e-Audio, 06:37:31
Narrated by: Nneka Okoye
Release Date: July 4, 2024
Published by: Simon & Schuster UK
Read from: August 10-11, 2024
Companion to Love in Winter Wonderland
Source: Library’s Libby
Content Warning:
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Black & British), Set Outside the US, Realistic Fiction, YACan a bet made at Notting Hill Carnival turn into true love? He’s All That meets How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in this trope-filled sizzling summer romance , perfect for fans of Joya Goffney and Lynn Painter.
Clumsy but popular Eva Ojo is used to men falling for her without her trying. So when her best friend dares her to talk to a guy at Notting Hill Carnival , she meets Saint.
Comic obsessed Saint Rowe-Falade connects with Eva and agrees to attend her upcoming birthday party, but it’s soon clear he’s not interested in her in that way.
When Eva’s friends set her the ultimate bet to get Saint to fall in love with her, Eva makes it her mission to find out all of Saint’s interests and even get a job at the comic book shop he works at. But just as Saint starts to warm to Eva, and her own feelings towards him develop, Saint finds out about the bet. Can Eva pull out the big guns and convince Saint she’s into him, or is it too late to fix the damage that’s been done?
*MY THOUGHTS*
Winter Wonderland was just ok to me. So I went into this one not expecting a lot. But man, was this so, so good! Definitely one I wasn’t expecting to waffle between two different ratings on. This one was definitely unexpected.
Ok so the reasoning I couldn’t give this the higher rating was because of the plot. I don’t think it’s EVER ok to play with someone’s feelings like that. Love Bets are not ok y’all. This could potentially break someone. Which is why I liked this one. Bello I think do did a pretty good job of portraying that. She definitely gave a realistic timeline of what it might take for the two of them after something like this. I just don’t know how its possible to trust the other person (or people) when it’s starts with a bet like this. Idk, not my favorite trope, but I DID like the realistic way she wrote it if that makes sense.
The rest of the romance was cute. I hate to say it but I was glad that she got to really like Saint. It was good for her to see how her real actions can hurt people. And I was glad that she also got to find out what it really meant to be liked back. It kind of felt like a double edged sword, but that’s what made this so realistic and why I liked it so much. Plus, that other dude was an asshole. He was stringing her along and knew he was but still acted like the victim. And Saint was the cutest little nerd. Definitely felt like a proud big sister watching his quiet self open up and find some friends. He was so down to Earth and it was cute to see the two of them find each other.
The rest of the characters were….. Not great. Some of them were cool, but I didn’t like a lot of them. Like Saint’s cousin and his other friends? All of them were gross. And like why tf did she still want him after they were friends and both of them liked you. Girl that was immediately messy lol Ain’t no way that was going to end up good. Idk why she even tried that. And then for Saint to be thrown into the mix? Hot mess. And the the person who told her to dance on him? MESSY. And the person who said to do this for the money, SUPERRRRRR MESSY. I was so mad that she actually called them friends. Definitely needed to take a step back and see why she was ok with these people doing this and why she kept saying ok. I was glad she finally found someone to tell her that’s not what real friends do. Because I kept screaming, THAT’S NOT YOUR FRIEND GIRL.
The other part I liked about this was the comic and anime side. As a fan, and a Black fan at that, I loved this so much. You can see how they treat even people like Meg the Stallion, and I loved that Bello wasn’t afraid to put Black people in spaces that people don’t think is for them. We deserve to be everywhere. I hope there’s more books that come out that also do this. We have some, but it’s always nice to have more!
I hate books like this where I root for the guy lol But I don’t think Saint deserved to get caught up in their mess. But I will say the growth of Eva was amazing. I was proud of her. And though I wanted to see more of them together, since this was a romance, I was still happy with their HFN. This was a lot of fun and even more so because of the updates on the old characters. I hope we get more of them in the next one.
Overall, I give this
