Non-Review: Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe #2)

Merry Ever After (Under the Mistletoe #2) by Tessa Bailey

Published By: Amazon Original Stories
Publication Date: November 12, 2024
Date Read: December 4, 2024
Genre: Adult – Romance
Source: Loaned from KU
Format: E-Book
Pages: 59

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A single mother working in a thrift store. A gentle giant farmer who can’t find jeans that fit. When opposites attract, they find themselves making alterations in more ways than one in this smoking-hot short story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

Evie Crowe is starting over in a strange town with her newborn, and men are the furthest thing from her mind. If only the quiet, hulking farmer, Luke Ward, would stop coming into the thrift shop and piquing her reluctant interest. Evie wants to stay single all the way—she can’t trust anything more than friends-with-holiday-benefits. But Luke is in it for the long haul. He’s fixed on making this a Christmas Evie will remember forever. If she gives him a chance.

Tessa Bailey’s Merry Ever After is part of Under the Mistletoe, a stirring collection of December romances that thrill and tingle all the way. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.

After enjoying the first Under the Mistletoe novella, I was still very apprehensive going into this one. I am historically not a big fan of Tessa Bailey and her writing style, so I didn’t really know what I was going to think about this one… My apprehensiveness was justified. Honestly the only thought I really have about this is ‘what the actual fuck was that?’

I actually cannot cope with the utter ludicrous nature of Tessa Bailey’s writing. I’m all too aware that with some romance books you really have to suspend your belief as they are really out of any realm of possibility or realistic likelihoods but this is a whole other level of ridiculousness. Within the first 2 pages, before the male main character has even spoken the female main character is thinking about how big this guy is… so big that even a grizzly bear would not dare cross his path… GURL!!! BE FOR FUCKING REAL RIGHT NOW! Like just stop! I got 15 pages in and I just couldn’t do it anymore. Calling this novella a romance is a stretch… it goes straight into spice before the characters have muttered two words to each other. There is no emotional connection… no sign of any romantic gestures anywhere… just smut. And if that’s what you enjoy and like to read go forth… this novella is for you. But calling this a romance is ridiculous. There is nothing romantic within the contents that I read. I have discovered that Tessa Bailey is just not it for me. I cannot even put into words how much I despise and hate everything about this novella! This is the end of mine and Tessa’s journey. I don’t care how popular she is… to me it’s just so, so BAD!