A Merry Little Meet Cute

Nolan Shaw is the former bad boy of a former boy band, attempting to rehabilitate his image - and make money to support his mom and younger sister - by starring in a Hope channel Christmas movie. Bee Hobbes is a porn star who gets her chance to break into mainstream acting when her producer taps her to fill in for the "wholesome" actress who dropped out at the last minute. Unknown to either of them, Nolan has been a longtime fan of Bee's (Bianca Von Honey) ClosedDoors account, and Bee had a huge teen crush on Nolan. On set in Christmas Notch, Vermont, they both need to maintain their squeaky-clean images, but they fall hard for each other. Can they keep their relationship a secret from cast, crew, and the world? (Spoiler alert: no.) show more When Bee's Bianca Von Honey side becomes public, will Nolan stick by her? Will the Hope channel scrap the movie?

The chemistry between Nolan and Bee is evident, and the authors are sex-positive; Bee/Bianca loves her job and doesn't necessarily want to leave it behind, and both her moms know what she does and support her. The movie's director Gretchen, a former child star herself, and her wife Pearl wind up supporting Bee, and after a media pile-on, there's a swell of excitement about the movie, which the Hope channel releases after all. Nolan's mom has bipolar disorder, which makes him protective of her, but he also respects her and wants others to see her as more than her diagnosis.

Three mistakes irked me: (1) sunset in Vermont in December is NOT 6pm; (2) "white with a brown belly" is NOT a horse color that I know of; (3) it's illegal to set off fireworks in California, which they do casually in the epilogue, because of the risk of wildfires.

Quotes

After all, how hard could it be to keep his two worlds separate? (Teddy, prologue)

Doubt washed over me the moment my brain began to quiet. This was an awful idea. I knew it deep down. My intuition was too good. I always felt the truth in my gut, even when it was the kind of truth I didn't want to face. And this was one of those truths. (Bee, ch. 1)

It was like everything had gone wrong today and I had no way to fix any of it. All I could do was hold this metal and glass rectangle and hope it eventually lit up in my hand. (Nolan, ch. 17)

Who would I be after the the knowledge that I could work in a mainstream movie, and as the leading lady too? ...But what if that wasn't possible? What if I had to choose? (Bee, ch. 22)

When all I wanted was...for this moment to fractal out like a snowflake and never, ever end? (Bee, ch. 22)

Love...always demanded sacrifice and risk. But whose risk? Whose sacrifice? Was that fair to ask of anyone? (Bee, ch. 22) show less

I am a huge Hallmark Christmas movie fan so I was jacked to read a book that was a play on one of my favorite guilty pleasure. Teddy, a pornography producer decides to "diversify" and wants to produce a clean Christmas romance for the Hope Channel. He makes a new LLC and everything so no one can link him back to his real "business." A few days before shooting is set to take place, disaster occurs. A lot of the production crew and the female lead are out. In a hasty move he fills the slots with some porn crew and even casts Bianca von Honey, a plus size porn star as the lead. He is praying to god no one will catch on and the filming will go off without a hitch. Only there is one hitch, the reformed bad boy pop singer, now lead actor on show more set, knows EXACTLY who "Bee" is, he has subscribed to her content for years. How can they keep this all under wraps?! Sexy, full of positive sex work, and cute. Would definitely read more like this! show less

3.25 stars. honestly, the body positivity and non-sex-work shaming rep here is phenomenal. hard to even believe finding something this accepting in a book. like at every turn, every possible reaction where it could have been bad, it was accepted and understood. i'm very impressed. (even as i believe most of the porn industry is sexist, racist, and dangerous for women. if it was run the way it's shown in this book, i'd have a much different view of it. but no matter what, the way this book is not vilifying who shouldn't be, but who often is, gets major props from me.)

i also appreciated the low-stakes miscommunication and the ease with which it was resolved here. but mostly this gets a high rating for the decent writing, the fun show more storyline, the meta way in which i did not expect a little christmas setting romance to be so very spicy but how it flips that trope on its head, and the way they highlight body autonomy and agency. show less

This little gem was the bright spot in an otherwise dark effing week. I went the audiobook route and while I didn't love the narrators, I was cackling out loud. The back and forth that I've seen Julie and Sierra have on panels and at their signing tables and the fun they have together? It just oozes into these characters. A plus size FMC who own her sexuality? Yes please. Give me more. And the over the top camp that is Christmas Notch was the balm that I needed.

Bee (AKA Bianca Von Honey) has a successful career as a plus-size adult film star. She has a huge following and two supportive moms. Bee couldn't ask for anything more. When her favorite producer casts her to star in a Christmas movie for a squeaky clean TV channel, her career is about to take a more family friendly direction. Forced to keep her work as Bianca quiet, Bee quickly learns this is one of those easier said than done tasks. It all becomes worthwhile when she discovers her co-star is her childhood crush Nolan Shaw, an ex-boy band member, who is in need of a career rehab. Nolan promised his manager to behave on set, and he will if it means being able to provide for his mom and sister a more stable living situation. Things show more quickly heat up when Nolan recognizes his new co-star from her ClosedDoors account. Now they are sneaking off for quickies on set and keeping their relationship secret from the Hope Channel's execs. If the two can't keep their off-camera romance behind the scenes, this merry little meet cute might end up on the cutting room floor.
This book sucked me in from the beginning because of the level of insanity that started the whole thing. I mean the porn producer is trying to expand by moving to a Christmas movie on the squeaky clean channel and screws up showing head shots from his porn business to the director! It was great. I mean all levels of comedy are in existence. It was like the best cheesy Hallmark movie with a lot of sexy appeal. I loved every single second of this book. The situations were the perfect amount of funny and ridiculous! It was fun to watch events unfold. You could also really pick up on the attraction between Bee and Nolan and the sexual tension between them was intense.
I loved that the way this book portrayed a plus sized female main character. She was a confident and sexy character who didn't let her size define her. I loved that the authors also didn't make it her sole character trait. It was just a part of the narrative, like her hair color. Nolan was perhaps the sweetest character I have ever seen and his love for his mom and sister was beautiful. The book has some predictable moments because of the cheesy Hallmark vibes, but it is one I could read over and over again. I can't wait to see what comes next from these authors. show less

An adorable, inclusive, spicy romance! I loved how pretty much all the characters were LGBTQ+ characters - the MCs were bi and most of the secondary characters were somewhere in the alphabet. The sex positivity and size-inclusiveness was inescapable. The utter lack of toxic masculinity was refreshing. The one thing this book lacked was a villain from the Hope Channel, which was set up as a very conservative organization, but without a character to focus on, it was pretty wishy-washy. The other "villains" (tabloid reporter and the male porn star) were pretty weak, so most of the conflict was internalized between Bee and Nolan.

The epilogue definitely seemed to set up multiple series books, so I will look forward to them.

Every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped it would be. Our leads are adorable people, the community surrounding them fun. But what really made the book sing was the sex-positivity, body-positivity and normalization of sex work. The ending was so uplifting and I can only hope that the real world catches up.