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The Holidare
Noel Beckett is determined to avoid his family’s holiday chaos and anything remotely festive. Enter his sister’s roommate Gwen Darling, a curvy artist with a heart of gold who lives for the season. Wanting to sprinkle some glitter over Noel’s Grinchiness, she dares him to be her holiday plus-one.
Noel’s not one to back away from a dare, and he expects his grumpy ways to be validated. But Yule shenanigans and flirty Christmas games with Gwen break through the hot athlete’s commitment to all things Scroogy. Why does she feel like the dash of magic he’s been missing? Is this a Holidare they both can win?
~~~
A note from Laurel:
Good news - The Holidare (as part of the Holiday Fake-Out collection) made the USA TODAY BESTSELLER LIST! Dee and I tossed around ALL the holiday glitter to celebrate to celebrate the success of our Yule-and-Christmas romance!
Holiday Fake-Out is no longer in stores, but for anyone who missed it, we are doing everything we can to get The Holidare into your hands. More to come!
All updates on Beck and Gwen's Holidare adventures will be announced in our newsletters. Sign up today and get the details as soon as they're available.
Noel’s not one to back away from a dare, and he expects his grumpy ways to be validated. But Yule shenanigans and flirty Christmas games with Gwen break through the hot athlete’s commitment to all things Scroogy. Why does she feel like the dash of magic he’s been missing? Is this a Holidare they both can win?
~~~
A note from Laurel:
Good news - The Holidare (as part of the Holiday Fake-Out collection) made the USA TODAY BESTSELLER LIST! Dee and I tossed around ALL the holiday glitter to celebrate to celebrate the success of our Yule-and-Christmas romance!
Holiday Fake-Out is no longer in stores, but for anyone who missed it, we are doing everything we can to get The Holidare into your hands. More to come!
All updates on Beck and Gwen's Holidare adventures will be announced in our newsletters. Sign up today and get the details as soon as they're available.
Kindle Edition
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About the author
Laurel Greer
73 books448 followersUSA Today bestselling author Laurel Greer loves writing about all the ways love can change people for the better, especially when messy families and charming small towns are involved. She lives outside of Vancouver, BC with her law-talking husband and two daughters and is never far from a cup of tea, a good book, or the ocean—preferably all three.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 28, 2021
Woah. Woah.
This was different from the other stories in the collection, and not in a bad way. Definitely not in a bad way. I really, really didn't expect a novella to pack this much emotions in a story, effectively punching me in the guts with all the things it didn't promise me with, things you'd normally only expect from a long novel and not from a novella. Of course, there may be some other things that factored into me enjoying this a lot too.
You see, here's the thing. I find out that the covers for the books in the anthology aren't as pretty as the others, and my expectation for it would be lowered. Automatically. I'm sorry if you're offended, but I'm a seeing creature, you can't expect me to not mind how the cover looks like. So upon seeing this cover (I just don't like how they draw the woman, everything else is fine), I subconsciously lowered my expectations for this. It wasn't like I wanted my expectations to be lowered, pfft, what are you talking about?
So yeah, expectations lowered, meaning the book could be just another mediocre romance novella, right? I mean, it could be, but it also could not be. Or it could be. Whatever. I'm just clouded by my low expectations and all that what not. Of course.
NO. Pretend the earlier paragraph doesn't exist, okay? I've met other good books with bad covers before, and they didn't have... this. Whatever these two authors threw in this, sign me up. They write amazing stuff, and like I mentioned earlier, emotions overload. None of them made me cry, but you can see how much effort they put in to make this amazing (or this just comes to them automatically), and I love that.
This is amazing. The writers are amazing.
Everything, is amazing.
Honestly though, this could've been a 6 star review and no one would've noticed.
This was different from the other stories in the collection, and not in a bad way. Definitely not in a bad way. I really, really didn't expect a novella to pack this much emotions in a story, effectively punching me in the guts with all the things it didn't promise me with, things you'd normally only expect from a long novel and not from a novella. Of course, there may be some other things that factored into me enjoying this a lot too.
You see, here's the thing. I find out that the covers for the books in the anthology aren't as pretty as the others, and my expectation for it would be lowered. Automatically. I'm sorry if you're offended, but I'm a seeing creature, you can't expect me to not mind how the cover looks like. So upon seeing this cover (I just don't like how they draw the woman, everything else is fine), I subconsciously lowered my expectations for this. It wasn't like I wanted my expectations to be lowered, pfft, what are you talking about?
So yeah, expectations lowered, meaning the book could be just another mediocre romance novella, right? I mean, it could be, but it also could not be. Or it could be. Whatever. I'm just clouded by my low expectations and all that what not. Of course.
NO. Pretend the earlier paragraph doesn't exist, okay? I've met other good books with bad covers before, and they didn't have... this. Whatever these two authors threw in this, sign me up. They write amazing stuff, and like I mentioned earlier, emotions overload. None of them made me cry, but you can see how much effort they put in to make this amazing (or this just comes to them automatically), and I love that.
