Phew! This was a wild ride! Super fun, spicy and flirty but also packed full of the ramifications of purity culture. A Holly Jolly Ever After explores what it’s like to rediscover yourself outside the scope of the Evangelical lens while also shedding light on the devastating effects of purity culture as a whole.

I am a huge fan of Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone’s series and can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Thank you HarperCollins UK for the ARC!

Phew! This was one jolly ride. This book had 400+ pages, but it didn't ever feel like it. The writing was so good and funny that the story just flew.

Kallum & Winnie were the opposites-attract couple who managed to make a way in my heart with their goofiness and well steam, of course. Speaking of steam, this book didn't shy away from it, but as I've said earlier, I don't mind the high steam if there's a good romance with it. And this book did!

I think I loved the first half of the book more than the second as I'm not a huge fan of a certain trope. And I think most people who don't like this trop wither will agree. Nevertheless, it was totally entertaining.

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

A steamy rom-com perfect for the festive season. This can be read as a standalone or as part of the Christmas Notch series. I think it's better to have read the first book before diving into this one.

I read a Merry Little Meet Cute last year and a lot of characters make reappearances in this book. I always love a cameo of previous characters, and to have Bee and Nolan make several appearances and essentially become supporting characters throughout really helped to bind the story together. I also liked seeing how their lives had developed since the last time we met them.

If you haven't read the first book, for context the FMC here (Winnie) was supposed to be starring alongside Nolan in the Hope Channel movie 'Duke The Halls' until she got ill at a festival and ultimately had to drop out, which brought Bee and Nolan together.

Winnie was for most of her life a good woman. She got married at a very early age and was a Hope Channel starlet. She had a strict upbringing revolving around staying chaste and pure, all the while trying to manage her narcolepsy (which her parents labelled as laziness). When she got divorced from her sleazeball of a cheating husband, it was a chance to try and change her life, and find her own happiness.

Now she has been brought in to star in the Hope Channel's first 'After Dark' movie, a romance with a bit more spice than usual, and her co-star is no other than ex-INK boyband member Kallum. The same guy who just happens to have leaked a photo of her sleeping in a limo when she was younger which was taken all the wrong ways by the media to try and tarnish her reputation.

What follows is an unconventional start of a relationship between Winnie and Kallum as she realises it's hard to fake spicy scenes for the camera if you don't have much experience in that department. They work together to bring Winnie into her sexual element, all the while Kallum is harbouring stronger feelings for her.

Kallum is a dad bod, lumberjack-esque, pizza company-owning cinnamon roll. He and Winnie bring out the best in each other and it's good to see a lot of back and forth and character development happen throughout.

The book is split into two parts, the second part picking up six weeks after the film has wrapped, which thrusts them back together for some further reshoots.

Similar to the first book, there is a lot of spice, but it isn't the star of the show, and we get to see a romance blossoming, even if it does happen in a backwards timeline kind of way.

We even got to find out more about Isaac, the third INK member who hasn't made much of an appearance before due to grieving his wife. As the book ends with him relocating to a quieter area (no spoilers!), will we see a third book in this instalment centred around him?

A quick shout out for Teddy as well, for finally going after what he wants! <3

This is a lighthearted, spicy and festive romance to add to your holiday TBR!

Well this was something! If you are looking for a festive book with lots of spice then this is the book for you, and all that , it really did deliver. Unfortunately for me I did find some of the dialogue to be quite cringy and so I didn't really warm to the male character at all.....he gave me the ick lol!

But it's still a good solid fun read!

I like the vintage-like cover but I wasn't a fan of the characters and the story tell flat
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This book is so freaking hot 🥵 I loved the first book in this series and as soon as I saw this one pop up on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to request a copy! Kallum the ex-boyband member and Winnie the fallen from Grace actress were such a cute couple, admiring from afar and then flung together to make a steamy movie. Her asking him for tutoring on their steamier scenes is a recipe for feelings and orgasms 😆🫶🥵

