Review: Reindeer Games by Finley Chuva

Posted January 5, 2023 by Lola in Contemporary, Review, Romance / 2 Comments

Review graphic

Reindeer GamesReindeer Games: A Holiday Novella (Denver Defiant #1.5)
by Finley Chuva

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Contemproary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: FF

Blurb:
One fake relationship. Two best friends. Three days.

Charlotte Sutton is an honest person. Perhaps that’s why, when she does lie, it turns into a mess. She invented a girlfriend as a way to get out of one too many hangouts with her Denver Defiant teammates, but now it’s coming back to bite her.

Danielle “Dani” Gilbert is not Charlotte’s girlfriend. But she’s also not one to turn down an all-expenses-paid ski resort getaway, even if it means pretending that she is. After all, it’s only three days, and she and Charlotte will just be two friends doing a little acting. What could possibly go wrong?

Except for the fact that Charlotte maybe, possibly, might want the whole thing to be real.

So. There is that.

Reindeer Games is a holiday romance novella. It is part of the Denver Defiant series but can be read as a standalone.

My Review

I received a free copy from the author through Booksprout and voluntarily reviewed it.

Reindeer Games is a sweet romance story set around the holidays. Charlotte is usually a honest person, but when her team mates ask her to join them for another hangout she lies about having a date. This leads to a fake romance with her best friend Dani when Dani joins her on an all expenses paid skip trip pretending to be Charlotte’s girlfriend.

This romance was so sweet! I had fun reading it and it was a quick read. I am not a fan of the fake dating trope, but thought it was handled well here. Although I would’ve loved to see a bit more of them after they were no longer fake dating, but dating for real, as most of the book only covers their fake dating. They already are close friend before the book starts and Charlotte has a crush on Dani that she never acted on until this fake date scheme. I liked the friends to lovers trope and the way these two already knew the other so well. There are plenty of fun and sweet scenes and I liked these two.

The holiday theme was well done with the skip trip and a nice ski lodge they at. The epilogue was a nice way to wrap up the book. This book is set in the Denver Defiant series, I haven’t read the first book, but easily could read this as a standalone as the couple from book 1 only gets mentioned in one scene. I am curious about book 1 now and hope to read that too eventually.

To summarize: This was a nice and sweet romance set around the holidays. While I am not a fan of the fake dating trope, I thought it was handled well here. And I liked the friend to lovers theme and the way these two already knew each other well until this fake romance brings them closer. I did wish we would’ve seen a bit more of them as a couple or before/ after the fake dating as now they spend most of the book fake dating. The ski resort set around the holidays made for a fun setting. I would definitely recommend this book if you’re looking for a sweet and quick romance story.

3 Stars

Links:
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You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.

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