Britta has one goal tonight: keep control of the bar on New Years Eve. Sluggers is the local hang out for college students, regulars for the neighborhood, and her half-brother’s minor league hockey team. It’s when the team shows up that things get turned upside down for Britta. The hunky Canadian on the team all the girls swoon for keeps catching her staring at him, but Britta’s sworn off relationships. At least until the team comes to Britta with a proposition: get paid to marry the hunk so he can get his green card. But can Britta fake the marriage for a year or is she just fooling herself?
Same Time Next Year is Tessa Bailey’s Amazon Original novella released late in 2023. Bailey is well-known for her romance novels includes the Crossing the Line series and standalone books like Unfixable. This novella is really a story about never saying never to love and delivers all the spice of Bailey’s other romance writing with a good dose of the girl next door.
I give Same Time Next Year 4 out of 5 stars. As with most romance novels, this one received a 3 out of 5 stars in the Style category – it is 100% what you’d see in a Hallmark movie (if Hallmark did PG-13 movies). I really enjoyed these characters and am hoping Bailey decides to turn this one into a series so I can spend more time with them. Britta and Sumner’s chemistry from the first page is undeniable and, if there isn’t another book in store for them, I’d love to see this story developed for the screen. With that said, there were some parts of the dialogue that felt too young for the characters, and me as a reader, that made me grimace while reading.
Given that this is a romance novella with discussions of sex, this book should be directed to more mature audiences. Bailey writes in hints of a darker relationship in the bedroom that would lead me to direct this to audiences over 18. It’s also quite steamy in later chapters – my husband kept asking if I was ok! If you’ve enjoyed any of Bailey’s other works, you will love this one, too!
I chose Same Time Next Year as my TBR read for January. I received this in 2023 as part of the Amazon First Reads program but hadn’t found the time to read it until now. Coming in at under 150 pages, this romance novel is all things spicy, and a perfect weekend read. It’s also a great fit for our week 1 prompt “New Years” – the opening and closing scenes occur on New Years Eve on consecutive years. The novella was well received by audiences and critics – as of this writing, the book is currently #5 in the Kindle store and #1 in both the Contemporary and the Romance (Kindle Store) categories. This is such a cute book, it’s back on my TBR list for a re-read later!
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