Arden Powell has been writing such an amazing selection of books for the Flos Magicae series. All have been crafted with a certain subtlety, the world building and any foundation information is such that the reader has to cobble together the hints scattered throughout the book or from the odd statements in dialogue to try to understand the societal framework the novels take place in.
Sometimes it frustrating, other times it flows perfectly within the magical quiet flow of the narrative. Here, it’s a bit of both.
We start off in 20th century Toronto. A ugly city, where homosexuality is a severe crime punishable by long term imprisonment or even death. There’s magic and magic wielders but those with major powers seem to be few . Or not heard of within the lowest orders of the working class. If you’re truly without magic, then your prospects are dim.
Non magical David, who works, like his parents did, for the big distillery in Toronto, barely has any money to his name. Again much like his parents who scraped to feed him.
We come upon him as he’s fighting his way through the blizzard, up towards Manitoba, looking for a friend who disappeared months ago.
The backstory comes out in bits and pieces throughout this tale, as David, and Amaruq, the friend he’s been looking for, struggle to communicate.
I mean struggle. There’s a lot of silence, started conversations that go nowhere. Snow. Freezing temperatures. A sense of deep pain and fatigue that surrounds them both. There’s a ghost. Whether he’s real or not, that’s left up to each reader to decide.
But Powell makes it all feel believable, even down to the magical elements. The stumbling blocks they’ve raised between themselves, the misconceptions. It’s as much due to the times and circumstances in which they lived rather than who they actually were.
I could have done more with the ending and a vast spiritual experience that occurred than what was left on the page. I felt it was way too brief for the magnitude of the events.
But that seems par for the course with the stories within this series.
I find my imagination keeps returning to different aspects of this couple and the story. That is a huge plus for me in any story. And another reason I’m recommending The Solstice Cabin (Flos Magicae) by Arden Powell.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer
A wonderful series just continues on its own hopeful, warm-hearted journey with two new characters and latest members of the Vet Shop Boys found family of vets and their partners and pets.
Well, almost latest. There’s been an Aussie vet with marriage issues added but his story is later.
Now we are treated to the heartwarming story of the deepest best friends to lovers romance and a renewal of the Christmas spirit for one and all.
The one lacking in holiday’s cheer (for all the depressing and heartbreaking reasons) is Lawson Barnes, last year vet student and best friend of the ever positive, very handsome Chester Mathews. Chess is also in his last year of vet school and they both apply for the one internship at the Vet Shop Boys. Their interesting interviews and Gus’s big heart sees both of them working together with two internships and suddenly they’re finding a new home and family around them.
The 2-person POV works beautifully to bring the initial mindsets of each man into clarity so as Law and Chess grow and change, we see it reflected in each other’s thoughts and emotions, and actions.
It starts with Chester’s plan to make Law learn to love Christmas, a season Law’s never really experienced due to his parental negligence and sad adolescence. He, obviously, pulls on all the other vets and partners to aid in his plan.
Cox’s storylines shine spotlights on the other couples while giving focus to Chester and Lawson’s journey to HEA.
This is full of fun, joy, love and a reminder of what the Christmas spirit is all about.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend Got Me Merry (Vet Shop Boys Book 6) by Casey Cox . Pick it and the rest of the series up for great contemporary romance reading.
Can my best friend get me to enjoy the holidays? Ho… Ho… Um…No?
Christmas just isn’t my jam. The crowds. The cold. That Mariah Carey song blasting everywhere I go. Thanks, but no thanks.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Grinch. The holidays are awesome if you have a great family and money to shower them with gifts. Unfortunately for me, I have neither of those things.
All I want for Christmas (great, now I’m quoting that damn Mariah song) is to focus on my internship at the Vet Shop Boys clinic and hanging out with my best friend and roommate.
Turns out Chester has got other ideas. Along with a crew of loved-up vets, he’s on a mission to get me to enjoy the holidays and fall in love with him.
Wait… What?!
There’s no way I’ll ever become one of those festive people who likes Christmas, but who knows? Maybe this will be the first holiday season that actually gets me merry?
Got Me Merry is book 6 in the Vet Shop Boys series and can be read as a stand-alone. Expect plenty of humor, found family, best-friends-to-lovers, a grumpy Christmas Grinch, a sunshiny Christmas lover, some very wacky Christmas traditions, a sizzling hot fun run on a freezing winter day, a two-legged dog with a heart of gold, meddling vets determined to add a sprinkling of love to the holidays, and a heartwarming happily ever after!
