Christmas in Coconut Creek

Dirty Delta, Book 1

By: Karissa Kinword

Narrated by: Jaclyn Kelso, Blake Lockheart

There are a few things Coconut Creek has that Pine Ridge does not. Palm trees, sandy beaches, butterfly museums—infuriatingly attractive special forces veterans.

When Colorado elementary school teacher Ophelia Brody decides to ditch her divorced family for a Christmas in the sunshine state with her college roommate, she doesn't expect a mile-high meet cute to tailspin the entire trip.

Frankie Casado is cocky, presumptuous, shameless—and just the right distraction from her depressing, fruitless dating life back home for a few weeks. It just so happens the retired fighter pilot is in somewhat of a rut of his own, and the circumstances around their coincidental meeting and unavoidable physical attraction are the perfect excuse for a festive fling.

The rules are simple: Ophelia teaches him how to date again, and Frankie shows her exactly what she should be demanding behind closed doors. Friends with benefits until the ball drops in the New Year. But a little bit of long-lost Christmas magic just might find a way to stir up more than their complicated pasts.

©2023 Karissa Kinword (P)2023 Podium Audio

My fave thing

Blake & Jaclyn - YES 1000000 times. So well done and engaging. Not usually an audiobook listener and would listen to them all day long :) maybe I’m biased.

Dating App Meet Cute PERFECTION!

📖 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙢𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝘾𝙤𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙪𝙩 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙠 𝙗𝙮 𝙆𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙖 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙
🎧 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲: 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨 & 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

“𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭. 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘬𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥.“

🦋Ophelia is a school teacher on vacation, trading snow for sand. On her flight to Coconut Creek to stay with her best friend, she gets caught checking out her flight mates dating profile. Sparks fly between the two strangers.

✈️ Frankie, a retired Delta pilot, is returning from Colorado after interviewing for an instructor position at the flight academy. His friends forced him to join a dating app after his horrible break up with his ex. He wasn’t expecting to encounter the feisty and beautiful Ophelia, but he can’t deny their attraction.

Ophelia and Frankie leave the airport not knowing that their paths are more intertwined than they know!

I loved this book! I found myself cracking up at the banter and their friends. The spice and chemistry was perfect. Especially the spicy talk! I can’t wait for more stories in this series. I highly recommend this story for all lovers of the hallmark after dark trope!

That meet cute was freaking priceless!

I highly recommend this audiobook! 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨 & 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 were phenomenal and really manifested the chemistry and spice between Ophelia & Frankie! 🔥💖

Tropes:
🥵 Spicy Hallmark RomCom
☀️ Grumpy x Sunshine
📱 Dating App Meet Cute
🫶🏼 Veteran MMC x Teacher FMC
💋 Forced Proximity
🔥 Friends with Benefits
💞 Dual POV

I love how sweet this smutty story was ❤️❤️

I loved the characters and I loved that there wasn’t a big third act break up.

The suspense!!!

So much built up tension and chemistry. Made me feel giddy and have butterflies, hell I was falling in love with Frankie haha

Fun and spicy but a little long

I picked up Christmas in Coconut Creek because I live in the town next to Coconut Creek, FL and drive through it every day! This was such a strange town to pick for a book because it’s not a tourist place. The first hotel was just built, there is no beach (though it’s only 15 minutes away), and it’s mostly a small residential community, but there is a casino and Butterfly World which are discussed in the book. All of my local bookish friends are like “What? Coconut Creek? How strange.”

But let me tell you, this was fun, very spicy, and though it takes place over Christmas, it can be read anytime. Fun fact: I met my husband (8 years older than me) while I was visiting the town next door to Coconut Creek over Christmas break and fell in love immediately, so the instalove here was fine with me!

Ophelia and Frankie matched on a dating app and in person on a flight from Colorado to Florida even though he is 9 years older. Ophelia is a teacher visiting her college roommate for 3 weeks, and Frankie is an ex-fighter pilot coming back home from an interview. Turns out her best friend and his best friend are a couple, so after playful banter on the plane, they ended up being thrown together for the full three weeks, and let me tell you, nobody was complaining!

I loved the banter and the dirty talk so much! This was probably my spiciest holiday read this year. There were a LOT of sex scenes, and they were all pretty spicy! Honestly, for me, they went on a little too long, since after 18 years of reading smut, I have started to tune out sex scenes, but I must say, his dirty-talking helped keep my interest.

The pacing was a little off in the book, it had about 150 pages too many, and got really slow in the second half when nothing happens then wrapped up too quickly, but still, I enjoyed this hometown read and look forward to more from this author.

Funny notes: There was mention of taking a date to Jacksonville, that’s 5 hours each way! Also, for the masses: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS HEAT LIGHTNING, and for a pilot to say that is just embarrassing. It’s just a far-off thunderstorm.

Rating: 4 Stars, 4.25 heat, 5 narration

Perfection from start to finish

Everything about this was perfect! I did my re-read of this one on audio and it was even better the second time around. The banter, the spice, & these narrators brought the characters to life! Obsessed.

One of the best audiobooks I’ve ever read!

Not only was this book INCREDIBLE! The narration was well done. The banter between the characters had me giggling and blushing. I highly recommend this audiobook and looking forward to more from Karissa!

HOT CHRISTMAS READ

I was scared going into this book because I had to DNF this authors other book but THIS WAS 100xs better. Better writing, better dialogue, better plotting. It was like a whole new author.
This was exactly what i needed when I needed it. Fun, spicy, fast paced, fulllllllllll of tension 🥵 and lots of holiday cheer! Ophelia embodied the older sister core so so much and it was so easy to relate to her. Natalia and Mateo had me cracking up laughing, they were all over the place and I adored it. Frankie was something else though. He was 10/10 new top book boyfriend material. The way he cared about Ophelia before he even knew he cared about her 🫠 that man was whipped from the start. The banter and spice was TOP NOTCH I was kicking my feet and giggling from chapter one and I did not stop. Like I said this was EXACTLY what I needed it was like a breath of fresh air it was like watching an old comfort rom com movie. 10/10 👏🏼👏🏼

Loved it

This was such a fun and good listen. The characters where fun, the storyline held my attention. I loved having both of their points of view I could write an essay on why I loved this story.

so cute!

this was such a cute story. I loved Frankie and Ophelia and how they came together. It was definitely the perfect christmas in July book!

I enjoyed the dual narration and thought the narrators did a good job with each character they portrayed!