Stella is an ex-convict that has been gifted her dream opportunity as a window dresser. Though Stella had been in prison for four years and only released a month ago, her focus shifts with amazing ease from re-establishing the life put on hold to romance with her boss. It’s very on par for a rom-com, so don’t expect too much out of it. Since this revealed pretty early on Stella’s criminal history, there was potential to explore re-entry and the challenges of it. It’s hinted at but not explored in depth. Although it takes place during Christmas, it’s not very Christmasy.

That being said, it was a cute and very quick read. I powered through it in a day. For something lightweight with no expectations, this fits the bill. Stella and Aiden are cute enough together to make you root for them. ( )

So cringe ( )

This book is short and took me a very long time to read. I think other than the It Happened One Summer pair of books I don't like Tessa Bailey books. ( )

I wish I liked this more than I did, but honestly, I was disappointed by several aspects:

1. This is marketed as a Christmas party, but besides the brief mention of decorations and Christmas parties and of the main characters' past Christmases, it wasn't all that Christmassy.

2. Aiden and Stella were constantly marveling over the fact that they can be so open with each other, yet most of their conflict was from a lack of communication. It was kind of frustrating.

3. Some of the dirty talk made me cringe.

4. There was a lot of repetitive descriptions (example: Aiden is big or he smells like peppermint).

Personally, I did like Stella and Aiden. They just annoyed me sometimes. I related to some of Stella's feelings of imposter syndrome. And I related to Aiden always wanting to please his family so that they'll maybe accept him. Not the best first book of the year, but oh well. ( )

This book is filled with sugar and spice and an extraordinary amount of corny banter and jokes.
I fell in love with the story from page 1. ( )