"The new Winnie Baker had herself under control."

I was saving this Christmas Notch sequel for December and unfortunately it just didn't live up to the enjoyment of the original story.

I was enjoying the pacing and flow of the first half of the novel but it quickly went downhill after the second half. With the surprise introduction of probably my least favourite trope I didn't have high hopes for the rest of the story and unfortunately it played out as I expected.

The second half was filled with tropes that did not appeal to me and my opinions of the main male lead didn't improve as the story continued. Overall, the pacing, flow, story development and characterisation just crumbled all in the second half.

This will appeal to readers out there, just those who like specific tropes.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for this eARC.

I'd been keeping hold of this book to read in December and I'm so glad that I did. Although it's not overly Christmas themed, being back in Christmas Notch was all of the holiday cheer I needed right now.

This second book in the series focused on a different set of characters, but there were lots of familiar faces and some great new ones added. I liked Kallum in the first book so I really enjoyed learning more about him in particular. He went on a journey in this story and by the end of it, it was lovely to see how he had matured without losing his fun side. I loved Winnie and thought that her personal story had more depth to it than some of the other characters. Her path from good obedient girl to empowered and free woman was lovely to read and I admire her a lot.

I liked this book more than the first. It was still ever so slightly ridiculous, but the plot felt a touch more realistic. The smut had me blushing, the romance had me swooning and the comedy had me giggling. An easy breezy Christmas story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

While I enjoyed this super spicy holiday romance, which also had me laughing quite a few times, I did think it was a story of two halves. The first is super sweet, as we find inexperienced Winnie coming into her own and going on a journey of self discovery with Kallum. The second half is a lot more serious, riddled with miscommunication and overall had a very different tone to the first half. It was very disjointed, and honestly I think I would have just preferred the first half.

Not as good as A Merry Little Meet Cute, but certainly still a fun time.

3.5 stars

I really enjoy these holiday romcoms - they're so silly and just a fun time, and Winnie honestly has a great character arc that I really loved to see. Over the course of the book, she becomes so much more confident in herself, believes in herself and can take control of her life, she finally knows what she wants to do other than following the rules she's been set her entire life. The second half of the book, I struggled with more, because it was FILLED with the miscommunication trope, I was begging Winnie and Kallum to just have a conversation, and them not doing so made absolutely no sense to me, considering the way they are in the entire rest of the book? I think that the second half needed a bit more fleshing out, as quite a few storylines felt as though they had been put down as soon as a certain trope occurred about halfway through, and I would've liked those to be wrapped up neatly. HOWEVER, I did enjoy this, I loved the way it discusses how damaging purity culture is and that both love interests were plus size; if you like a certain trope (that most people severely dislike), then this will be a great book for you!

A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Kallum Liebermanis the funny one™. As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, he enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame and then moved home where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! He’s living his best dad bod life, hooking up with bridesmaids at all his friends’ weddings. But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he’s ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel.

Winnie Baker did everything right. She married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. Hell, she even waited until marriage to have sex. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself—and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie?

With decade old Hollywood history between them, Winnie and Kallum are both feeling hesitant about their new situation as costars…especially Winnie who can’t seem to fake on screen pleasure she’s never experienced in real life. She’s willing to do the pleasure research—for science and artistic authenticity, of course. And there’s no better research partner than her bridesmaid sex tape hall of fame costar, Kallum. But suddenly, Kallum’s teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.

They say opposites attract, but is this holly jolly ever after really ready for its close-up?

My Opinion

Even without reading this, you know from the title that there is going to be happy ending, so this book is all about what happy ending we are going to see. This is my second trip to Christmas Notch (which sounds like a lovely festive place to visit) but this could be read as a standalone. This is a spicy romantic comedy, that whilst it has been written by two authors, I find that the pair complement each other.

Rating 4/5

I am a big fan of A Merry Little Meet Cute so I knew I wanted to read this one! I loved how while the set up was similar, the characters and relationships were so different that it made the story very different and interesting!

