ARC Review: "Christmas Fling" by Lindsey Kelk ★★★★

ARC Review: Christmas Fling by Lindsey Kelk

Reviewed by a Scottish lass. With wonderfully witty banter, hilarious antics and a dash of STEM, this Highland fake-dating romance is so touching it will melt your heart. The perfect cosy read for the Christmas season! 🎁☃️ For fans of Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood.

I slid my hands over his heart, feeling for the beat that matched my own, no longer erratic and afraid but certain and steady. Six short days and everything had changed. Not me, not really, I was the same person I’d always been only now, thanks to Callum, I felt more myself than ever. Whatever we’d done before, whoever we thought we were or had pretended to be, that was the past, and the thought of living a life without him, without seeing him, talking to him, touching him. was so much more frightening than the risk of letting him in. Steady grey or dangerous Technicolor.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
🎵On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:
Five days in the highlands, four family members to convince, three Christmas gifts from Callum, two overprotective friends, and one hell of a fake dating scheme.🎄🎵
(Yes, I’m so proud this and I’ll be here all week)

28-year-old trainee neurosurgeon Laura Pearce is renting the flat owned by 31-year-old aspiring pastry chef Callum McClay, a man who comes from a long line of dairy farmers. They have met twice before: a wedding Laura doesn’t remember; a baby shower Callum doesn’t remember.

Their third meeting proves to be truly unforgettable for all the wrong reasons when Laura walks in on a naked Callum – and his parents walk in on them and mistake her for Callum’s girlfriend. They invite them to their Scottish mansion of Braewick in Inverness for Christmas, an offer which cannot be refused. He needs Laura’s help: his “girlfriend” is a made-up excuse to avoid his family, who pressure him to take over their dairy farm.

Laura offers to be his fake girlfriend, a vegan Swedish masseuse who doesn’t drink named Caroline. She’s going to be so horrible the family will never want to see her again (and Laura will get a month’s free rent in return). From there, it’s one shenanigan after another (from getting stuck in the tower and her friends visiting pretending to be her relatives).

With his ex-girlfriend Shiv still in the background, Callum’s dream to move to Paris to be a chef, and the line between what’s real and what’s fake blurring, Laura could never have imagined that one Christmas would change her life.

This is told from the first-person past-tense POV of Laura.

OVERALL OPINIONS
For Chapter 21, play Colors pt. II by Halsey (because “Everything was blue” in his bedroom).

ㅤ🧠🏰similar authors🏰🧠
Contemporary romance author Emily Henry’s praise on the front cover is “I’ll read anything she writes”. As someone who’s read quite a few of Henry’s books now, I can see why she loves Lindsey Kelk so much. While this is my first Kelk novel, I can see many parallels between the humour and quirkiness of the characters and descriptions here that are very akin to Henry. Here’s an example, so you can see what I mean:

It was very hard to say who was screaming louder, me or the enormous naked man, but I was definitely winning in the high-pitch stakes, alerting dolphins all over the North Atlantic to my current predicament.

The fact that Laura is a neurosurgeon lets this sit nicely in the STEM romance subgenre. The way Laura rambles and has an internal monologue that is heavily influenced by her scientific background feels very much like something you’d see in an Ali Hazelwood book. Kelk also draws attention to the strong sexism found in the industry, where Laura laments over men weird about female surgeons and how difficult it is to be in a relationship too because of it: ‘Why do I have to deal with sexist doctors and patients who won’t let me help save their lives but are perfectly happy to have one of my male colleagues on their team even though I’m miles better at my job than they are?’ As a woman who was in STEM, I relate to this and I’m sure others will too.

Much like female pilots and truck drivers and presidents of the United States of America, it was one of those jobs that just didn’t sit right with [men] and we all suffered because of it.

