I was falling for him, fast and hard, and the rocks below our fling were even more treacherous than this strip of beach, but heck if I could stop it.
Broadway actor, Nolan Bell is spending a few months in Hawaii helping his brother’s family while his brother is deployed. He’s also picked up a gig as the substitute choir teacher at the local middle school where he’s tasked with organizing the school’s holiday festival. He’s paired with the grumpy shop teacher, Merrick “Merry” Winters to bring this festival to fruition. Despite first impressions, Merry is quickly charmed by Nolan and the two embark on a holiday fling before Nolan is set to return to NYC in the new year. But as they grow closer, Nolan is faced with a decision – can he envision staying on the island to be with Merry and even if he does stay, is Merry willing to risk his heart again?
This was another charming holiday romance from Annabeth Albert! It started a bit slow for me, I wasn’t sure Merry even liked Nolan the first time he tried kissing him. But all that quickly changed and I thought these two were so sweet together. Thanks to his ex-wife, Merry had a good reason for being unsure of Nolan at first but it didn’t take him long to see that Nolan wasn’t your average city slicker. I appreciated that Merry didn’t hesitate to admit he had been wrong about Nolan and realized that Nolan was someone he wanted to get to know better.
Their little dates as they organized the festival were cute and I liked seeing them work together to bring the festival to life. Nolan was a fun character. He was in an unfamiliar environment and had been dropped into planning this festival, with much resistance from students and faculty alike. Still, he exuded such confidence and stayed the course to create something special. I loved seeing the school and town fall in love with Nolan just as much as I enjoyed seeing Merry fall for him.
I even enjoyed the bit of angst we got and I liked that the story extended well beyond Christmas. While I wanted to shake some sense into Merry, I got where he was coming from and I loved what he did to try and make things right again. The ending was super sweet and the book made me want to visit Hawaii someday!
Nolan had found me, made me defy gravity, and shown me the other side of being loved.
The Book Boyfriend Addict 