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A review by thelilbookwitch
A Holly Jolly Ever After by Sierra Simone, Julie Murphy
5.0
It's been... a while since a book made me shed a tear, but I was crying a few times while reading the latest Christmas Notch novel.
This is a book for the women/femme folks who are learning to reclaim and find themselves if they were in or adjacent to the purity culture of the early 00's that seemed to permeate everything in media. It's for the readers who are doing the work to make their lives have meaning and purpose that matters to them even if the people who are supposed to love and support them have made that conditional.
Given the raunchy quality of the first novel, I came in expecting something similar, and instead got a very emotionally compelling bait and switch that firmly keeps this book in romance territory than smut, including a trope I don't normally engage with done so incredibly well that I liked what it added to the story and character growth. If you're curious, it's, but again done so well and avoiding the pitfalls I've experienced in other books that tend to come along with it.
Additionally, this is one of the first romance novels that have made an explicitly larger man uncompromisingly hot while including mentions of belly, thighs, and softness rather than just "broad" or making them disturbingly muscular. I was here. for. it. and I hope to find more books that don't hide the love for dad bods.
I can already tell that I'm going to be buying my own copy now that I tore through the library's copy, and will be keeping it in mind as a recommended series for people looking for romance that features eager but inexperienced women who are recovering from purity culture indoctrination. There is still mention of the Christian god, and other religious backgrounds, but not in a way that is hard to engage with (though some with religious trauma might want to engage cautiously with it).
This is a book for the women/femme folks who are learning to reclaim and find themselves if they were in or adjacent to the purity culture of the early 00's that seemed to permeate everything in media. It's for the readers who are doing the work to make their lives have meaning and purpose that matters to them even if the people who are supposed to love and support them have made that conditional.
Given the raunchy quality of the first novel, I came in expecting something similar, and instead got a very emotionally compelling bait and switch that firmly keeps this book in romance territory than smut, including a trope I don't normally engage with done so incredibly well that I liked what it added to the story and character growth. If you're curious, it's
Spoiler
pregnancyAdditionally, this is one of the first romance novels that have made an explicitly larger man uncompromisingly hot while including mentions of belly, thighs, and softness rather than just "broad" or making them disturbingly muscular. I was here. for. it. and I hope to find more books that don't hide the love for dad bods.
I can already tell that I'm going to be buying my own copy now that I tore through the library's copy, and will be keeping it in mind as a recommended series for people looking for romance that features eager but inexperienced women who are recovering from purity culture indoctrination. There is still mention of the Christian god, and other religious backgrounds, but not in a way that is hard to engage with (though some with religious trauma might want to engage cautiously with it).