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer
J. A. Rock and Lisa Henry are both excellent writers and their ability to craft believable characters is one of the reasons I automatically grab up any book they co-author.
Unfortunately in Fran Cuthbert Ruins Christmas, it’s one of their believable characters that’s the reason this was so close to being a DNF for me. I barely scraped by, hoping for some improvement in his personality. A false hope as it turned out.
The truth lies in the title. Fran Cuthbert not only ruin’s Christmas but this story. While the other mc is real, vulnerable, and engaging, Fran is that person you can’t trust or the character that begs the question why on earth would either writer craft someone like him to begin with as a main romantic lead.
He’s an inveterate lier, a outright thief of Christmas gifts, incapable of taking responsibility for any kind of irresponsible hurtful behavior on his part, passiveness in a manner that ends up being a weapon to hurt others, and a sense of humor that actually inflicts damage on someone he says he cares about. His only saving grace is his love for his twins girls that he’s so busy lying to.
Honestly. The authors thought Fran was someone we as readers should connect with? Find somehow awkwardly funny and adorable? Because he’s a toxic hot mess with a box load of red flags waving above him.
One of the worst things here? When his long time love (who he wronged), opens up and makes an extremely vulnerable confession to Fran, something that involves a sexual encounter that resulted in an accidental harm, what happens? Fran makes fun of him, makes Cass feel bad about himself and the encounter. By then I was done.
So am I recommending this? No. Only to those fans of these authors and I’m sure you have this on your TBR list already. For the rest of you, I’ll let you make the best choice.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer
Easton has written an adorable holiday story, based on a switched identities theme, that’s a highlight in the Snowed Inn Collection.
Easton has such a light, lively touch with her characters and none is a better example of that then maternity nurse Felix Bordeaux, whose friends have sent him to the speed dating event at The Retreat to get him dating. It’s not going well when a chance encounter with Alastor Jeddard, brother/thief from Stop The Wedding, changes his life.
I enjoyed the crossover aspects of this book. Several scenes from Stop The Wedding appear here but , obviously, from the perspective of these characters. I enjoyed both viewpoints and the fuller details.
Felix is a lovely, thoughtful, and kindhearted man. The type Easton crafts so well that immediately engages a reader’s imagination and heart.
The man who’s been made to believe that Felix is actually a well-known criminal and needs to maintain a surveillance for security is Riggs Marsten, cop in small town NY. Aside from that name, which is a little too movie star for me for small town, Riggs is a good soul. A ex-Marine , Riggs can’t equate the humble, awkward, kind man he’s getting to know with the criminal record of Alastor Jeddard, a ruthless, hardened thief.
Their friendship and days spent together makes for a enjoyable and sexy read. The avalanche that causes the enforced togetherness for them and all the others on the mountain adds a certain level of intimacy as well as isolation.
The drama is automatically created by the theme of discovery. It’s just a matter of when and the events that happen next.
It’s the chemistry between Felix and Riggs that really matters here. It’s the focus and the reason the story works so well. The setting is gorgeous, the events and people involved are entertaining.
I very much enjoyed A Changeling Christmas (A Snowed Inn Romance) by Eli Easton and rank it highly among my favorites in this collection.
An avalanche, a quaint Christmas inn, and an assignment to sit on an infamous jewel thief until the cops can arrive. What could go wrong?
Felix can’t believe his luck when a perfect stranger offers him the use of a pre-paid cabin at a mountain inn. He’d planned to ignore Christmas this year, working through the holidays in his job as a nurse in a Denver maternity ward. After all, Christmas won’t be the same without his beloved mother, who recently passed. But the inn, decked out like a Hallmark movie set, is the perfect place to soothe his heart, rekindle his Christmas cheer, and maybe even find romance? When a gorgeous ex-Marine befriends him and sticks by his side through a whole day of Christmas activities, Felix thinks he’s found true love.
