Minted by B.E. Baker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank goodness Christmas only comes once a year, because Barbara just wants to survive it and move on already. 

Barbara’s year has not been going well. Both her parents died, she gained a lot of weight, and her husband left her. And now, she’s stuck attending a million holiday parties for work. . .with both her ex and his new girlfriend. She’s not feeling the holiday cheer, that’s for sure.

Bentley, on the other hand, has realized that while his life is pretty good, he really wants to settle down with an amazing woman. Unfortunately, while he’s a whiz at making money, he’s not so great at choosing people to date. He and his old friend Barbara make a deal. He’ll be her date to the dreaded holiday parties, and in exchange, she’ll help him weed through the dross to find the shimmering treasure he wants to build a life with.

It doesn’t take Bentley very long to realize that Barbara’s the one he wants, but she’s not as quick to believe that she’s good enough for the handsome billionaire Bentley. Can he convince her that she’s everything he needs in time to spruce up the holiday season? Or will her miserable year come to just as tragic a close?

Minted

Fake dating romance with a more serious side storyline.

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💚🖤❤️💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎
Character development: ☺️😊🙃🥰
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Barbara – she gained weight after her parents died and then she discovered her husband James has been cheating on her. She immediately tells him it is over, and he agrees without any fight at all. She works for a marketing firm that specializes in social media and James works at the same company. The following year, after their divorce, at Christmas, she and her ex oversee holiday parties for clients and they both must attend, and it turns out the woman James was cheating on her with who is in charge of another department within the same company also must attend.

The Hero: Bentley – he is the best friend of Dave, the husband of Seiran, Barbara’s best friend. The two have known each other for more than a dozen years, but never really liked each other. He travels a lot for his job, but he recently hired someone to do the traveling for him. Now he only travels for really important meetings.

The story: Barbara thinks that since Bentley is handsome, rich and successful, he would be a perfect plus one to all the holiday parties she has to attend. He could be her shield. Bentley, on the other hand, wants to settle down and when his friend Dave sets him up with an eHarmony account, he is surprised to see that he is matched with Barbara. He asks her to help him with his profile and to help him pick women to date, in exchange he promises to attend the parties with Barbara.

I hate the big deal about Barbara’s weight. I found myself hoping that she would easily lose the weight after she started dating again. Especially after she overheard her husband mocking her weight to his new girlfriend. Though I was happy to see that Bentley didn’t even seem to see her added weight. He wanted her just as she was. One of the reasons I dislike curvy girl romances is they often get way too preachy about accepting yourself as you are. This one is a great example of that. Though the story did take a turn I wasn’t expecting, and I really enjoyed it.

This audiobook was narrated in dual points of view via dual narration. It was narrated by Jennifer Jill Araya and Paul Bellantoni. Both of these narrators are new to me. Neither are my favorites. Jennifer has a bit of an annoying voice, not too bad though. I tend to like a softer more feminine voice. Paul has a nice deep voice, but both he and Jennifer sound a bit like they are overacting, though I got used to it after a while and ended up liking the narration.

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