Ein Elf am Rande der Verzweiflung

The Wynter Brothers #2

by Alina Jacobs, Karina Michel (translator)

Das letzte Weihnachtsfest hätte perfekt sein sollen, aber es war das schlimmste aller Zeiten.

Mein Traumfreund kam nach Hause, um mich über die Feiertage zu überraschen ... bis sich dieser Traum in einen Albtraum verwandelte und meine Cousine mich ohrfeigte, weil ich ihren Verlobten unter dem Mistelzweig küsste.
Jetzt hält mich meine ganze Familie für ein männerstehlendes Miststück.

Ich muss meinen Namen reinwaschen, sonst ist Weihnachten ruiniert.

Gibt es einen besseren Weg, das zu erreichen, als den Erzfeind meiner Familie zu erpressen?

Anderson Wynter ist meine letzte Hoffnung. Groß, dunkelhaarig und moralisch flexibel, mit Waschbrettbauch und Todessehnsucht, ist er die perfekte Waffe, um meinen verlogenen Ex zu entlarven und mir zu helfen, wieder in der Gunst meiner Familie zu stehen.

Aber als er bei der jährlichen Weihnachtsfeier meiner Familie nur mit Tattoos und einem Motorradhelm bekleidet auftaucht und allen erzählt, dass wir zusammen sind, wird mir klar, dass ich einen schrecklichen Fehler gemacht habe.
Jetzt bin ich an einen Motorrad fahrenden Bad Boy mit schrecklichen Moralvorstellungen und einer noch schlimmeren Einstellung gekettet – einer, der mitten im noblen Country Club meiner Eltern seine Hand in meine Bluse steckt und mir sagt, ich solle auf ihm reiten wie auf seinem Motorrad.

Als ich ihm eine Ohrfeige gebe, grinst er nur und fragt, ob ich mich gern selbst berühre, während ich darüber fantasiere, meine Familie mit ihm zu verraten.

Als ob.

Auf keinen Fall schlafe ich mit dem Mann, den meine ganze Familie hasst.

Denn das würde nicht nur Weihnachten ruinieren.
Es würde auch den Rest meines Lebens zerstören.

Genres: Christmas, Romance, Holiday, Enemies To Lovers, Contemporary Romance, Fake Dating, Contemporary

602 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 12, 2024

About the author

If you like steamy romantic comedies with a creative streak, then I'm your girl!

Architect by day, writer by night, I love matcha green tea, chocolate, and books! So many books…

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Reviews

[KJ Papetti · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you read the first one, you read this one. Literally. Copy and paste. It was also about 300 pages too long. Skimmed the last 30% because nothing happened.

[Olivia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never written a review before but I felt in necessary as a PSA. This book is unreadable. There is no context, no character development, no transitions, no build up- it is hectic and random to read. I hate to trash a book with one star but I couldn’t let this go unsaid.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few things in this world make me as happy as an Alina Jacobs Christmas themed book. This is the second book in the Wynters brothers series, and just like book 1, this did not disappoint. It is hysterical from start to finish. There’s an overly happy, bit of a disaster FMC who ends up entangled with a grumpy Wynters brother. The banter is excellent, the language is saucy, and the grandmothers are unhinged.

5🌟
3🌶️

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf. This is a carbon copy of the first book in the series, with more toxic characters. I wanted to like this, but after 50%, with essentially the same characters and almost verbatim plot, I couldn't do it. It's funny sure, but there is even less character development, and everyone treats each other poorly.

[CB · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW

Rating: 2.5/5
POV: 1st; dual
Tropes: Enemies to friends to lovers; fake dating; brothers enemy; quirky FMC; tattooed badass motorcycle riding MMC
Heat Level: 5+/5
Kinks: Butt Stuff

Likes:
* I surprisingly do like the FMC, Evie. She’s very quirky, a bit boy (man) obsessed, and very down on her luck.
* I found the grandmother that lives with Evies parents to bring some pretty funny comedic relief moments.

