A Holly Jolly Ever After

A Christmas Notch Novel

By: Julie Murphy, Sierra Simone

Narrated by: Joy Nash, Chris Brinkley

An actress and a perpetually single former boy-band member are reunited as costars on a steamy holiday film in this all new spicy rom-com by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone, bestselling coauthors of A Merry Little Meet Cute.

Following the success of A Merry Little Meet Cute, a new holiday rom-com cowritten by #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy and USA Today bestselling author Sierra Simone—about an actress and a perpetually single former boy-band member reunited as costars on a steamy holiday film.

Kallum Lieberman is the funny one™. As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, he enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame and then moved home where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! He’s living his best dad bod life, hooking up with bridesmaids at all his friends’ weddings. But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he’s ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel.

Winnie Baker did everything right. She married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. Hell, she even waited until marriage to have sex. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself—and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie?

With decade old Hollywood history between them, Winnie and Kallum are both feeling hesitant about their new situation as costars…especially Winnie who can’t seem to fake on screen pleasure she’s never experienced in real life. She’s willing to do the pleasure research—for science and artistic authenticity, of course. And there’s no better research partner than her bridesmaid sex tape hall of fame costar, Kallum. But suddenly, Kallum’s teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.

They say opposites attract, but is this holly jolly ever after really ready for its close-up?

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

HOLLY JOLLY HEA

This was a cute book. There were funny moments and moments that tugged on your heart. I enjoyed the deeper discussions about religion and the unfair bias for women and their roles. I’m glad Winnie grew a backbone and said no and finally let herself have what she wanted. The narration was great. Joy and Chris did a great job of opposite gender roles and doing the many different characters throughout the book. I’m glad I didn’t need to listen to book 1 first to be able to understand what was happening.

Holly Jolly first half, second half not so much

I enjoyed book 1 because of the novelty, Bee and Nolan’s healthy sexual confidence, and comedic parts. Here, the novelty has worn off, Winnie has zero sexual confidence, and the comedy seemed to be trying too hard in the beginning and nonexistent in the second half. Without the comedy the smutty gags about filming a naughty Xmas movie, and the numerous sex scenes, were more sleazy than sexy.

Romances about famous people’s problems are always a hard sell for me and here we have two character types that don’t impress me. Kallum is a flirt and a flake, still living like an irresponsible boy toy. Winnie is a 32 year old divorcee trapped by the baggage of a child star raised by puritanical, image focused parents. She also was married over a decade and never felt the big O. And, while this made for some great comedy with Kallum, he of the dad-bod sex video, her issues were so deep, and went on so long, I found myself losing sympathy for her for each cruel and out of touch thing she did.

The two biggest let downs for this book feed off each other. First, given that they both fall in love by the halfway point, this book was hours longer than it needed to be. Second, those extra hours were all about out of touch people doing stupid things. Only folks in show business would blithely suggest the things that Winnie’s ex or her parents suggest. And Winnie constantly put Kallum in the dog house, including keeping him at arms length for weeks because she selfishly needed space. Yes, Kallum partied like a rockstar, but hello, so did the entire group and yet she only faults him. Ugh. The second half just dragged on and on with disjointed and random detours into things like the career path for Kallum’s nephew or a chapter shipping two supporting characters. The second half was less about romance and more about friends, family, and babies.

Even with the reuse of a lot of the same gags, I gave the first half four stars. The second half was a chore to get through and dropped to two stars. Without the exceptional narrators, I’m not sure I would have finished. I kind of regret burning a full credit and may wait for a sale before trying book 3, which will presumably feature the final former boy band member, especially since his backstory is particularly sad and I’m worried the series will fall further into angst.

Gahhhh

Kallum is decently relatable and likable, Winnie is annoying af. Her family is toxic, the majority of the book she acknowledges that but then she just goes back and thinks they’re great support, while ummm no they abandoned you over your ex cheating on you, why on earth would you now choose them as though they’re great support that would never abandon you?! And her parents aren’t really even that supportive, they’re mean to everyone around Winnie and judgy, forcing their way onto everything and one. That’s not support and it’s not love. Kallum is trying his best to support her and be there and he gets drunk once and goofs around like any other normal adult and suddenly he’s not enough like she all that and cherry on top. Just because someone isn’t always super serious doesn’t mean you can’t count on them. She makes poor decisions and blames others. My internal monologue has nicknamed Winnie as Whiny Winnie. The first book was so sooo much better.

