MERRY LITTLE KISSMAS by Lauren Blakely-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 28, 2025

Dear Santa,
When I asked for a fresh shot at love for the holidays, I didn’t mean fake dating my brother’s grumpy best friend.
Especially since he’s also my new client.
As a professional matchmaker, my biggest job this holiday season should be simple: find a date for the sexy single dad hockey star—aka my brother’s best friend—for his team’s fancy Christmas Eve gala.
Sure Rowan’s hot as a crackling fire and spicier than a gingerbread man, but he hasn’t just sworn off romance. The Christmas hater has made a bet that I can’t find him a holidate.
What’s a matchmaker to do?

Win, of course. Even if it means fake dating the grinch myself to get him ready for the real thing.
Only…these fake dates at Christmas tree farms and hot cocoa competitions in the snowy small town of Evergreen Falls start to feel a little too real as I get to know the man behind the scowl.

Somewhere between kisses under the mistletoe and a snowed-in night in his cabin curled up by the fire (where the stockings aren’t the only thing hung), I realize I’m in over my elf-loving head.
And when Rowan opens up to me at last about his painful past, I’m determined to give my brother’s best friend the holiday he deserves.

But what if the only gift I want him to unwrap this season is… me?

••••••

REVIEW: MERRY LITTLE KISSMAS by Lauren Blakely is a contemporary, adult, stand alone erotic, Christmas romance story line focusing on matchmaker Isla Marlowe, and professional hockey player and single father Rowan Bishop. MERRY LITTLE KISSMAS includes characters from, and is set in the author’s LOVE AND HOCKEY world.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Isla and Rowan) MERRY LITTLE KISSMAS focuses on the hunt for a date for our story line hero. The annual Christmas Eve fund-raising gala is fast approaching, and Rowan, the perpetual Christmas Grinch doesn’t have or want a date but with the persistence of Isla, his agent and best friend Jason Marlowe’s younger sister, and the woman about whom he fantasizes, Rowan is about to meet his match. As the days and weeks pass with the approach to Christmas, Isla struggles to find Rowan the perfect match, and our couple agree to a fake-dating scheme to get everyone off of their back but the reality of their dating quickly grows into something more until Rowan pushes Isla out of his life, fearing further heart break for himself and his daughter.

The world building follows the back and forth between Isla and Rowan as our couple to get know one another in preparation for a match. Both Isla and Rowan’s attraction to one another is recognized by everyone including themselves but Rowan refuses to lay claim to the woman with whom he is falling in love.

The relationship between Isla and Rowan is one of mutual attraction in the face of previous heart break and pain. Isla loves the Christmas Holidays, in opposition to Rowan’s lack of a Christmas spirit. Acting on their attraction, Isla finds herself hoping for something more but Rowan battles between head and heart, fearing another heart breaking going forward. The $ex scenes are intimate and provocative without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble and diverse cast of secondary and supporting characters including Rowan’s teammates,several couples from the interconnected LOVE AND HOCKEY series; Rowan’s nine-year old daughter Mia; MY FAVORITE HOLIDATE’s Fable Calloway and hotelier Wilder Blaine, as well as Isla’s brother Jason. And both Isla and Rowan’s extended families.

MERRY LITTLE KISSMAS is a story of heart break and betrayal, secrets and lies, family and friendships, acceptance and love. The character driven premise is both heart warming and heart breaking, inviting and uplifting; the characters are animated, sassy and flirty; the romance is seductive and passionate.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

A #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that’s hot, sweet and sexy. She lives in California with her family and has plotted entire novels while walking her dogs. With fourteen New York Times bestsellers, her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists more than eighty times, and she’s sold more than 2 million books. In October she’ll release HARD WOOD, a sexy, standalone romantic comedy. To receive an email when Lauren releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter! laurenblakely.com/newsletter

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