Category: LGBTQIA Holiday Story

Review: Keeping Promises by Jodi Payne and B.A. Tortuga

Rating: 4🌈

Cowboys n Kids rides again in a new release from authors Jodi Payne and B.A.Tortuga. This time is a pair of divorced dads, one’s a rodeo cowboy, who get their second chance at HEA. With a very cute couple of kids very much a part of the mixture.

This works well primarily because of a sense of established relationship between Jeremy M. Dunn and his ex rodeo cowboy West Belen.

You do get the sense that, however much time has passed, feelings were never the issue. So as a death and injury drives one home and the other to reach out for help, it feels real instead of rushed.

What’s nice is the slower pace here towards a permanent situation. It needs communication, something they weren’t very good at when younger.

The story has many sweet and delightful elements. The kids are great, each taking the reappearance and talks of permanence in their own ways. There’s also a pair of younger adorable rodeo cowboys who end up at Jeremy and West’s home like a couple of lost Golden Retrievers.

I would love to see them again.

Overall, a terrific heartwarming romance of lovers reunited and happy second chances of HEA.

And holidays!

It’s a treat to read. And it’s one I’m recommending.

Keeping Promises by Jodi Payne – Goodreads

Synopsis:

Jeremy M. Dunn III has the single dad thing down, so the last thing he wants to do is call his ex-husband to ask for help with their two kids. They didn’t part on good terms, and they’ve barely spoken since the divorce. But with a cast on his arm that goes up past his elbow, Jeremy has no choice. He needs a few days to figure out how to bathe their daughter, make school lunches and parent their son one-armed, and there isn’t anyone else he can ask for help.

Former rodeo cowboy West Belen was already on his way back to his kids, and to Trey (“the third”, his nickname for Jeremy). He made a promise to try again, and he means to keep it, so when he sees his chance to move back into his family’s life, he grabs it like the brass ring he knows it is. He’s determined to be more than an “every other weekend” dad to his children, and he doesn’t want to keep on living with regret about how he and Trey ended.

Jeremy still desires West, but he isn’t sure he can trust West to be responsible and available. West still thinks Trey is the hottest thing he’s ever seen, but he has no idea how to convince the man he’s ready to settle down. The two of them have never had trouble butting heads, but now they need to learn to work together to make a home for themselves and their kids where they both belong

Review: Operation Meet the Parents (Operation HEA #2) by K.M. Neuhold

Rating: 5🌈

It’s been a while since the first novel where I encountered Harlow (he of the movie Meet Cute) and Teddy but it only took a sentence or two before the effervescent Low and the steadfast Teddy came happily alive once more.

This time the now together pair is leaving sunny LA for the snowy temps of Minnesota and a Christmas with Teddy’s family. It’s Low’s first time meeting them and at a major holiday at that.

What could go wrong?

Neuhold brings us a delightful heartwarming story, filled with family, Holiday gathering and festivities, as well as a bit of angst when Teddy’s mother slow to warm up to Low. Neuhold gently explores a realistic,loving mother/son relationship and the changing dynamic when one brings home their “forever love”. I so enjoyed watching the family, Ted’s mother and the men navigate what could have been a awkward holiday but instead turns out to be a very happily memorable Christmas.

Operation Meet the Parents is a well written holiday romance centered around an established wonderful couple, two highly delightful men, each with a secret mission and special gifts for each other. There’s so much laughter, tremendous characters,some sexy fun, and a ton of love of all types, romantic and that of family.

In short, just a terrific story and a great Christmas sequel for Low and his Teddy Bear. I’m really hoping that Neuhold will give us their wedding and a welcome reunion with both families and friends.

Both books are just a delight and I’m absolutely recommending both. Read one, then this heartfelt lovely Christmas tale.

Operation HEA series:

Operation Meet Cute #1

Operation Meet the Parents #2

Synopsis:

Teddy is ready to pop the question, but can he find the perfect movie-moment proposal for Harlow? And more importantly, will Low survive meeting the parents? Oh, the joy of Christmas.

A missed connecting flight, inappropriate winter attire, and a kitchen fire…it wouldn’t be Christmas without some complications, right?

I know Harlow is desperately trying to impress my family, but I’m a lot more concerned about coming up with a proposal worthy of his Hollywood dreams. That is if he doesn’t burn the house down first.

