Christmas at the Candied Apple Café|Book Review

There’s nothing so magical as Christmas in New York...

Santa is coming to New York!

Snow is falling, excitement is high and the delicious scent of chocolate drifts along Fifth Avenue – the Candied Apple Café is ready for Christmas! And no one is busier than publicist Iona Summerlin. With so much to do, she doesn’t have time to think about men, dating, or the fact her last boyfriend ditched her for her brother... Relationships are off the menu!

Hotel boss Mads Eriksson is not looking forward to the first Christmas since losing his wife. His six-year-old daughter Sofia has lost her belief in Christmas magic along with her mother, and he has no idea what to do. But an unusually festive business meeting at the Candied Apple – and meeting the beautiful Iona – starts to defrost Mads’ frozen heart, and suddenly life seems full of light and sparkle again.

If only they dare to believe, maybe all their Christmas dreams will come true!

Note: Kristin reads and reviews both Christian and secular fiction on A Simply Enchanted Life. Out of respect for my readers, I am including a content review. This content review will help you decide whether this book is suitable for you.

Content Review:
Christian or Secular: Secular.
Profanity: Mild
Sex: Erotic
Violence: None
Trigger Warnings: None
Disclosure: This book contains erotic elements not suitable for children or young adults.

Do you see this cover? This cover looks like a cheesy feel-good Hallmark movie. It was still that…just with sex. Sex that I totally didn’t expect because of the cutesy cover. Totally my fault for not checking the series as a half-naked man is on the front of the first book.

Now, I’m not a prude by any means. I mean, I’ve been pregnant eight times for crying out loud. So it’s not like I’m this stuffy person. But, I’ll be honest here…erotic scenes just aren’t my thing. It’s just not. It’s so cheesy to me and this book definitely proved that point.

I know that I typically review family-friendly things so please try not to get judgemental here. I took the book for review and had the obligation to do so. So, here I am—having to get nitty-gritty.

Okay, back to the cheesy stuff. I’m convinced that women who write sex scenes in books have either very little experience with sex or they turn into twelve-year-old boys when they write it. I am not a man but I’ve been married for seventeen years (as of this Saturday) and I can promise you that your man is not laying there thinking profound thoughts when he’s sleeping with you. It’s also very unrealistic to have sex two or three times in a row without pause. Sorry, ladies—I really hate to burst your bubble. Men need a little recovery time.  And besides that, if the scene is well written a repeat comes off like a desperate fantasy.

Secondly, for the love of gravy, authors…stop saying cheesy things like a woman’s long legs make a man believe in Santa again. A hot woman and Santa have absolutely nothing in common. Women, if your legs make your partner think about Santa…run. Because that’s just not right.

See, Y’all? This is why this whole romance book thing usually doesn’t work out for me.

Anyway, the story actually had a great premise but I was so stinkin’ tired of the continual back and forth, hot and cold routine. I felt like these characters would be the type to set their Facebook status to, “It’s Complicated.”  Everyone knows how annoying those couples are. Don’t even pretend that they don’t annoy you because we all know that would be a lie.

Towards the end, the book practically handed you the conclusion in the form of a little girl’s wish. I don’t even know why I finished reading. The time-jump confirmed everything I already knew.

So, here’s the deal…if you like cheesy sex to go along with your Christmas cheer then this book may totally be up your alley.

However for me?  I prefer a more mature relationship instead of desperate housewives.

Posted By: Kristin Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: book review, negative review