3*
Thank you Harper Collins/HarperVoyager and NetGalley for providing me with an audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.
So, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
I feel like this would appeal to people who read one direction fan fiction, take that how you will.
I went into this hoping to find a cute, simple hallmark inspired romance but it became far too convoluted when it didn’t need to be.
The blueprint was there, but the execution fell a little flat. I never felt really invested at all.
I will say, I still enjoyed this as a Christmas read and loved seeing plus size representation but this felt too long, and quite cringy at times.
If you want a spicy Christmas romcom this will work for you, but it just wasn’t for me.

A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone was a pleasant surprise.

There was a lot of other things to like about this. I appreciated that the book was all about female empowerment. It was sex positive, body positive and featured queer characters without them feeling 'slotted in'. I also liked that the MCs were both fans of each other before working together too, as it maintained a balance and kept any disparity at bay.

What I will say though, is that I think it was a touch too long. I didn't care for the third act issues and I felt that it ended up dragging a little by the end. This was a bit of a shame as I did enjoy it, but it won't stop me reading further books in this series.

I liked the narrators (Joy Nash and Sebastian York) and I appreciated that there were two as it made it easier to follow the story. I found that I needed to speed it up though as it felt quite slow.

Thank you to HC for providing me with a copy of this book, and the audiobook- I ended up buying a physical edition too!

I absolutely adored A Merry Little Meet Cute!

I instantly feel in love with the characters and it was the perfect book to see me through December.

This story follows Bee, a plus sized adult film star, getting her first break in a Christmas movie. Teamed with a bad boy and ex boy band star, Nolan, hilarity, chaos and a lot of steam ensues...

100% recommend.

Did I enjoy reading this book? Yes! Is it a bit more x-rated than your standard romance? YES! Did it put me in a Christmas spirit? No….. so I’d like to give this book a higher rate for being brave and different, I liked the story and the characters….. but I wanted it to put me in a Christmas mood, and it didn’t do that for me. So if you are not after a Christmas book and wouldn’t mind a bit more sex focus than your average romance then I would highly recommend this book….

I was super excited for this but it just all felt a bit too much. I didn’t really gel with the characters sadly.

Absolutely loved this book. It was an absolute joy to read and one of my first really spicy reads. It was so funny at times and I really loved the main characters. It did in fact feel like you were watching a hallmark Christmas film, which was accidentally crossed with fifty shades of Gray. It was so fun to read about B and her journey of self-discovery as a pornstar and actress. Her two mums were fantastic and her supporting cast of friends and co-workers really did bring this book alive. I can't recommend it enough as a really fun read but also I found the characters so enjoyable and couldn't wait to find out what happened. One of my top reads of 2023.

That was painful. I felt sorry for the lectors.

Merry Little Meet Cute tells a story of a plus size p@rn star that has a chance to change her career and become a star of a Hope Channel (something like Hallmark) and an music icon who is also acting and is trying to restore his career. At the movie set it turns out that he is one of the patrons that supports her private page, you know, with her intimate pictures and videos.

It could have work. Really. But in my opinion this story is…. Ehh I am not going to write it.

It is filled with clichés! Your typical gay friend, liberated lesbian moms, over protecting best friend who at the same time is pushing you to have s@x. It was supposed to be funny and turned out to be cringe.

But the most annoying thing for me was that the heroine was body conscious. For god sack, she is a p@rn star and she enjoys this aspect of her life, how it is possible that a successful girl like that is still questioning if she can be attractive!? It is not 2010 where shit like that was inventive! Authors, you can do better! You can create character where shit like that doesn’t not matter, otherwise we will never leave this thinking behind.

