This is a quick holiday read with some heavy content warning about child abuse, trauma, and, to some extent, body issue bullying. Elise is a bitter divorcé, dreading another holiday season and dealing with her ex-husband and his antiques. Nicholas is a lawyer trying to impress his bosses at the firm, who need a date for the office party. They meet at a mall food court and devise a contract to “fake date” throughout the holidays. The gifts Nicholas sends are kind of cringe, and Elise expresses how uncomfortable they make her feel, yet her objections are deflected, and the gifts keep coming. Red flags of creepiness and controlling issues ahead.

Elise’s back story is thick with the drama. It feels more like Evans info dumping the events of her tales of what her abusive father did to her, which are mostly believable. Still, the delivery feels so detached it makes it hard for the readers to connect emotionally. The dialogue was okay. However, readers do not need a play-by-play of the drive home from work every night or every meal the protagonist eats since it doesn’t move the story forward. It could have been edited out without taking away from the story. The sausage fingers comment could also have been edited out, as it is a very nasty way of describing an overweight character and borders on bullying.

The best quote from this book is from chapter ten: “The Golden Rule is a two-edged sword. If some of us treated others as we treat ourselves, we would be jailed.”

For readers looking for a fluffy light read, this isn’t it. This book is messy, with many cringe vibes and too much info dumping instead of story building, making it a 1.5-star read.