3.75/5.
Heat Index: 6/10
—Christmas category romance (no shit)
—secret baby!
—Italian hero who has a COOKING EMPIRE
—"you stole my innocence"/"you stole my semen" classic
The Basics:
When she got knocked up and fired on basically the same day, Hannah ran off to Italy, where she became a hotel manager, because of course. Now Antonluca Aniello is in town to buy the place up—except, oops, turns out he's the very same guy who did the knocking up AND the firing three years ago! And he's not super thrilled about Hannah keeping his son a secret from him. Naturally, the solution to wanting to bone your newly-discovered baby's mother who you also hate is.... marrying her.
The Review:
I enjoy a Christmas category romance, and I also enjoy a secret baby romance. So, yes, I did like this. As soon as we dip into "It's Christmas, and somehow Hannah, while in the third trimester of pregnancy, beat out a bunch of Italians for a job, secured a visa, and has been hustling since then with baby Dominic in tow" I was good. It's like a Christmas hallmark movie, except this has the word "cock" in it, so much better.
You can probably predict the beats. Antonluca has a traumatic child that has made him a Christmas grinch, and also a dick in general. Hannah gave him her innocence without knowing his name. She did, honestly, kind of run her mouth in a really dumb way before he fired her, but it wasn't THAT bad. He's caught between hating her for the whole secret baby thing, and really, really wanting to bang her. Which he does.
Really, I don't have a lot to critique. I do wish there had been a bit more... wackiness? Categories are a little less wacky than they used to be, much like the rest of tradpub romance. But they still tend to be a little turboweird at points, and this was less so.
That being said—I really enjoyed the "food as drama" bit. It's perfectly Christmas-themed, and it leads to a great emotional reconciliation that did make me go "awwww' Atonluca, you weird Italian man". He doesn't know love, but he knows food! He can't express his feelings, but he can whip up a MEAN meringue.
The Sex:
You have a a few sex scenes in this one, and—it's a Harlequin Presents, right? Nothing crazy. Explicit, sexy, but you probably won't gasp in shock. Or maybe you will. I don't know you. Anyway, assignment understood.
The Conclusion:
Warm and Christmas-y and escapist, this book could've been a LITTLE more punched up dramatically for the sake of the category angle. But it still pleased me, and I'm happy with it. Solid narration as well!
Thanks to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.