Riggs’s plans for a ski vacation are buried when an avalanche blocks off the mountain inn where he’s staying from the rest of the world. A midnight phone call enlists Rigg’s help watching a guy on the FBI’s Most Wanted list who is supposed to be staying at the inn. The FBI and the police can’t get through until the avalanche is cleared. Riggs steps up to do his duty one more time. But the man who is supposed to be The Falcon, an international thief, has one hell of a Clark Kent type alter ego, because he seems like the sweetest man Riggs has ever met. The more time they spend together, the more attracted Riggs becomes to him, and the more determined he is to make The Falcon reveal his true colors.
Will love prevail? Or will the law?
A Changeling Christmas is a mistaken identity, snowed in together, rom-com romance with all the Christmas feels. All the books in the Snowed Inn collection are standalone stories and can be read in any order.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer
Snowed Inn story Collection:
All the books can be read as standalones and in any order and all are available to buy or pre-order
If you’re not familiar with The Magi Accounts series, this isn’t the book for you. A reader has to have read all the preceding books, in the order that they were written, in order to understand the people and relationships talked about here.
But if you have, then you are in for a heartwarming read, rare for this series and universe.
It starts off as a series of interludes, some of which have already occurred in the previous book, A Purpose That Restores Us (The Magi Accounts 3) . But this time the perspective is through the eyes of mage Ash and lion shifter, Charlie.
This is their story or series of events that lead to their bonding.
It starts off a bit fragmented but it steadily grows together as it leaves the known scenes behind and starts to build its own narrative based around the Ono-Nai pack’s first holiday together under one roof with all its new members.
It’s a scary, fragile, and wonderful time for everyone, each in a different way, as the tale unveils.
Ash, a compound born mage, with all the horrors and damage that entails, is a character we’ve slowly gotten to know. Here we begin a deeper journey with him through his first memories of Jude and Mads to becoming part of the pack , then the true story which is his relationship with Charlie, a lion shifter.
Charlie has always been a series favorite due to his kindness, his open heart , and his willingness to accept his differences while others won’t. His love of makeup, and sparkly clothing. Images that clash with that of the lion shifter norm.
Notaro slowly builds a deep bond between Ash and Charlie, one of trust, friendship which then becomes something greater.
All done through the trappings of two holidays celebrated by the pack as they decorate, shop, and prepare together.
It’s heartwarming, not without its brutal reminders of the world outside and what members of the pack have gone through in their pasts, but it is also about found family, friends, and love in all facets.
Whatever the next full book holds , Notaro is giving her readers two companion stories as gifts.
This wonderful heartwarming romantic holiday tale for Charlie and Ash. The next , An Embrace To Hearten Me, will be for Jude, River, and Kulani. That’s a story guaranteed to be heartbreaking and tissue worthy. The brutality and horror they have endured makes any happiness they find indescribably sweeter. I can’t wait to read it.
I’m highly recommending A Holiday to Sustain Us (The Magi Accounts Companion Novellas) by Michele Notaro to all readers of this series and the series to all lovers of dark urban fantasy fiction.
The Magi Accounts:
🔹The Scars That Bind Us #1
🔹The Shackles That Hold Us #2
🔹A Date To Impress Him #2.5
🔹A Purpose That Restores Us #3
🔹A Holiday to Sustain Us: A Magi Accounts Holiday
🔹An Embrace To Hearten Me: The Magic Accounts 3.5 – 8/29/2023
🔹A Ruse To Unchain Us: The Magi Accounts # 4 – TBD 2023
One kiss under the mistletoe and now I’m hooked. I can’t get him out of my head… and I think I might like it.
Convincing my pride to have a holiday celebration was supposed to be a fun way to bring everyone together. But my plan went awry when my younger pride mate convinced everyone I needed a kiss. I hadn’t expected Ash to volunteer. And I certainly hadn’t expected him to kiss me on the lips and… linger.
Now, all I can think about is feeling his lips on mine again. Instead of planning gift giving and parties, I’m planning how to win Ash over. And what better way to convince him to spend time with me than to have him help me with my holiday plans?
The holidays are coming to the Ono-Nai house, and I only have one thing I’m wishing for this year—Ash.
A Holiday To Sustain Us is a fun 70K word MM urban fantasy companion story meant to be read AFTER A Purpose That Restores Us (The Magi Accounts 3). It’s from Charlie’s perspective and takes place between books 3 and 4 of the main series. This is a companion novel, NOT a standalone.
