Author: Jenny Holiday
Narrator: Cynthia Farrell
Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Narration: 4 mikes
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis (it was all so awkward)
Content Warnings: Discusses homophobia, physical and emotional abuse, gambling addictions, chronic illness disabilities, and parental abandonment. Contains explicit sexual content.
“So This Is Christmas” follows Cara Delaney, a management consultant that is sent to Eldovia to fix the financial crises the country is currently facing due to their declining watch business, and Matteo Benz, the royal consultant of the King of Eldovia. Mr. Benz is set on making life as uncomfortable as possible for the visiting American, but little did he know that his stubbornness could lead to admiration, and perhaps even love.
The audiobook I listened to for this read was alright at best. I enjoyed the story more than the narration, and I didn’t even enjoy the story that much.
Apparently this is the last book in the series, which sucks because this definitely was not the conclusion I was looking for. It can’t really be called a royalty romance anymore, if you ask me—which would’ve been okay, had the two main characters had any true chemistry at all.
This book was more holiday-centric than “Duke, Actually”, which was nice, but I just could not get myself to like this pairing. I think Matteo and Cara were just chaste and in close proximity, and that’s what led to their hook ups. Also, their first kiss happened literally out of nowhere, it was plain out weird (and I know they felt weird about it too, but it still doesn’t justify it. Out in the wild that would be called assault, for real).
And finally, what kind of conclusion was that? This book felt like it didn’t have a real ending. I finished listening to this audiobook and was left wondering what the hell had just happened.
I think maybe just stick to the first two books in this series. “So This Is Christmas”, in my opinion, isn’t worth your time.
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andrea's galley 