This is one of those romance novellas that has like four different tropes that I'm into and yet never fully commits to any of them and leaves me feeling more grumpy than anything else at the end of it.
One of those tropes is Christmas stories, which I love, even in January! Daniel is the solid, slightly boring dude who after years of being single is trying to shake things up this Christmas season by renting a chalet with his workplace hookup. This plan is complicated by the appearance of his former step-brother Cole (trope number two!) who Daniel hasn't seen in like ten years but had put Daniel's name down on his emergency contact when Cole started grad school in Daniel's city. So okay, Cole has a concussion and therefore can't be left alone and needs to come with Daniel to this chalet (so they can hit trope number three and get snowed in together).
The setup for all of this is fine, an unexpected meet cute/reunion from their past that has the added intrigue of former-pseudo incest. But the novella never really wants to get into the wrong-but-hot aspect of that stepbrother situation, and instead of the two of them being snowed in alone, first we have to deal with the workplace hookup being inexplicably terrible and inviting like five other people to this romantic chalet and only ever hooking up with Daniel in the first place as part of a bet (trope number four!). It's just this dumb conflict we have to wade through before getting to the actual romance between Cole and Daniel, that's delayed even further so Daniel can discuss his damage from his big relationship in college, and man. By the time the workplace hookup finally leaves and the two of them can just have Christmas together, it's hard to remember why the whole setup is even supposed to be compelling. I can deal with a lot of nonsense to get my Christmas romance novel happy ending, but this was the wrong kind of nonsense, for me.
Grade: C
One of those tropes is Christmas stories, which I love, even in January! Daniel is the solid, slightly boring dude who after years of being single is trying to shake things up this Christmas season by renting a chalet with his workplace hookup. This plan is complicated by the appearance of his former step-brother Cole (trope number two!) who Daniel hasn't seen in like ten years but had put Daniel's name down on his emergency contact when Cole started grad school in Daniel's city. So okay, Cole has a concussion and therefore can't be left alone and needs to come with Daniel to this chalet (so they can hit trope number three and get snowed in together).
The setup for all of this is fine, an unexpected meet cute/reunion from their past that has the added intrigue of former-pseudo incest. But the novella never really wants to get into the wrong-but-hot aspect of that stepbrother situation, and instead of the two of them being snowed in alone, first we have to deal with the workplace hookup being inexplicably terrible and inviting like five other people to this romantic chalet and only ever hooking up with Daniel in the first place as part of a bet (trope number four!). It's just this dumb conflict we have to wade through before getting to the actual romance between Cole and Daniel, that's delayed even further so Daniel can discuss his damage from his big relationship in college, and man. By the time the workplace hookup finally leaves and the two of them can just have Christmas together, it's hard to remember why the whole setup is even supposed to be compelling. I can deal with a lot of nonsense to get my Christmas romance novel happy ending, but this was the wrong kind of nonsense, for me.
Grade: C
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