Dislikes:
* my gosh all of Evies family. Yes, even Sawyer and Ian. Except the grandmother mentioned above.
* the length of this book! No Christmas book should ever be 600 pages!


Conclusion:
This book was… interesting. It was one of those books that as I kept reading I kept thinking this book is not good… yet I literally couldn’t put it down. I’m still sitting here wondering what even just happened lol.

The book immediately starts off pretty bad. Like I could’ve easily DNFed this in the first 15%. For some reason I didn’t and I pushed through.

Evie is adopted and is the middle child of 7. I am utterly disgusted with how Evies adoptive family treated her. They literally constantly talk about how she doesn’t fit in, she’s an embarrassment to the family, is not a true whatever their last name is, and even more just horrendous things.
Yall… I’m adopted and I have siblings that my parents naturally had and I could absolutely never fathom being told that I couldn’t be in a family photo because I wasn’t a real grandchild or real kid of my parents. Like seriously, Evies family is HORRIBLE.

The MMC, Anderson, was pretty one dimensional. I still have no idea what his job was, and how the hell he happened to have so much free time to attend all these damn Christmas parties, and his dirty talk sucked. He was just so meh.

So 2.5 might be a bit generous but I’m rating it that and rounding up because I read this book in 24 hours so that does say something. Clearly it’s not that bad lol. I also would totally read more by this author. Don’t ask me why. I don’t have the answer 🫣😂

2.5/5

[Kylee Jamison · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book reminded of so many important things that i can't believe i almost forgot! 1) i hate men. 2) i hate women. 3) i hate literally everyone, i am so inclusive that way. anyway, this book took me from needing therapy but still being a generally functional human being to needing to probably move in with my therapist.

it's just what we needed- another book where every single character emotionally abuses and gaslights the heroine (yes, even the love interest) for 80% the book. indeed, the love interest spent the vast majority of the book being a complete ass, with his inner monologue consisting mostly of "she's so stupid and juvenile and i'm just using her to get close to her family, who i hate and want to destroy, but she has the nicest tits i've ever seen, so i'll have to put up her at least until i can get in her pants". but then, (surprise!), one day he wakes up and is magically in love with her! and there's no mention of the public humiliation or manipulation or pigheadedness or anything because they're in LOVE! however, its important to note that our love interest was not wrong in his initial assessment. so let me break this down for you.

heroine: so stupid. serially "falls in love" with every man who shows her half a scrap of attention, even if it's only for ten minutes. doormat- lets every single person she knows literally stomp on her and thanks them for it

hero: ass. hole. publically shames and humiliates the heroine m u l t i p l e times in front of her family and literally never apologizes for it

everyone else in the book (heroine's family): these are the other people who stomp on the heroine like she's actual dirt 😃 they continually tell her what a disappointment she is, how she sullies the family name with all her bad decisions, while reminding her that she's not REALLY a part of the family anyway since she's adopted. she should obviously be so grateful to them for letting her into their home out of the goodness of their hearts.

ANYWAY this was gross.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is there any bigger bummer than when you are super hyped for a book and it just falls sooooo incredibly flat? Oy…I’m not even sure where to start.

Evie is the adopted daughter who is treated like 💩 by her family. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles….you name it. They rake her over the coals for blinking the wrong way - but have ZERO problem expecting her to cook, and bake, and decorate for Christmas. All while having a deadline over her head of getting a job by Christmas Eve or getting booted from her parent’s house.

She meets Anderson Wynter as he is breaking into their home. She decides to blackmail him. She won’t rat him out if he helps her prove that she didn’t steal her cousins boyfriend - that he was the one coming after her. Anderson agrees, but only to make her life a living nightmare. He is crude and crass. He says horrible things that I think she thought would be sexy, but were downright degrading.

There were WAAAAYYYY too many characters to keep them all straight and some were just pointless. Even the “happy ending” didn’t make sense.

