AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS (Love Unexpectedly #5) by Lauren Layne-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway
AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS
Love Unexpectedly #5
by Lauren Layne
Release Date: November 7, 2017
Genre: adult,contemporary, romance
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / GPlay / iBooks
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 7, 2017
When a psychic tells spunky, superstitious Kelly Byrne that she’s already met her true love, she becomes obsessed with the idea of tracking him down before Christmas. Kelly immediately writes up an “Ex List” and starts contacting old boyfriends to figure out which one is the one. When her college sweetheart rolls into town, Kelly convinces herself that they’re meant to be. The trouble is, sparks are flying with someone she’s never given a chance: her best friend, Mark.
Mark Blakely has watched the guys on Kelly’s list break her heart, and he’s not looking forward to watching them do it all over again. Mark’s always been there for her, but the timing’s never worked out for their relationship to be something more. Now, just as Mark is ready to move on, the sexual tension between them is suddenly off the charts. With Christmas morning around the corner, he just hopes Kelly will wake up and realize that everything she wants has been right in front of her all along.
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REVIEW: AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS is the fifth instalment in Lauren Layne’s contemporary, adult LOVE UNEXPECTEDLY romance series. This is primary school teacher Kelly Byrne, and bar owner / chef Mark Blakely’s story line. AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.
Told from first person point of view (Kelly Byrne) with a final chapter by Mark, AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS is a friends to lovers, unrequited love story that follows a determined Kelly Byrne as she hopes to find ‘the one’ before Christmas. When a psychic tells Kelly that she has already met her ‘true love’ our heroine sets about to rekindle with a number of her exes, one disastrous date at a time. Enter best friend, neighbor and restaurant owner Mark Blakely, the man who has secretly waited ten years for Kelly to recognize that he is ‘the one.’ What ensues are Kelly’s attempts to find love in the days leading to the Christmas holidays, and the potential fall out as Mark battles his attraction to a woman who is oblivious to her best friend’s unrequited love.
Kelly Byrne is superstitious and gullible; a woman who believes in the ideology of the zodiac, a Magic 8 Ball, and all of the psychobabble that goes along with the mythical powers of seers, crystal balls and psychics-r-us. Our heroine refuses to take a chance until she asks a question of her ‘magical’ plastic orb. Mark Blakely is a man determined to prove to our heroine that he is her happily ever after but Kelly continues to be oblivious to Mark’s barely veiled attempts at seduction, as she maintains that one of her exes must still be the one.
The relationship between Kelly and Mark is one of a life-long friendship: more than just neighbors, Kelly and Mark also share custody of Rigby the dog. Throughout his life Mark has never wandered far from the woman that calls to his heart-a woman that continues to be oblivious to her best friends love. The $ex scenes are intimate, seductive and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
Throughout the story Kelly Bryne leads a co-dependent life with not one, not two but three Magic 8 Balls. Her need and obsession to allow the plastic, mechanical device to rule all of her decisions and choices begins to get old very fast-not only for the people in her life but for the man who must endure watching the woman he loves attempt to rekindle with every man from her past. In this, I struggled to like the heroine or accept her fascination and overwhelming dependence upon the mystical powers of the 8 Ball and the stars-I would have to question the emotional stability of someone so reliant upon, and absorbed with, the questionable ‘predictive’ nature of a cheap, plastic toy. The potential humor was lost on this reader, as I couldn’t get past the absurdity of the entire situation-my exasperation and agitation grew with each shake of the 8 ball, mention of the zodiac signs, and the heroine’s obliviousness about the man who refuses let go.
AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS is an interesting story line of friendship and love; superstition and psychics; and of the potential for one woman to lose not only her best friend but a love that has endured one disastrous relationship at a time. The premise is imaginative; the characters are colorful and energetic; the romance struggles with the idealistic beliefs of one woman desperately trying to find her happily ever after, in the past. In the end Kelly’s true love had been with her all along.
Reading Order and previous reviews
Blurred Lines
Good Girl
Love Story
Walk of Shame
An Ex For Christmas
Copy supplied by Netgalley
Reviewed by Sandy
I just miss my train, but there’s a decent-ish voice singing “White Christmas” nearby, and the platform’s not too crowded, so waiting’s not as bad as it could be.
My eye catches on a middle-aged woman who’s set up camp under one of the stairwells. It’s not unusual to see all manner of people under the streets of New York, although this one’s better dressed than most. She’s wearing a blousy red shirt, jeans, and ankle boots, and is sitting cross-legged on a plaid blanket. She’s got twigs of what seem to be fake roses in her hair.
