Book Title: Elf against the Wall: The Wynter Brothers #2
Author: Alina Jacobs
Genre: Christmas Contemporary Romance
Target Audience: Adult
What it’s about
When you kiss your perfect boyfriend under the mistletoe…only for your cousin to scream to the family that you stole her man, Christmas is OVER.
In my defense, I didn’t know my boss—yup, boss. Buckle up because this is messy—was my cousin’s newly minted and totally lying fiancé. I thought he was the Nutcracker Prince come to finally show my family that I, too, was worthy of putting the star atop the Christmas tree.
I was so wrong.
Now my entire family thinks I’m a ho ho ho.
I’m at the top of the naughty list, not in a fun Elf on the Shelf way, but rather in a snide-comments-at-brunch and sitting-at-the-kids’-table kinda way.
I have to clear my name, or Christmas is ruined. Again.
What better way than to blackmail my family’s number one sworn enemy?
Anderson Wynter is this desperate elf’s last hope. Six-foot-five, ethically challenged, with washboard abs and a death wish, Anderson is the perfect weapon to expose my ex and help me get back in my family’s good graces.
That is, until the weapon massively backfires… and no, not like that.
Anderson goes full Nightmare Before Christmas and shows up at my family’s annual holiday party in nothing but tattoos and a motorcycle helmet and tells everyone we’re dating.
Yep, that kicks me off the naughty list and sends me straight to the Grinch’s garbage dump.
Now I’m chained to a motorcycle-riding bad elf with terrible morals and an even worse attitude—one who sticks his hand down my shirt in the middle of my parents’ posh country club and tells me to ride him like I do his bike.
When I slap him, he just smirks and asks if I fluff my marshmallows while fantasizing about betraying my family with him.
As if.
No way am I sleeping with the man my entire family hates.
Because that won’t just ruin Christmas.
It’ll ruin the rest of my life.
Naughty elves of Christmas checking in! We’re drunk caroling, eating cookies at midnight, surviving family drama, and drooling over hot, unattainable men who are oh so wrong for us. This standalone holiday romantic comedy has all the Christmas cheer you can fit under the tree and a happily ever after guaranteed!
What I Thought
I know I have already read the first book in this series but I also didn’t expect to jump straight into it just like the last one did. I thought it might have let me dip my big toe in before diving right in. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy where they need to do some world building first.
I started that last paragraph within the first 2-3 chapters of the book I can’t remember which but wish I had waited but I’m not going to delete it because it links to what I am going to say next.
Have you ever read deja vu? I ask because that’s what this book was. I know that authors have a tell, but this felt like it was almost the same book. Trade Gracie and Hudson with Evie and Anderson, then we exchange Granny Murphy and the other one whose name escapes me for Granny doyle and Shirley, change the smut scenes and you have book one. Even the MCs’ names are similar.
It might actually be easier to list the differences between the books.
Evie is a walking disaster who was adopted by the Murphys because after 3 boys they wanted a girl, then when evie was 6 months old Mamma Murphy found out she was pregnant with identical triplet girls who are her doppelganger.
Anderson is the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks who was in prison once upon a time for attempting to kill Evie’s eldest brother while they were both in the Marines.
A lot of these books have centred around a Christmas disaster that happened the previous year, how the FMCs plan to get revenge and a shitload of cooking and baking where the MMC is surprisingly good at it.
The ending is sickeningly sweet and again what I expected after reading book one but I feel like i shouldn’t have read the Wynter brothers back to back as there is about a year between publishing dates and something I missed that must have happened in another book between these as it appears her stories are linked but without checking her website I’m not sure how they go at the moment. It’s a job for another time since I’m writing this straight after finishing so I can get to bed. That being said, it is technically a standalone HEA, but I think i would not be able to get some nuances without the other book.
Star Rating
Laura's Literary Loves 