Review: Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey

Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey
Narrator: Summer Morton, Connor Crais
Series: Under the Mistletoe #2
Published by Amazon Original Stories on 2024-11-12
Length: 59 pages
Length: 1 hour and 32 minutes
Listening Speed: 2x
Reviewing Audiobook, Kindle from Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2024 Audiobook Challenge

A single mother working in a thrift store. A gentle giant farmer who can’t find jeans that fit. When opposites attract, they find themselves making alterations in more ways than one in this smoking-hot short story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

Evie Crowe is starting over in a strange town with her newborn, and men are the furthest thing from her mind. If only the quiet, hulking farmer, Luke Ward, would stop coming into the thrift shop and piquing her reluctant interest. Evie wants to stay single all the way—she can’t trust anything more than friends-with-holiday-benefits. But Luke is in it for the long haul. He’s fixed on making this a Christmas Evie will remember forever. If she gives him a chance.

Tessa Bailey’s Merry Ever After is part of Under the Mistletoe, a collection of sexy December romances to warm the cold winter nights. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.

Merry Ever After by Tessa Bailey is the second book in the Under the Mistletoe which feature five short stories from five romance authors guaranteed to spice up your holiday reading. This one was not for me. Evie Crowe is a single mother looking for a new start in a small town, and Luke Ward is a local farmer smitten with her. Luke stops by the thrift store every week looking for clothes to fit his giant frame and failing when Evie decides to take matters into her own hands and make him a pair of jeans that fit.

This could have been a cute, sweet story. However, it is not cute or sweet. In fact, it was like reading bad porn. Here are a few of the cringeworthy quotes:

• “I tell him he’s Daddy and my pussy needs his come.”
• “Why was I so turned on watching him eat his fourth grilled cheese?”
• “They don’t make jeans that fit me and they don’t make women that fit me.”
• “Can he see me clenching through this denim? Good gravy, am I attracted to him.”
• “And the fact that she already has a man should make me ashamed that I fucked my fist to the thoughts of her bent over. Yet in my fantasies, I’ve had her all over town since the first time I saw her.“

Those are just a few. I struggled with Evie calling Luke “daddy.” Just ew….that should not be allowed….ever. I think this book could have been better if the spice was toned way down and there had been more opportunities for interaction outside of sex. It was just too much in 59 pages.

Overall, I would pass on this one unless you are a fan of Tessa Bailey. This is my second of hers, and if they are all this way, I may have to pass on her altogether. Just not for me.

Each of the books in the Under the Mistletoe collection are available in Kindle Unlimited with audio narration. These spicy stories can be read in under two hours (less if you are listening) which makes them a perfect holiday read if you are short on time.

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