Truly….almost DNF this more times than I care to count. But I kept hoping it would turn around. It’s a Christmas Romance….it shouldn’t be making me feel so icky. There are a lot of better ones out there to check out.

⭐️⭐️
📖: KU

[Madeline Harrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am genuinely convinced whoever rated this book more than two stars has to be getting paid to do so. This book is a copy and paste of the first one, from personalities of the main characters to the plot.
Main character treated like trash by her entire family, but still acts like a servant for them. Weirdly sexual comments throughout the whole book they don’t fit in with the conversations. Grandmothers that are obsessed with sex.

[Margo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know how anyone could consider this to be a lighthearted romance when the h is emotionally abused by her entire extended family, including reproaching her because she is adopted, calling her a slut multiple times, and overall describing her is a complete failure of a person. If you’re setting up a scenario like this as an author, it’s imperative that the h have some self-esteem, even at the start. Then the situation comes across as absurd and exaggerated, not as team abuse of a pathetic, brainwashed daughter.

[LM♥️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

300 pages too long

I really hate giving bad reviews because I know authors work hard but I also want to be honest about what I felt reading this. It was almost nonsensical. So much of the way the characters behaved didn’t make sense. Spoilers ahead.


For starters, a member of the military wouldn’t have gone through normal court for something that happened on a deployment. And then the MMC KNOWS who the actual culprit was but refuses to tell literally anyone other than his siblings the truth but is still so mad at the true offender that he is out for revenge? Umm… okay. Then the way the family treats each other is so OTT and unrealistic. No family talks so openly about sex with each other and about each other. Every single person was horny all the time and when they were abusing the adopted daughter they were talking about sex. And Don’t get me started on the FMC. The way the MMC spoke to her and about her and she kept letting him touch her and be sexual with her. In the context of a dark romance his characters personality would have made sense. But in a holiday romantic comedy? It didn’t work at all. There was nothing honorable about becoming a martyr the way the FMC did. Just allowed people to run over her and became a slave for them, why? Because she was adopted and needed to pay them back for “saving” her? It was so weird. And the insurance fraud plot that was unneeded and didn’t fit with the story at all. The whole thing was just odd. It felt like a chat bot gave the author a list of things she had to include in the story and she threw them in to meet the criteria. 600 pages and over half of them were unnecessary.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need more...

...of this author's books. Seriously. This is the second one I have read and I have called my head off reading them.
Anderson is more then just a grump/grinch and Evie is weird and wonderful. Snowball stole the show and I would love a vicious little dog just like her.
Loved it!!!!

[Jenny Peaster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clone of the First Book

This is almost exactly the same story as the first book… hot bad boy, cheater ex, family who treats the FMC like a doormat, FMC who is an amazing cook, crazy grandma, little dogs…

[Amanda Kidder · Rating 1 out of 5]

Omg this book was awful. The guy was a dick. The girl was a moron and the whole family was obnoxious. The only saving grace was the drunk grandma! It was extremely painful to get through.

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible.
Everyone hates everyone and this poor girl is the butt of all the jokes from being adopted to have to pluck her chin hairs. It isn’t funny or cute.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Granny Doyle is my favorite!!!! I want to be her in this book! It was a great read for thr holiday season. Cute, romantic, funny! What more can a christmas girly ask for!

[Amyiw · Rating 3 out of 5]

So it is hard to rate this book as there are parts that I would give 1-2 stars, like the very explicit explanations of sexually positions/acts in flippant response to room of family members as a joke. But with that are the grandma and others sexual inuendo of sexy man which hits my funny bone but might turn others off. Truly this isn’t a very good romance until the end and is rough in anything that is at all romantic, it is not, but it is a fun romp that ends with a couple in the end and come to reality family that has not been a very good one. Truly there are worse so not going to rate it too bad there either. I was amused with almost all of the antics so it was a pretty good read though had a lot of sex talk and a bit rough not vanilla sex too. Overall if you don’t mind/enjoy the sex talk and jokes and graphic sex, you might like it as a screwball family with comedy.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

tldr and tags: Ragebait. Too similar to book 1. Morally grey MMC who never gets better. Rampant SA thats glossed over (no rape, and not too traumatic .. but still..)Toxic family. Spineless FMC. Lots of c*m, back door, exhibition, and motorcycle fetish content (not done good in my opinion). I think I'm blacklisting Alina Jacobs after this.

