A Vengeful Deception by Lee Wilkinson

Christmas romance but make it revenge.

Snowed in trope but make it revenge.

Idiots in love trope but make it revenge.

I think you get the idea.

A VENGEFUL DECEPTION is the story of Anna and Gideon. Anna has secretary training but her goal is to work in a library or own a bookshop. Gideon is the man she meets by almost running him over after coming back from the liquidation sale of her small business.

After offering him a drive home, her car breaks down (ofc) and the power is out, and wouldn't you know it? He doesn't have a cell phone. So they do what anyone would do, they have stir-fry and indulge in some heavy-drinking while he asks her some rather disturbing questions about her personal life that kind of suggest that he knows more about her than he's actually letting on.

At first, this book takes a pretty progressive stance on the virgin heroine trope, and I liked how the heroine pointed out that part of being a modern woman is being able to say "no" to sex without judgement too. It lost points at the end, when the heroine later tells the hero-- and us-- that if a man can "seduce" a woman, she probably wanted it. Uhhh. But this is a Harlequin and not a feminist treatise, and a lot of the books in the Presents line are kind of rapey, especially if they're older. That's part of their appeal to their fans.

Were these two characters both total knuckleheads? Yes. Was the hero an unlikable cad? Yes. Did I want to medevac the heroine out of his lair of seduction? Yes. Was I incredibly entertained with this Die Hard excuse of a Christmas novel where the only holiday trappings were brandy and a tree? Absolutely I was. 

I wouldn't recommend this book to like 99% of people, but I found it very amusing.

2.5 out of 5 stars