Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Holiday Playbook by Yahrah St. John

Welcome Back, Booklovers! It's officially Christmas week and time to squeeze in the last of my holiday reads. This was one where the cover made me pre-order and since it's a Harlequin Desire I was ready for it to bring the heat.


Giana Lockett is a marketing executive and a member of the esteemed Lockett family who own the  football team the Atlanta Cougars. All she wants for Christmas is to land an endorsement deal with the head of Starks Inc, Wynn Starks. After months of trying to land a meeting he blows her off and she's not having that. She shows up at his gym wearing and outfit that demands attention and from there he can't get his mind off her. Their instant electricity translates to some fun in the bedroom and a secured endorsement deal for the top player. Though they're both wary of mixing business with pleasure they just can't resist each other.

Wynn was celibate for a few years because he had a nasty divorce. His ex-wife leaving him made him relive what he felt when his mother left him decades ago. And Giana is really hoping to find a man she can settle down with who isn't intimidated by her career ambition. 

It felt extra long because some of the angst was redundant I would've actually preferred for the holiday stuff to be expanded. They have a family pajama party for Christmas Eve with treats and movies which was quickly recapped. And while they celebrated Christmas with Giana's family we got a quick run through of the feast. I would've loved to read about the family dinner in real time. Instead those events were sandwiched in between detailed sex scenes. I appreciate the sex scenes because they were hot but I was enjoying the moments with the family. They were so protective of her throughout and she has such a great relationship with them that I wanted to see more of their lighter side.

I am all for Black writers using words like chocolate and mocha to describe Black skin because we just come in so many different shades of brown we need a variety of words to describe us. And it's easier to describe using shades people are familiar with vs some of these open to interpretation words you have to Google that don't always fit the mark. However it was overkill here. I'm glad Giana is a beautiful dark skinned woman but I got tired of her reading about her mocha features over and over. It could've been done one of two times and been enough.

There was a 3rd act breakup that involved Wynn acting like a man-child because he caught Giana at a meeting with a rival that she didn't even initiate herself. There was more angst with his dealings with his ex-wife than his rival we don't meet until the 2nd to last chapter so really this whole plot point could've been scrapped for me. As explained earlier in the text they really can't stop the players from seeking out opportunities with other sports drink companies. While companies will often ask for exclusivity it was weird that their business dealing didn't seem to be an overall corporate sponsorship and instead seemed to be exclusive to the top player. The details with that could've been ironed out a little better.

So while there were things I liked about this story it left me wanting many moments to be expanded upon and some parts read a little clunky for me. 

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