Why is this book basically rewrite of the first book? Same girl, same family, same guy BUT WORSE, same hobbies, same house, similar pet, similar plot, similar events. All just under new names. I almost can't even recommend reading this. Not even because of the things I didn't like, but just because of the similarity.

Other stuff I didn't like ( no ruined scenes or big details):
- Hated Anderson. I don't think I've ever ended a book hating a MMC as him. He treats her legitimately awful, and never really gets much better. If you told me that in a year he was abusive and cheating on her; I would absolutely believe it.
- Hated I-fogot-her-name-but-just-Gracie-Again. I have rarely ever ended a book having so little respect for a FMC. Can she PLEASE have any sort of backbone or self control? Maybe a single shred of self respect or self confidence?
- I felt like I was just ragebaited this whole book. There is little substance BUT unappealing s*x and ragebait.
- Speaking of unappealing s*x.The s*x was not for me. The constant dirty talk was so bad. The actual acts were degrading asf and that just wasn't what I wanted or expected in a Christmas romcom. AND HE DIDN'T WASH HIS D*CK AFTER BACK DOOR BEFORE SLAPPING A C*NDOM ON AND GOING TO THE FRONT. I also just am not super into c*m, exhibitionist stuff (in front of her family...), or motorcycles.
- Why is everyone constantly being SA'd? It's mostly all glossed over or meant to be funny/ hot too.
- Forgiving toxic family always gets negative points for me. And oh boy, do they hate her and regret adopting her. They 'other' her so effectively that you'll NEVER forget she is adopted. EVERYTHING is her fault no matter what.
- The writing was a bit disjointed at times. Not too bad, but enough that I got a little lost about what was going on once or twice.

This book is just really bad. I think this is my official retirement from Alina Jacobs books.

[Ang Hoehner · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was horribly disappointing. The first book I read last year and I remember cracking up! This one? First of all, Evie is a complete doormat and when her and Anders come up with this fake dating thing he is also kind of awful to her. The "bedroom" scenes were soooooo demeaning and honestly made me pissed. I mean some dirty talk doesn't bother me but he kind of said terrible things when they were alone and it was really irritating and I did not like it at all. The first part of the book was entertaining but the 2nd half was just a real bummer. Grandma Doyle is the only saving grace in this book.

[Emily Pennington · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Forgettable Christmas . . .

This book sounds as far away from Christmas as you can get! But some may find it vaguely humorous now and then. It features the “perfect couple”, Evie Murphy and Anderson Wynter, who allegedly seem made for each other. A kiss under the mistletoe starts them on a downhill slide. Will they arrive at romance? Or go over a cliff?

There were so many things that I didn’t find funny that turned me into a grump… or perhaps a Grinch? Christmas is my favorite time of the year, and this story and most of the characters made me cringe. It would probably have seemed much more humorous if it was taking place on Halloween where we expect some shenanigans. I felt somewhat sorry for adopted Evie who was a “doormat” and not treated very well by her family. And Anderson, well, you have to read about him yourself and form your own opinion. Can a HEA be dragged out of this story? Only time will tell.

[Nicole Sink · Rating 2 out of 5]

I dnf because it’s just too repetitive. Same story for the female character as the first basically but different male. Family is so toxic.
I’m not much of a rom com reader but I liked the first book because it was funny but I just feel like I’m reading the same book again.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most chaotic Christmas book I’ve read and I loved every second of it. Granny Doyle and Snowball carried this book 😂😂

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books are always alot of fun, and crazy! the family dynamics are always bonkers, and the spice is always a good time! I enjoyed this one as well, and Anderson is probably my favorite of the brothers!