I really loved Winnie! I liked reading about her learning to appreciate her sexuality and I loved how the authors dealt with purity culture. I also really appreciated reading about her struggles with narcolepsy. I did really with though, that she and Kallum had found time to discuss her disorder. I would have liked to see him be supportive and have her realize how problematic her ex-husband and parents views on it were.

I also felt like this book was a little longer than was needed. The first half was completely five stars and then there was 3 hours left when I expected it to be thirty minutes. I still recommend this one but I didn't love it the same way I did a Merry Little Meet Cute.

Very cheeky and flirty, I was thrown by spicy and not at all the stereotypical opener for a rom com, then promptly fell in love with Winnie Baker. A serial people pleaser and self-described “former prude who had no idea how to un-prude herself”, Winnie is a character that I think will appeal to many female readers through the witty and warm writing style of the book. I wasn’t so instantly taken with Kallum but the pay off of being won round was delectable. A really quite spicy read, this is open door but with a generous dollop of humour and tonnes of chemistry between Kallum and Winnie so it isn’t cringey. Eager to read other things by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone, I devoured this in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book is so popular and it’s easy to see why. It definitely got me into the holiday spirit, the scenes were set perfectly. This is definitely a book with layers, it has spicy parts but it also has very funny parts. The writing took me a little while to get into but once I was there I really enjoyed it.

Fun, delightful, and full of banter. This one is, if possible, spicier than the first. Sexy lessons turns real very fast as they return to the little Christmas village .Simone and Murphy write so well together, crafting a fun romp of a story.

I really enjoyed this one!

Such a fun Christmas read with a lot of spice! (not so much that it overwhelms the story though!)

I enjoyed the relatable characters and the short chapters too! A lovely Christmassy atmosphere was created within the book, which I also loved.

Will 100% be reading anything these guys come out with! :) Perfect little holiday read!

I was so excited to be returning to Christmas Notch. I throughly enjoyed the A Merry Little Meet Cute that I couldn’t wait to get started on A Holly Jolly Ever After.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, plenty of spice and I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Winnie and Kallum evolve. Plenty of spice which is exactly what I have learned to expect from these authors.

The second half of the book though I struggled with, the story just seemed to drag on for me and If I’m honest I was glad to reach the end.

I’m left feeling a little disappointed as this wasn’t half as good as the first book in this series.

The book certainly packs some festive spice into the story line. Winnie and Kallum obviously attract from the start, lined up as the main characters in a new movie. Winnie lacks experience and sets about seeking Kallum’s expertise. The writing is fun and seasonal. I preferred the first part of the book, finding myself a little lost with the different characters towards the end. Still an enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed diving in to the romance of Winnie and Kallum, they were complete opposites but they fit perfectly. The first part of the book was a whirlwind of smut and finding their feet within their blossoming romance, it was fun and sexy and everything you expected from this book. However, the second part of the book, unfortunately fell a little flat for me. The plot twist didn't feel like a surprise as such, I could kind of see it coming from previous hints within the first half and it could have played out really well, if there wasn't so much miscommunication, or no communication at all, for that matter. There was a lot of back and fourth for Winnie and Kallum and all could have been resolved if they had just sat down like adults instead of a certain person constantly pushing the other away. That all being said, my rating for this book is still strong with 4 stars, as the whole story was fun, Winnie and Kallum were fabulous characters and I really loved how the story ended for them and last but not least, it was great seeing appearances from everybody we had met in the first book.

Now, give me Isaac's story! His love interest is 100% Addison right?

This was such a fun read and a great sequel to the first book. I loved both Kallum and Winnie from the off and was rooting for them so much! I loved the plot with the “good girl gone bad” vibes which covered so much of societal expectations for women and how flawed these are. Winnie was fab throughout and I loved her character growth.

