Big Package by Opal Carew

Blurb:
Baby it’s cold outside…but things are about to heat up.

I missed the last bus to my sister’s for Christmas, and now I’m stranded in a bus station—in the middle of a blizzard—with a giant package covered in naughty wrapping paper.

Then he shows up: Kalen Welles, the football star from my high school fantasies—and offers me a ride.

Just when the car is getting cozy, the roads get shut down due to snow.

Luckily there’s a nearby cabin where we can hole up for the night.

A warm fireplace, cozy blankets, pent-up longing we both spent years ignoring… maybe I’ll be able to unwrap Kalen’s big package before Christmas morning.

But when the snow clears and the ice melts, will the former football star and the shy nerd finally get a happy ending?

Unwrap this sexy holiday story from Opal Carew!

     

My Review:
3 stars — I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

OK, I will admit that I picked this book to read as my first HoHoHo Read-A-Thon book b/c the reviews were kind of lukewarm, and having finished a book hangover type book, I knew the next book wasn’t going to live up to expectations.  Honestly, this is probably more of a 2.5 star read, but I bumped it up a half star b/c it partially takes place in Ottawa, and it brought back some good memories from when I lived there a decade and a half ago…  Especially when they mentioned Bayshore Mall!  I lived across from that mall!  So high fives for the great reminiscing.

Otherwise this was a pretty shallow book…it was a bit corny, a bit cheesy, the characters were pretty surface, and there were a lot of cliches.  It was pretty standard Harlequin type fare.  I would classify it as erotica, since there was an awful lot of sex.  And the plot had the usual stupid, AVOIDABLE misunderstandings that were resolved by just talking.  Not a huge fan of those, so hence why without the Ottawa stuff, it would have been a 2.5 star or lower.

I was amused that Ms. Carew dealt with some interesting sexual…insecurities?  Like a guy having to deal with a “big package”, and how that’s not always a blessing.  And female ejaculation.  Props to Ms. Carew, she did not a bad job with that either.

All in all very meh.  Didn’t keep my attention super well, but in some ways was less annoying than I had been expecting.  On to my next Christmas read!