Thank you to the publishers for a copy of this book via NetGalley! 🙌

The story promises a delightful holiday rom-com, where actress Winnie Baker finds herself stepping into sultry shoes for a Christmas movie role, guided by the experienced ex-boyband member, Kallum Lieberman. The pair, brought together by the project, embark on a 'co-stars-with-benefits' arrangement, making for a spicy tale that's anything but a slow burn.
Drawing parallels to a previous book, this one shares the same appealing setting and a similar backdrop of creating a Christmas movie. While there are recurrent characters, the main couple's dynamic is refreshingly different. The pacing of the romance is noteworthy—introducing the right amount of spice at just the right moments, adding zest to the story.
In terms of tropes, you can expect a lovable, gentle male lead, an endearing 'guy falls first' dynamic, and a touch of innocence in our female protagonist.
Overall, 'A Holly Jolly Ever After' is a cute, sexy Christmasy read that will appeal to fans of steamy holiday romances. If you enjoyed the authors' previous work or similar genres, this book is a definite go-to for the upcoming festive season.

would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this very funny christmas book

its puts a whole new meaning to the the famous jackson 5 christmas song santa claus is coming to town....

i knew after reading their first book a merry little meet cute that if they wrote another book that i would most definitely want to read this one and i wasnt disappointed....

kallum a member of the former lnk boy band. the one the fans liked but not as much as the other two

winnie baker is the girl who had everything at her feet and then she lost it all... mostly because of kallum though he doesnt know it yet

omg this was the funniest rudest christmas story i have read this year and i loved it... cant wait to see if these two author write another book together as its a must read....

There wasn’t anything explicitly wrong with this book, it just wasn’t for me. A bit too cheesy/cringe for my liking, and I found it bizarre that the main character raised awareness of a condition as serious as narcolepsy, but didn’t raise it with the main character/love interest as the plot developed?

⭐️⭐️.5 stars out of five

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

A Holly Jolly ever after
Release date 12th October 2023
Rating 5 stars
My first read for October and it was a Christmas story, Holly Jolly ever after brings the same magic as Merry little meet cute did last year with Winnie and Kallum’s story, two people who find love on a set and when the work ends will they be able to keep it together. This book was steamy, and funny all that I was expecting. It was also a very quick read in which I found myself devouring the pages wanting to know what was going to happen.

Winnie’s story is one that any good girl has been through the feeling that you have to live up to a role that has been given to you by society and your family and always feeling that you have not met it and Kallum is also a stereotype of bad boy Music person who does not care but as always we should know better than to be confined by our ideas of social norms and expectations and this is what this book deals with.
We see cameos from the couple we met last year in A merry little meet cute and all in all, if you want a steamy romance to help you on the cold winter nights look no further than this book it will have you thinking about the characters for hours later and wondering why do I not have something like this in my life.

If you liked the first book go and read this one too because both are just what you need to fill your heart with some steamy romance with some moments that will make you giggle.

I loved the first book of this series so I was excited to jump into this one. It is such a fun read and Christmas Notch is the perfect setting for some festive spice. We get to revisit some much loved characters from the first book as well as some new ones. However, this can be read as a standalone. I enjoyed seeing Winnie unlearn the purity culture she was brought up in and Kallum was a big sweetie. I love a dual POV and this was done perfectly. The spice kicks in pretty quickly (definitely not a slow burn) but it fits in with the story and isn’t just sex for spice sake. It would have been a 5 star read except (Spoiler) I hate the unexpected pregnancy trope. I didn’t enjoy the second half of the book as much because of this. I also thought the conflict was dragged out for a tad too long. However, I did like that we get to see both characters grow individually instead of trying to fix each other and the end was adorable. I really hope we get to see more from some of the other characters because there are so many that I love and Simone & Murphy just work so well together.


I received a copy of the ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A super sexy, hilarious Christmas novel that takes us back to Christmas Notch in all its magnificent glory and gives us a story of a woman who does not know herself at all, and the man that wants to show her everything. Their journey is a little bumpy, but a happily ever after that comes without any work would not be worth it. I loved getting more of Kallum and his leading lady is just the cheese on the pie! I can't wait to go back again, she says hopefully!

I went into this having not read the previous book in the series so not really knowing what to expect.

Kallum is the golden retriever love interest who’s half way to in love with Winnie from the start. I did like Kallum and he tried so hard to be what Winnie needed. Winnie, I just wasn’t as keen. The innocence around her sexuality and growing up with the purity culture just didn’t fit with the style of film she had chosen to do. I know that’s the point of the book but it just didn’t work for me.

