Tracy Bloom comes to the blog today with the third in her No-one Ever Has Sex romantic comedy series. Please read on for my review of
No-one Ever Has Sex on Christmas Day
Not having read the earlier books in this series, it took a bit of time to connect all the dots, even as Bloom did make an effort to provide some backstory for each of the separate vignettes that were progressing in this story. First up is Kate and Ben, with their three-year old daughter, Ben’s best friend Braindead, and Kate’s bestie Daniel. Kate is the working parent here – her salary from her marketing expertise allowed Ben to stay at home to raise Millie, and now with her at school, he’s been hired on as a teacher at her preschool. Ben is all things lovely: committed father, good friend and supportive partner. He’s also over-the-moon excited about this coming Christmas: it’s Millie’s first to really understand Father Christmas and the surrounding hoopla, and they are in a new house which he has decided to decorate. Extensively. But then, the complications start: Katie’s parents are divorcing, her mum has a new “toy-boy” and is coming to spend Christmas (uninvited) bringing Carlos and his myriad of requirements, a single son and smashing Ben’s plans for a quiet and cozy holiday to bits. When a last-minute pitch for a new client for the agency lands on Katie’s desk, and the company owner is pushing for her to up stakes and move to Australia for a new job –putting Ben’s desire for another child on hold and sending her best friend Daniel, now single after his Italian lover left without a word.
If that wasn’t enough tumult to add to the mix of the Christmas preparations, Ben has been handed the reins for the Nativity pageant at school, and is brought face-to-face with new students, a set of twin brother and sister with a rather obsessive and difficult mother, a nanny who finds him attractive, 23 3 year olds who all (with a couple of minor exceptions) want to be Joseph or Mary, and an encounter with his past. The twins father is Katy’s ex Matthew, his wife Allison is heavily pregnant with their fourth child, and she is borderline obsessed with her children’s advancement. When you add in Matthew’s friend Ian – divorced and playing the field, disliked by Allison and having a crush on their nanny – the story just twists up more and more.
Oh there are serious concerns hidden within the never-ending barrage of demands from Katy’s mother, Ben’s nerves and ‘modernization’ of the Nativity, the planning sessions with Daniel to make Braindead’s proposal an ‘event’ and a works holiday party at a cross between Chuck E Cheese, Lion King and a booze-fueled night of abandon. Katy’s worry about the offer to move to Australia, deciding on another baby, where to put her mother and her boyfriend for their Christmas visit, her realization that Daniel has become her best friend and someone very important to her, Ben’s concerns about the secrets that Katy is keeping (the job offer) and her apparent hesitation about another baby, his own worries about whether or not the Nativity will be a success, and walking Braindead through the maze that is his feelings for his girlfriend Abby and his upcoming engagement. Tucked neatly into all of the chaos comes the truth of this story – that love can, will and does conquer all, even as the laughter and the continual piling on of ‘just one more’ request continue near relentlessly to the end.
Title: No-One Ever Has Sex on Christmas Day
Author: Tracy Bloom
Series: No-one Ever Has Sex #3
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Comedy, Family Saga, Holiday Themed, Humor elements
Published by: Bookouture
ISBN: 1786812584
Published on: 24 October, 2017
Format:eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Pages: 294
Rated:
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Don’t you always plan the perfect Christmas? Don’t you always think it will be the best one ever? And doesn’t something – usually one of your loved ones – always come along and screw it up?
Katy’s been spending too much time in the office and not enough time with her family so she wants it all: snow (fake or real), the Michael Bublé Christmas album, whatever it takes.
There’s only one thing missing as far as her husband Ben is concerned: another baby to complete their family. Katy isn’t so sure…
Ben may be playing the role of Master Elf in the pre-school nativity but he is struggling to master his own family life. With romantically-challenged friends, an ex who refuses to go away and Katy's mum's 64-year-old toy boy thrown into the mix, Christmas looks like it could be going off the rails… Never mind family planning, can Katy and Ben even plan to make it to the end of Christmas Day?
See the No-One Ever Has Sex series on I am, Indeed
A copy of this title was provided via Publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
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