kept reading, assuming I just needed to get into the story. But there was little to no tension between the main characters and not even the festive nature could unfortunately save how bored I was.

The next fifty percent was a 180 of constant little dramas that felt like fillers waiting for the ‘big’ 3rd act breaks up that could’ve been easily resolved but were given more drama than felt necessary. It was an influx of miscommunication, anger and frustration. And honestly: it felt unbelievable

The characters were apologising for things that were out of their control and all around acting in what felt to me in a completely unjustified behaviour. And if I’m being honest, I started to not enjoy the characters either.

The book takes place over two weeks. The ‘relationship’ progresses over a 1 week span and so it’s understandable why it felt underdeveloped and why they had no connection beyond the physical. The conversations between the characters were dense and bland and I genuinely felt nothing to signify any deeper emotions. The continuous mentions of them being each other’s previous sexual fantasies as a method to add longevity and yearning to their relationship only gave it another physical connection and did not work to bring forth any emotional relationship.

There was a lot of mention of him being a bad boy and an ex band boy member and if I’m being honest: there was no need for a combined total of 42 mentions of this.

However, The ex band boy was giving me One Direction and Jonas Brothers so, credit where credit is due, I think my younger Jonas Brother fan is also one of the reasons it’s getting 2 stars over 1 because, as frustrating as it could be, I admittedly had to smile at those 42 mentions.

This book feels like it should’ve been a smutty novella instead of a full length novel to be honest.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the eARC in exchange for my honest review

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this astounding book

where to start with this one....

i hadnt read the synopsis just saw that it was a christmas story and thought why not... boy was i in for a shock when i started reading it....

whoever would have thought of putting porn and christmas together ..... and i am still unsure how i feel about it....lmao

so bee hobbes aka bianca von honey has been cast in a christmas movie... with bad boyband member nolan shaw...

they both have hidden secrets and both are sworn to secrecy by their management before starting the movie any hint of scandal would be bad for them both

at times this book is very funny and christmassy and then at times its very blue...and very explicit but on the whole the actual storyline is very good...and if you can get past all the explicit stuff then you are gonna love this one... and the ending is how it should be...

its a hit from me..

I do not know why some people are calling this novel a cute romcom. I have read amazing cute rom coms however this is spicy, not cute. Big difference.

This novel has very funny moments that are sure to even melt the Grinch’s heart. There are so many great ideas in this story. I loved the ideas of a town where everyone films holiday movies at. The characters in this book are funny and very well developed. I really struggled with their relationship. I did not buy into it. It was not the over the top grand Holiday Romance I wanted nor needed.

The main character is a porn star and the amount of references is a bit cringy in my opinion (does that even need reminding when this is my own review that I can say what I feel?). She has had the biggest crush on her co-star as he was a bad boy in a boy band years ago.

Anyway, I will be honest holiday romances need to be perfection for me to love them. This one has some create Christmas cozy vibes but even the ‘cuteness’ and the spice could not save this for me. It was a struggle for me to get through this book. I feel like the pacing was off and was not a cohesive as I would expect from these two accomplished writers.

I do not like the way the main character acts so sassy and yet she is so paranoid of her weight at the same time as it is very hypocritical with her personality.

I think what fell apart for me was that a lot of the scenes were just awkward. There seemed to lack a flow in storyline and causing the characters to feel one dimensional. I wanted more.

Overall it is a not-so-cute-but-humourous-in-a-sexual-reference-way story but I just did not love it.

I really enjoyed this, the story was great and I enjoyed the way it was bookended from an external perspective. As you'd expect from the authors, there were a good few steamy scenes but also a lot of heart. I really enjoyed the representation of different types of trauma and ways of dealing with that without being too heavy, along with the bisexual representation without that being a big deal.

This was definitely more out there for a Christmas read! If you liked The Roomate and The Intimacy Experiment, then you’ll like this. Bee and Nolan definitely don’t feel like the same old heterosexual protagonists, which is very refreshing.

I would firstly just like to say a big thank you to NetGalley, who very kindly forwarded me an arc copy of this book, for my Kindle, in return for my honest review.

This book was a wonderful combination of a funny and romantic rom com, combined with a sexy romance, sprinkled with some sauciness and it worked really well!
The two main characters were so good together and their chemistry was just off the scale and I loved it!!
I loved that it was a small town romance and revolved around the making of a Christmas movie. It was just like being absorbed in my own Christmas movie but with that extra touch of added sauciness!!!

I had high hopes and expectations for this book based on the blurb, cover and promotion I’ve seen for it, but unfortunately I felt it just didn’t deliver.
I didn’t feel particularly festive/ Christmassy whilst reading which I’d hoped for. I liked Bee but didn’t really care for any of the other characters at all, including Nolan.
It was far too long in my opinion, and nothing ever really happened until near the end, by which time I was struggling through to finish the book and it was so predictable at this point. Sadly, this one just fell flat for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

When I picked this up I was expecting a cute romcom which I will say it is but with lots of spice. A plus sized adult film star and an ex boy band bad boy meet whilst filming a wholesome Christmas film each with their own reasons for this career move. I enjoyed the build up in their relationship and the aspects of body positivity and the openness and positivity discussing sex workers in this book.
This was an unexpected and enjoyable spicy romcom.