Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Better Not Pout 
AUTHOR: Annabeth Albert
NARRATOR: Sean Crisden
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Audio
RELEASE DATE: November 27, 2018
LENGTH: 6 hours, 4 minutes
BLURB:
One hard-nosed military police officer.
One overly enthusiastic elf.
One poorly timed snowstorm.
Is it a recipe for disaster? Or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for holiday romance?
Teddy MacNally loves Christmas and everything that goes along with it. When he plays an elf for his charity’s events, he never expects to be paired with a Scrooge masquerading as Santa Claus. His new mission: make the holiday-hating soldier believe he was born to say ho-ho-ho.
Sergeant Major Nicholas Nowicki doesn’t do Santa, but he’s army to his blood. When his CO asks an unusual favor, Nick of course obliges. The elf to his Kris Kringle? Tempting. Too tempting—Nick’s only in town for another month, and Teddy’s too young, too cheerful and too nice for a one-night stand.
The slow, sexy make-out sessions while Teddy and Nick are alone and snowbound, though, feel like anything but a quick hookup. As a stress-free holiday fling turns into Christmas all year round, Teddy can’t imagine his life without Nick. And Nick’s days on the base may be coming to a close, but he doesn’t plan on leaving anything, or anyone, behind.
REVIEW:
This was such a heartwarming story even though it was set in the frigging cold, but still – there was such warmth to it. You really felt the Christmas spirit throughout and kept wishing the holidays weren’t so far away.
It’s almost Christmas in this small and snow covered town. As a reluctant favour to his CO, the very serious Sergeant Major Nicholas Nowicki dresses up as Santa for some charity events. There are a few problems with this set up though, the elf tasked to help him out is getting on his nerves with his cheery ways, and the man is way too tempting. And to top things off, his Santa costume is a few sizes too small and soon disaster strikes. I’m going to be honest, the ripping of his pants was a cute way for Teddy, the elf, and Nick to meet. It was fun and it fit.
Nick is only weeks away from his retirement from the military. Something he’s not looking forward to. The military is all he knows, all he wants, all he needs. That is until he met Teddy and couldn’t get the man out of his mind. The two are polar opposites in almost every way possible, but they still make sense. They complement each other – teach each other, learn from each other.
The attraction between them is instant and the two can’t really manage to stay away from each other. There is one cloud on the horizon; when Nicks retirement is up in a month he’s leaving for the south, to join a buddy of his in business. A promise he made a long time ago, and Nick never breaks a promise. A one night stand turns into a holiday romance, that turns into something more. There was no real drama in this story, it was simply about two lonely men finding love where they least expected it to.
Sean Crisden nailed the narration of the book and the characters. He’s without a doubt a very talented performer and brings characters and the story to life. It’s always easy to follow the story as he has such a wide range of voices for the characters. More than that he adds emotion to the words Annabeth Albert has written, he conveys the humour, the determination of the characters, the longing and not the least the connection between them. In other words, the story comes alive.
Better Not Pout is a perfect holiday listen. It makes you feel good, get in a Christmassy mood and long for those cold days cuddling up with that perfect someone under a warm blanket looking at the snow falling outside.
RATING: 
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