A Holly Jolly Ever After is the second novel in the Christmas Notch series by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone.
Finished on: 9.10.2025
[Here are my reviews of the other books in the series.]

Content Note: sexual assault, miscarriage (almost)

Plot:
Winnie has always been the good girl. A former child star from a very Christian family, she has managed that both her career and her private life remain squeaky clean. But when her marriage and her life fall apart, she is ready to turn over a new leaf, starting with starring in the first ever “Hope After Dark” production of a steamy Christmas RomCom opposite former boyband star Kallum. Kallum had withdrawn from public life and into managing a chain of pizza restaurants. But after his sex tape was leaked and turned into a big success, he is ready to get back into the spotlight. But the movie they are shooting is off to a rocky start when it turns out that Winnie has a tough time acting in the sex scenes – especially since she never had an orgasm herself. Determined to learn, Winnie turns to Kallum for help.

A Holly Jolly Ever After is a cute, quick read that I enjoyed a lot, especially in the first half. After my more lukewarm reaction to Snow Place Like LA, this worked much better even if I didn’t completely love it, especially the second half.

I am always interested in novels (and movies) with fat main characters. In movies, men are allowed to be fat much more than women are, but in romance as a genre, I find that there are more and more stories where fat girls or women are centered and allowed to experience romance without having to lose weight, but we rarely see fat men as romantic leads. In fact, I don’t think I ever read a romance novel where the male love interest was fat, especially not one where he was still considered hot. A Holly Jolly Ever After gives us that. Kallum has a “dad bod”. He is cast to play Santa Claus in the movie the story revolves around. And he is also a sex symbol. I found that really refreshing.

At the same time, I also felt that his body image issues were brushed aside much too easily. (And it is pretty inconceivable to live as a fat person in a fatmisic society without some issues.) He has spent his entire adulthood being “the funny one”, “the lesser member of INK” or “the one you fuck before you meet the one”, and then it takes one moment of clarity for him to put all that away for good. I feel like if he had been a female character, he would have been allowed more time to grow and more vulnerability.

But I did like the dynamic he had with Winnie, especially in the first part of the book, and the respectful way he always gives her space to learn about herself. The honest, open way that Winnie approaches her sexuality (including queerness) and pleasure was a joy to read, and a very thorough dismantling of purity culture which is always appreciated. I didn’t really get the “Kallum is so immature” vibes, though. That just didn’t make sense to me in many ways. Not that he doesn’t make some bad decisions, but it’s not like he is an irresponsible party-er.

Unfortunately, there is a wrench that gets thrown into the works of the romance about halfway through with one of the most ridiculous instances of the miscommunication trope (that hardly ever works for me anyway) and a surprise pregnancy that had me rolling my eyes. If you (can) disregard that (and there would have been other ways to get to the character development triggered by those two things), it is still a fun book but the quality of the second half certainly suffered for it. (I, in fact, unconsciously decided to forget this ever happened, and had to actively remind myself of the plot to write this review.)

Given that drop-off in the second half, it probably comes as no surprise that my biggest emotional point of connection were Teddy and Steph who, I hope, will get a glorious HEA soon. But I am also surprisingly curious about Isaac now. For the type of romance hero I usually don’t like (tortured, brooding, tragic), he has a lot of humor, so maybe they will make his book work for me after all. We shall see. I will definitely continue reading – Christmas is coming anyway.

Summarizing: yay for the first half.