There’s nothing like the holidays with family. Fa la la la la….

***Operation Meet the Parents is a 25K word novella companion to the full-length novel, Operation Meet Cute. Don’t miss this warm and fuzzy, all-the-Christmas-feels, steamy story.

https://www.goodreads.com › showOperation Meet the Parents (Operation HEA #2) by K.M. Neuhold – Goodreads

Review: Bigger Than Us by B.A. Tortuga and Jodi Payne

Rating: 4 🌈⛄️

Artist Daniel McCaverty and businessman Mitchell Brown were both close friends of Adam who has just died of cancer. His Will has irrecoverably changed both mens lives forever, leaving them intertwined with those of two young children, one a baby. Two men, two children, and one house . That’s equals a family…

Bigger Than Us is among the latest of what authors Jodi Payne and B.A. Tortuga are calling their “shoe stories “ and I call their cowboys n kids books.

They have cowboys, a city boy, kids, a second chance at love, and a major drama/trauma that pulls the two men together to form a family.

Here , as it’s been in several stories, it’s been a death by cancer of a guardian or parent, that lets the men step in and take charge.

I liked both characters of Dan and Mitch, both very different from each other. Dan for me was more fascinating and his background and history raised a lot of questions that were never satisfactorily answered. I think if I had gotten more of Dan’s past, it would have raised the rating higher. Because I felt we were going to get his background then the authors never came back to it. Too bad. He’s a compelling personality.

Dan and Mitch’s love story also comes about quickly. But they acknowledge the fast pace, communicate their doubts and questions about their situation, the kids, their relationship, everything that’s been fast tracked… just as adults should. And that element, the ability for the men to voice their own issues with everything that happened so fast actually makes the reader happier and ok with the love and warmth occurring on the pages in front of us.

The kids? Priceless. Act and talk like kids. Especially Vicki who’s hurting and acting up because she’s scared and mad and little. And wants her Dad back. Your heart will ache for her.

This story runs through Thanksgiving and ends at Christmas so for me it’s a holiday story. Sweet, sad, heartwarming, and loving.

I enjoyed it, especially the ending even if it stopped a bit abruptly. Still happy.

Side note. What is going on in Burlington, Vermont? Did I miss the heart eyes text for Burlington where it’s now the romance destination ?

Anyway, add this to your holiday TBR pile. You will absolutely enjoy it.

Bigger Than Us

Synopsis:

When Daniel McCaverty gets the call that his best friend and mentor up in Vermont has cancer, he expects to have plenty of time to go help. He never expects that Adam will be gone before he gets there, or that he will suddenly be in charge of Adam’s two small children. He’s a loner, an artist, and a wanderer. What’s he supposed to do now?

Mitchell Brown is a white-collar kind of guy. Organized. Careful. He has a plan in place for Adam’s kids long before Daniel arrives, and is shocked when Daniel is given custody. But for Vicky and Emory, he’s willing to put his hurt and confusion aside to help Daniel figure things out, to make the whole situation work.

Daniel and Mitch have to deal with a tidal wave of grief while getting one kid started in school, and keeping up with their work. But they’re going to have to figure out their unexpected attraction to each other if they’re going to build something together that’s bigger than either one of them alone

Review: Cosy & Chill by Jackie Keswick

Rating: 5🌈⛄️

Cosy & Chill by Jackie Keswick really conveys so much of what I really think is authentic when it comes to the holidays. It’s never just that glitteringly happy, fun filled holiday. full of congenial family gatherings and mountains of gifts. No, there’s also the elements of melancholy, feelings of bitterness, loneliness, exclusion, family dysfunction, and outright pain and loss.

Yes, what the holidays can and does mean to people runs the emotional spectrum depending upon the person and their history. Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself A Merry Christmas” anyone?

Keswick brings us into Cosy & Chill as one being, a Fae, experiences the pain of betrayal, and extreme loss. She’s now trapped in the human realm by a theft of her amulet, her key home. Her anguish, loss, her rage is bone deep and as her search becomes ever fruitless… we connect deeply with her grief and loss of hope.

That’s just the beginning of this outstanding tale of renewed heart, new paths, personal growth, and learning how to reach for your dreams. While finding love and friends along the way.

