Hello everyone!
If nothing else, despite their occasional cheesiness, holidays usually remind us that we should sometimes slow down and stop, to just EXIST for a heartbeat or two.
I know I'm definitely guilty of running around like the world is ending tomorrow, so these two days have been a godsend!
Now back to the bookish business.
As you know by now, Serenity Woods is my go-to contemporary romance writer, and in fact, I've actually been SLACKING because I haven't done my usual holiday reads of hers this year yet.
Shame on my family and my cow!
I'll be working on that, and in the mean time, I invite you to enjoy her latest holiday release, aptly titled One Night Before Christmas.
Astrid is a single mother with a disabled daughter, Immi, and this Christmas she's just trying to make ends meet. So when she heads on over to an exclusive club in Mayfair, Midnight, for a temp gig in the kitchen, she's not really expecting anything but a little help along the way.
Then one of their dancers turns her ankle, the owner sees her trying to help the girl, and she's offered the dancer's position - and pay - instead.
Considering this starts out as only about the money, she agrees, and then ends up giving said owner - Te Ariki, by the way, Maori through and through from New Zealand - a private dance.
The next day, she's asked back to dance again.
And again, he asks her for a private dance as well, for an additional fee each time.
Then comes the kicker: he asks to spend one night with her. He'll pay her one million pounds, but she has to agree to be restrained and blindfolded.
See, Te Ariki was in a plane crash years back; the plane caught fire and he was badly burned, so now he wears a partial face mask to cover those scars, and he doesn't want Astrid seeing or touching them.
He does, however, want her, desperately, so he makes her an offer he knows she won't be able to refuse (feeling like a heel even as he does so, because he's terrified she'd have said no if he just outright asked, despite the fact they've been practically making out like love-struck teens every night after her dance, she's met his club co-owner buddies, the works).
She says yes after a bit of back and forth, and even manages to weedle him into untying her so that she can touch him, or at least the parts of him he allows her to touch.
Then, because she's hot in the aftermath and forgets about it, she pulls her blindfold off, and lo and behold the Phantom of the Opera's got competition on the grouchy explosive side of things.
After running off into the night, Astrid returns the million pounds and calls Linc (he of the Southern Stars fame, by the way, as this novella serves as a prequel to that series, which you should TOTALLY check out) who goes to check on Te Ariki, and kick his ass a little bit.
That's how, Christmas morning, as she's playing in the snow with her daughter, Te Ariki finds the two of them, bringing presents (including but not limited to a new wheelchair for Immi), apologizing and explaining what had happened.
Astrid, who's head-over-heels for the guy at this point, forgives him, then invites him along to Boxing Day dinner at her best friend's (to whose charity Te Ariki made a HUGE donation that morning, by the by), and the story segues into Linc's point of view as he gets the call that his father's terminally ill, but he declines going to New Zealand to see him, instead remaining in the UK and enjoying watching Te Ariki be happy for once.
Which is where we leave them all, for now at least.
If I didn't mention before, I was kindly sent an ARC of this book, my opinions are my own.
And oh, be still my heart!
Astrid and Te Ariki are perfection. I actually wish they could have gotten a full-length feature, but as an introduction to the Southern Stars series, this is exactly what you need.
Ms Woods manages to write heartbreaking and heartwarming stories at once, and I can't wait for the new Midnight series to come in 2025.
Also, Astrid and Te Ariki deserve a love making scene without blindfolds and masks. I said what I said!
1000/10 recommend.
And oh, be still my heart!
Astrid and Te Ariki are perfection. I actually wish they could have gotten a full-length feature, but as an introduction to the Southern Stars series, this is exactly what you need.
Ms Woods manages to write heartbreaking and heartwarming stories at once, and I can't wait for the new Midnight series to come in 2025.
Also, Astrid and Te Ariki deserve a love making scene without blindfolds and masks. I said what I said!
1000/10 recommend.
xx
*image not mine
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