Title: Shrewd Angel
Series: The Christmas Angel: Book Six
Author: Anyta Sunday
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 297 Pages
Category: Contemporary, Holiday Romance
At a Glance: I had so much fun with this one. Clifford and Pax are wonderful together, and I loved watching everything unfold.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: Pax Polo is the swashbuckling guitarist for Serenity Free.
Correction: Was the swashbuckling guitarist for Serenity Free.
Now he sports a black eye and his bros have kicked him out of their band—three weeks before Christmas. It’s an unfamiliar kick to his over-inflated ego, but . . . whatever.
No problem.
Thanks to some stellar eavesdropping, an unexpected angel ornament, and a bribe to open for his favorite band ever, Pax will weasel his way back into his mates’ good graces.
All he has to do is friend Clifford, the neighborhood man-shrew, for the summer. Distract him a bit so Clifford’s younger sister can sneak around.
It sounds like a piece of beginners Beethoven. Jolly good fun.
Easy.
Because, Pax totally knows how to friend people. He has heaps of friends. This shrew’s no match for his shrewd ways. Or is he?
Review: Anyta Sunday and I just click, you guys. That’s all there is to it. Every time I pick up one of her books, I’m confident that I’m going to like it, but I’m also often surprised by just how much I’m enjoying it as I read. I find myself sitting there grinning stupidly or shaking my head and laughing and wanting to share passages with people. And, Shrewd Angel was signature Anyta Sunday… Slow burn romance, fun, witty banter, and characters that make you want to root so hard for them. No matter the book, I’m always entertained, and always touched by some sentimental aspect of one of the character’s backstory, or the storyline itself.
In the case of Shrewd Angel, Sunday’s addition to the Christmas Angel series, both Pax and Clifford tugged at my heart. Pax with all of his warring emotions about being kicked out of the band, and Cliff with his grief over losing his parents, along with the massive responsibility of finishing his master’s program while also taking care of his sister, Bianca. He’s so serious about his responsibility for Bianca, in fact, that he ends up with the reputation as the neighborhood shrew because of all the arguing and door slamming. Said arguing catches the interest of Pax, who is walking past on his way to meet his new roommate. Pax can’t resist a little eavesdropping, though, and finds himself wrapped up in what’s going on with Bianca and poor, serious Cliff. And, he winds up even more involved after meeting his roommate, Luca, and agreeing to help distract the shrew so that Luca can try to win Bianca’s affections.
I one hundred percent adored both Pax and Clifford. The romance was a slow burn, as I said above, but it was such a fun journey, and so worth the wait. The lengths Pax (and Luca) went to in order to unnerve and distract Cliff were fantastic, but he had no clue that he had totally met his match in Cliff, whose master’s thesis is on psychology and criminology after all. I also thought Sunday’s twist on The Taming of the Shrew was so fun. I loved all the Shakespearean elements threaded throughout the book, and I loved, loved the massive part music played in the story. Some of the most memorable scenes involved music being played, either by Pax, or by both Pax and Clifford.
My one minor complaint was to do with the Christmas angel ornament. I loved that it featured so prominently in the story (in my review for the previous book in the series, I mentioned my disappointment in how little the angel appeared in the book), but I wish there had been more of a connection to A Soldier’s Wish, i.e., I wish more explanation was given as to how Cliff and Bianca’s parents ended up with the angel. Since this book immediately followed that one, I assumed there would be some connection, so I was bummed that there wasn’t.
That little niggle aside, though, I had so much fun with this one. Clifford and Pax are wonderful together, and I loved watching everything unfold. I absolutely recommend this smart, sexy, heart-warming story. Another check in the win column for Anyta Sunday!
You can buy Shrewd Angel here:
[zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B07KFDL1L6?d” style=”blue” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon/Kindle Unlimited [/zilla_button]