None of that’s the weird part.
What’s weird is that she’s watching me. Intently.
We make awkward eye contact, and I give a quick smile before turning my attention back to my phone.
But I still feel her eyes on me.
Not in an unfriendly way, not in the way that makes me mentally catalog whether or not I saw any cops on my way down here who would hear me if I scream. She doesn’t seem eager to push me onto the train tracks either, and since that’s every New Yorker’s secret fear, that’s a plus.
Still, the focus is unsettling. I glance up again, and her eyes lock on mine. Her dark gaze is clear and focused, and I can’t decide if that’s more or less disturbing than if she seemed sort of hazy.
Then she smiles right at me. “Kelly.”
I get immediate goosebumps for reasons that have nothing to do with the winter weather. She knows my name.
“Come.” She beckons. “Come. I see.”
Now you’re thinking, Hell, no. Run!
I should be thinking the same, and on some level, I am, but . . .
There are a couple dozen people around. None are paying attention to me, but it’s not like I’m all alone in a dark alley.
And look, we’ve already established that I believe in fate expressing itself through a Magic 8 ball and horoscopes, and though I haven’t mentioned it yet, I totally avoid black cats, the number thirteen, and walking under ladders.
I also believe that there’s such a thing as sight. I know, because my grandma had it.
Grandma Shirley was one of those delightfully batty old ladies that most people dismissed as quirky, but nobody can deny that she seemed to know stuff. She knew when I’d win my soccer game, and by how many points. She knew when her cat’s litter of kittens would be born, down to the minute. Once she’d even predicted an earthquake, even though they’re really rare in New York.
She’d passed away when I was in eleventh grade (she’d predicted the when and how of that too), and though I didn’t inherit her talents, I’ve never stopped believing that some people see and know things that they shouldn’t. I call it the Sight.
I step closer, and the woman grins and beckons me even nearer.
I stop a healthy few feet away. I’m superstitious, not crazy.
The woman leans forward. “You seek love.”
Huh. Color me unimpressed. I mean, don’t most humans seek love? Sure, I’m recently single, and I don’t particularly want to be. And maybe I sometimes try a little too hard to find my forever guy.
But I’m not hearing anything other than generic lucky guesses from this lady.
“Sure,” I say, already starting to back away.
She holds up a hand. “The one you seek? Your forever guy, the love of your life . . .”
I freeze, because her phrasing echoes my thoughts almost exactly. A coincidence? Maybe. I don’t move away just yet, willing to hear her out.
She smiles again. “You’ve already met him.”
I blink. “What? I think you may want to recheck that crystal ball. I’m single.”
Her smile merely grows. “I didn’t say you weren’t single. I said you’d already met him. You just let him go. He’ll come back to you before Christmas.”
Whoa whoa whoa. This is . . .
Huh.
“You’re telling me that the love of my life is one of my exes?”
She extends both of her palms as though to say, There you have it!
I stifle a little surge of disappointment. Clearly she hasn’t met my exes. There are some decent ones in the mix, but mostly they’re duds, and none of them make my heart beat faster. Well, maybe—
Nope. No. Do not go there.
Thankfully, I feel the rumble of an oncoming train, and a glance over my shoulder tells me my ride outta here is approaching.
“Thanks very much,” I say with a strained smile. “Merry Christmas.”
“Happy holidays,” she says with a nod, standing and gathering up her blanket. Apparently she’s taken a cue from Madison Meyers and is sticking close to the PC route. Fair enough.
I lift a hand in a wave and move toward the train, but her next words give me a fresh wave of new goosebumps.
“Tell your parents happy anniversary. Thirty’s going to be a magical year for them.”
I whip my head around. “How did you—”
The woman is gone.
Like vanished gone.
Leaving me to wonder . . .
If a woman I’d never met was right about my parents’ anniversary, was she also right about other stuff?
Have I already met my one true love?
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Lauren Layne is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen romantic comedies.
A former e-commerce and web marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York City in 2011 to pursue a full-time writing career.
She lives in midtown Manhattan with her high-school sweetheart, where she writes smart romantic comedies with just enough sexy-times to make your mother blush. In LL’s ideal world, every stiletto-wearing, Kate Spade wielding woman would carry a Kindle stocked with Lauren Layne books.
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