The first half was amazing

Narrated by Joy Nash and Chris Brinkley

A Holly Jolly Ever After followed another member of the boy band INK, this time it’s about Callum who was always the least popular member of the band. He has a dad bod, but when a sex tape starring him leaked he suddenly became more popular, and he is starring in another movie, this time for the sexy new channel, Hope After Dark.

The co-star in this movie is Winnie, who was brought up very religious and pure and starred in the Hope channel’s pure movies when she was younger until her narcolepsy was mistaken for public drunkenness and her reputation was ruined. Now, years later, she is making a comeback in the adult branch of the company. But when she has to act out the climax in intimate scenes, she isn’t able to because she has never experienced one for herself. Don’t you worry, Callum offers to step in and fix that for her!

I absolutely loved the first half of A Holly Jolly Ever After, but I’m wondering if the co-writing style was just to switch authors halfway through, because the second half did not live up to the first at all, and almost felt like a different book.

I loved how the authors continued focusing on body positivity, self-esteem, media reputation, double standards and more. I loved that we had a slightly plus-sized male star in this one and he was Jewish, but I found it a little too long again, and the second half just was a little too predictable, and it lost its way a bit. Still, I will definitely pick up a third one next year if they write it about the third band member.

Rating: 4 Stars, 4 Heat, 4.5 Narration

Huh, why….

Winnie is an annoying character and their attraction doesn’t make any sense. Being sheltered is one thing but she makes dumb decisions. I thought it would get better but to didn’t. I barely finished it. It lacked the charm of the first book in the series.

I love Christmas Notch!

*SPOILER ALERT*

I just had a conversation about triggers the other day, and had the gaul to say I didn't think I had any triggers. And then this book had a surprise pregnancy and I realized that, while I'm still not willing to call this a trigger, it is CLOSE. I was SO annoyed when that part of the book happened, and it totally ruined my enjoyment of everything else that had happened in Christmas Notch up to that point.

Let's walk it back for a second. Kallum is a delight. I love how understanding and patient he is with Winnie. I love a sex professor trope, and Kallum does the trope proud. Winnie was great. It was kind of hard to read her POV at times. My childhood shared some similar values that she was brought up with. I was lucky, but I can easily see how someone in that environment could get stuck in the place where Winnie is at the start of this book. And their chemistry together? You're joking?! It was SO good.

Going back to Christmas Notch was a joy. I got to see some of my favorites from A Merry Little Meet Cute. I am DESPERATE for a third entry about Isaac to be an MMF romp. So all of my fingers and toes are crossed for that one. But I'm trilled for any visits to Christmas Notch that we may be blessed with.

However. Again, that dang surprise pregnancy. Which is nothing to say about the terrible shit that Winnie goes through. And I love Winnie. But man. It truly was the off switch for my utter joy in the first half of the book. Because most of Winnie's decisions after that were SO annoying. So I'm going to stop the review here, because most everything will be complaining after this.

when imperfect becoms perfect

I dont know what it is about christmas Notch. but it just draws me in.
I dont really tend to do sweet and funny when I read or listen to books. But this series. it just do it for me. its like its magic. the way this group of misfits they form this magic bond, and becomes family. its beautiful.
And Callum. we need more people in books to look like him. they dont have to always look perfect, act perfect or be perfect. enough with the bodyshaming on men too. He is not fit, he doesnt have a sixpack. He is just a man, living his best life. its so liberating to read. I want more of this.
I didnt even pay attention to who the narrators were. didnt look for specific names. but they were perfect. the voices matched the voices i had imagined. It just flowed.
its been along time since I havent been paying attention to whom, and just listened.
it was perfect.

What happens to Part 2

Part 1 was great… part 2 too much drama and slightly depressing. Not very Christmasy

Loved it!

I would definitely reread this book! Very good! Hot and steamy and great narration. I would recommend these narrators in the future. Story had such a great story line.

Sweet love story

This book was so up and down and kept me very engaged. The first few chapters were a little hard to get into but it got soooooo good.