Done through knitting and making ice cream! Oh, and a hunt for a silver amulet!

All the characters here are so remarkable. Whether it’s the Fae Roisen determinedly searching for her amulet through a mysterious clue, drawn to a house by magic, Finn Wooten, with his Cosy Etsy knitting store or Leo Wetherall of Chill organic ice creams, these beings and people come alive through their struggles and all the obstacles, small to large, past and present, they must overcome.

Really Keswick’s storytelling will captivate you!

Both Finn and Leo each had a wonderful supportive grandmother in their past as well as dysfunctional families. How badly dysfunctional varied. Each man’s past is rolled out and dealt with slowly as their relationship progresses and it gets closer to many important dates for all involved.

I found myself forgetting my own lists, things I really need to get to, as I sank into this tale of discovery, self determination, courage, hope, love, and, of course, Holiday spirit….in a Fae sort of way.

As the author put The End to this story I couldn’t help but hope that next Christmas Keswick sees us making a return to a certain shop on High Street, Number 13 to be exact. And all who live overtop and within.

I’d love to catch up with them. You will be enchanted and wish for that too!

Cosy & Chill by Jackie Keswick goes to my top five holiday reads this year. I’m highly recommending you out it in your own stocking and your TBR pile!

What a joy!

Synopsis:

Knitting. Ice Cream. And a Matchmaking Fae.

Quiet, industrious Finn dreams of his own knitting store. He needs Leo’s enthusiasm to make him reach for what he wants.

Cheerful, adventurous Leo sells artisan ice cream but shies away from fulfilling his grandmother’s last wish. He needs Finn’s love and support to put his past to rest for good.

Add a Saxon treasure, a fae stranded in the human world, and an empty store with very unusual rental terms – and falling in love is not the only challenge Finn and Leo have to face.

Making a dream come true takes work. But there’s magic in dreams if Finn and Leo can hold on tight.

***

Tags: I’m only here for socks and ice cream. Sometimes you just click with another guy even if you’re opposites. I look at you and know what I’ll be knitting. How to share a house with someone you’ve just met. Utensils don’t sparkle, right? Grandmas rock. Making a deal with a burglar. Roisin is a decorating wiz and Finn worries about antique furniture. If you don’t talk to me, I can’t help you. Finding treasure at inopportune moments. And yes, there’s a happy ending

https://www.goodreads.com › showCosy & Chill by Jackie Keswick – Goodreads

Review: Holigay by K.M. Neuhold

Rating: 4 🌈⛄️

Holigay is a term that denotes someone who is gay or gay curious just for a holiday vacation. Once again home, they return to their safe sexual orientation.

Holigay by K.M. Neuhold is a sweet best friends to lovers, sexual discovery holiday romance. It’s frankly adorable.

It helps that the men involved have known each other all their lives and their dialogue reflects that long time familiarity and deep love for each other. For it to move from one type of love to a romantic, sexual love felt easy and natural.

Matt, large, gentle and learning that Caspian isn’t merely his oldest and best friend but also the person he loves and wants to spend the rest of his life with? It’s a journey of joyous awakening as well as sexual pleasure. It’s as though everything finally makes sense. And for Caspian, it does finally as he’s long loved his best friend.

This is a sweet, absolutely romantic, low angst holiday romance. I adored this couple and story.

You will too.

Synopsis:

I’ve been in love with my best friend for almost as long as I can remember. The only problem is he’s straight. At least I thought he was.

But when he gets me to Fiji for Christmas, he’s suddenly looking at me in a way I’ve never seen before. Could this all be real, or is he just HoliGay?

https://www.goodreads.com › showHoligay by K.M. Neuhold – Goodreads

Review: Merry Elf-ing Christmas by Beth Bolden

Rating: 4.5 🌈⛄️

With the holidays almost upon us for those that celebrate at this time of the year, there’s always a number of holiday books that arrive with it.

Merry Elf-ing Christmas by Beth Bolden is a wonderful and sweet addition to anyone’s holiday reading stack this year!

I was wracking my memories if I had read any similar plots because a Tir na Nog Fae being hauled off to the North Pole because of a prophecy was all sorts of imaginative. And in terms of character development, downright awesome.

If I was from Ireland and dragged away to the ice and freezing cold, away from the pubs and rainbows, would I be happy? Without any say in the matter? Uh, no. And neither is Aiden.