The middle dragged for me a little bit I am glad I pushed on as I loved the final chunk and the ending was adorable. Some of the tropes in this aren’t always my fave, but they were done well and I enjoyed this book! As always with these authors, the representation was amazing, with plus size rep, sex positivity, LGBTQ+ rep and more!

Thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the concept for A Holly Jolly Holiday, and it was a really good story. Honestly the only reason I’ve rated it so low was because there was too much spice! I know I know, how could that happen? But the middle of the book felt like more spice than storyline. However the ending of the book really did pull it back. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a spicy holiday read though, it just wasn’t for me!

A HOLLY JOLLY EVER AFTER was such a sweet and adorable and sexy Christmas love story! Run to your nearest book dealer to get your own Kallum - this one is MINE!

This is the first novel I've read by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone and wont be the last. Winnie is planning a career comeback after her divorce shattered her reputation as the beloved Christmas movie star, as she grapples with what a life growing up in a strict household has meant for her. In her come back Winnie taking on a new role in a steamy adult holiday movie with the former pop-star who helped trash her teenage reputation. Looking to finally enjoy the pleasures of orgasms, Winnie lets adult film star, Kallum teach her while they fall for each other on set.

There's a twist in the second half that I don't generally like, but I thought it was effective. I rated this a 3 star due to the twist and that i would have liked to see more about how the two main characters wrapped things up, but overall I really enjoyed this story

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'A Holly Jolly Ever After' by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone.

I adored book 1 of this Christmas themed stories by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone but this novel absolutely does not beat book 1. I loved how raw and messy these characters were and how their love combined but honestly, the pregnancy trope just gives me the violent ick and that's why I personally couldn't love this more than a 3.

I enjoyed Winnie’s growth, sexual exploration and recovering from purity culture, and getting to see her believe she is worthy of unconditional love. I appreciate it that the spice developed as Winnie 's confidence grew.
However I was frustrated with the third conflict - I understood why she felt hesitant but it felt like Kallum was suddenly made to act really immature and it fell out of place. I was also surprised there was no conversation about Winnie's narcolepsy? Like it had just being added for something for her parents and ex to judge her over?
I will still be reading the future books in this series, if there are more? My theories are Sunny and Isaac maybe with Jack? And potentially an Addison and Krysta novella?

A Holly Jolly Ever After is the sequel to last year’s popular, festive read A Merry Meet Cute which was great! The male main character was previously introduced to us as former boyband member Kallum Lieberman, the K in INK. The previous book followed Nolan as him and co-star Bee filmed a raunchy Christmas movie.
In AHJEA Winnie Baker, former Puritan child actor has divorced her cheating husband who she was basically manipulated into marrying. After her reputation was dragged through the mud she’s taken a completely different role in a sexy Christmas movie on Hope After Dark. Her new co-star is none other than Kallum Lieberman, the man responsible for publishing a less than flattering picture of Winnie asleep in a car at a party due to her narcolepsy which was mistaken for a drug and alcohol induced scandal. She has never forgotten the picture that was the catalyst to her image being ruined.
This was a fun and festive read that in true Sierra Simone fashion was spicy and sexy.
There were a few elements I didn’t enjoy though. I think Winnie’s upbringing and basically forced marriage was glossed over a lot. She was groomed from a young teen in how to act, behave and eventually live her life at the mercy of not only her now ex-husband Michael but also under the control of her parents. It was quite uncomfortable at points seeing Winnie slip back into the habits that were forced upon her. Before she was 18 she was told she’d be married and as soon as she became an adult, she was wed.
Kallum could be a bit of a tool at points as well with his sex habits and general behaviour was annoying. When the big twist came I think he was dismissed a lot although he was supportive and desperate to be involved and he had to give in and wait for Winnie to realise for herself.
Fairly early on Winnie was assaulted by her ex-husband and this was just passed over as well. To me it seemed like a serious incident that violated her boundaries as well.
Overall it was a mildly festive read full of spice and drama with the characters being annoying at points.
Thank you for the eARC!