ㅤ🧠🏰aspects I loved🏰🧠

This really was an entertaining book to read! Most chapters had something to laugh about, especially when they arrive at the mansion and everyone except Callum remembers the details he’s given about Caroline being vegan much to the dismay of Laura who loves meat. My all-time favourite is probably the day she gets stuck in the tower, but some honourable mentions include the story about the milkman, when Desi and Joel arrive, the idea that her visitor is Elsie with a shotgun, when Joel says ‘I’m pretty sure he was trying to play footsie with me as well.’ and Laura says ‘That was me, I was trying to kick [Desi] in the shins and missed’, and Laura revealing she stole Joel’s stuff to use as presents.

As well as the humour, there were some serious and rather moving moments too. The exploration of the loss of a parent (and parents who aren’t present) via Laura and the contrasting overbearing pressure from parents via Callum is done quite well. And then there is the poetic irony of Callum not wanting the responsibility of the farm, whereas Elsie is bitter towards everyone because nobody ever presented her with the opportunity to take on that responsibility. There is a moment between Callum’s mother Lizzie and Laura where she thanks her for bringing the family’s feelings to the surface so she knows her own children better, which I thought was exceptionally lovely. I also like how they have a more realistic ending where they will do long distance.

The relationship was one of the best aspects of this story. Callum is seen as a disappointment by his family and is drawn to Laura because of not only her beauty but her intelligence. There is a beautiful moment where he says ‘A neurosurgeon would be more of a welcome addition to the family than a pastry chef.’ But she counters: ‘Most people will never need a neurosurgeon. *Everyone* needs a pastry chef.’. They are opposites in that Callum has a very hands-on father, whereas Laura has a very hands-off and they wonder which is worse. I love that they mirror each other, repeating their own sayings or advice back to one another. I am obsessed with how Laura stands up for and defends Callum in front of his sister and parents (even when he isn’t around to witness this), they were such profound moments where it’s clear he has never had anyone do this before.

I held my breath as he leaned forward, elbows on knees, oxygen-depleted blood thundering around my body. I wasn’t used to someone else’s presence having this kind of effect on me. I wasn’t used to anyone else’s presence having any kind of effect on me.
‘Another person can’t complete you,’ I said, no weight to my words whatsoever. ‘Not everyone has to have someone.’
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘But everyone deserves someone. You deserve someone.’

Also, Kelk was so real for having Joel angry about the Henry Cavill Netflix recast because, let’s be real, sameee! Also we women don’t claim Shiv (she doesn’t like The Hobbit and that is a crime!)

ㅤ🧠🏰unconventional elements🏰🧠
Something I especially adored was the unconventional dynamic where Laura is the one who asks consent. Usually, it’s the man who asks permission in romance novels and this is something I really loved to see. I also like how once again this is mirrored later on when he asks if he can hold her hand. And again, for the spicy scenes authors tend to focus on specific areas being touched and (while this was the case here) I was completely obsessed with the idea of him being besotted with caressing and kissing her hands. Very underrated but very sensual and sexy!

ㅤ🧠🏰issues🏰🧠
While the story has its charms, I found the beginning to be a bit slow-going and a few things didn’t quite land for me. I was particularly bothered by the way Callum’s parents react to seeing him naked: they are, of course, horrified but neither of them decides to give him some privacy to change. Instead, his father Derek sits down and pulls Laura down to sit beside him and talk about herself, which is rather odd considering the circumstances.

Not only that but Desi’s character was especially annoying, messaging and showing up to remind her the dating is fake. She is the perfect overprotective friend but her actions make her presence stifling and heavily dislikeable to the extent I cannot picture how they became friends in the first place.

ㅤ🧠🏰to conclude🏰🧠
Basically, if you expect something realistic, don’t. The whole thing is far-fetched and arguably overdramatic but it matches the vibes of the performance they themselves are doing. For me, it was good fun. I haven’t laughed like that in a while, so I’ll definitely be checking out more of Lindsey Kelk’s work.

