Jamie K Schmidt, $2.99, ISBN 979-8201968366
Contemporary Romance, 2021
In Jamie K Schmidt’s A Not So Casual Christmas, Tessa Kennedy is steeling herself for the worst ordeal one could ever be forced into: attending the company Christmas party. Spending long, painful moments in awkward, forced conversations with a boss she detests and colleagues that she cares little for… how can things go worse, right?
Well, how about her ex Ben showing up at the party?
Ben was the standard Tessa compared all other men to, which was probably why she was still single. They had been inseparable all through high school and college. At one point, Tessa was sure they were going to get married, have the white picket fence and all the trappings. He had broken her heart, though, when he didn’t want to get married before he deployed to Afghanistan. He hadn’t wanted to take her away from her family and leave her all alone while he was gone.
Worst ex ever! What a heel.
Actually, it’s not so bad, the ex showing up, because she’s pretty much immediately ready to spread her legs 180 degrees apart and do the windmill dance on him.
The official synopsis suggests that he may have an ulterior motive in going deep into her interior motives, but alas, despite the $2.99 price tag, this story is more like a super undersized barely a nibble thing that would normally go for $0.99 or be given away as a freebie.
In other words, who has the time for inconsequential stuff like plot, build-up, romance, whatever. These two meet, do the dirty, he abruptly asks to marry her, she squeals yes, the end.
Looking at the author’s list of titles in the second page, I guess that this is probably part of an ongoing series, so it is likely that Tessa and Ben already had something going on already?
Still, Tessa claims here that she hasn’t seen Ben in five years, so perhaps not. I don’t know. I do know that it’s quite bizarre for him to ask her suddenly to marry him after a shag, as the whole thing seems to be pulled out of someone’s rear end without much grace.
The author’s narrative style here is easy to read. However, that’s all it has going for it, and whatever else it has is highly unlikely to evoke much emotion or elicit any reaction for the reader. It’s really that short and kind of pointless!
