The story opens when Jessica, a romance writer, gets an email from her agent, Sonia, asking if she will present the Romance Author of the Year award to Nick, her hugely successful ex, at an upcoming Holiday Ball. Jessica is not thrilled. Sonia, says, if she ‘plays nice’ it will impress the higher ups at SVP (her publisher) to publish her next book and SVP will cover her hotel room. Jessica decides to be professional and present the award even though it irks her that Nick’s books are not technically romances because none of them have happy endings. On top of that, his books all sell like hotcakes while she has to work part time at a coffee shop to make ends meet. Plus, she was terribly hurt when Nick broke up with her five years ago and she doesn’t even know why he did it.

In the past, Jessica and Nick met at a creative writing workshop and hit it off right away. They became critique partners with benefits–their banter is hot! They dated for three years and then they both got book contracts about the same time with the same publisher, Saint Valentine’s Press (SVP). Except Nick got a six-figure multibook deal and then dumped her (I can’t reveal why). Since then, he has been so focused on his writing he has barely dated. He misses Jessica terribly and thinks breaking up with her was a huge mistake. When he sees her Instagram pictures, she looks even more beautiful to him and he thinks: She’s the one that got away.

Nick is surprised when he hears Jessica will be presenting an award to him. He uses this as an excuse to reach out to her and DMs her on Instagram to tell her how much he appreciates her doing this. She DMs him back that she’s not happy about it–her agent convinced her to do it. Their back and forth banter through their DMs is funny and they are both surprised when they suddenly have new ideas for their books. They had both been struggling with writer’s block and realize that seeing each other might inspire their writing.

Jessica gets a new, red revenge dress to wear to the Ball and Nick thinks she looks incredible. She sees him in his suit and thinks he looks like he could be on the cover of a romance book. There is a glitch when Jessica tries to check into the hotel – her reservation has been lost and there are no rooms left. Nick kindly suggests she stay with him and she agrees (and of course, there is only one bed.) A snowstorm moves in and things get steamy when they are snowed in.

When one of their editors finds out they are both writing books with similar themes, she suggests they should combine their stories and write their book together. (She sees PR possibilities if they become a couple.) Nick sees it as a chance to get to get to know Jessica again and Jessica agrees because she is still in love with Nick and it doesn’t hurt that it will help her career. When they are writing the spicy part of their book, their chemistry is explosive. I especially enjoyed the humor as the two discussed romance tropes while working on their new romance book.  

My only issue was with the reason behind their breakup – I just didn’t buy into it. Additionally, the pacing is slow in the second half while they worked through their past but there is a surprise grand gesture that makes for a satisfying ending.

There is plenty of witty banter and spice in this short, cozy romance making it the perfect escape. It’s not quite a DIK but it’s a fun, sexy read!