Smooches under mistletoes and tacky reindeer decorations.
Newly single, Davey has had enough of wasting his love and having his heart broken. Better to be single, he decides. No more dates. No more falling in love. No more dreaming of happy ever afters. Those are for movies.
He’s resolute.
And then Avery steps into his life, bringing care, compassion, and tenderness in his path.
Davey’s so tempted to hope again. But can an online date and a brief encounter turn into anything other than an ephemeral sexual encounter?
Is there a future for them? Will Avery stay? And most importantly, can Davey bear to offer up his heart to the season’s love—just one more time?
Jingle Spell is a relatively angst free May-December Christmas romance between one MC who has given up on finding lasting romance (May) and one who has recently gotten out of a long term relationship (December).
Davey is a retail worker who hates his job, which is fair at the holidays, but I really wished he wasn’t such a bitch about it. There is plenty to hate about working retail without bugging his manager ad nauseum about time off and always being late. It made him seem too immature and hard to believe he was already giving up on romance. He didn’t have the greatest track record, which seemed pretty normal for his youth to be honest.
Davey muddles through his shift, nothing too much seems to happen and when he gets home he hits up a dating app because he’s a pretty lonely guy. He finds someone to meet up with and it turns out to be a customer he had in his line that day at work. They recognized one another, were pretty happy to see one another again and had a very nice date. I had hoped they would have had more of a connection when they met at the store earlier in the day, but nothing of significance happened and the description of them interacting was just a thing that happened rather than a meet-cute. It was an opportunity missed that would have given their connection more meaning.
The two spent time getting to know one another and did all the sweet dating things. It was obvious they were falling for one another and I liked their interactions even if their banter was a little stiff. It was good to learn more about Davey’s history and it explained a little bit about why Davey really just wanted to love and be loved.
While I said the story was relatively angst free there was a moment when Avery’s past came back around and it was a bit of a heartbreaker for Davey. It was relatively brief but kind of crappy of Avery. He redeemed himself, mostly. It was just a little quick, I wasn’t ready to forgive him just yet, but he has some pretty damn good words and they were definitely going to get back together, so Davey did what was best for Davey.
I do believe in the HEA for them even though their time together was short from meeting to I love you’s. I would have liked an epilogue, mostly for Davey. He wasn’t happy with his job and didn’t seem to have quality friends, so reading about him maturing and going for some happiness in all aspects of his life, with Avery’s support, would have been a perfect end.
**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**
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