This is a uniquely charming but spicy holiday read!! It is not over the top Christmas but does follow a Christmas theme. This story is about a Christmas movie that is being filmed for The Hope Channel which is basically their version of The Hallmark Channel. The male lead is a former boy band member and current reformed bad boy Noah Shaw. When the initial female lead gets injured before production, the film’s producer decides to pick Bee Hobbes for the role. Bee is an adult film star trying her hand at more mainstream endeavors, but the Hope network can’t find out about Bee’s other occupation as the network prides itself on being family-friendly. Bee’s secret is kept under wraps until she meets Noah (who happens to be a huge fan), and instantly their attraction is off the charts. Noah and Bee both need the movie to be a squeaky-clean success for their own reasons. Too bad they can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. The audiobook is narrated by Joy Nash and Sebastian York. I thought they did fantastic job telling the story. Loved their voices and narration. Many thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook. All opinions expressed in this review are my own

Not your usual hallmark Christmas story, though that is what the theme of the book is. It's a hallmark movie but a tantalizing backstory that all the actors behind the scenes are dirty and sex-positive, the antithesis of the 'pure', soft romance players of traditional hallmark style. I thought that the representation of different sexual preferences and the plus-sized FMC was good but some of the interactions and dialogues felt a bit forced and flat which detracted from the representation for me. Also, I'd happily never hear about Nolan's beanie again, which brings me to my next 'ick' that Nolan isn't a very sexy name for a MMC. Nevertheless the smut scenes were niiiiiiice. The storyline wasn't overly groundbreaking, I think she let Nolan off a little too easily, but I still enjoyed it and was glad to finally read it. It had the HEA end that all cheesy Christmas romances do.

I listened to this audiobook as a free eARC from NetGalley (with thanks to Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone and the publisher). I would recommend this book to other readers and I would reread it again myself.

After an accident involving an actress and some of the crew on an upcoming Christmas movie, the producer and director need to find a new Female lead. When the producer who also works in the sex industry brings the wrong file to a meeting, a headshot of a porn star gets chosen as the female lead to the movie. Bee is warned by the producer to keep her sex worker side on the down low, as this is their chance to make it in the blockbuster industry. Nolan the Male lead is determined to renew his reputation from the scandal of a few years ago that lead to an Olympic skater missing out on a medal. Nolan distracted with his family problems, struggles to keep focus on set where they are filming a movie about a time travelling woman running from her wedding. She supposedly meets an English duke where she learns the true meaning of Christmas. Nothing seems to be going right during the shoot and both Nolan and Bee constantly run into problems and malfunctions during the 2 week shoot.

I'm not sure who the title of the book related to the story line as no 'meet cute' occurred. This book seemed unnecessarily long and could have been shortened by removing some of the redundant parts. The movie that the characters were making is absolutely ridiculous and would never be made in real life, couldn't the authors have invented a better storyline?

The entire storyline about Nolan and his mum seemed pointless and irrelevant to the plot of the whole book, and I have no idea why it was included. The whole thing about having Bipolar disorder = being unstable and dependent is quite frankly offensive to those with mental health problems.
I liked that an attempt was made to be LGBT and body positive inclusive, but some of the issues/bullying that occurred around the MC was never really addressed and was just ignored. The main Character Bee, just seems to accept all of this negativity? I found it a bit difficult to believe that a popular boy band's career would have ended because the manager 'run off with the money'.

I personally didn't like the Insta-love romance it just seemed really really far fetched. Overall it was a bit of a disappointing book, which is a shame because it has been highly recommended on social media.

Had to stop listening 17 minutes in. I’d heard bad things about this book but I really didn’t realise it would be this bad. Some of the worst writing I’ve ever read. I’m one of the most open people about sex but even for me this was too much. The sex talk needed dosing down to leave some actual room for plot. Phase it in a bit later.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas romance book. It contained enough spice and likeable characters to make this book fun and enjoyable.
This was my first experience of an audiobook and would definitely recommend the to other bookish types.

