On the seventh day of Smutmas, Santa brought to me . . . a brother's (sexy billionaire) best friend - a review of Camilla Isley's This is NOT a Holiday Romance

I’ve got a love-hate relationship with Camilla Isley. OK, that might be a little strong. I’ve got a love-want-to-love-you-more-than-I-do relationship with Camilla Isley. It’s no secret that I like my romances more spicy than sweet, my heroes more alpha than accountant, and my comedy more zany than zerious. (Apologies.) I like Isley’s books, I really do. I’ve read most of her catalog and have appreciated her more recent offerings since they’re trending more smutty (or smut-adjacent) than saccharine and have offered me MMCs I can really get behind. (I said what I said.) I crushed on Jace from It’s Complicated the hardest thus far but I maybe might carry a small torch - at the very least, a Zippo lighter - for This is NOT a Holiday Romance’s Tristan. Billionaire? Check. Gorgeous? Duh. Tall?

Obvi. Broody but with a sufficiently sad enough backstory that he can be forgiven for his inevitable stupidity? You know it!

Nina, a 20 something who works in some field and lives in “the city” in an apartment that she probably can’t afford with her two besties (yup, we’ve seen her before), returns home for Christmas only to find that she has an unexpected roomie, the “Prince of Darkness.” Who just so happens to be her beloved brother’s best friend and her childhood (yeah, got a little bit of that “ick” with that but I just went with it) crush who, in her mind, torments her for many reasons - being too far above mere mortals being one of them - but primarily does so because of her ears. Yes, ladies and . . . probably ladies, her ears. 

Nina’s a competent, gorgeous young woman but hides her ears because way back when she was in middle school (cue the ick), Tristan, already an adult, referred to her as Gremlin. Ever since, she’s been waging a war, which leads not only to my most favoritest of tropes but also a whole decade’s worth of misunderstandings.

After throwing a pretty epic fit that Tristan has taken residency in her parents’ guest room (they’re snowed in, of course, so neither has the ability to return to the city), Nina engages in a classic enemies-to-lovers’ war against him, one in which he is all too happy to take up arms. From burying his designer luggage in the snow and filling her Oreos with toothpaste (ah, the effort of young love) to the oldie-but-goody fly in the ice cube, the two revert to some pretty childish pranks all while denying the not-so-latent attraction that’s coming to a boil beneath the surface. However, after Nina’s very real tears and admission that Tristan’s made her self-conscious about her appearance and general self for, you know, most of her life, our MMC becomes more lover than enemy. He’s truly sorry for what was a throwaway comment that he’s, admittedly, inadvertently doubled down on for the past fifteen years. And, wait for it, he gives a genuine apology! 

Granted it’s a long time coming and it takes breaking Nina’s mom’s vase - a result of their prank war - for Tristan to really own his part in not only the overt metaphor of the shattered family heirloom (broken things can be fixed, readers!) but in the relationship that never was with his bestie’s little sister. And therein lies the rub. 

Speaking of rubbing, things get hot and heavy pretty quickly and Isley is, IMHO, at her steamiest in this offering (I’m reading the follow-up, Dylan’s, the brother, story to be released next month, so stay tuned). Illicit make-out sessions soon become closet trysts, which then lead to even illicit-er sex scenes that are, admittedly, on the mild side for my reading tastes, but are still spicy enough to be too cutesy. 

Back to that rub, cue the dark moment! After her brother catches Nina and Tristan in flagrante delicto, naked int the bathroom together, and not in the name of water conservation (in shower delicto?), Tristan ends up in the fated it’s him or me (him being Dylan, his only family and lifeline for half of his life) scenario. Ultimately, he can’t choose Nina over the only constant in his sad billionaire life. Usually I’d be eye-rolling so hard over the poor rich kid backstory that I’d need to whip out the Visine, but I bought Isley’s damaged goods and liked Tristan all the more for his commitment to Dylan. After all, this romance has lasted as long as the snow storm, so I get it. Both of our lovers screw up - I’m team Tristan since Nina reads a little idealistically immature in her take on their break up - but, of course, make their way back to each other. In the city. Where we began. Like a Hallmark holiday movie in reverse, of sorts.

As aforementioned, I’m already in on what I’d assume is the trilogy (Nina’s got 2 roommates, after all) and am looking forward to seeing what Isley has in store for the former Gremlin and her Prince of Darkness in the next, albeit Dylan’s standalone, story.    

Rating: 4 /5 Childhood Closet Quickies