Audiobook Review: The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland

Synopsis:

Riley Kennedy’s emails keep getting crossed with her colleague, Kennedy Riley.

The infuriating man forwards them along with his annoying commentary and unsolicited advice. At least she never has to see him in person since they work in different locations…until they come face to face at the office holiday party. As luck would have it, Kennedy turns out to be gorgeous…though still a jerk. Yet somehow he’s able to charm her out on the dance floor—and convince her to participate in his crazy scheme: He’ll go home with Riley for a Christmas party and pretend to be her boyfriend if Riley agrees to be his date to a wedding.

It sounds easy enough. But little by little, the act they’re putting on starts to feel like so much more than a Christmas pact—and Riley’s about to learn there’s more to Kennedy than she ever imagined.

Review:

This is pretty much a rip-off of The Hating Game and not in a good way. “Come to my brother’s wedding with me and oh by the way he’s marrying my ex-girlfriend” is literally the exact plot line from The Hating Game. I enjoyed The Hating Game, this was not good.

The main characters were insufferable and the male one was an absolute creep. He was constantly whispering inappropriate things to Riley and it made me very uncomfortable.

Also, this is basically softcore porn. Having so many “steamy” scenes and exchanges in a book that is over in a three-hour book is too much. There’s no actual plot or character development.

You can have a thought about the other person without it being disgusting or objectifying. They both have zero personality though so they needed something to talk about I suppose. 

There was absolutely no reason why they should be making this pact. They knew each other for about two hours before they made it. This guy has been reading her emails and sending unsolicited responses for god knows how long but of course that creepiness doesn’t matter when she sees him and he’s apparently hot.

Also, the villianification (is this a word?) of his ex-girlfriend was horrific. He’s clearly a massive creep, I’m not surprised she preferred his brother. Further proved by him saying “Hearing that no man had planted his flag on planet Riley for a long time made me a little crazy.”. Gross. Also, hello yet another The Hating Game rip-off.

There was also zero reason for this to be a Christmas book. You spend about 10 minutes (if that) of the book hearing about Christmas. 

This is only two hours long and I wouldn’t even recommend listening to it just to bulk out your reading challenge.

Rating: 0.5 out of 5.


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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Audiobook Review: Once Upon A Christmas Carol by Karen Schaler

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