The need to hide, the need to stay hidden

Synopsis

A runaway bride. A grumpy bookseller with a heart of gold. A friends-with-benefits deal doomed from the start.

Hideaway Harbor was supposed to be a quick detour—one cozy Christmas job, then I’d be back on the cruise ship, far from my powerful ex and the mess I left behind.

But thanks to a tiny mix-up, my “accommodation” is a storage room with a creaky daybed and no plumbing.

Enter my neighbor Fredrik: a broody bookstore owner with a decent bathroom and the social skills of a cactus.

He’s everything I shouldn’t want—grumpy, reclusive, and allergic to holiday cheer. Yet he keeps showing up for me. Saving me. Heating up the sauna…

And suddenly, we’re tangled in something neither of us is ready for.

We’re just friends. With excellent benefits. Until the lines blur.

I should keep running, but this small town is starting to feel like home.

And Fredrik… he might be the reason I finally stay.

—

The Holiday Grump is part of the Christmas at Hideaway Harbor series of six spicy romantic comedies. The books are interconnected standalones and can be read in any order

My review

While waiting for her next job on a cruise ship to start, Noelle agrees to be managing a popup shop filled with all that is Christmas in Hideaway Harbor. As Hideaway Harbor is literally a place in the middle of nowhere, it is the perfect place for Noelle, as she is running away from her controlling ex and the mess Noelle left behind by running away right before saying ‘I Do’. With Christmas looming around the corner, even in a lovely place like Hideaway Harbor, finding lodgings is difficult, so when Noelle’s accommodation is anything but what she thought it would be, Noelle doesn’t know what to do. But her shop – neighbour Frederik, owner of the bookshop right across her shop, has a decent bathroom ready to be used. However, even if Frederik is allowing Noelle to help herself with bathroom utilities, Noelle cannot deny that Frederik is a grumpy, reclusive man, wanting nothing more than being left alone. Yet Frederik cannot stop himself from helping Noelle out, even if she drives him crazy… And even if Noelle is staying at Hideaway Harbor for a limited time, Noelle and Frederik become friends with very good benefits, with no expectations at all. But when lines start to blur, is it all that defined as the both of them may think?

Christmas is always the most wonderful time of the year, isn’t it? The  people are cheerful, the lights outside and the ‘will it snow?’…

But while for so many it is a wonderful time of the year, it is obvious the moment that Noelle (there isn’t a more fitting name! 😊) appears for the first time, that while she is a positive person, she isn’t in the happiest time of her life. She is running away from someone and something, and she needs to be somewhere to recharge herself, to find herself again.

I truly liked Noelle, because despite everything she has been through, and that in fact she is still hiding and running away, she is just a wonderful person. Despite everything she has been through, she still keeps a smile on her face, and no matter what curveballs are being thrown at her, she never loses her joy and cheer.

The contrast with Frederik couldn’t be any bigger. Being surrounded by books all day would be heaven for me, and I think I would be loving selling stories to people. But Frederik likes the darkness in his store, the quiet of it. And even if the store isn’t making any money, he likes it how on his own he is most of the day.

The comparison that in the book is made that Frederik is a Grinch, is rather spot on. However, we see more often than not, just who the real Frederik is. And that is a man that has been hurt by love, but also a man that does not let anyone struggle.

And it is seeing that softer side of him, the real him, was what made me even fall in love with him too. Of course, it is difficult for Frederik to get out of his Grinch – mood that easily, and communication is always a work in progress, yet seeing that progress, the slow change in him taking place, was so heartwarming.

That is all thanks to Noelle and her fierceness, her persuasive powers. Noelle and Frederik couldn’t be more different at the start of the book, but also right from the start it is clear that there is something pulling them together. And seeing how they are going from a low level of antagonists, to friends to friends with… feels like the normal course of life.

Again, things don’t go straightforward between them, as both Noelle and Frederik are haunted by events of their past, some closer to the present than others. But in both cases, also thanks to each other, they are able to trust people again, to let go of the past and to not already dream, but at least think about the future again.

But what for sure also helped in Noelle’s case, is the community of Hideaway Harbor. There are for sure excentric characters, but they are all opening their arms and hearts for Noelle. It feels like Noelle not just fits perfectly in Hideaway Harbor, but that she has been part of this community forever.

Obviously, there are several heated moments in this book, and Frederik for sure surprised me a little bit in that aspect 😊. But those heated moments show once again how well Noelle and Frederik are compatible! Now, as they start of as friends with benefits, and with blurring lines, it is to be expected that things become complicated.

Yet those complications and how the pair of them cope with them, shows the struggles they have internally, but also the growth they are going through. And that growth is the core of the story.

That growth and change in the main characters show us that no matter what has happened in the past, a page can be turned. And meeting a random person can be the catalyst of seeing more lights in your life again, to believe in all what is beautiful again.

I absolutely devoured this book, wanting to read more of Noelle and Frederik, but also not wanting to read too much of them. Because I just did not want to reach the end of this beautiful, heartwarming, inspiring, very Christmassy story that for sure put a smile on my face!