Not a bad holiday romance!

Wrapped With a Beau was possibly the best of the Christmas Romances I have read so far this year! It’s a fun little story that took the usual tropes of a Christmas-style romance novel and made them enjoyable rather than overtly cheesy.

Fifty years ago, a now popular holiday romance movie called Sleighbells Under Starlight was released and was originally filmed in the small town of Piney Peaks. Elisha Rowe works in the film industry and happened to grow up in that town. She decides it’s time for a sequel to benefit her town and the film industry, but first, she must get approval from the man who now owns the house where the first movie takes place.

Ves Hollins inherited the house from his great-aunt and isn’t a massive fan of the holidays. He still holds a flame for Elisha, whom he knew when he was younger as they both grew up in Piney Peaks. Of course, as Elisha tries to convince him to let her use the house for the movie, sparks reemerge between them. Though they’re very opposites attract, they also complement one another well.

I usually hate childhood loves tropes, but this one wasn’t too bad. The characters were all fleshed out enough to stand on their own and have careers and lives outside of pining for one another for a few decades. I wasn’t a massive fan of them as characters, as they leaned a little too much on feeling like teenagers in an adult book, but it wasn’t so bad that it ruined the entire story for me. It’s cheesy, sure, but it’s also Christmas-heavy, which I feel has been lacking in some of the recent romances I’ve read. If you’re going to market something as a holiday romance, it better have several holiday elements; thankfully, this one does.

Again, like most holiday romances, it’s nothing to remember or feel deeply about once the book is over, but it was a pleasant night of reading.

Title: Wrapped With a Beau
Author:  Lillie Vale
Format: Paperback
Pages: 366
ISBN:  9780593422052

Three Descriptors: Engaging, Steamy, Opposites Attract

Read Alikes:
Love Holly by Emily Stone
The Christmas Café by Eliza Evans
Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin
Snowed In for a Christmas by Jaqueline Snow
A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss
A Winter in New York by Josie Silver