I think I’d like to live in Amy Award’s books; the characters always have fun, being plus-sized and a snack is a given, the chemistry is kismet, and there’s always a little tongue and cheek nod to the title. This is the fifth story in the Cocky Kingmans (4.5 to be exact) and I enjoy visiting this world. Sarah Jayne and Mac have the instant chemistry everyone wants and it’s oddly believable that they fall for each other so quickly. As with each Kingsman book there’s always a swoonworthy sports star and an attention stealing (in this case sock stealing) animal or pet. I loved that Sir Honksalot had his own social media following and basically started a #porchgoose trend in a wealthy L.A. neighborhood of all places. And what’s not to love about a beefcake baller that only has eyes for the girl and helps take care of a wily animal and his friend? If you’re looking for a fluffy fun low stakes novella, this dual narration will meet those needs. Allie Shae and Kyle Mason worked wonderfully in tandem to bring the voices of Sarah Jayne and Mac to life. I received an ALC from Dreamscape Media. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with an audio ARC of this title to listen to and give an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I'm in love with this series by Award. I love the inclusivity and positivity of her books. And this one was just as great as all the others. I wish I had known about this one around the holidays as it would have made a perfect holiday read!
I really enjoyed the narrators. Especially the female, Allie Shae. This is my first title listening to her. She did a great job brining Sarah Jane alive for me. I've listened to one other book narrated by Kyle Mason and I really enjoyed it. He did a fun job of narrating's Maguire Jerry in this novella.
The chemistry between the FMC and MMC is almost immediate in this piece. I love how they bonded over the rescue of a goose. But I also love their connection and how they are in similar places in their lives: both aspiring to do better at the jobs. Award has a great way of incorporating animals into her books, as well. They often times steal the show!
It was fun to see some characters I know but as their younger selves (since this piece is a prequel to the other books). I love when a novella can give me some insight into characters that I have already been introduced to. Plus we got to meet a character who is no longer around in the first book and it was great to have that glimpse.
There were many laugh out loud moments that made me smile and some sweet and sexy times between the FMC and MMC, as well.
Overall, this was a quick fun read that added some good information to the Kingmans world. Award has quickly become one of my favorite romance authors.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC or listening copy.

This was a super cute short story. The narrators were really good and easy to understand.

The story is absolutely adorable and worth the time to listen to.

It's never too late or too early to get a little holiday read in and this one just hit the spot if you are a fan of the Kingmans. The animals are always a highlight and Sir Honksalot did not disappoint. It was a fun, instalove, sweet between Sarah Jayne and Mac. The audio was so good, it had me laughing and awing. A perfect little side story of the Kingmans agent and the plus size model who inspires the future FMC's.

I loved this title. It was fun from the very first chapter. The goose, never my favorite fowl, just MADE the story. It was fun to see how the characters grew together and how it set the state for more titles. There was an unanswered question that's kinda bugging me, but other than that, a great read!

I have had the Cocky Kingmans series on my TBR for a year now. Truthfully, the reason it caught my attention was because of the quirky title. I enjoy binge-reading series, which is why I haven't delved into it yet, but It is on my shortlist for 2025.
I usually enjoy novellas, especially if they are part of a series because they give you insight into an author's work and some of the series' side characters without committing to 300+ pages. I'm not sure if Honkers Under the Holly fulfilled its mission for me in short-term gratification, but it did complete its purpose.
Let me explain:
A novella must check one of the following boxes:
1. Act as an extended prelude to a series when it is considered an introductory novella. It needs to engage me enough to want more and encourage me to dive into a multi-book series.
2. If it is a novella that is part of a series but comes between some of the main books of the series, it needs to give me more insight into characters that have either already been mentioned in past books as secondary or third characters, ones that don't need full books but are interesting enough to have their story told. Or, they need to introduce us to characters that we will see in upcoming stories as secondary or third characters.
3. They need to be considered extended epilogue, telling the "where are they now" of our main couple that already had their time to shine in their own book.

