Hello everyone!
Back at it with books, and it's almost Christmas time! According to my advent calendar (Star Wars full of milk chocolate, if you please), after tomorrow there's only EIGHT MORE DAYS until Christmas eve!
Anyone else excited!?
It would be so cool if it snowed before then - apparently there are some forecasts that say we MIGHT be getting snow come next week, but I have this feeling it's going to be another green one as far as that goes.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ... just like the ones I used to know ...
Ahem.
Which is kind of silly since I'll be talking about another Christmas-time book that definitely has no snow in it, but the sea and hot weather (hot guys, too, but, ya know).
Book two of Three Wise Men, An Ideal Present, here we go!
As per usual, the previous blog posts of Christmas-y books can be found at the bottom where I put the links.
Serenity Woods' An Ideal Present follows after The Perfect Gift, which I wrote about last week, but to recap: Brock has now found his happily ever after with young mum Erin (or well, he WILL, if he manages to get down on one knee, but for all intents and purposes, he has the ring, so he will) and her little boy Ryan, and the book ended with him hosting a Christmas party which his siblings are both invited to.
Also, these three brothers? Billionaires, medical and artistic geniuses.
Now on to Charlie.
Charlie is probably the brother I loved the most. I mean, don't get me wrong - all three of these guys are enough to make a girl swoon. Do men like that even actually exist? Maybe I have to head down to New Zealand and meet some of these Kiwi guys, they definitely sound almost too good to be true!
Never actually diagnosed with any kind of behavioral disorder, Charlie is nevertheless as antisocial as they come, can be completely clueless, and is about a point off Einstein's IQ, so really, all is forgiven.
He also has this thing for Ophelia, who's daughter has another respiratory disease, which the children call 65 roses, and she also has a husband she's separated from, not that Dylan is taking the hint. He wants her and their daughter back, but Ophelia doesn't want him back because being with him is exhausting with all the emotional twists and turns he puts her through.
Still, at the beginning of the book, Ophelia is about to quit her job at the hospital where Charlie also works, because she needs to be closer to her daughter to help her through her medical stuff.
This is when Charlie finally kicks into gear and, awkardly, but still, asks her out on a date. Her and her daughter both that is, which means going to McDonald's.
This is also where we figure out Ophelia kind of has a crush on Charlie, and we're all like OH COME ON HOW COULD YOU TWO NOT HAVE GOTTEN TOGETHER SOONER?
Christmas magic, y'all.
Anyway, Brock and Matt have the time of their lives learning Charlie's headed to McDonald's (don't misunderstand - all three brothers love one another, but they also enjoy teasing, too), but the date itself goes quite nicely, really.
Despite his social awkwardness, Charlie and Ophelia manage to hit it off as he explains that he needs honest and direct cues as opposed to mind games because he doesn't quite understand all the layers that go into communicating. And Ophelia, on her end, enjoys this because she always had to analyse with Dylan, but doesn't have to with Charlie.
Dylan, of course, is unhappy to find another man in the house he still considers 'his', but to everyone's astonishment, Charlie kicks his feet out from under him and poor Dylan lands on his back.
As the brothers say: he probably thought he got flattened by Pooh Bear.
Apparently, Charlie did in fact go to wrestling classes when he was a kid, but he refused to hit back, so he never actually got anywhere. He apparently remembered enough, though.
Anyway, with Dylan being his usual obnoxious self trying to get Ophelia back, Charlie does manage to take her away to his parents' house where they can be alone, and where they get to spend a weekend together with some of his friends who confess to her, while he's stepped away for a moment, that it's the happiest they've ever seen him.
Charlie professes his love for Ophelia - in Italian - and things would have been perfect if not for the fact that Summer, Ophelia's daughter, is admitted to the hospital, and they rush back.
Things come to a head when Dylan holds Ophelia's phone hostage and refuses to let her talk to Charlie, going so far as to breaking it and hurting her, before she puts her foot down and kicks him out of the house, subsequently agreeing to attend Brock's party with Charlie even though originally the plan had been different.
The King brothers step together as a force to make sure there's a chain on Ophelia's door now, and as for Charlie and his social awkwardness ...
During their weekend away, he admits to Ophelia that one of his previous girlfriends had asked for something he refused to do (sexual fantasy, natch), because he's unsure about social cues, after which she pretty much called him a coward and everything else under the sun, ruining his self-image to the point that he prefers to be quiet until he's actually asked to do something directly.
Luckily for him, Ophelia is a smart cookie and likes to discuss things, so they go to the Christmas party together where Charlie gets picked on for the tux he's wearing, lovingly of course, and Brock admits he's going to propose.
Aaaand that's it for this week!
For some reason, reading about characters who aren't as socially active as you'd think they should be is something I thoroughly enjoy. I loved Charlie, I thought he was such a sweetheart, and boy, could this man turn the heat up! His interactions with Summer were also adorable, and I nearly cried when he explained to Ophelia about his past.
Next week we're wrapping up the trilogy with the youngest brother, artist Matthew!
xx
*image not mine
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