What a perfect treat for the holidays this book was! I can always trust the power duo Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy to give me the perfect balance of plot and spice. This has me squirming in my seat, butterflies going rampant, and blushing HARD. I will never tire of their books, please keep writing more!!!

More review to come near the publishing date.

I really enjoyed the last book I read from these authors and I was pleasantly surprised by the difference between the first impressions the cover gives you versus the spice you’ll find in the pages inside. So, I was excited to get a copy of their new book, A Holly Jolly Ever After. Sadly, I just didn’t feel the same about this book and I have DNF at 50%. Whilst I really enjoyed being reunited with the returning characters and the Christmas themed village, I just was not invested in the latest couple. I was interested in reading about Winnie’s experiences with misogynistic nonsense that is the purity movement. However, I just wasn’t rooting for the couple. For the first time, the dialogue felt really cheesy and the line “This p***y could bring about world peace” made me roll my eyes so hard that I decided to DNF.

I really did enjoy the first book so I will be interested to see what happens in their next book, I just might be a little more hesitant to read it.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

A story about growth, changing who you are, fresh starts, honesty, trust, love and starting again. It was a good book. But I couldn't gel with the characters in the book.

I did enjoy this book to a certain extent and I did really enjoy the 180 change from pornstar Bee to purity girl Winnie for our leading lady. I thought seeing the purity culture and shame that Winnie had to deal with all her life and the damage this has done to her creating healthy relationships was very well done. I was also very happy to see the reappearance of characters such as Teddy and Sunny. However I found myself losing focus about three quarters into this novel, I think the ending was a bit too drawn out. I'm also not a massive fan of the accidental pregnancy trope and this actually put me off Winnie and Kallum as couple as I feel it made them even less suited to each other.

This book is the latest Holiday Romance from Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy. It gives us exactly what we would come to expect from this duo of authors - a cute romance with a bit of spice, wrapped up in a Christmas setting.

I must admit it did feel very strange picking up a Christmas Romance book in the middle of September. I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy it as much because it wasn't really the right season for it - however, I was pleasantly surprised. This book didn't have a massive Christmas focus - other than it taking place on the set of a Christmas movie. I think that the previous book (A Merry Little Meet Cute) was much more Christmas-focused.

There are some similarities to the previous book - so if you liked that one, you will definitely like this. It obviously has the same location, a fairly similar plot in the sense that the characters are making another Christmas movie, but the main couple have a very different experience. We do some returning characters from the first book too.

There is a decent level of spice that appears fairly quickly in the plot. Sometimes it can come across as a bit much if the spice is introduced too quickly, but in this case, it worked really well. This is not a slow burn! haha.

Tropes you can expect from this book: Cinnamon Roll MMC, guy falls first, innocent slash virgin (ish) FMC (which I will admit is not my favourite trope but I'll go with it), miscommunication, and surprise pregnancy (SPOILER).

Unfortunately, the only thing that really let this book down for me, was the "Surprise - You're Pregnant!" Trope. I hate this trope with a passion and to be honest, I was tempted to DNF at the point that this part of the story appears (Around 60% in). If it wasn't for that I would have given this a higher rating, because everything after that point was a let down for me.
4/5 stars

This has been a really enjoyable series so far. The representation, and honesty throughout the book was incredible but also managed to perfectly balance the maturity of the topics with a lot of humour, and very likeable main characters, that had clear differences from the characters in the first book, so it felt fresh instead of repetitive.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for allowing me an e-arc copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve read the previous Christmas Notch novel from Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone, and as soon as I saw this appear on Netgalley I applied straight away!! I loved the first book and couldn’t wait to see what they did with the second!

It lived up to every hype I had from the first book, and I think I enjoyed this one even more than the first! Of course, you had some of the best spice in the first couple of hundred pages, but you then also had some really get character building and some more plot in the second half. You see the main character Winnie learn to love herself after leaving the toxic purity culture she was a part of and learn to explore herself and her sexuality. You also see the two MC’s going through some tough choices and finding out how to work through them as adults and come out for the better on the other side.

I also really like seeing some of the same side characters coke back in this books, as well as seeing some hints for some of the (hopefully) next books in the series!

This was a really fun, light hearted and steamy romance and would recommend this to any romance readers out there.