Turn up the temperature with this steamy romance novel to mist up any pair of reading glasses

Bringing plenty of steam is case: 'A Merry Little Meet-Cute', which has such an adorable and festive cover design that sometimes we can judge a book by its cover, and pick one up purely because it looks good on the coffee table. But, luckily for authors Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone, the story is just as beautiful. In a snapshot, Bee Hobbes is a popular and successful adult film star. With an amazing manager 'Teddy', best friend 'Sunny' and incredibly supportive two moms, all Bee's missing is a love story of her own. And that is exactly what she gets when she is cast as the lead of a 'Hope channel' (aka Hallmark channel) Christmas movie that is very family-appropriate, squeaky clean, and pretty much the complete opposite of what Bee's day job is. With this opportunity, she meets Nolan Shaw, former boy band member, whom she is cast to play his love interest. Sparks fly, snow falls, and a whole bunch of sneaky get-togethers happen along the way.

I liked the distinctiveness of the characters in this book. Bee being a plus size adult film star diversifies character representation in fiction romance books. It also shines a light on sex workers, and it was refreshing to see this representation in a book. I also really enjoyed the scenes where Bee and Nolan were filming the Hope channel movie, and it was nice to see how their off screen chemistry subsequently translated to their on screen performance, as the story progressed.

However, the love scenes in this book were too graphic and explicit for me, personally, and the choice of wording during these parts made me uncomfortable at times. Whilst I understand the need for the authors to convey the sexual chemistry etc between the two characters, I think certain parts could have been withheld - readers are very smart and imaginative, we can deduce what is happening from just a few words! Luckily, pages can be skipped, which was also a good thing because I also felt it dragged a little towards the end. But, ultimately, a unique plot that definitely stands out on a shelve of festive reads.