Bolden is able to get the reader a real connection with Aiden’s emotional state over this huge permanent upheaval of his life. The loss of friends, home, a job he felt he was good at and is now looked down upon by certain North Pole elves as nothing important. As is Auden’s favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day. His entire old life is made to feel.. well less in the face of being a Christmas elf, which he doesn’t want to be.

While the North Pole May glitter , it’s often cold, freezing, and unfriendly. Except for Sam aka Santa (a title) who’s assistant Aiden is supposed to be.

Bolden builds quite the pictures of a role foisted on Aiden by a prophecy he doesn’t understand in a place he doesn’t want to be. And it’s a role that doesn’t seem to fit him. At all.

The reader, listening and watching through Aiden’s pained eyes, will tend to agree.

Then on Christmas Eve, outside of Chicago, in a small convenience store, Aiden runs into college student/store clerk Dex and a friendship as well as instant attraction is struck up.

Dexter is another layered marvelous character. Dysfunctional childhood, poor family dynamics means he’s not a fan of the holidays. Until an unhappy elf stumbles into the store looking for milk and cookies for Santa.

What follows is such a heartwarming, funny, sometimes poignant love story…via a long series of texts, and then of course there’s that prophecy.

I may have actually sniffled once or twice here.

I really felt for that given no choice here’s your new future elf Aiden and his engineer graduate boyfriend… to be…they fully grabbed at my heart .

I believe they will at yours too. That’s why I’m highly recommending this.

Synopsis:

Aidan might be a bad elf, but he’s never been naughty.

Aidan has always landed on Santa’s nice list, thank you very much. But that doesn’t mean he’s cut out to be a North Pole elf; instead of worrying about the dwindling magic of Christmas, he’d much rather be back in Tir na Nog, calculating where the next end of the rainbow is going to land.

Instead he’s freezing his butt off in Santa’s sleigh.

His situation seems grim despite all the decking the halls, until on Christmas Eve, during a milk and cookies run, he meets Dexter, an engineering student.

They couldn’t be more different, and Dexter couldn’t be more forbidden, but Aidan is drawn to the handsome human anyway. Over the next year, their emails start out as a entertaining way to pass the time in all his interminable elf meetings, but soon, hearing from Dex becomes the very best part of his day.

And when they meet up on the next Christmas Eve? Aidan and Dex discover that their infatuation is so much more than just attraction. If they believe in each other and in the love they share, together their magic might be powerful enough to save Christmas.

https://www.goodreads.com › showMerry Elf-ing Christmas by Beth Bolden – Goodreads

Review: Dearest Malachi Keogh (Dearest Milton James #1.5) by N.R. Walker

Rating: 4.75 🌈

Dearest Malachi Keogh is a wonderful, romantic Christmas sequel to that incredible heartwarming novel Dearest Milton James. That story is easily in my top ten contemporary romances this year, maybe top five as it ticks so many of my emotional narrative boxes.

Dearest Malachi Keogh picks up four years later with Julian Pollard and Malachi Keogh a happily established couple, living together with a rescue cat, and with families content with their relationship.

Also back and intact is our quirky, deeply endearing ,or in Paul’s case weirdly fascinating, small family like staff at the Dead Letters Department at the Mail Office. What a great lot they are! The more I see of them the more of them I want to see! Love each and every one!

Once more the use of a letter mystery is employed here, this time by Julian himself. What we get is a beautiful blend of emotions, poetry, mystery, and joint efforts by everyone! All towards one romantic goal for Malachi and Julian.

My only thoughts here are that I wish the author had somehow utilized the whole Dearest Malachi to even greater effect.

I remember all those Dearest Milton James, as will anyone who read that story and the effect they had on me as well as the characters who read them. And I feel we had just gotten started before it was over. I wanted more, something longer, but it certainly was deeply heartfelt .

“Merry Christmas, my love” is sigh worthy.

This was a lovely, happy, wonderful and, yes, sexy, Christmas sequel to a amazing contemporary romance.

It’s really not a standalone story but needs to be read in tandem with the first I’ve referenced throughout this review.

Haven’t read that one? You’re in for a huge treat! Grab up both stories and read one right after the other.