I absolutely adored this book. Bee and Nolan's story was so good and I really loved the side characters too. I loved the writing from Julie and Sierra, and the spice was perfect. I can't wait for more stories from A Christmas Notch

I wasn't a fan of this story. The storylines were a bit forced and it was also not very believable - as though the author was trying too hard to have the main character be a porn star that she actually went too far EG a whole suitcase full of dildos... really? Is that what women who appear in sex films carry around with them? I found it difficult to stage engaged in the story, which is a shame as I do like books about body confidence and empowering women, but this one fell short - for me.

Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star.

But when Bee is cast to star in a Christmas movie for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, Bee is forced to keep her work as Bianca under wraps.

That’s easier said than done when she discovers her co-star is none other than childhood crush Nolan Shaw, an ex-boy band member in desperate need of career rehab.

But things heat up quickly in Christmas Notch, Vermont, when Nolan recognizes his new co-star from her ClosedDoors account.

Now Bee and Nolan are sneaking off for quickies on set, keeping their new relationship a secret from the Hope Channel’s execs.

But if Bee and Nolan can’t keep their off-camera romance behind the scenes, then this merry little meet cute might end up on the cutting room floor.

This was a cute and steamy romcom that I didn’t know I needed this holiday!!

I enjoyed this, found the narrators really good, the plot was super fun, found it could have been a tiny bit of a slower burn within the same time because I felt the last 30 percent slightly pointless but I did really love the book! Empowering and love the body inclusivity

So... I have something against false advertisment and always feel robbed, so here is why: the tittle talks about a meet cute, there's no meet cute here, that's basically a meet f*ck. It's advertised as a rom-com, and I'm sorry but there's definitely no com(edy) in this rom-com. Also there's barely any rom(ance) in this rom-com as well.

This book hasn't done anything to me. It wasn't funny at all, I'm still looking for anything fun that could have put the com to the romcom ad. The romance felt out of nowhere, because outside of sex and the whole "I've been a fan of you since years", Bee and Nolan has no chemistry and not a single moment where they actually get to really know each others outside of their problems, so the "I love you" felt waaaay out of nowhere and too weird to be real.

Also, as an asexual person, I don't mind steamy scene but really if there's no emotional connection between the characters it's just a moment I wanted to skip and that's what I did. A lot. Because there's a lot of scenes. Basically they're only doing that when they're together. And it was boring and tiring. And too long.

So yeah, read the book if you want spicy stuff and all dirty talk and dirty minds and everything. Don't read the book if you actually want a MEET CUTE rom-com during winter/christmas season (which is what I wanted).
The 1 star is for the positivity around sex workers and everything even if it could have been handled better around fatphobia and the bipolar disorder issue.

I loved the voice actor who voiced this book they were absolutely beautiful. They made the story come to life. We have the different tones of the voices, and the way they made a scene more interactive. This was a beautiful Christmas romance comedy that was sexy and beautiful and I would reccomend to everyone.

Did I have a giggle when my approval for this audiobook came through after the New Year? ⁣
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Why, yes I did 🤣 I already had this book slated to read end of 2023 but my plans quickly changed with my quest to clear my Netgalley shelf.⁣
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Was this book a “Christmas” read? ⁣
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I’m not sure. Yes, it was based around Christmas time but I don’t feel it had much more holiday spirit then that.⁣
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Was it a “cute” read?⁣
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It was a romance and while there were some cute scenes, I would say it was definitely more steamier than I anticipated 🔥 To the point that I kept whipping my head around making sure no one could hear my audiobook 😂😂

My first impressions of this book based on the lovely front cover were that it would be a cute, girly, Christmas romance. I certainly wasn’t expecting the spice overload and the in depth sexual descriptions.

The book follows Bea who works in the porn star industry. She lands a main role alongside a member of a former boyband however,as the film is for a family Chanel she must hide her past.

The storyline is very predictable and in some parts very silly. That being said I loved the main characters, I think the sex industry was repped well and it did make me laugh out loud in parts.

A fun and spicy read, nothing particularly rememberable but still a decent Christmas read, something a bit different to anything else out there at the minute.