Our Safe Word Is Christmas

by Aliyah Cox, Tyla Walker

She’s got nothing but insults for my name.
She’ll be screaming it soon enough.

Helen Calvin is chaos in a Christmas sweater — messy, brilliant, infuriating. She carved her pitch for Toy of the Year out of wood. I came with a PowerPoint and a $10M R&D budget.

Now we’re snowed in.
Assigned to collaborate.
And forced to share one bed.

She pushes every button I have.
And still, I find myself watching the way her hands work.
Imagining them on me.

We made one keep it professional.

Then she kissed me by the fire.
And I learned what she tastes like when she begs.

I want to ruin her.
Wreck her.
Worship her.

But I can’t afford to fall.

Because if she finds out why I’m really here…
she’ll never let me touch her again.

Read on for enemies-to-lovers chaos, snowed-in steam, forced collaboration, and a control freak who falls hard for the messiest woman in the room. HEA Guaranteed!

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 20, 2025

Reviews

[OnceUponAStorybook · Rating 1 out of 5]

First things first why is this mans name Quillan?!?! Like that was the best thing you can up with? Literally Helen and Quillan is the couple and it sounds so wrong together in my opinion.

Now besides his name, this book has the writing I absolutely despise. I hate overdramatic ass writing with a passion, not every sentence needs to be some profound thought. For example, straight out the book “My thumb moves across the screen, my muscle memory making a choice my conscious mind has not yet approved.” Like why did need to say all of that as an inner monologue to answering your freaking phone. And its sentences like that throughout the book and it just made the book unbearable to read.

Then to top it off I just wasn’t sold on the couple at all. Their prototype gets destroyed and Helen automatically blames Quillan and it doesn’t make sense to me because it’s both of their prototype. Why would Quillan screw you over when he would be screwing himself over in the process?!?! That was just so stupid to me.

[Bethany Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars! Such a cute holiday romance read. Such a cute story enemies to lovers story lines. Q and Helen definitely have chemistry and i love that for them. However, the ending was rushed and could have been wrapped up in a shorter way. Still recommend nonetheless.

[Pat | _chaoticbooknook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an overall fun novella to pick up for the holidays. I really enjoyed the premise (two rival toymakers forced to collaborate for a competition while snowed in) and found the writing to be quite good. This was dual POV, and our FMC and MMC had very distinct voices, which I really enjoyed. Given the brevity of the story, the FMC and MMC’s relationship developed a little bit *too* quick, but it worked overall. It made sense why they complemented each other so well.

My main gripe is that the romance was just.. fine. I found the spicy scenes both excessive and somehow lackluster and unsatisfying. It almost would’ve been better if those scenes were more limited to focus on the emotional aspects of the story.

Worth picking up if you want a quick read that takes place around the holidays, but isn’t overtly about the holidays!

2/5 🌶️🌶️

[Merry Jelks-Emmanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

They are competing for toy of the year, and it is down to the finalists. They are forced to collaborate, and this is where their journey begins because they are as different as night and day until a kiss changes everything but when Helen finds out his real intentions will their relationship take a nosedive leaving them going separate ways. This story had me cheering Quillan and Helen on to getting their chance for happiness.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Chaos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a lot of drama which I really appreciated. I love Quillan and Helen! They are adorable together. It wasnt much of a enemies to lovers or anything super dramatic. Super easy read