Under the Tree by Sandra Marie

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Title: Under the Tree
Author: Sandra Marie
Series: Romance for all Seasons #3
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 1st 2018
Format: eARC
Pages: 166
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 12 Books of Christmas Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

Blurb:

He has twelve days to prove he's worth the risk.

An unexpected pregnancy sends Frankie home just in time for the holidays. Determined to figure out the tangled mess of her life, she finds comfort in her childhood traditions. The last thing she expects is for Alex, her baby daddy an overgrown frat boy, to show up on her parent’s doorstep.

Alex never wanted to grow up, always on the search for the next party, but when he met Frankie he felt a shift in his carefree world. Now he needs to find a way to convince her that he’s done partying and ready to be the man and father to their unborn child that he knows he can be.

There is twelve days until Christmas. And twelve days for him to prove to Frankie that he’s ready to be more than just her baby daddy. He’s ready to make them a family.

My Review:

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

4 stars — This was an adorable Christmas story!!  And it fits perfectly with the rest of the stories in this series, though it can be read completely as a standalone.  But I do love how all of the characters are interweaving…both past characters, and characters whose books I know are still coming!

Frankie and Alex were both super adorable.  I do love a good accidental pregnancy trope, and this one was even better than I was expecting.  I will admit, at the very beginning of the story I felt like Alex’s internal reaction to the thoughts of children was almost disgust, he seemed very anti-children.  And as the story played out, there was a pretty quick turnaround and it just didn’t feel believable for me.  Like his initial reaction was a bit extreme.  But the rest of his reactions were smooth sailing, so maybe I was just reading into things.

As I said, Frankie was pretty adorable.  She was sassy and spunky, seemed fairly confident in herself and I kind of loved that when Alex didn’t want a relationship as well, she didn’t settle for scraps…I mean, that all happens before our story starts, but I liked that inner strength.  I wasn’t anticipating the grief she was struggling with, and I truly empathized with her.  I also loved that she had her own growing up to do with her Mom and Bob, and that she *did* gain new perspectives throughout the story.  My favourite part was the excitement she had for Christmas and her traditions…and how with the help of Alex, she got the spirit back.

And then there’s Alex.  He made my heart happy.  His sense of humour was hilarious, if a little juvenile at times.  But I loved the way he sort of balanced out Frankie.  I truly did believe that he was worth the risk, and that there was a lot more to him than met the eye.  He tugged at my heart, and his struggles with his past and with his brother Chris really did help to explain where his carefree attitude came from.  While I loved Alex’s turnaround, I occasionally had a hard time believing that it would last (particularly wrt his work ethic and punctuality)…that part felt a little Hallmark Christmas movie convenient.  But still, he made me both laugh and tear up, which was more than I was expecting from him.

I loved seeing the two of them connect with one another in more than a lust way.  You could truly feel their caring for one another, and they really seemed to have good friendship chemistry as well.  I really appreciated how she gave Alex a chance, or at least tried to.  And I loved the way he truly cared for Frankie, and was desperate to get her back and prove his worth.  I loved all the little adventures they had, and how they brought a sense of fun to each day, and each tradition, old and new.

I will admit that the ending felt a bit rushed…or some things happened too quickly, the pacing felt off.  But otherwise this was exactly what I was looking for from this story!