Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - A Holly Jolly Ever After

I originally DNF’d this on page 100 but my coworkers love my retelling of bad books and wanted me to pick this back up. The thing that I’m most mad about is that it could have been a perfectly fine romance but the authors couldn’t stop themselves from throwing more tropes into the book blender when they really needed to spend some time with the characters working through their individual issues.

Winnie- a former darling of the religious movie network- is facing scandal after her divorce and rumors her now ex-husband circulated about her infidelity even though he was the one who cheated. Don’t expect her to ever work through that hot mess though because her best solution is to take charge of her life by agreeing to star in a racy Santa movie made for the wholesome Hope Channel’s new venture Hope After Dark and then sleeping with her costar because it turns out she’s bad at acting sexy because she grew up steeped in purity culture and has never had an orgasm. Kallum is the costar in question- a former boybander who now owns a chain of pizza restaurants and has a sex tape in which he says “now that’s what I call tossing the dough” (🤢)- and he’s all too happy to give Winnie sex lessons because his only two personality traits are sex and pizza.

I have so many complaints that I can only list them because they fill me so deeply with rage.

Worst tropes ever: surprise pregnancy and a miscarriage scare. These could have easily been omitted in favor of actually working through Winnie’s religious trauma and Kallum learning he needs to grow up.
In what universe is the wholesome religious channel branching out into Cinemax-y softcore porn style productions?
The film’s intimacy coordinator asks about boundaries and allows Winnie to simply say she doesn’t have any! That is a huge red flag for doesn’t know shit about anything. It is absolutely this guy’s job to clearly spell out everything no matter how minuscule and to step in whenever necessary to prevent boundaries from getting crossed and to keep everyone safe. But no, they just move on to choreography despite it being crystal clear than Winnie cannot give informed consent because she is absolutely not informed on anything sex related.
Off hand mention of elf orgy in the background of a scene where their characters are fighting
THE SLEIGH RUNS ON SANTA’S PEPPERMINT SEMEN. WHY?? I swear I’m a good person and I didn’t deserve this.
People show up like they’ve teleported in. Winnie’s ex shows up on set (do they not have security at all?) and then her parents show up after she informs them of her pregnancy (at least this was on the street instead of on set but sure, it makes sense that they just materialize behind her)
What is this Christmas town and how is it operating? A movie theater that only shows Christmas movies all year? That’s not sustainable. Don’t even get me started on the strip club where the dancers are named after reindeer.
Winnie never tells Kallum about her narcolepsy and it doesn’t make much of an influence on the plot. It seems to exist just so Winnie can be further traumatized by her parents and ex-husband calling her lazy rather than understanding her medical condition but there’s enough going on. It could have easily been taken out and nothing would be lost.
Kallum’s sister gets on his case for sleeping with someone who’d been in a years long relationship, which is not on him at all since he wasn’t the one in the relationship. Also, sister knew about it minutes after the sex so why did she wait until the girl got engaged to yell at him?
During the above yelling, Kallum (a man in his 30s) has to Google Homewrecker because he doesn’t know what it means
Kallum’s sister, her husband & all 4-5 of her kids have names that start with T and I just don’t like that. It’s giving Duggars which is not a good look.
Miscommunication. I hate it so much and I’m sick of these golden retriever MMCs who mean well but say one thing wrong and the MFC goes silent for months and they can’t figure out what they did wrong. And then even after they’re forgiven the MFC will hold it against them forever. When Winnie is thinking about how Kallum is too irresponsible to be a father, she thinks about 3 things, one of which happened legit 14 years ago! Babe, go back to therapy!

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erin_lusk's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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downsophialane's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A mid-book

surprise baby

is always going to get a lot of people offside, and I'm sure the authors wre aware of this (Sierra Simone in particular famously prefers to polarise her readers rather than play it safe). I thought this twist worked quite well for the heroine's post-purity culture journey. Winnie's subsequent distance and, yes, the miscommunication throughout stems logically from her purity culture trauma and Kallum's established flaws as a man who had never needed to step up and grow up. I understand miscommunication can be frustrating for some readers but honestly this seems like a good example of that trope to me... They're not just stupid, it comes from their own misconceptions and backstories... Exactly as miscommunication happens in real life!

I was a little disappointed that apart from one fleeting mention that she still has a "connection" with God, there is no mention of Winnie's relationship to her faith (beyond the purity culture imposed upon her) but that's a me thing; this isn't another Priest so I won't review it like it was trying to be.

Can I say, these epilogues from Teddy's POV are a stroke of genious because all I want is more from him!

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allingoodtime's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you’re looking for chemistry, this book has it. Winnie and Kallum are scorching, even before anything even happens! Their first intimate scene is so filthy yet so innocent. Once you read this book you’ll see exactly what I mean. Whew!

Winnie grew up the poster child for the purity movement. From the television shows she was on to the movie where she met her now ex-husband, it was all about her “pure” image. She did not just live that lifestyle on-screen. Her parents and later her husband had her living the life of a “pure” woman. She’s finally free of that life, but she’s also 32 and has no idea what to do with this freedom. She only has one friend left and the studios that used to love making movies with her want nothing to do with her. It was so inspiring to watch Winnie learn to stand up for herself in both her personal and professional life. There were times she almost gave into the pull of those toxic thoughts she was barraged with her whole life, but she just got stronger and stronger.

I felt Kallum was a bit misunderstood. Sure, he’s the clown. He makes stupid mistakes when he is too old to be making those mistakes. Yet he’s got a huge heart and just wants to do right by those around him. Quite frankly, some of the mistakes he makes along the way had other people involved and I often felt his family was quite harsh with him. They are loving and supportive, but they still seem to treat him as a child. It’s no wonder he often still acts that way.

There is a lot I’d love to say about this story that would end up spoiling things, so I won’t. I will say that if you think you dislike Winnie’s parents and ex from her recollections of her life, just wait until later in the book when they are on the page. Ugh! They are all terrible people. Also, there is a lot of sex-positivity in this story that I appreciate and have come to expect from this series. When Winnie made a somewhat brutal decision that I didn’t agree with, her inner dialogue had me coming around to her side and understanding her motivation. Then, Kallum’s reaction to that decision was so perfect and wonderful and showed the growth his character made when faced with love and possibly losing that love. I know I’m being vague, but again I’m trying not to spoil things.

As with the other books in this series so far, don’t let the cover fool you. While there are laughs and a lot of positive aspects of this story, it also tackles many serious issues and it definitely bangs!

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purplepenning's review

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.25

There are no good variables to work with when the answer to the equation is other peoples' idea of perfection.

Another one where I liked the previous book in the series, liked the main and side characters, liked much of what was being addressed, but still didn't love the story or execution. Le sigh.

There's no age when people stop learning about their bodies.

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annahamburger's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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uranaishi's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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