A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy, Sierra Simone Series: A Christmas Notch #1
Published by HarperCollins on September 20, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Romance / Holiday, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 384
Format: eBook
A steamy plus-size holiday rom-com about an adult film star who is semi-accidentally cast as a lead in a family-friendly Christmas movie, and the former bad-boy pop star she falls in love with.
Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star. With a huge following and two supportive moms, Bee couldn’t ask for more. But when Bee’s favorite producer casts her to star in a Christmas movie he’s making for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, Bee’s career is about to take a more family-friendly direction.
Forced to keep her work as Bianca under wraps, Bee quickly learns this is a task a lot easier said than done. Though it all becomes worthwhile when she discovers her co-star is none other than childhood crush Nolan Shaw, an ex-boy band member in desperate need of career rehab. Nolan’s promised his bulldog manager to keep it zipped up on set, and he will if it means he’ll be able to provide a more stable living situation for his sister and mom.
But things heat up quickly in Christmas Notch, Vermont, when Nolan recognizes his new co-star from her ClosedDoors account (oh yeah, he’s a member). Now Bee and Nolan are sneaking off for quickies on set, keeping their new relationship a secret from the Hope Channel’s execs. Things only get trickier when the reporter who torpedoed Nolan’s singing career comes snooping around—and takes an instant interest in mysterious newcomer Bee.
And if Bee and Nolan can’t keep their off-camera romance behind the scenes, then this merry little meet cute might end up on the cutting room floor.
In one of my book clubs I attend we were talking about the difference between historical and contemporary romance. With contemporary romance, there’s just usually not enough stakes going on to really care. A Merry Little Meet Cute tries to establish stakes with the main characters needing this movie to work out for their future, but it all falls a bit flat in the end.
I was first confused by Teddy’s need to go legit because of money issues. He’s trying to help out his daughter with her business and put his son through college and needs money to do that. All good goals. Yet, there’s so many contradictions that this reason doesn’t make sense. Even with being a good guy and not a creep, I find it difficult to imagine an adult film studio not making enough money, especially when we’re informed that Bee has more than enough money from ClosedDoor to pay all her bills and then some that she can pick and choose which adult films to be in. That’s a luxury for any actor! Then I thought okay maybe his ex-wife has some stake in the company or gets a portion of the profits. But we find out from Angel that she wanted nothing to do with Uncle Ray Ray’s once they were divorced. It just doesn’t come together. Teddy wanting to go legit for his daughter would’ve removed the inconsistencies and been just as good of a reason to do this Christmas movie.
Now the main characters were okay, I liked them way more as individuals than as a couple. I definitely appreciated the plus size, mental health, and sex positive representations. That was all really great and well done. Yet, the romance between the two didn’t really matter to me. I’m not a fan of instalove, which I didn’t know this was as I’m reading this for a book club, and it doesn’t really get past those initial instalove thoughts. Most of their inner monologues were about sex and lust, their own personal fantasies. It all read more high school (maybe freshmen in college) than fully grown adults.
Now, I really loved Nolan’s backstory of being in this boyband that had a crappy deal (tale as old as time) and a shifty manager who stole from them. Then the fact that he needs this job because his mom has bi-polar disorder, and he’s the main breadwinner of the family. My slight complaint is that I wish there was a mention of parentification of the eldest child, but other than that it was all well done. What annoyed me was the fact that Nolan wasn’t telling anyone about it. I understand that for any job no one’s special, yes, his manager is right about that. However, I personally think it’s more unprofessional to constantly answer your phone and not explain why you might need to have your phone on you at all times. If he didn’t want to disclose his mother’s illness due to society’s misunderstandings of mental illness (especially bipolar disorder), I’d 1000% understand that. But he doesn’t need to tell them any specifics nor does everyone have to know, at minimum the director and Teddy. He could’ve just said that his mother has a medical disability that prevents her from working, and his high school aged sister is the only one at home with her (minus the neighbor, but Barb doesn’t live in the house). I’m just finding it difficult that they couldn’t find someone who’s not actively working while he’s in a scene (makeup, costume, etc.) to hang on to his phone and answer it while he’s doing a scene. Or at least let him leave it on vibrate and keep it on his person, as well as explain to his sister to leave him a message and he’ll get back as soon as possible. I’m not saying I understand Hollywood by any means, but even they could understand that people have other responsibilities. It’s even more annoying when this minor stake is all fixed by the end with the director being upset that he didn’t tell her anything. There’s even less at stake with Teddy and Bee’s issues that again are all fixed by the end with no major consequences.
The only other big thing I want to mention is the side characters. I really adore the side characters, maybe even more than the main ones (Pearl is adorable). But Luca can go suck an egg! I was so frustrated and angry with how he acted at times that I skimmed most of the parts he was in. I was particularly pissed about how he treats Nolan with the whole Duluth Olympics scandal. One, it’s been six years, get over it! Two, I had a feeling there was more to the story than what was reported, which I was right about. Three, IT WAS SIX YEARS AGO. I’m trying to remember what celebrity scandal I cared about 6 years ago that I still think about now, and I can’t! I would’ve appreciated a quick little mention from Emily Albright confirming what Nolan said to the media about what went down that night. I’m not saying that Gretchen wasn’t right when she talked to Nolan about how he was treated versus Emily. Yes, there is sexism and misogyny in how we treat celebrity scandals, but it feels misplaced with how Nolan’s life has gone. If he had the trajectory that his band mate, Issac, had, then yes, I’d understand being pissed at Nolan for the situation (without knowing the real story). Yet, Nolan hasn’t had any project since that scandal, so I didn’t understand the unnecessary anger towards him. They talk about how he has had all these second chances, but I’m curious about where those second chances were. The only one I’m seeing is this movie, which, again, has come 6 years after the scandal. It feels like the authors were trying to make him this Justin Timberlake type character, but Nolan didn’t have the career trajectory that the real life celebrities that went through scandals did.
While it was an adorable holiday romance, it feels like there was too many disconnects that kept me coming out of the story. I really do wish I loved this story more because so many of my friends do, but que sera.
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