A Christmas Date

by Camilla Isley

Amazon US  /   UK  /  Amazon Geo-linked  

iBooks  /  B&N  / Kobo / Google Play 

 

No one wants to be single at the holidays.

Even Little Miss Grinch, Nikki, a successful and independent woman, must face her bachelorette status at the most horrible time of the year.

December is her personal version of holly-jolly hell: a merry torture made of couples kissing at every corner, forced vacation days, and an inescapable family reunion.

And when her baby sister announces she’s engaged—to Paul, the man Nikki is secretly in love with—and that he’s spending the holidays with them, Christmas starts looking bluer than ever.

Nikki can’t possibly survive an entire week trapped home as the family’s spinster. But she has no time to meet men or to try the newest dating app, she’s too busy working as a video producer for an advertising agency.

So what’s a girl to do?

Nikki has the perfect solution: to hire a fake boyfriend.

Luckily, her job gives her access to an endless catalog of gorgeous actors to choose from.

But Nikki will soon discover that keeping business and pleasure from mixing isn’t so easy and that she might not be immune to a little mistletoe magic. Especially not when she picked out the perfect man as her Christmas date…

A fun, festive romantic comedy with lots of bad behavior and Christmas spirit. Like a creamy hot chocolate with marshmallows, you won’t want to put this deliciously hilarious novel down. Perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Sally Thorne, and Jo Watson.

First Comes Love is a series of interconnected romantic novels. However, each book in the series can be read as a standalone.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Oh, come on… You sleep in the candy shop every night, and you want me to believe you’ve never thought of tasting the candies?

 

If Diego was a real boyfriend, and not one paid to endure my family, I’d be dying of shame at their ill-concealed eagerness. Mom and Julia look like wolfhounds with the scent of a bone fresh in their nostrils.

 

“Your mom and your old crone of an aunt always complain you’re never going to find a man. But I told them how wrong they were, and bet Dora a pie you’d be married before forty, which is the new thirty.”… I’m not sure what makes me angrier: the fact that my mom openly discusses my dating life with the whole town; or that, apparently, the prize of my happiness is a pumpkin pie.

 

 “…that doesn’t justify her calling me fat and old. She’s so petty.” “I don’t remember Julia calling you fat or old.” “But she did, in female code language.” “You girls have a secret language?” “All gals do; it’s Bitchenglish.”

 

My Review:

 

My first exposure to the witty comedic style of Camilla Isley and I am an instant fangirl. I smirked my way through this lively and clever tale that sure, it has been done before, but this version was much more fun. While they may have been adults, sleeping in their childhood beds seemed to harken them back to their surly teen and childish whining behaviors. The characters were competitive, stressed to a toxic level, and nearing the obnoxious register on the pettiness scale with life-long sibling rivalries reaching a scalding level. But what family holiday gathering isn’t complete without several meltdowns and a messy food skirmish? It’s not even Halloween yet and I’m already in the Christmas spirit and dreaming of the heavily laden table – bring on the pie.

 

 

Author Bio –

Camilla is an engineer turned writer after she quit her job to follow her husband on an adventure abroad.

She’s a cat lover, coffee addict, and shoe hoarder. Besides writing, she loves reading—duh!—cooking, watching bad TV, and going to the movies—popcorn, please. She’s a bit of a foodie, nothing too serious. A keen traveler, Camilla knows mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and she doesn’t want to starve all those frog princes out there, but she could really live without them.

Social Media Links –

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/camillaisley/

Twitter https://twitter.com/camillaisley

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14135080.Camilla_Isley

Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/camilla-isley

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/camillaisley/

Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/camillaisley/