YOU MAKE IT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS by Sophie Sullivan-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play / Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 23, 2205

All bets are off when a single-minded photographer and a professional hockey player are forced to spend a week together on his sister’s Christmas tree farm.

Maisie Smart doesn’t look back. Not on the choice she made to be a photographer, and not on the one-night stand she had six months ago. But sleeping with a professional hockey player who bolted the morning after is a whole new level of embarrassing. Now she’s about to spend the week at Tickle Tree Farms with her family this Christmas—and then the universe throws a Grinch in her festive plans.

Nick King is a mess. After a significant injury benches him, he has more time to dwell on his anxieties and the one-night stand he can’t get out of his head. With the holidays around the corner, he figures visiting his sister and nephew at their Christmas tree farm will be a good way to sort himself out. That’s impossible when he learns Maisie is there, still beautiful and justifiably angry about the way he left. But Christmas is the time for second chances, and the forced proximity may help Nick and Maisie unwrap feelings neither of them can walk away from twice.

••••••

REVIEW: YOU MAKE IT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS by Sophie Sullivan is a stand alone, contemporary, adult romance story line set in the author’s CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE world. This is twenty-six year old, photographer Maise Smart, and thirty-four year old, professional hockey player Nick ‘King’ Kingston’s story line.

Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Nick and Maise) YOU MAKE IT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS follows in the wake of a one-night stand months earlier. Maise Smart thought she saw a potential relationship with Nick King, a one-night stand at a mutual friend’s wedding but the next morning, Maise woke up to an empty bed, and never heard from Nick again. Fast forward six months, a planned Christmas holiday with the family in Merry, Washington, at the Tickle Tree Farms owned by Ellie Kingston finds Maise face to face with her one-night stand, her brother’s brother-in-law, Nick ‘King’ Kingston, the man about whom she has never stopped thinking. Still hurting from Nick’s apparent rejection, Maise struggles to come to terms with the professional hockey player Nick, as opposed to the Nick working his sister’s farm but a near-career ending injury has Nick on the sidelines, contemplating his future upon his return in the New Year. As Christmas approaches, Nick’s seduction of Maise slowly tears down the wall around her heart, and our hero is hoping for something more when the holidays are over.

The world building follows several pathways including both Maise and Nick’s futures. Nick is struggling more than just a physical injury; and Maise’s sense of accomplishment and self-esteem is constantly battered by someone she loves.

The relationship between Nick and Maise is one of second-changes, of a sorts. A one-night stand, a morning after ghosting, and a reconnection push our couple together, as they consider their options, and their next steps going forward. The $ex scenes are passionate but mostly implied.

The secondary and supporting characters are lively and energetic. We are reintroduced to Maise’s Best friend Lexi and her husband Will (Can’t Help Falling in Love); Maise’s sister Natalie, their brother Jacob and his husband (Nick’s brother) Colt, as well as their well-meaning but aggressively perfectionist mother Laura; Nick’s sister Ellie, and her son Asher.

YOU MAKE IT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS is a story of family and friendships, forgiveness and love. The character driven premise is entertaining and captivating; the romance is seductive yet subtle; the characters are determined and charismatic.

Copy  supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy