Thank you to Sierra, Julie, Avon and their teams for the advance reader copy of A Merry Little Meet Cute.
I am so excited to be reviewing for Sierra for my first time as an official Review Team member. I have been a member for months and was over the moon to learn the great news. I love Sierra. I could not be more honoured that my first book is her cowrite with the infamous Julie Murphy!
I am a member of Sierra Simone’s review team, but I stand by my reviews remaining honest and true.
“Cowritten by #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy and USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone—a steamy plus-size holiday rom-com about an adult film star who is semi-accidentally cast as a lead in a family-friendly Christmas movie, and the former bad-boy pop star she falls in love with.
Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star. With a huge following and two supportive moms, Bee couldn’t ask for more. But when Bee’s favorite producer casts her to star in a Christmas movie he’s making for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, Bee’s career is about to take a more family-friendly direction.
Forced to keep her work as Bianca under wraps, Bee quickly learns this is a task a lot easier said than done. Though it all becomes worthwhile when she discovers her co-star is none other than childhood crush Nolan Shaw, an ex-boy band member in desperate need of career rehab. Nolan’s promised his bulldog manager to keep it zipped up on set, and he will if it means he’ll be able to provide a more stable living situation for his sister and mom.
But things heat up quickly in Christmas Notch, Vermont, when Nolan recognizes his new co-star from her ClosedDoors account (oh yeah, he’s a member). Now Bee and Nolan are sneaking off for quickies on set, keeping their new relationship a secret from the Hope Channel’s execs. Things only get trickier when the reporter who torpedoed Nolan’s singing career comes snooping around—and takes an instant interest in mysterious newcomer Bee.
And if Bee and Nolan can’t keep their off-camera romance behind the scenes, then this merry little meet cute might end up on the cutting room floor.
Check out my more detailed thoughts below…
- Characters: Our heroine is plus-size porn star turned Christmas movie lead, Bee Hobbes. She finds herself cast in this very pure Christmas movie with the help of a director she has worked with in the porn industry, Teddy. Both of them are ready to diversify their portfolio and hence the Christmas movie. I love her personality, the way she would go about this with such gumption was inspiring. She is incredibly loyal, and a great friend. I loved the dynamic of her being the single child of two sex-positive moms. The male lead is Nolan Shaw, the heartthrob Bee crushed on him when she was a teen. The former boy band member is post-scandal and low on funds. Hence he has booked the male lead in the Christmas movie. I loved his commitment to his family, his mom and his sister. He is an incredibly caring person and it was lovely to laud that kindness on Bee. This book had a wonderful cast of side characters. All the other people who worked in the porn industry felt so charmingly out of place on the Christmas movie set. Angel, Astrid, Luca and Sonny, I loved them all. Teddy was probably one of the best parts of the book. I loved his character and his attempt to diversify his work portfolio, and then having to resort to filling all the techie positions with his contacts from porn.
- Setting: The setting is Christmas Notch, Vermont. A tiny town that is always decked out in Christmas decor for the sake of the movie industry. Everything was overly adorable and I loved all the overly Christmas stuff that seemed to ooze out of every aspect of the town. Even the strip club was called the North Pole and was super fun and corny.
- Pacing: This book was slightly longer but I still found it went by at a good clip. The ending had a great amount of time to play out, something I find romance is not always that good at. So props to Julie and Sierra for some great pacing.
- Romance: This romance had such an interesting premise. It was interesting that both of them had this familiarity with each other. That they had both fantasized about the other. Nolan was a fixture in Bee’s teenage years as her celeb crush. While Bee or Bianca stars in all of Nolan’s current fantasies as one of his favourite creators. So naturally, they had great sexual tension, and I loved the way Sierra and Julie went about depicting that against the backdrop of a Christmas movie. This romance was interesting. The best part was Julie and Sierra’s care in depicting Bee as a fat person worthy of love. I was hoping for more steam than this book delivered. I have been reading Sierra’s indie work for years so I know what she is capable of, and I am gathering much of the fade to black stems from this being a traditionally published story. There was so much teasing of things like toys and tougher play and then none of it ever happened. Their first scene together was my favourite, I love how it really represented the fantasies and tensions they carried with them to work every day.
A Merry Little Meet Cute receives four out of five stars.
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Thank you again to Sierra and her team for the review opportunity. Thank you for reading and supporting my blog!