Honkers Under the Holly would have to fall under the category of option 2, I think. As I mentioned, I haven't read any of the other books in the Cocky Kingman series, and that is my fault. Because of that, I don't think I fully connected with Mac and Sara Jayne. I'm going to assume that Mac's friend and client, Tommy, is the common denominator between this novella and the full series, as well as the Kingman family (Chris and his wife and kids), are what link the series to this book.

I know that novellas are short, which is why they are called novellas. However, I found this one to be short even for a novella. I had the opportunity to listen to the audio version, and it was approx 3 hours, while other novellas I have listened to are usually around 5 hours. I think I needed a bit more background information on our main characters, Mac and Sara Jayne...it seems that they went from meeting to diving into flirtation and physical activities quite quickly. I needed a bit of a build-up...some conversations between them, some flirty text messages, something. They pretty much went from meeting to their first date being a work event to then living together while house sitting.

So, while I didn't connect with the novella entirely, I did enjoy it enough to see what kind of work Amy Award does and I enjoyed it. I'm going to say this was a good 3-star rating on the spice scale. Maybe the books will be more spicey as we have current NFL players and active athletes tend to have dirty mouths. Either way, I enjoyed the writing. It also served its purpose because this novella piqued my interest enough to move the entire series from my TBR in 2025 to my TBR in the first half of 2025. I will read the entire series before summer because the next book is scheduled to be released by June and I want to be ready for it.

I see that The Honkers Under the Holly was narrated by Allie Shae and Kyle Mason, yet they have not narrated any of the other books of this series so far. I'm not sure what my opinion is on the other narrators yet, but I did quite enjoy Allie and Kyle. I especially think that Kyle did a wonderful job with the voice acting and his performance was spot on. Allie was great with the German words and pronunciations as well. I've heard some voice actors speak in other languages, mainly Spanish, and I have to admit that I sometimes cringe at the pronunciation. Allie did a wonderful job and her acting was well done as well.
The timing and editing were perfectly done.

Thank you, Dreamscape Media, for giving me the opportunity to review the audio version of Honder Under the Holly and to NetGalley for providing the platform to also review the book.

Honkers Under the Holly is a cute, spicy, holiday novella of the Cocky Kingmans series. I appreciate the author’s introduction warning what is and what is not in her books. The goose, Sir Honks a Lot, is the star of the book. Sara Jane rescues him from being dinner. Chris Kingman’s future sports agent, Mac helps her rescue the duck. Sara Jane's roommates are not fans of Sir Honks a lot living in their apartment. Tommy is Mac’s best friend and only client with a not-so-great reputation. Will the duck be helpful to him?

The epilogue gives us a little more information of the Kingman family we enjoyed in the previous Cocky Kingmans books. It is labeled 4.5 in the series but I consider it more like book .75 since it happens before the other books. I think that it can be read and enjoyed as your first Kingman story or after book number 4. If you are looking for a quick, spicy holiday novella give this one a read!

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for sharing this fun advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was so so good! Amy Award’s books are always the perfect blend of sweet and sexy and this one is no different! It’s a sweet little Christmas novella that follows Mac and Sara Jayne and of course Sir Honksalot. Their story had me rooting for them since the first page and I flew through this story in one afternoon! The narrators did such a great job at bringing this story to life and I couldn’t stop listening! This will definitely be a permanent holiday fixture. It’s just such a sweet and silly(but also very sexy) time. Easy 5 stars!

Story: 4⭐
Spice: 2🌶️
Narration: 4⭐ (Dual Narration)

What a great little novella. The Narrators did a great job, it was a great listen.

This was so cute and just makes your feel good. If you love a short and sweet novella with faking dating/Engagement, forced proximity, and a quirky goose.

This is book 5 in the Cocky Kingsmans series and I love that it was a prequel to the other books in the series.

