Fae's Literary Garden

↳ warnings: none that I can think of tbh

↳ why i picked it: Saw an extract of it on tiktok and curiosity got the best of me.

↬ thoughts

I have a bad habit of not DNFing books once I start to dislike them, and unless they get real bad I don’t. Probably should have given up sooner.

Was it entertaining? A bit, until it got to the point I just read it to finish it.

We have Wynter, who is engaged to Zaydon and they are going to get married on Christmas. It is her dream to have a winter/christmas wedding. Unfortunately for her, her fiance and best friend have been sleeping together and she catches them in the act. Was her reaction satisfactory? Hell yeah. It does get a bit annoying tho after a bit when she is at her place getting rid of the traces of him. As she becomes a runaway bride, there comes the hero of the story: Nick Frost, father of the groom. They get hitched, go on a cruise, stay engaged for the sake of their companies, and then she discovers he lied to her, he grovels, and then they get back together at the end. With shit ton of smut in between.

One of the most problematic aspects of the book is how Nick and Wynter know each other. Yes, there is a significant age gap, but that can work, until you find out Nick was best friends with Wynter’s father and saw Wynter grow up. How on earth am I meant to be okay with that? Yes, Wynter has had a crush on Nick her entire life. Normal. Nick having feelings for her from before the beginning of the book? Not normal or okay at all.

Nick fucks up by lying to Wynter about them having to stay married for their companies sake when they were never married to begin with. And then does everything to get her back. At all the moments she could have given in to his groveling, she does when he proposes to her. No sense to me at all.

Also, Nick is supposed to be this company dude who puts business first, so he is really smart, and I am meant to believe he had no clue he was going to a sex party when he got an invite with lingerie for Wynter? Yeah right.

We never hear about the best friend until the end of the book when we find out that she got married to Zaydon and then they got divorced but are good co-parents. Nick and Zaydon, who have a shit ass relationship, manage to fix it somehow. And Zaydon and Wynter are on good terms. Which, honestly, bless her heart because the amount of shit Zaydon did and said about using Wynter, he could have died for all I care.

Also, at some point, I genuinely got annoyed at how many times they referred to each other as husband and wife.

I feel like a Grinch for this but oh well.