<< Positives >>
🠚 A laugh out loud hilarious book.
🠚 Unconventional dynamic (female asks consent).
🠚 Enjoyable and compelling relationship development
🠚 Loved the Luckenbooth brooch gift (‘Two hearts intertwined with a crown on top and a thistle in the middle. It’s a traditional Scottish symbol.’).
🠚 Raises awareness to sexism within the STEM industry.
🠚 Gay representation via Joel and Rory.
🠚 The pop culture references (e.g. the back and forth names like Bombadil and Justin Bieber for their codeword).
🠚 Third-act breakup not long.
🠚 Joel. Enough said.
🠚 Loch Ness visit.

<< Negatives >>
🠚 Initial plot slow-going.
🠚 Parents’ reaction to Callum odd and unrealistic.
🠚 Desi's overprotective nature made her unlikeable.
🠚 One joke was in particularly poor taste.
🠚 Callum and Laura establish a codeword but when she uses it, he never does anything.
🠚 Repetitive conversation: Callum says to Laura her parents must be proud, but she responds that they never talk about it. Albeit 10 chapters apart, this happens twice, which I feel is unnecessary. The second time is to talk about her mum, but I think I should have been approached from a different angle.
🠚 Everyone says to Laura to go back to him and that he didn’t have a chance to defend himself – he said she was no one though? Nobody really acknowledges it other than Laura – I feel like I’m the only one who remembers this piece of information. Defending himself or not, he should not have said that, it wasn’t right. This gets swept under the rug.
🠚 Everyone is so obsessed with the details about Caroline. ‘Aren’t you vegan?’ (While it adds to the fact Callum didn’t remember supplying that detail, it’s just far too nosy)
🠚 Graham says ‘it’s clear he’s mad about you’ but there’s not actually been enough evidence (at least in terms of PDA or moments together)
🠚 There was one joke that didn’t land for me: the line about a friend threatening to “kill the pair of us in a way that was so inhumane, no one would be able to identify the bodies” because of Laura and Desi having their periods in sync – it felt out of place and not in good taste at all.
🠚 I would have included Laura’s reaction when she changes the subject and Callum’s face falls (chapter 6). Surely there is guilt or an attempt to hide it because he was talking so passionately about food.
🠚 We never got Desi’s reaction to what happened to her red skirt!
🠚 Surprised that Callum didn’t overhear Laura’s conversation in the bathroom

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Laura꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ (Valid crashout at M&S, pop off queen). Relatable. I hate confrontation, I can be a people pleaser, I too watch A Muppet Christmas Carol as a Christmas tradition. I will also dress up because I don’t get many opportunities to. Also, I’m Scottish and even I’m like Laura when she observes someone wearing shorts in winter “Bare legs? In this weather? He had to be the toughest human being on the planet. That or he should be studied for science.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Callum꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I like that he tries to get to know Laura on the way to the mansion (when she says she reads he presses for what she reads because he is a big reader himself). I was gutted when he offers to wrap a scarf around her and she steps away. It’s cute the way he hides her some food to help herself to. I really loved how he decides to recreate Christmas traditions that Laura and her mother used to do together, like decorating the trees and filling stockings with gifts. I got very emotional at that! He’s such a good man. I would have hated him to my guts if he hadn’t taken accountability for calling her “just a random girl”.

