Melissa (Always Behind)'s Reviews > Kiss Her Once for Me

This was such a sweet queer riff on While You Were Sleeping (one of the best Christmas movies ever!) that I didn't know I needed to read. If you’re looking for a fun fake relationship story, look no further!

Main premise: Ellie agrees to marry wealthy Andrew so he can get an inheritance. She's broke and he promises her $200k for the deal, so she agrees because her life is pretty much a mess. When she goes to spend Christmas at his family's cabin, she is floored when she comes face to face with Jack, the woman she spend a fabulous night with the previous Christmas and never heard from again. And she's Andrew's sister. The sparks are still there.

Here's what I loved:
Found Family--Always welcomed, and I loved Ellie's found family complete with drunken grandmas and laminated activity schedules. Also the other friendships Ellie makes are wonderful and round out the family aspects.
HOT romance--whew, the romance between Jack and Ellie is swoon-worthy and absolutely believable despite their meet cute turned insta-love, which is most often eye roll inducing for me but not this time.
Deeper subjects--The examination of fear, especially fear of failure, is heartfelt and beautifully examined. There are many iterations of this theme throughout the book and they all really resonated with me.
The Portland setting--oh, how I adore books set in a place I know so well! And at Christmas!

What didn't work so well for me:
I realize that romantic comedies need misunderstandings and lack of communication to propel forward, but I felt like some of the issues could have been cleared up quickly with a bit of conversation.
I realize the point of showing Ellie's bio-family dynamic was to contrast it with something different and have something to compare to, but I didn't like her relationship with her mom AT ALL. I wondered from the beginning why she was being such a doormat and giving her mom the literal last dollar in her bank account, and I just couldn't connect with that part of the story.

Overall though, this is a delightfully funny hot holiday romance about learning how to step outside of fear and go for what we want in life--even if that means we fail from time to time.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.