Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Wreck the Halls

I adored this book! The concept, the characters, the plot all amazing!! Beat and Melody have amazing chemistry and their wacky antics made this book what it is! I just feel like the end kinda drops off. There isn't really a resolution with the main plot of the story (at least not a satisfactory one). I think an epilogue would have been beneficial but otherwise its great!

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therealarkee's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

My first read of 2024:
⭐
Boy meets girl: Friends to lovers trope. Boy and girl have famous rock star mothers who used to have a very popular rock band together. The band blew up and the mothers haven’t spoken to each other in 30 years. The boy and girl do a life stream reality show to try and get the band back together: Parent trap- trope.
Her name is Melody and his name is Beat. Don’t even get me started on those names. For the first half of the book I was struggling so hard with the fact he has a dog’s name.

As far as I know this book is being promoted as a Christmas read. Let me tell you now, it is not a Christmas book. The story takes place in December and there is snow. That’s all the Christmas you’re gonna get. It feels like the Christmas part was added later?
The story itself feels like a ok fanfiction for 12 year olds, but then they throw in some seriously bad written “smut”. It felt like I was reading a bad porno written by someone who never even had sex, or a man. For the first half of the book I kept a notepad with all the cringy smut I was reading, I gave up halfway because it was just too much. I will quote you some of the amazingly written smut here:

"She reached down to unzip the sides of her leather ankle boots, trying and failing not to stare at his happy trail while she was down there, but it was so very sexy and unattended Not landscaped, but not abundant. A tease. An amuse-bouche of hair."

" Melody tucked her skirt down to cover her knees and the rasping sound of wool on nylon made Beats mouth go dry."

"Her nipples were slowly drawing into tight points, as if attempting to reach out and brush his chest."

"It was like someone plugged her into a charged outlet and shot every single one of her nerve endings into a chaotic dent."

"Then he made the mistake of looking at her mouth and the zipper of his tuxedo pants turned restrictive. Jesus."

Also, you can not use the word “sex” for intercourse as well as private parts in the same chapter-sentence or book.

If you want a book that makes you laugh and cry (I cried from laughing) and if you like the amazing quotes above this is probably a book for you! I hope you enjoy the read.

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amyteurhour's review against another edition

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1.5

Wild that the whole foundation of this romance is based on how they met one time for a couple minutes and then don't have any interactions with each other for another 14 years. Also the dialogue is wild, e.g., when Melody responds "Gulp," during the initial project conversation with Beat and Danielle. wtf? Who actually says that???

I switched from the audiobook to ebook at chapter 3 because I found Beat's narration to be super grating. And then just started skimming through the rest of the books after ch3 because it was so supremely boring, and the banter is so cringe. The blackmail plot was interesting for about 5 minutes to see what it was actually about, but the flat characters and the absurd setup of the show honestly made me stop caring about anything. I probably would have DNF'd, except I've done that with a few other books recently and didn't want to again.

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Adorably cute and so spicy! Great premise that gives the plot durability beyond the romance. I loved Melody and Beat and their moms were pretty damn cool too.

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annahamburger's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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bakunzi1990's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I received this book for free from netgalley for an honest review.

The only thing that would have made this book better is if it had a epilogue so that we can see their wedding. It had my heart in my throat the entire time it was extremely sweet it's not my normal type of read. I usually like the small town romances but this one really was amazing.

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sariereads's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I love Christmas and I love Tessa Bailey, seems like the perfect book, right? I loved it but I think it could have been developed as a series.

This book has two points of view, the first is Melody Gallard. She might be the daughter of music royalty, but her life is far from glamourous. She spends her days restoring old books and avoiding the limelight (one awkward tabloid photo from her teenager years was enough). But when a producer offers her a lot of money to reunite her mother’s band on live tv, Mel begins to wonder if it’s time to rattle the cage, shake up her quiet life and see him again. The only other person who could wrangle the rock and roll duo. The second point of view is Beat Dawkins, the lead singer’s son, is Melody’s opposite, the cameras love him, he could charm anyone, and his mum is not a potential cult leader. Beat doesn’t care if their mothers reunite or not, he is after the cash, he has been blackmailed for five years and the blackmailer has given him two weeks to get him the cash otherwise he is going to tell the world his secret. Still, they might have been best friends if not for the legendary feud that broke up the band. When they met as teenagers, Mel felt an instant spark, but it was nothing compared to the wild, intense attractions that builds as they embark on a mad mission to convince their mothers to perform one last show.

I liked the storyline and the characters had their individual personalities and their moments where they were the bright star of this story. It was a fun and easy read that also had characters with trauma and that made for an interesting read. The spice was entirely different, and I've never read anything like that. It was so kink-based but I loved it. I wanted to hug Melody, she just wanted to be able to live her life without the media being involved and not be asked about her mum. I loved her blind loyalty of Beat needs to this project so I'm in.

However, there was a few things that I was questioning during this novel. If you are looking for a fluffy Christmas novel, I’d say this isn’t for you. I kept forgetting it was based around Christmas, apart from the mentioning of the cold and the snow and that the reunion had to be done by Christmas Eve, I would have loved more Christmas vibes with this. I was more interested in the blackmailer aspect of it than the reunion and Melody and Beat’s relationship at times. I felt like the third-act conflict wasn’t really needed especially when there was less than 100 pages left.

Overall, I love Tessa Bailey’s work and always try to tell myself to pace myself when reading it and never do. So now I'm waiting for Fangirl down . . .

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