Deanna recommended this to me and I'm glad she did cos otherwise I would've missed out on a cute holiday novella! This was funny, sweet, and sexy and I have to admit that while the instalove would've normally irritated me and there were some things that didn't 100% make sense, I simply didn't mind because this was a good-time read and I finished it in a couple of hours! That said, if you really can't stand instalove or if your logic brain takes over and says "this doesn't make sense" and ruins the story for you (which I totally get), then this will very likely not be for you. Again, I personally didn't mind it this time and this novella was exactly the easy read I was looking for.
Their not-so-meet-cute was funny and from there we get one incident after another that forces Natalie to stay in the cabin with Declan and his son, Chris, and they end up spending the week stuck together in this isolated cabin in a middle-of-nowhere town in the mountains. It was cute how Declan relaxed around Natalie as she proceeded to do with Chris what she'd normally do with her little girl, Addy. There was Christmas cookie baking, snowman making, Christmas tree picking and decorating, and all the re-watches of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. It was cute and heartwarming and I liked the dynamic that they developed, no matter how quickly it did happen. Speaking of quick, the romance also progressed at a very speedy and not very plausible rate, but as I've already mentioned earlier, I didn't mind it overly much and was able to shove my logic brain to the side for this. 😂
Natalie and Declan had great chemistry and I guess it tracks that two attractive people with no attachments who get stuck together in such close proximity would end up feeling an attraction to each other. Especially when one of them is so great with your kid and is the total opposite of the controlling horror show that is your ex-partner. With all those sparks flying, it was inevitable that they'd end up hooking up and it was hot! 🔥 The ending was definitely rushed but it was a satisfying HEA, if not a little too perfectly tied up, but overall, I really enjoyed this! It made me curious about the other players mentioned in this book and I might just have to look up the series they're part of now!