Unexpected pregnancy isn’t usually one of my favourite romance tropes, but Miranda Liasson’s All I Want for Christmas is You totally won me over. Years of unacknowledged mutual attraction leads to a sizzling one night stand between fiercely independent baker Kaitlyn and light-hearted firefighter Rafe. Kaitlyn knows that Rafe has no desire for a wife or kids, so when she realizes she’s pregnant with his child, she has every intention of raising the kid alone. Except Rafe’s matchmaking grandmother low-key tricks them into a fake engagement. Then Rafe’s repairs to Kaitlyn’s apartment requires her to move in with him. And eventually, she comes to realize that there’s a lot more to Rafe than his joking facade.

I absolutely loved Kaitlyn and Rafe. Both are dealing with stuff in their pasts that make it difficult for them to allow themselves to fall in love. Kaitlyn was raised by a single mom, who taught her to take care of herself, and so she struggles to accept Rafe’s kindness and generosity. And a tragedy from Rafe’s past makes him overprotective towards the people he loves. I love how their respective struggles clash so much with each other’s — they have to work hard for their happily ever after, and this just makes the payoff so very worth it.

I’m also a sucker for animals in romances, and I love the puppy in this one. Bandit is totally adorable, but more than that, his story just about melted my heart. First, Rafe discovers him abandoned by the side of the road, and then brings him to the vet to find him a forever home. Then he and Kaitlyn totally fall in love with the dog, but hesitate to adopt him — Rafe because he worries his work schedule makes it impossible for him to give the dog the care he needs, and Kaitlyn because she worries about her ability to care for a dog in her tiny apartment with a baby on the way. Their journey to open their hearts and their homes to Bandit parallels their journey to coming together as a couple, and when they finally make the decision to take Bandit home, it’s beautiful.

Minor detail, but I also kinda liked how Kaitlyn talked about her surprise at the pregnancy when she and Rafe had used two types of birth control. Accidents happen, even when people are taking responsible precautions, and while she and Rafe had clearly been carried away by passion, I like that the author pointed out that the pregnancy was not because they’d forgotten birth control.

+

Thank you to Forever for an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a sucker for romances and women’s fiction the feature animal lovers, so when I saw that Erin, the heroine in Seize the Day, worked at a zoo, and that the main  man in her life was a sloth (“the animal kind, not the lazy kind”) named Barry, I knew I wanted to read further.

I wasn’t familiar with BRCA (a strong genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer) until I came across this book, but I love the idea of a book series starring women who live with this condition. In Erin’s case, it means that if she ever wants to have a baby, she must make it happen soon. Enter co-worker Xander Barnes, and a potential solution to Erin’s desire for a baby.

I haven’t read the book myself, so I can’t post a full review, but I am definitely intrigued by the premise. The book sounds lighthearted, hilarious and fun, and I like that it also explores a challenge some women face. And while I’m curious about Xander as a character, I must admit being even more excited to meet Barry the sloth, whom I hope plays a big part in the story. (I’ve read a lot of romances featuring dogs, but never one with the sloth, yet.)

Excerpt

“It’s not like you’re getting any younger, you know.”

Mackenzie laughs, flattening her voice to sound like our mother’s. If Mom’s said this once, she’s said it to me a thousand times. Mackenzie nails the impression. I know she’s trying to be funny, but I don’t need my sister to point this out to me.

I know.

Every single day, I know.

Most women my age probably hear a faint tick every once in a while. My biological clock clangs like Big Ben every fifteen minutes.

The moment you receive the news that you are BRCA-1 positive, that clock speeds up. Yah for the likelihood of developing cancer that attacks my reproductive organs!

Clang.

“I’m aware,” I mutter.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Even though she now sounds like she’s in a wind tunnel, I can hear the change to her tone. Gone is the jesting. Concern fills her voice.  

As an aside, I hate when she uses speakerphone. It takes a minute for the background noise to settle down. I’d rather text than talk, but my sister is usually multitasking more than a circus juggler. I’m appreciative that she’s able to carve out any time at all for me, even if it means we have to talk. To each other.

Like in the olden days.

In the meantime, I stretch out on the couch.

“Nothing today.” I stifle a yawn. “I was at work until three a.m.” The late night has ruined all hopes of a productive day off.

“Everything okay there?”

“Another day in paradise at the Pittsfalls Zoo. Talbert, one of my spider monkeys, had to have emergency dental surgery. I wanted to stay until he was awake and moving around again.”

As such, my only plans today call for tacos and a nap. Maybe cruising the internet a little.

And when I say cruising the internet, I mean spending a few hours creating the perfect life on Pinterest.

I pinned the most adorable baby zoo animal collage today. It’ll go perfect with the giraffe mural I pinned last week.

Basically, the perfect day.

“Carpe diem, sis. You can’t keep putting this off,” Mackenzie says.

Even if my biological clock wasn’t going off like gangbusters, I’ve got Good Ole Kenzie to remind me that time is not on my side and encouraging me to seize the day.

She’s always good for a pep talk, whether I want to listen or not. Most of the time I feel lucky to have such support.

Most of the time.

“Oh, but I can and I will.” I cross my arms defiantly, even though my sister can’t see my pout.

It’s not as if a solution has magically presented itself to me. Nothing has changed since last month, last week, and yesterday, when we had the same conversation.

In other words, I haven’t found a husband. 

+

Thank you to the author for the excerpt.

When I was in grade school, I wanted a pen pal. Blame it on Sweet Valley Twins, where Elizabeth Wakefield’s best friend Amy Sutton had a pen pal who came to visit. This was before social media was a thing (ahem), and so the idea of connecting with a near-stranger hundreds, possibly thousands of miles away, seemed like a fun and inexpensive way to learn about life in other countries.

Now imagine having a pen pal, becoming BFFs with him over all the angsty, tumultuous teenage years, then having him grow up to look like this cover model. Oh, and he also happens to now live in the same country as you and be a world-famous rock star. Um, sign me up, please!

In all seriousness, while Dirty Letters does have a fair amount of steam (I can never look at a Furby in the same way again), it also has a lot of angst and pain and all sorts of emotions. Griffin and Luca have to work hard for their happily ever after, and Keeland and Ward make sure the payoff is well worth it.

See, while Griffin and Luca form a strong bond over the letters they exchange as children, both experience tragedies in their late teens that result in Luca ghosting Griffin completely, and Griffin never forgiving her for that. Fast forward eight years, and Luca is sorting out her deceased father’s estate when she finds Griffin’s rage-filled final letter, and decides to try to reconnect and explain why she stopped writing. Their low-key childhood crushes on each other have developed into more adult feelings, and their letters soon get pretty hot and heavy.

I love that Keeland and Ward don’t let the childhood misunderstanding and the letter-writing format drag on for too long, as the story really kicked off for me when Griffin and Luca finally meet in person. The bulk of the story focuses on the conflict between their wildly different lifestyles — Griffin is a rock star hounded by paparazzi, and Luca is living with severe anxiety (and I think agoraphobic?) with a huge fear of crowds. So the life of a rock star’s girlfriend is definitely not for her.

I absolutely loved Luca as a character. I loved the little details like how she shops at a grocery store after midnight so she can avoid the crowds, and I also love the quirkier details like her having a pet pig. The various aspects of her vulnerability felt real, and I loved how much she developed and worked through her fears over the course of the book. I liked her friendship with Doc, the bird-watcher therapist, who was such a sweet elderly man and very much a father figure to Luca.

To be honest, Griffin took a while to grow on me. I thought his angry letter to Luca when she stopped responding was immature, and honestly a bit scary. Even after they reconnected as adults, I was turned off by his letter being all judgemental about the “shallow” women he meets who “make it easy” to have sex with them. And I was especially turned off when Griffin hired an investigator to find Luca and take photos so he could see what she looked like now.

Fortunately, he improved as a character after they meet in person, and I think it’s because playing off of Luca allows him to show off his sweeter side. I love how much he was in love with Luca, and how committed he was to ensuring her comfort and happiness. In one absolutely beautiful scene, sets things up so she can listen to him perform without having to deal with the crowds and the noise.

Overall, this is a steamy romance that is surprisingly more sweet than the premise suggests. Luca and Griffin are both complex characters, who must move a bit outside their comfort zone to be together, and I love that the decision to do so was not at all easy, but is ultimately well worth the wait.

Giveaway

Want to read Dirty Letters for yourself? Enter here for your chance to win 1 copy of Dirty Letters by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward!

Giveaway Details:
– Canada Only (excl. Quebec—full rules found in the T&C on Rafflecopter)
– Giveaway begins on November 11th and ends on November 28th at 11:59 pm EST
– Winner will be drawn randomly through Rafflecopter, contacted via email & will have 48 hours to claim their prize

Blog Tour

Check out the rest of the Dirty Letters blog tour below:

• Nov. 11 – Xandria @ Beautiful Bitch Book Reviews
• Nov. 12 – Erin @ Sleep Less, Read More
• Nov. 13 – Milana @ A Couple Reads
• Nov. 14 – Joy @ Joyous Reads
• Nov. 15 – Allyssa @ Between the Spine
• Nov. 18 – Wendy @ Cupcake and a Latte
• Nov. 19 – Lisa @ RemarkablyLisa
• Nov. 20 – Jaclyn @ Literary Treats
• Nov. 21 – Amanda @ Stuck in YA Books
• Nov. 22 – Christine @ Padfoot’s Library