Merry Ever After

Under the Mistletoe Collection

By: Tessa Bailey

Narrated by: Summer Morton, Connor Crais

A single mother working in a thrift store. A gentle giant farmer who can’t find jeans that fit. When opposites attract, they find themselves making alterations in more ways than one in this smoking-hot short story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey.

Evie Crowe is starting over in a strange town with her newborn, and men are the furthest thing from her mind. If only the quiet, hulking farmer, Luke Ward, would stop coming into the thrift shop and piquing her reluctant interest. Evie wants to stay single all the way—she can’t trust anything more than friends-with-holiday-benefits. But Luke is in it for the long haul. He’s fixed on making this a Christmas Evie will remember forever. If she gives him a chance.

Tessa Bailey’s Merry Ever After is part of Under the Mistletoe, a collection of sexy December romances to warm the cold winter nights. They can be read or listened to in one swoony sitting.

©2024 by Tessa Bailey. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Cringy lines ruined it

2.5/5⭐️
This was a lot omg… never read a Tessa Bailey book before but I had heard good things about them so I was excited to get to this one in the collection and lordy was it something

Truthfully this is just a smut holiday novella, and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just a lot of cringy lines within the smut that had me put off by it.

The premise of the story was really interesting but Luke going right into describing his sexual fantasies within about a min of his chapter had me reeling.

Even though it’s a very short novella, I wish we had gotten more plot and less cringy sex lines

A single mom in possession of no common sense must surely be in want of a hulking farmer who demands to see her tits

It’s fine, it’s fast, the sex is hot enough I guess, but I really feel like the Chicago girl should have asked the white rural Texas chicken farmer about his opinions on Jan. 6 before making a lifetime commitment to him.

Single mom FINALLY gets her dream husband!

This was SO cute! Single mom meets her Prince Charming, who turns out to be a hard working farmer. She’s hesitant due to her baby daddy abandoning them after birth. Will he over time prove his intentions are pure and he wanted nothing more but to provide for her and her son? Or will they be stuck as FWB? Definitely has a hint of spice. 🌶️

Cringe on Cringe

Tessa just leaned too far into the big brute man stereotype with this one. The dirty talk made me make this face 🥴 more than once.

Short Christmas romance 💘

Very short Christmas romance with a HEA, I liked both of the main characters, but their inner dialogue was…different, not the worst, but not the best.
I give it 3.5 ⭐️
I felt the narrator’s did a really good job with the voices of the characters.

Who leaves a 5 month old alone on a bed?

5 month olds roll. A lot. No parent in their right mind would leave them alone on a bed. I literally was anxious listening to it.

Too much gratuitous sex

I usually.like Tessa Bailey and was looking for a cute little rom com for light listening- this was too much like porn for my taste.

Short christmas story

That was very short but wish for more. The spice was quick but need more love story!

too much bad language.

it could have been cute but some of the vulgarity was a bit too much for me

My favorite of the series

Story: 4/5
Narration: 4/5
Single mom, small town, boy obsessed, insta-love, 1st person POV, dual POV + narration
Evie is starting over in a new town with her son. She meets Luke, the gentle giant who can never find clothes that fit him. Evie decides to make him some. Now that Luke has spent time with Evie and her son, there’s no letting them go. This one was my favorite. The look of shock on my face when I heard Connor’s voice come through.