A review by libertyreads789
Captivated by Danielle Pays

tense medium-paced

3.0

Man. Those romance novella covers are ridiculous. This is the fourth Christmas novella in the anthology I purchased. And I liked it better than the last two I read. Somehow it was both a second chance romance AND fake dating which are a couple of my favorite tropes. Then there’s the family drama and rich people drama. It was all a lot of fluffy, junk food style reading fun. But overall it’s just too over the top for me. It was like two rich mob boss style families who blackmail each other. Not actually mob boss families, but basically. It was a lot. I preferred the family drama over everything else. Also, the only way Christmas came up in the book at all was that it made it so people had events they had to go to. Which was kind of annoying for someone who truly loves the holiday season and Christmas in particular. As far as the romance goes, I did feel like there was a little bit of pining and some stuff from the past that they had to get over. But overall I wasn’t 100% into it.

Overall, I gave the story 3 stars. I would give the romance 2.75 stars. And the Christmasiness of the novel gets a sad, wilting 0.25 poinsettias.