Mistletoe Games - Book Review

By Jaci Burton

Synopsis

Holiday Games
For the high-achieving Elizabeth and her husband, baseball player Gavin Riley, failure is not an option. So when it comes to making a baby, they’re not about to let any holiday distractions get in the way of their necessary pleasures…

Holiday on Ice
It’s the season for giving and superstar hockey player Patrick “Trick” Niemeyer is ready to give dancer Stella Slovinski his heart wrapped up in bow. But he’ll have to melt the ice surrounding her heart to keep her from walking away…

Hot Holiday Nights
Christmas in Hawaii brings sports agent Tori Baldwin two presents: a young surfer at the top of his game and his business manager. But this hot threesome has to decide if the romantic wave they’ve caught is nothing more than a vacation fling, or the kind of love that could change their lives forever…

Review

As a person who has never read a book by Jaci Burton before, I thought MISTLETOE GAMES would be a good way to check out her work. It’s an anthology in the Play-By-Play series, and I assumed that all three novellas could be read as stand-alones. That was the case with HOLIDAY ON ICE and HOT HOLIDAY NIGHTS, but not with HOLIDAY GAMES. All three stories revolve around athletes and sports stars, and are told in dual POVs.

HOLIDAY GAMES is a follow up story to CHANGING THE GAME, book 2 in the Play-By-Play series. For the most part, I thought it was enjoyable and I liked both Liz and Gavin. For a novella, there was a lot of sex, so much so that I began skipping the sex scenes just to get back to the story. The story not only catches up with Liz and Gavin, but with all the Riley clan and their partners, so there were a lot of people to try and keep track of. I think I would have gotten more enjoyment out of this story if I’d read the previous books relating to this family.

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HOLIDAY ON ICE is the story of Trick and Stella, two people who are not interested in a relationship but who end up falling in love with each other. I liked Trick and thought he was great boyfriend material, but Stella didn’t win me over. Her reason for not wanting a relationship⎯and then using it to break up with Trick⎯was ridiculous and silly. Despite really liking Trick, I felt this novella was the weakest in the set.

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HOT HOLIDAY NIGHTS is the story of Tori, Alex and Ben. Yes, this novella is a threesome story and is definitely the raciest in the set where I didn’t skip the sex scenes. Tori is a middle-aged woman who starts a holiday fling with Alex⎯who’s younger then her⎯and Ben⎯who’s her age and Alex’s manager. Their story takes place in a very short period of time and I’d classify it as an insta-love. While I enjoyed this story the most, I found some of the dirty talk to be a little laughable, and sometimes the POV would switch without any notice, which caused some confusion.

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