This is amazing. The writers are amazing.
Everything, is amazing.
Honestly though, this could've been a 6 star review and no one would've noticed.
November 9, 2021
I received an excerpt from the anthology Holiday Fakeout: 22 Fake Holiday Dates to Heat Up the Season from this author, Laurel Greer, and her story, The Holidare, was included in it. The excerpt was called HOLIDAY EVER AFTER, SCORCHING VERSION and had stories written by Carmen Falcone, Kat Baxter, Kara Kendrick in addition to the one written together by Laurel Greer and Dee J Holmes.
All four books were set at Christmas but at different locations and transported me there. The main characters and love interests had a history in each of the stories and they have a nice conclusion to their relationships as well as their happily ever after. There were all things Christmas and there were vivid descriptions of the decorations, the shops, the presents, the trees, the clothes, the food and drink and the parties that made me feel like I was there. There were lots of family and friends along with career choices, tears, sorrow, anger, hurt, happiness, laughter, romance, lots of steamy loving and love. The book was a quick read with a good flow and left me with a feel good feeling. I enjoyed all four of the stories.
The Holidare has hockey and artists at its core and was a quick read. Both Noel, the hockey star and Gwen, the artist, seem to be out of their comfort zone throughout, but they click. The story is told in alternating chapters by Beck and Gwen. Gwen is his sister's roommate and Gwen and Autumn look out for each other except when Autumn is left in the dark. Beck wants to take of both of them especially since he doesn't like where they live.
Beck and Gwen have a hard time communicating but when they do they get each other. Gwen's family, who she's close to, is quirky but it doesn't seem to phase Noel in the least. There's a lot of hockey and artistry throughout along with wonderful closure and a happily ever after that left me wanting more. I absolutely love the playfulness and the vividness of the cover.
Ms. Greer is an author whose books I haven't read enough of. I've added books by all the authors to my TBR pile.
All four books were set at Christmas but at different locations and transported me there. The main characters and love interests had a history in each of the stories and they have a nice conclusion to their relationships as well as their happily ever after. There were all things Christmas and there were vivid descriptions of the decorations, the shops, the presents, the trees, the clothes, the food and drink and the parties that made me feel like I was there. There were lots of family and friends along with career choices, tears, sorrow, anger, hurt, happiness, laughter, romance, lots of steamy loving and love. The book was a quick read with a good flow and left me with a feel good feeling. I enjoyed all four of the stories.
The Holidare has hockey and artists at its core and was a quick read. Both Noel, the hockey star and Gwen, the artist, seem to be out of their comfort zone throughout, but they click. The story is told in alternating chapters by Beck and Gwen. Gwen is his sister's roommate and Gwen and Autumn look out for each other except when Autumn is left in the dark. Beck wants to take of both of them especially since he doesn't like where they live.
Beck and Gwen have a hard time communicating but when they do they get each other. Gwen's family, who she's close to, is quirky but it doesn't seem to phase Noel in the least. There's a lot of hockey and artistry throughout along with wonderful closure and a happily ever after that left me wanting more. I absolutely love the playfulness and the vividness of the cover.
Ms. Greer is an author whose books I haven't read enough of. I've added books by all the authors to my TBR pile.
November 27, 2021
Beck and Gwen could be the textbook definition of “opposites”. And, I loved nearly everything about this story. It’s got lots of hard-hitting emotions, sweet and silly moments, even plenty of steam. The piece that didn’t work for me was kind of a niggly little thing that probably only matters to me. I was frustrated that Beck was stuck taking the blame for everything that went sideways and until the very last minute, it felt like no one even wanted to meet him part way to understand why he reacted the way he did. I got it. Maybe I understood too well, because I thought there was plenty of blame that should have been shared around. However, I thought the grand gesture in the end was the perfect way to wrap up their story.
I read this story as part of the Holiday Fakeout anthology.
I read this story as part of the Holiday Fakeout anthology.
June 22, 2023
I read this book as part of the Holiday Fake anthology and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
It's about Noel Beckett, the captain of a professional ice hockey team and an artist, Gwen Darling (his sister's best friend). They are polar opposites in every way and they agree to a dare over the Christmas holidays. There is depth and angst with likeable, endearing characters in this Rom Com novella. And I loved the extra bonus chapter which is available if you subscribe to the authors's newsletter. I rate this 4.5*.
It's about Noel Beckett, the captain of a professional ice hockey team and an artist, Gwen Darling (his sister's best friend). They are polar opposites in every way and they agree to a dare over the Christmas holidays. There is depth and angst with likeable, endearing characters in this Rom Com novella. And I loved the extra bonus chapter which is available if you subscribe to the authors's newsletter. I rate this 4.5*.
November 22, 2022
An uptight hockey player and a Wiccan artist come together because of a dare but Beck throws it al away when he feels excluded. Can Gwen forgive him for breaking her heart?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews