This book is a delight! I love the dual styles of writing of both SIerra Simone and Julie Murphy. The close attention to detail that both authors take time for, both authors are good at emotional investment as well. But that Sierra Simone spice was NICCCEEE.
This book is also extremely sex positive, and sex worker positive, as it is a plus size p*rn star staring in a "hallmark" type of christmas movie. Then male actor trying to clean up his image. Both characters equally yet individually working towards a better tomorrow.
I also love the plus size representation! I will just keep this book alongside some favorite holiday themed reads, because it truly is a gem!

A (secret) adult film star and former boy band member get cast in what is basically a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie and lots of hot and hilarious incidents ensue. Plus size protagonist, bisexual main characters, lots of queer folks, mental illness rep- this book has it all and it was so well done and absolutely wonderful! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Two novice actors with secrets get cast in what is basically a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie and lots of hot and hilarious incidents occur. Plus size protagonist, bisexual main characters, lots of queer folks, mental health rep- this book has it all and it was so well done and absolutely wonderful! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Put this on your reading list because you MUST read it!

There seriously has not been a book that Julie Murphy has written that I have not fall in love with! Bee is a plus sized adult film star (she goes by a different name) with two supportive moms, but when she's cast in a Christmas movie for this super family friendly TV station, her whole life changes direction. This whole situation becomes better when she discovers that her co star is none other than her childhood crush, Nolan Shaw who is dire need of a career rehab! This book gets extra steamy extra fast when Nolan recognizes Bee from her adult films! This book was like 90% spice, so know that going into! But this overall ended up being a super fun and holiday read!

Well, Merry freaking Christmas to me in September! A Merry Little Meet Cute is the perfect mix of humor, cuteness, and sexy times.

The entire set up is perfect. Bee and Nolan are hired to make what is essentially a Hallmark movie and they both have major crushes on each other. Bee has been pining for Nolan since he was in a famous boy band and she has the posters on her childhood bedroom walls to prove it. Nolan has been one of Bee’s number one subscribers on her adult film website for years. Both are shocked when they find out they are working on Duke the Halls together. Nolan is trying to reform his bad-boy image and Bee wants to keep her “Bianca Von Honey” identity a secret. These two characters attempt to stay away from each other but neither of them can ignore their undeniable chemistry.

Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone are a perfect author duo. The writing was great and the dialogue was spot-on. The conversations in this book are important and refreshing. I haven’t been loving romantic comedies lately but I had a really great experience reading this one.

Thank you NetGalley or sending me this ARC for review! A Merry Little Meet Cute is out now.

Themes:
- Holiday Romance
- Romantic Comedy
- Ex Boy-band member & Sex Worker
- Mutual Infatuation
- Forced Proximity
- Dirty talk

My Ratings:
Overall - 4⭐️
Angst - 2💗
Spice - 4🌶

I devoured this book in a day. It was so good.

I loved everything about it. It was hilarious and steamy and sweet. The characters were all so much fun.

I loved both Bee and Nolan, they were great characters and I was so glad that Nolan was this sweet dude who just wanted to take care of his family and he wasn’t an alphahole rockstar.

I am so excited for more books in this series because I feel like the authors set the story up for several more couples in this series.

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy of this ARC.

CW: talk of mental health, slut shaming, fat shaming.

This was so so cute. I loved the bi rep, body positivity, sex positivity and the sweetness of the love story. I appreciated the love and affection between established couples in the book as well.

I didn’t know this was the Christmas book I needed.

Oh what a perfectly dirty holiday book! I loved it.

The characters. The chemistry.

I couldn't put it down. It was so fun, sexy and also and an underlying feminist streak that was *chefs kiss*

Cannot wait to recommend this to my followers and friends!

This is the perfect Christmas book for the steamy and spicy for readers. It has many topics like sex work and other things, but it was so much fun to read.

I love that the heroine is a plus size girl that is in the adult entertainment world and she is confident and loves herself. I think that’s so important with plus size rep that the main character loves who she is and feels comfortable in her own body and skin and that’s just who she is. Nothing needed. The hero in the story is hardworking, does things to help and get by and is the sweetest!! Their chemistry? Off the charts! It’s so fun, sweet, hot and chemistry filled dynamic that I think is perfect for a Christmas book. The two leads are also bisexual which is great to see in romance books and the rep is amazing. It’s perfect if you love Christmas books but want some kick to it. You know, like cider with a little whiskey? That sort of vibes and it’s such a great time. It is sex positive and goes into detail with that. I loved that the book takes away that stigma and it’s such a fun twist. I am such a fan of her books and this was no exception.

We've written several times about how we love made-for-TV (or should that be "made-for-streaming" these days?) Christmas movies, but that they can be a little too chaste for us. So we are probably the perfect audience for A Merry Little Meet Cute, featuring two decidedly unchaste characters currently starring opposite each other in "Duke the Halls." Nolan is a washed up former boy band member trying to clean up his act so he can earn enough money to support his family. Bee is a current sex worker - both as an adult film star and by running her own "ClosedDoors" fan account. Of course Bee is one of Nolan's OG fans, and Nolan is one of Bee's current fans.

As we read, it was fun to imagine that Bee and Nolan exist in a slightly skewed version of our reality, one in which the Winter Olympics took place in Duluth and boy bands created by reality TV shows actually made it big. Also one where our two lovable doofases of main characters actually believe that the holiday movie aficionado fanbase doesn't interact at all with the adult industry fanbase. Look, it is ridiculous that they believe they're going to get away with making a completely chaste Christmas movie without a single person recognizing Bee from her (quite popular!) CloseDoor account, much less her (even more popular!) adult films? YES, it is ridiculous. But it's ridiculous in the same way that a time traveling ducal romance that teaches you the meaning of Christmas is.

All that is to say we had a TON of fun reading this book and highly recommend it to anyone who can suspend their disbelief for 25 chapters. It's truly an Xxxmas book for anyone who loves romance AND the holidays. (Yeah we've been trying for 3 paragraphs to work that pun in, sorry if it doesn't land.)

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

A Merry Little Meet Cute is a captivating rom-com that I loved. It was a fun holiday read that was steamy and humorous with fun characters and gave us tropes of childhood crush, forbidden love and workplace romance. I loved that the FMC was plus size. I love that the story gave us insight into mental health, and body positivity and I loved that Bee knew what she wanted both inside and outside the bed room and did not settle for anything less.
I enjoyed seeing Bee and Nolan fight their attraction to one another but these two were perfect together. The chemistry between them was intense and undeniable and I loved that they both had crushes on each other. Of course what was supposed to be a secret romance soon turned in to so much more. Although this was Nolan and Bee's story the supporting characters were highly entertaining especially the p0rn staff and added so much to the story. This was a great spicy holiday romance and I would highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and the authors for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

Sadly this was not the book for me. You know you've got a problem when you're more interested between the attraction budding between Teddy, Bee's erstwhile porn producer, and Steph, Nolan's ballbusting manager, than you are between the main characters.

Both the main characters are allowed to have preexistent crushes on the other and therefore their romance trajectory feels both immediate and shallow, overshadowed by lust. I STRONGLY QUESTION that fact that Bee/Bianca Von Honey would not have been recognizable to *anyone*. I mean. Come ON. Yes, she was a performer on OF, I mean, Closed Doors, but she was also a frequent performer in adult films. Why did anyone think they could fool Hallmark Channel, I mean Hopeflix, at all? #FACEPALM. Just be honest! And Nolan. Nolan, Nolan, Nolan, come ON, with the phone, ugh. I understand his rationale but the miscommunication/lack of communication was epic.

There were many other mistakes and dumb decisions (photograph in a strip club, perhaps?) and the story overall was rife with miscommunications. One particularly bothersome scene was when Nolan promised to "take care of Bee" while she was horseback, and then his phone rang, so he left to answer it. SOMETHING ELSE startled the horse (I believe it was wind, but I can't be sure) and the horse shied and threw Bee. And somehow, this is ALL Nolan's fault, because he promised he'd be there. How the hell is he going to stop the horse from shying? What exactly was he supposed to do? by the time he jumped down, Bee would already have been on the ground. So then everyone treats Nolan like a grade A Jerk. Yes, definitely, for answering his phone during a scene (again). But for the horse throwing Bee? yeah, no.

Ugh.

I wanted to like this. It seemed cute. I just wish the two MCs had more chemistry than heat in the bedroom.

Just adding, every character in this book is LGBTQAAI+, if that's something you look out for. There's also body positivity, mental health awareness, privacy awareness, sex worker positivity, social media bullying, etc etc etc. It's nice that all that was included but it seemed a little like a bingo card. I would have liked a couple of those issues to have been given a deeper look rather than so much of it covered shallowly.

YMMV as I see this book was a big hit. It just wasn't my cuppa.

"Five out of five yule logs. Would costar again."

This book was just so much fun, and that's honestly the best work I can use to describe this book. Sexy is also probably a good word, but I found myself laughing and smiling throughout my read.

Bee Hobbes has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star under the name Bianca von Honey. She's thrilled when her favorite producer wants to cast her in a Christmas movie for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, but she has to keep her previous career a secret. When she discovers her costar is Nolan Shaw, infamous bad boy of former boy band INK, her task at keeping quiet becomes much easier said than done. He needs a career rehab in order to help out his mother and sister. But their apparent mutual attraction will make behaving nearly impossible.

The chemistry between Bee and Nolan is instant and the tension leading up to their first encounter is absolutely delicious. This is not a slow burn, which I loved. They each have prior knowledge of each other so it felt natural that their relationship progressed quickly. Getting POVs from both Bee and Nolan is excellent, and we can see that their feelings are genuine and not projections of their previous fantasies.

The overarching premise does feel just a bit far-fetched, but it also fulfills fantasies I'm sure many people have had when it comes to celebrities. Everything happens very quickly. This also isn't a super deep story and the focus is more on their relationship than other smaller plot points. The side characters are really great and I would have liked to see a little bit more of them to feel that found family connection.

I was also happy to finally get a book with supportive parents. So many books recently have relied on parental dysfunction as a subplot or motivation for the main characters, and it feels stale after a while. It was refreshing to see supportive parents all-around and not feel bogged down with unnecessary tension.

Overall, this was a sweet, spicy read that's perfect for Christmas!

This is not your typical Hallmark-esque rom com for Christmas. It's so much better! Bee Hobbes has her own porn website but gets an offer to star in a Hallmark style Christmas movie. She jumps at the chance to branch out and to do something different.
Former boy band member Nolan Shaw gets the opportunity to rehab his bad boy career and star in the same movie. Bee has a crush on Nolan, Nolan is a subscriber of Bee's. Obviously, sparks are going to happen. How will Bee keep her other career quiet so that she is able to take advantage of this opportunity? How will Nolan keep his desire for Bee under wraps so that he can rehab his image and save his struggling family?
This is a heartwarming tale about two different protagonists than I would normally read about in a holiday story. I loved the sex positive way that their desires were addressed.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

This was a fun read and different from other Christmas romcoms I’ve picked up over the years.

I enjoyed both Bee and Nolan's characters, and the side characters too. It was definitely spicer then I expected out of a romcom and based on the cover. Not that I’m complaining, gimmie all the spice.

I don’t know how I felt about Nolan and Bee hooking up and Nolan not letting Bee know that he’s not only aware of her work in the adult film industry and but that he also SUBSCRIBES to her page! I dunno, something about that part just gave me icky vibes. It was also a little too “insta-love” for me but I guess that’s probably expected in a Holiday romcom.

I loved the body positivity and the sex work positivity in this.

If your looking for a book with Hallmark movie vibes and spicy, this ones for you! Thank you to HarperCollinsCA for this advanced copy.

I loved the unique plot and the body, sexuality and sex work positivity in this holiday romance! I also loved the small town devoted to Hallmark movie production concept and the reinforcement that people can enjoy those movies and sexy times. I'm not one for reading holiday themed books before say, November, but though there were lots of Christmas themed things in this it really felt more about the characters than the holiday so it didn't bother me to read it in mid-September.

I liked both of the main characters individually however I did feel like the connection between them relied heavily on the fact that they both already had long-term crushes on each other from their public personas long before they met. They didn't have many on-page scenes together building an actual relationship/emotional connection, so I didn't really feel it between them when they were professing them/angsting over them.

There were a few brief-to-medium sex scenes and while far and away more than you would get with a typical fluffy rom-com (or Hallmark movie, ha!) they weren't really that steamy on my scale or what I have come to expect from Sierra Simone (I have not read Julie Murphy books before to compare in that regard). It seemed like more jokes or narrative statements about steamy or non-ultra vanilla sex & toys were made than actual raunchy sex (as advertised for the book) was had, though I recognize this is a very subjective element.

I enjoyed the writing style and the witty sentences throughout. As I previously stated, I have not read Julie Murphy before but Sierra Simone is one of my all-time favorite authors and though I recognized some of SS's style for the most part I didn't notice different authors as I read so it blended well. I was definitely in the mood for this kind of low-key, lighter book and I liked the side characters too so I would be interested in reading more, especially about Nolan's brooding widower friend.
3.5-3.75 Stars, rounding up

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and authors for this ARC.

I knew from the description that this book was going to be a wild ride. A porn star and a former boy band bad boy come together to film a Hallmark-esque Christmas movie? Literally no way this wasn't going to be hilarious.

And A Merry Little Meet Cute lived up to my expectations. This book was hilarious, sweet, sexy, and spicy - not to mention extremely festive. It poked fun at Hallmark and the porn industry equally, without undercutting either. And it was packed full of delightfully layered characters, all of whose past and present troubles and successes were treated with equal respect. There were a lot of ways this plot could have gone wrong or veered into uncomfortable territory, but the writers handled everything lovingly and with grace.

It didn't come as much of a surprise that the spice level of this book is EXTREMELY high, but it does bear reiterating. Bee and Nolan have great chemistry and their scenes together are always steamy, even when they're filming a chaste kiss for their Christmas movie. And yeah, they have a lot of sex. Of course they do.

On occasion, the pacing was a little awkward, and I found myself wishing we got to see more of the movie making process, but overall, this was such a fun read that it feels silly to have any complaints. A great spicy treat to keep you warm around the holidays!

4.25/5

Nolan is an ex-boyband member who needs to clean up his image, and what better way to do that than as the leading man in a hallmark-esque holliday romance movie? Bee is a plus sized adult film star who is looking to break into mainstream acting roles. The two of them are under strict orders to behave themselves during the filming, but what they never counted on was finding each other.

This book checked all the boxes for me. It has all the spicy goodness that you'd expect from Sierra Simone, and all the sweetness we expect from Julie Murphy. Total win! I'm not sure how any other holiday book this year is going to top it for me.

I absolutely loved it for the body positivity, for the sex positivity, and for the spicy goodness of Nolan and Bee's love story. Can't rave enough about it!

Thank you so much to Avon and Harper Voyager for sending me an ARC of this book!

A Merry Little Meet Cute is a steamy and delightful read. Bee is successful in her career as an adult film star and she feels fulfilled. But when she tries to expand her portfolio, she is cast in “Duke the Halls”…a family-friendly Christmas movie. Her co-star is Nolan Shaw, previous boy band member and Bee’s childhood crush. Unbeknownst to Bee, Nolan immediately identifies her through her adult film work because he’s a fan. Holiday themed chaos and forced proximity ensues as the two get to know each other and keep their secrets from the studio.

I really enjoyed A Merry Little Meet Cute! Bee and Nolan had great chemistry. Both of them have crushed on each other for years without truly knowing each other and I think the authors pulled it off. I would highly recommend if you enjoy (ex)celebrity romance, inclusive writing, and glorious bisexual disaster characters. This book would be perfect for fans of Olivia Dade, Rosie Danan, and anyone who ever wished a Hallmark movie could have some more spice. Thank you to Julie Murphy, Sierra Simone, Avon, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, Wordpress blog, and Barnes & Noble etc

Ever thought about a porn star being cast to star in a wholesome channel’s holiday feature?
That’s the premise Of A Merry Little Meet Cute. Bee has made a name for herself as a porn star and this is her chance to break out into a different role. Her love interest, Nolan, recognizes her and Of course sparks fly.
I thought all the backlash was predictable and believable.
I wasn’t convinced of the relationship between Nolan and Bee, despite his assurances.
Try a more naughty Christmas instead of pure and nice.