[kristine lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually didn’t finish this book. I gave up on it because it wasn’t bringing me any happiness or enjoyment. Everyone was horrible and cruel to the main character and I didn’t want to continue to read about it.

[Jo Watson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not only is this glorified abuse and sexual assault but it’s almost a carbon copy of the last book.

[Christiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only gave it a 3 because it is the same plot as the first one, even though I really like it.

[Anna]

DNF at 27%🥲🥲

[Céline NARICADOU · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je suis tellement déçue !!
J'avais beaucoup aimé le tome 1 et j'attendais celui-là avec impatience.

Alors déjà, on retrouve beaucoup trop de similitudes avec la première histoire, parfois, on a presque un copier-coller des scènes du tome 1 avec juste le changement des prénoms des personnages (la dynamique de la famille d'Evie, les photos envoyées par Andreson, la scène de baston dans la course de rênes...).

Les différents membres de la famille d'Evie amènent des situations assez drôles, mais ce n'est clairement pas suffisant pour en faire une lecture mémorable.

Ensuite, il y a beaucoup trop d'éléments sans contexte qui font que l'histoire n'est pas du tout crédible. L'autrice nous balance des informations de manière complètement random, qui ne seront soit au mieux pas expliquées avant la fin du livre (coucou, on se rappelle qu'il faut finir des trucs avant la fin), soit carrément pas exploitées.

La partie avec le background entre le frère d'Evie, Henry et Anderson n'est tellement pas plausible que ça m'a presque fait arrêter le livre avant la fin. La résolution de ce point tombe donc complètement à plat et n'apporte aucune substance aux deux personnages.

Les personnages principaux changent d'avis tous les chapitres, ce qui fait qu'ils n'évoluent pas du tout sur la durée de l'histoire, mais juste à la fin. Ça amène des renversements de situation auxquels on ne croit pas du tout.
On se retrouve avec une relation en Evie et Andreson qui n'est ni intéressante ni crédible. Ce qui fait qu'elle en devient même cringe et toxique par moment.

Et enfin, le principe d'une série est pour moi d'avoir un retour des personnages du/des tomes précédents. On retrouve un peu Hudson et quasiment pas Annie. Ça a vraiment manqué.

C'est dommage, j'avais bien envie d'avoir la fin de la série avec les autres frères, mais vu comme c'est parti, je ne pense pas y aller...

[Cassandra Wessely · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5. I could literally copy and paste my review for the other Wynter Brothers book I read last year because it’s basically a copy and paste of that story lol. The characters and situations were just too outrageous for me. Evie was a doormat (just like Gracie) and her family was unbearable. Anderson was fine but there was tooo much wildly sexual dialogue and situations it was so unbelievable. Granny Doyle was moderately funny but also wayyyy too insane to be believable. It’s like she took the same plot and characters from the first one and dialed it all up. It was also way too long.

[Sandra R · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book full of fun and Christmas hyjinx. Some readers may love this author's style and others may not, but it's lighthearted entertainment in my opinion.

Once again, I'm not a fan of the many cringeworthy and erotic sex scenes. 🔥🍆 Some have a bit of chemistry between the H/h and are more mainstream - but they do all fit the silliyness of the story. This is also quite a long book, with lots of sitcom angst. Beware - there are dozens of relatives and friends to keep straight in your head... 😳🎄

[Jade Dartez · Rating 1 out of 5]

The need to kill myself is lingering when ever I read this book. The writing the characters the plot omg omg okg okg ofmfmfkfosnag END ME. I can’t even finish it omg let me die wtf is this cancerous of a book. I thought it was suppose to be Christmas holly jolly joy there is no joy when reading this . I haven’t felt happy sense picking up this book