The December Deal by Dana Volney

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Title: The December Deal
Author: Dana Volney
Published by: Crimson Romance
Release Date: November 30th 2015
Format: eARC
Pages: 114
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Holiday
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2017 12 Books of Christmas Challenge, Lenoreo's 2017 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2017 Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge, Lenoreo’s 2017 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

After her dad is diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, Lilia Carrigan returns home to Wyoming. The insurance company won’t cover the costs for an experimental trial that offers his best chance at surviving, and she needs a way to raise funds fast.

Vincent Morgenstern has had a year to fulfill the clause in his dad’s will that says if he doesn’t marry, he’ll lose out on inheriting the family business he loves so much. The deadline is New Year’s Eve, and he’s determined to get down the aisle, even if he has to pay the bride to be on his arm.

When Lilia overhears his predicament at a coffee shop, the crazy solution to both their problems seems obvious. What’s one year of faking it?

But as the holiday season works its magic, their platonic partnership threatens to get very personal. Will Lilia and Vincent’s December deal stay professional, or will real feelings ruin everything?

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

2.5 stars — Yeah, this one just left me feeling very meh.  I didn’t end up being that captured by either character…we dive right into the story fairly quickly, and so we really don’t get to see who either of them are before it’s about the two of them together.  I think this kind of storyline, where there’s the forced relationship that turns into love, just doesn’t work well in novella format.  Or perhaps I’m just too cynical for love to happen to complete strangers in a few weeks.  I guess sometimes I’m OK with that, but I wasn’t in this case.  In the end I really just don’t understand what they each fell in love with.  I didn’t see their connection, I didn’t see enough chemistry.  I guess I could see if they were *starting* to fall in love and wanted to give it a shot, but this was a full blown “I’m totally in love with you” situation, and that was too far for me.

Both Vincent and Lilia seemed like fairly nice characters overall, but there wasn’t a whole lot of spunk to either of them…they felt a bit boring to be frank.  I did appreciate how much they each loved their families, and that at least there wasn’t anything screwed up there.  And I suppose that brought them together a bit in the end.  I couldn’t figure out her twin though…but maybe it was supposed to entice me to find her story.

Honestly, I could try to dive further into the whys and hows of my feelings, but it all comes down to believability, chemistry, and how compelling the story was.  And this novella was meh in all those avenues for me.  *shrugs*