BOOK REVIEW⎜Chasing Christmas Eve by Jill Shalvis

Jill Shalvis once again upholds her reputation by delivering a light and heartfelt romance characterized by a solid storytelling, her quirky brand of humor, and a healthy dose of steam.

MY RATING

Cute and cheeky writer meets the epitome of hot nerd. She’s runnning from her obligations, he’s avoiding personal commitments. Good thing they have an expiration date then…

Jill Shalvis once again upholds her reputation by delivering a light and heartfelt romance characterized by a solid storytelling, her quirky brand of humor, and a healthy dose of steam.

Chasing Christmas Eve proved out to be just the ticket I needed, cheery and easy going!

Book Infos

Meet cute…
Run for the hills—temporarily. That’s Colbie Albright’s plan when she flees New York for San Francisco. Wrangling her crazy family by day and writing a bestselling YA fantasy series by night has taken its toll. In short, Colbie’s so over it that she’s under it. She’s also under the waters of a historic San Francisco fountain within an hour of arrival. Fortunately, the guy who fishes Colbie out has her looking forward to Christmas among strangers. But she’s pretty sure Spencer Baldwin won’t be a stranger for long.

Make merry…
Spence’s commitment to hiding from the Ghosts of Relationships Past means he doesn’t have to worry about the powerful—okay, crazy hot—chemistry he’s got with Colbie. Just because she can laugh at anything, especially herself… just because she’s gorgeous and a great listener…just because she “gets” Spence immediately doesn’t mean he won’t be able to let Colbie go. Does it?

…and hope for a miracle.
Now the clock’s ticking for Colbie and Spence: Two weeks to cut loose. Two weeks to fall hard. Two weeks to figure out how to make this Christmas last a lifetime.

Author : Jill Shalvis
Title : Chasing Christmas Eve
Series : Heartbreaker Bay #4

Number of pages : 384
Publisher : Avon (Harper Collins)
Release Date :  September 26th, 2017
Genre : Contemporary.

My Review

I feel like there should be Jill Shalvis books in every travel agencies or at least on every airlines counters. Wherever this author decides to set her stories at, like here in the beautiful San Francisco bay, I can be sure it’ll become my next vacation plan and dream like location. She has a knack for setting up and depicting beautiful places I yearn to visit in each new series she releases.

No doubt about it, this Christmas, romance readers are buying themselves a one way ticket for San Francisco. (And let’s all meet there by that magic fountain!)

Jill Shalvis proves once again her talent by delivering a light and heartfelt romance characterized by a solid and pleasant storytelling, her typical quirky brand of humor, and a fulfilling dose of steam.

Chasing Christmas Eve opened with your classic Shalvis comical situation and hooked me from page one! How hilarious! See, the heroine, Colbie Albright— which I had no choice but instantly ADORE— is a writer of a successful YA fantasy series. Typical Shalvis’ heroine, she’s cute and whole lot of nutty.

Feeling pressured by a demanding agent and just as much—if not more— from a suffocating and dependent family, she decides to run and flee her responsibilities for some most needed escape vacation. She thinks a break from everything is what she needs to find back her muse, and —spoiler alert— San Francisco wasn’t her idea!

Spencer Baldwin is the hero of the book and Heartbreaker Bay’s resident hot nerd. Be still my heart. MY favorite kind of heroI was super excited to finally get his story and SO happy for him to get partnered with someone genuine like Colbie!

As many Shalvis heroes, he’s your alpha-beta male, sexy, confident and unbelievably caring. Only downside regarding Spence, he’s lost faith in his capacity to commit into any kind of durable relationship. Colbie’s visit comes with an expiration date anyway, by Christmas Eve, she’ll be gone.
Unless… for a Christmas miracle!

I’m not interested in any sort of relationship. I’m only going to be here until Christmas Eve.
-So you’re saying that’s it’s a good thing we don’t have time?

The romance between them was pleasantly quiet and mostly bared of any kind of conflict—my only objection about the story— both heroes were effortlessly understanding of each other, their connection feeling natural and unhurried despite an inevitable and fast approaching outcome.

Sexual tension was somehow lacking and I’d loved to get at least some feeling of urgency between them. It was all leisurely… hushed. Not that it was necessary a bad thing but I’ve been used to more chemistry and building tension in past reads by this author.

Colbie and Spence vacation fling settled under a lighthearted and sexy star, hitting the spot but not entirely satisfying.

The anticipation of his touch was enough to galvanize her into reaching up and tearing off his glasses.

Chasing Christmas Eve proved out to be just the ticket I needed, cheery and easy going—maybe too easy in comparison to the previous books in this series— Nonetheless, it didn’t prevent my enjoyment at all, I had real laugh out loud moments provided by Shalvis quirky humor,  I felt enchanted by the beautiful setting and loved reading snippets about all the characters I got to meet in the previous Heartbreaker Bay novels. (Special note about Elle, whom I once again hated for being such a pain in the ass, but still couldn’t help to adore!)

Overall a very rewarding feel good story!

When I started writing this review I told myself I was going to keep this short since by now, I dare hope every romance reader have heard of the awesomeness that is Jill Shalvis? Don’t answer this. It’s purely rhetorical. Oh and mission failed, once again, I let my rambling run wild!

EXCERPT
“Chasing Christmas Eve” by Jill Shalvis. ©

Excerpt “Chasing Christmas Eve” by Jill Shalvis. ©

Colbie Albright stood in the crowded LaGuardia Airport staring up at the flight departure board. Her chest was tight and her throat felt like it was closing in.

Classic anxiety, she told herself. Just breathe right through it.

Not that her body listened to her brain. Her body rarely listened to good sense.

In any case, it was December 1 and people were rushing all around her like chickens without their heads, while she stood still trying to figure out her choice of destination. Her only requirements were warm and tropical. An exotic beach would fit the bill perfectly.

Aruba.

Jamaica.

Oooh, I wanna take you…

Great, and now that Beach Boys song was stuck in her head. Doing her best to shake it off, she eyed the board again. So many choices for a twenty-eight-year-old runaway with a packed bag and no regrets.

From inside her purse her phone vibrated and she grimaced. Okay, so there were regrets. Buckets of them that made her suitcase feel like a thousand pounds and sucked the air from her lungs, but she refused to let herself turn tail and go back.

She was doing this.

Author Bio & Links

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s sexy contemporary and award-winning books wherever romances are sold and click on the blog button above for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

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