Silly in a fun way, from the author's note, it's clear readers are not meant to take this too seriously, and so I read it for (as they say) the vibes.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I felt this was too short to develop the characters and story and didn’t allow for the emotional vulnerability between MCs. I listened to this out of order and haven’t read any other books by Amy Award yet, so I’ll be sure to re-evaluate after I have a chance to better understand how it fits in with the rest of the series.
The last chapter from the goose’s POV was good stuff 🤣

Cute, short read.
I have only read book 1 in the series, but this novella can definitely be read as a standalone in mg opinion.
I love Sir Honks A Lot. He was a trip. I didn't see how it was going to be resolved, but I really love how they handled it.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the alc in exchange for an honest review.

I listened to the audiobook version of this story. Amy has such an amazing talent gifting us with these sweet, romantic, funny but deliciously spicy stories. Mac and Sara Jayne were so cute together. Their chemistry is palpable and so, so sweet. Sir Honksalot is one of my favorite pet characters in Amy's books. I just love that goose!! The narration by Allie Shae and Kyle Mason was excellent. They really brought this story to life and gave me all the ooey gooey feelings. If you are looking for a sweet and spicy, feel good, marshmallow fluffy story this is a great one!

This was a fun surprise. fast paced, with very particular characters and that funny goose bringing more funny scenes.
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Sara Jayne is a plus size model trying to start her career in Los Angeles, but with the market almost closed it is difficult to break through.
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Mac, on the other hand, is a sports agent trying to turn around the career of his only client. He is about to be homeless and just at that moment he crosses paths with Sara while trying to rescue a goose.
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The amount of unexpected things begin to pile up and when the opportunity appears they both decide to pretend to be committed without realizing that it is the beginning of something bigger and more complicated.
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The narrators, Allie Shae and Kyle Mason, did a great job I could really imagine the scenes that were happening and they made me want to get to know the other characters that appear in the book and their stories. I had such a great time with this beautiful novella.
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Thanks to Dreamscape media for giving me a copy of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest and voluntary opinion.

this was a cute holiday novella but I am not really a fan of the insta-love/lust trope, especially given the frequent pregnancy comments.

I kept reading for the goose.

The narrators did a great job

I received an ALC from net galley.

I spent the half the book wondering what the MCs role was in the Kingsman family. I do not remember reading about these character in the 3 books I have already read. Then I realize this is a prequel and it makes a little more sense. The goose is full of personality, probably the character I like the most because he is all about action. As of right now it does not add to or take away from the Kingsmans series and this random story does not give holiday vibes. I enjoyed listening to the audio book but it's kind of forgettable. I did like seeing more of April.

Cute. Sweet. Funny.
All these books have great messages. This one was super quick and insta-love. But I was still entertained.

I really enjoyed parts of this book but there were aspects that felt distracting and confusing! I think the fact that it was a novella didn’t help only because it was so much shorter and therefore less time to work things out in the plan. But I love the plus-size rep and the ornery pet goose! Good book overall 😊

The audiobook narrators were great and fit the characters well!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Amy Award, and the publishing team for early access to this book before the official publication!

The Cocky Kingsman series holds such a soft spot in my heart and this is no different. Amy Award is a master of creating a humorous and warm world for her readers. Honkers Under the Holly that is a novella set before the main series and is honestly the perfect addition. It’s sweet, it’s silly, it had a GOOSE. In truth, I could have used a novel length version of this story.

The Goose is the best animal guest star yet. I love him with my whole heart.

Both audio narrators have excellent voices, but the tone of the male narrator didn’t always match the scene, especially in the more romantic scenes.

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the ALC.

As a fan of the Cocky Kingmans series, I was so excited to get this audio ARC. This book is a prequel to the Cocky Kingmans series.

It was a quick and fun read (it's a novella), with a lot of humor, fluff, spice, body positivity, and the cutest goose ever. If you don't usually like Amy Award's books, then this might not be for you, but if you do, then definitely check this one out!