Review: The Holiday Ex-Files by Jennifer Peel

The Holiday Ex-Files
by Jennifer Peel
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: Oct. 22, 2021
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Once upon a time people called me the holiday queen. But catching my husband under the Christmas tree with another woman kind of did something to me. Like make me digitally crop him out of all our wedding photos and post them online. Who knew that post would go viral? Thanks to all the requests I received to do the same for other jilted partners, I started a new business called, the Holiday Ex-Files. And I couldn’t be happier. Well . . . at least I’m not unhappy.

Then along comes my ex-husband’s best friend, Noah Cullen. Yep, like the vampires. He’s extremely gorgeous like them too. He has a plan to help me believe in the magic of holidays again. But the more I’m around him, I begin to think he’s the magical one, and that perhaps I picked the wrong best friend to begin with. Maybe, just maybe, it will be a very merry Christmas after all.

 

Ok, hear me out. I had very high hopes for this story. A romance between a divorced woman and her ex-husband’s best friend? Yes, please! Even better that she’s a blogger and clearly dislikes the idea of ever being in a relationship again. In fact, her entire blog is about embracing being single. However, that’s not at all how this story read.

Instead we get a severely bitter woman. So bitter, in fact that she blatantly insults her friend (Noah), in a blog post. Why? Because she was starting to develop feelings for him and that just could not happen. So, she writes a nasty post to set boundaries, even knowing that he gets notifications when she posts so that he can be one of the first to read them. That right there was the moment I lost all respect for her. That was the last straw for me, personally. However, her character was annoying from the beginning. All of her blog posts were very pushy on that people need to be single, and if you slip up and make a mistake, she’ll be there to edit out your ex from photos WHEN you break up. I just couldn’t handle her brainwashing ways. Also, she was constantly posting! At Thanksgiving dinner, posting. In the bathroom when out at dinner… posting! Watching a movie… posting! And they would be a few sentences long. I’m sorry, but that’s just obnoxious. No one needs to be posting on their “blog” that much. In fact, this woman didn’t need a blog, she needed a journal or a diary instead.

That wasn’t the only thing that bothered me (although that was the straw that broke the camels back). The romance was just too cheesy for me. Noah and Cami we friends since they were young. They were actually like the 3 Musketeers (Cami, Noah, and her ex). So you would think that she’d know Noah and his quirks. Instead she misses every blatant, in your face, affections of love from Noah. Not only that, but everyone around her knows that he’s in love with her and hints and it, and she just doesn’t get it. Instead she makes up some story in her mind that he’s in love with someone else and pushes him at that person the entire time. The whole thing just left me feeling confused and irritated.

Gah! I really wanted to like this book. It was supposed to be a really cute holiday romance. Instead I was irritated the majority of the time. I kept hoping that things would get better, that something would hit me in the feels and make it all worth it. Sadly, that was not the case. 🙁

2 Thoughts on “Review: The Holiday Ex-Files by Jennifer Peel

  1. Merry Christmas. I hope you have a lovely day.

  2. This one sounds so disappointing for you. I am sorry to hear it was such a let down. Cheers to your next book being a winner.

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