Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novella


Will Johnson has traveled from Boston to snowy upstate New York for a month for work. His hotel room window overlooks a courtyard where can he see his favorite singer, Rex Garland. When Will is forced to leave his window open due to a heating issue in the room, he overhears Rex struggling with lyrics for a Christmas song. Will is not a songwriter, but a flash of inspiration has him going completely outside his comfort zone and secretly leaving lyrics for Rex.

When Rex receives the lyrics, he has a sudden burst of inspiration and an attraction to Will when they run into each other in the hotel restaurant. Will has always been self-conscious about his size and doubts that Rex could ever really be interested in him. But this holiday season may just be one that neither man will forget.

The premise of this book sounded cute and light and I was looking for something to fit that. I can’t say that this book was a winner for me though. The story is told through Will’s POV and we get limited information on him, and only briefly get to know Rex. We do know that Will is self-conscious about his size and we learn that Rex is his favorite singer. The book’s focus is on this song that Rex is writing and that Will then sends him lyrics for in secret. The lyrics for the song are shown in the book many times, sometimes with only one word changed or one line added, and it was too repetitive for me. Will and Rex were also both extremely proud of the song they were creating, but the lyrics came off as juvenile to me and this aspect was unpleasant for me to read.

The men spend little time together in the book. The story focuses on the secret writing of the song, them running into each other for a few moments in the hotel, and Will’s job. Will’s co-workers are brought into the story, but this ultimately added nothing to the narrative. Rex is also a known singer and everyone who hears his name knows who he is, yet the men are both staying at the same mildly run-down hotel.

This story was clearly supposed to be a take off of a Hallmark holiday movie, as it was referenced in the book. However, I didn’t feel any spark or chemistry between the characters, or any warm romance at all. The men finally get together at the end of the book and any relationship development is off page and we only see them as a couple in the epilogue. This may have appeal to some hard-core holiday readers out there, but this one was not a hit for me.