Read the first? Then you’ll love this! It’s the HEA you’ve been waiting for. Although NR Walker shouldn’t be surprised if people start crying out for Malachi and Julian’s wedding. There’s got to be some missing invitations tie in.

And yes to the author for that rescue cat. Leaving that neighbors cat behind bothered me and this was a great solution. I know I know. You can’t go about swiping other peoples cats but still….

Ty. Extra point for that cat.

Yes, I’m highly recommending this.

Dearest Milton James series:

Dearest Milton James #1

Dearest Malachi Keogh #1.5

Synopsis:

Julian Pollard never believed in love at first sight. That was until he met Malachi Keogh. Well, maybe it wasn’t love at first sight, but it sure was something.

Julian had forgotten how to live, how to be happy, and Malachi changed all that. Now together for four years, Julian wants to give Malachi a Christmas he’ll never forget.

The only problem is, Christmas at a mail distribution centre is the busiest time of the year. It just might take the whole team to make it happen.

Dearest Malachi Keogh is a 13,000-word short story.

Dearest Malachi Keogh

Review: The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert

Rating: 5 🌈 and a ☃️

What a wonderful holiday romance from Annabeth Albert! And it starts with the names of the characters, Gideon Holiday and Paul Frost.

How absolutely perfect, especially for a story about a small town full of historic restored homes known for their holiday decorations . It’s preparing for Thanksgiving, and then for all the various holiday lights displays to start appearing on every house for all the tourists that come to enjoy the celebration(and donate funds).

Albert has chosen the perfect format for her book that lets her readers into this wonderful community and sense of belonging. It’s that the What’s Up Neighbor app (or something similar) that many neighborhoods have in use these days that’s employed to connect neighbors to each other and the daily flow of their neighborhood. I’m on mine and my parents as well. It’s awesome.

Each chapter starts with a daily installment from their community’s What’s Up Neighbor chat… whether it’s an update on the schedule for the holiday lights or a grumpy text from the neighborhood “Scrooge” about the traffic or kids crossing the greenway. It’s brings us a perfect sense of community and the citizens we will meet along our visit here. It’s intimate, fun, and familiar.

Much like the characters and plot. It’s warm-hearted, personable, filled with lovely people with issues and conflicting feelings about the holidays. Everything about those elements will have the readers connecting with these men, their loneliness and their slow friendship as they make discoveries about one another over a crisis of house in need of a holiday makeover and a brother coming home to propose.

The story, the plot structure, the men, and community… it all grabs perfectly at your emotions.

The writing is sharp, the characters beautifully crafted, and everything is marvelously wrapped up ina way to make a Scrooge want to celebrate his best Christmas ever!

If you’re into your holiday reading or just enjoy a great contemporary romance, either way The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert

Is a book for you.

It’s one I’m highly recommending.

Synopsis:

His grumpy neighbor needs some holiday sunshine…

Gideon Holiday is the perfect neighbor. Need a cup of sugar? Spare folding chair? Extra batteries? He’s always ready to help. And he’s waited years for his hot, grumpy, silver fox neighbor, Paul, to need him. For anything. But this December, Gideon would be happy if he could just get the Scrooge-like Paul on board with the neighborhood holiday lights fundraiser.

Paul Frost has no intention of decking his halls or blazing any Yule logs. Even if his spunky bowtie-clad neighbor does look perfect for unwrapping, Paul would prefer to hide away until December is done. But when his beloved younger brother announces an unexpected visit, Paul needs all the trimmings for a festive homecoming—and fast.

Luckily, Gideon is there with a color-coded plan to save Christmas. Soon Paul’s hanging lights, trimming trees, and rolling out cookies. And steaming up his new flannel sheets with Gideon. How did that happen?

It’ll take some winter magic to preserve their happiness and keep these rival neighbors together longer than one holiday season.

The Geek Who Saved Christmas is a low-angst m/m holiday romance with a guaranteed happy ending. This grumpy/sunshine, neighbors-to-lovers, found family tale features two heroes in their forties figuring out that maybe their sexily-ever-after was right next door the whole time. It stands alone and is not connected to any of the author’s other universes. However, it does contain a heaping helping of the same emotions and steamy moments readers have come to expect!

https://www.goodreads.com › showWeb resultsThe Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert – Goodreads