FAV QUOTES
• For the first time since I’d walked into the flat, he smiled. Just a little, head ducked, lips crooked up at one side like he didn’t want to commit to it, but his blue eyes lit up and crinkled at the corners, and I found myself wondering how devastating a full-on grin would be.
• ‘Laura,’ Joel said gravely. ‘If life has only taught me one thing, it’s that there is always time to stop for shortbread.’ Truly, they were words to live by.
• Making sense of his and Desi’s messages as I scrolled back was like trying to read ‘War and Peace’ backwards
• ‘I’m freezing to death,’ I replied, rubbing my hands together. ‘I mean it, my blood is freezing in my veins.’ | ‘For a doctor, you’re very prone to hyperbole.’
• ‘You live in a castle,’ I whispered, digging my hands deep into my pockets and, not for the first time that day, wondering exactly what I’d got myself into.
• Balmaclay was the last home at the end of the world and I was a lost girl in an unknown realm, trapped with a mysterious stranger. ‘Have you ever read a book called A Court of Thorns and Roses?’ I asked Callum, glimpsing his dark hair, brooding eyes and broad shoulders out of the corner of my eye.
• ‘Don’t worry, I’m fully armed with offensive stereotypes,’ I assured him. ‘Worst comes to the worst, I’ll pull out my Braveheart impression and we’ll have this whole plot wrapped up and put to bed before Christmas Eve.’
• As she put the plate down in front of me, Derek stared in my direction as though they’d just unveiled a new fifth horseman of the apocalypse: war, death, famine, pestilence and veganism.
• His hair was a mess, as though he’d been tossing and turning, and even in the low light of the room, I could see shadows underneath his eyes. But he was still breathtakingly beautiful. I saw dozens of different people at work every day, hundreds a week, thousands a year, but I couldn’t remember ever meeting anyone who made me stop and stare the way I was staring at Callum McClay.
• Hell hath no fury like a Desi who wasn’t asked permission. If I was wrong, she’d likely drive all the way to Scotland to march me back up here and throw me over the side with my phone.
• ‘Some people talk and some people listen,’ I said when he didn’t reply. ‘I’m a listener, I take stuff in, always have.’ | ‘But who listens to you?’ I looked over to see him staring at me with the sort of quiet awe that might’ve been too much if he hadn’t been holding a pair of tiny, bedazzled bagpipes at the same time. This time, I was the one who had nothing to say.
• The way he looked at me made my heart stop. Callum gazed at me the same way I was gazing at the tree, like I was something beautiful. Something to be admired. • ‘I don’t know why I said it.’ | ‘Don’t worry. You make me want to do things I know I shouldn’t as well.’
• Side by side, we read in silence, occasionally turning the page at the exact same time, glancing over at each other with a shy smile. The quiet rustle of paper, his furrowed brow, the way he pushed his glasses up his nose every time they slid down. When he brought his right hand up to his tongue to moisten his index finger, I almost gasped.
• Could it be that my immunity was wearing off? Love was an illness and I’d avoided it for so long but now I was showing all the symptoms and it was progressing worryingly fast.
• When I didn’t move, he covered my hand with his and pulled it a few inches away from my side. The water, the sky, the rest of the world disappeared as I melted into him, covered, protected, by Callum McClay.
• Two drinks and a few skipped stones and all my self-imposed safety measures were out the window. I wanted to be as close to Callum as humanly possible, I wanted more of the delicious feeling that consumed me whenever he was close. The dopamine rush, the pounding heart, the prickling skin, ultra attuned to every move he made. I was addicted.
• ‘I’m not talking about Caroline,’ Callum said. ‘I’m talking about you.’ The weight of his gaze was crushing, pinning me to the chair and forcing to listen to him, my arguments and witty rebuttals all choked up in my throat. With dark eyes trained on mine, he unfastened one cuff of his shirt, folding it back on itself. ‘Laura Pearce, neurosurgeon, lover of Loch Ness and rare steaks and Christmas ornaments, who can’t hold her whisky and has feet like blocks of ice.’
• Pain, embarrassment, heartache. They all stimulated similar physical responses in the body, many of the same fight-or-flight reactions. There were studies that showed how emotional pain lit up the same areas of the brain as physical pain. The cortisol spiking in my blood told my muscles to swell as my sympathetic nervous system ramped up its efforts. My neck tightened and my chest felt like it was being crushed. But where I’d been foggy and lost only a moment ago, I suddenly felt razor-sharp and words flew out my mouth, slicing him like scalpels. I was a surgeon after all, I knew exactly where to cut to inflict the most damage. My body chose to fight.
• ‘We McClays have never been afraid of hard work, especially when there’s a worthy reward at the end of it.’ Winding my hair around his hands, he tugged gently, splintering my concentration into a thousand tiny shards. ‘I stayed awake all night watching you sleep because I couldn’t stand the thought of our one time being over. Laura, I’ll find a way to make this work. All you have to do is keep being yourself.’

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Lindsey Kelk, HarperCollins UK, and NetGalley for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“Christmas Fling” is out October 9th