*Intended for adults only. Please read the trigger warnings at the beginning of this novel.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.
I like Barbara Elsborg, so I didn’t want to pass up her latest holiday romance, This Is Real.
A contemporary romance, it’s got a late coming out element, a snarky Englishman, a closeted American actor and a holiday movie set that brings them together.
I found it entertaining and sweet with characters that engaged me with their different backgrounds . Pasts that included aspects to their histories that were painful and believably difficult so they felt realistic .
Murdo Jenkins is a maths lecturer at Harvard. He’s got a vacation booked to see his bestie who’s also an Assistant Producer on a holiday film. He’s English with a painful history as an orphan whose adolescence was one of torment and neglect. Christmas is not his thing for reasons that will be revealed.
I liked the character of Murdo, feisty and highly intelligent. He had a welcome depth and interest to his personality that kept me involved in his life.
Lukas Olsen, actor and deeply closeted gay man, was a bit harder to get into. Not that he wasn’t understandable but at first I simply didn’t like his character. That changes as the story progresses and we get more of the background that made him into the man he’s become.
Their relationship and developing romance is fun, the dialogue is lively, personable and charming. It pulls us into their lives with a warm immediacy. The pitfalls to trying anything with a closeted partner is out front in both men’s minds. It won’t work.
Obviously the obstacles and drama will occur to change that. It happens towards the end of the story and I suppose that’s where my issues set in.
I realize this and others like it are holiday stories. That they come with a certain amount of glow and holiday spirit that sometimes glosses over some of life’s harsher realities.
But maybe it’s a bit of the Scrooge in me that thinks a holiday spirit shouldn’t be the panacea for all the things the bad people do or troublesome events that occur in these stories. That there’s another way to work through these elements realistically without having to do the whole “ let’s forgive the incredibly stupid or highly irresponsible/illegal acts that happened “ in order to have that golden moment(s) at the end.
Spoiler Alert. If someone in a position of authority takes advantage of a severely wounded person to then use that to a monetary advantage to potentially inflict great emotional harm as well as huge damage in other avenues? Then it’s , aww , it’s the holidays, and his excuse, well , doesn’t hold water either. So no, please stop with this type of narrative nonsense. Just because it’s a holiday story doesn’t excuse this behavior. Let’s be real.
So you had me almost to the end. I liked the epilogue. It’s just that bit towards the end. Eliminate that or change how it’s handled, and my overall opinion would be different.
Maybe you will find that aspect not as off putting as I do and will love this.
I will leave it up to you. I did enjoy the majority of the story.
A snarky English nerd. A hot American actor. When Christmas brings them together, they have more in common than they know…
Murdo doesn’t do Christmas, but this year, he’s looking forward to spending time with an old friend. Elodie’s working on a film starring Murdo’s Biggest Crush, the gorgeous Lukas Olsen. When Elodie asks him to give Lukas a lift from Logan International, Murdo can’t believe his luck. Lukas might be straight, but ogling’s acceptable—right? Lukas arrives at the airport to find a gaggle of fans but no driver waiting and when he does turn up, the snarky Englishman can’t even remember where he’s parked. When they finally reach their destination, Lukas tries to tip him and Murdo makes his current opinion of Lukas very clear. His crush is over.
Things move from bad to worse when Murdo tells the director that Lukas’s English accent isn’t authentic. But a pang of guilt, and maybe a remnant of lust, has Murdo offering to give dialect lessons to a resentful Lukas. Only once they’re in Lukas’s house, annoyance turns into something far more dangerous, because Lukas isn’t out and never will be. He has too much to lose: career, fans, family and friends.
Yet something about Murdo makes Lukas want to risk it all…
Cowboy Protection is a terrific story that suffers from being a tale that’s only 1/2 to 2/3’s finished. You get to the ending and feel that there’s multiple chapters missing. So many storylines left dangling or completely neglected. So frustrating that it takes away from the great elements that went before.
First to the things I really loved about this romance.
The rodeo universe and bull riders. B.A. Tortuga and Jodi Payne capture this world in all its gritty, rawness. From the moment we meet the bullfighting team led by “Mackey” Keyes, we’re right in the heart of the game. The dust of the area, the roar of the crowds, the snorting, stomping rage of the bulls and the clanging of the gates swinging wide open as the bulls bust out! It’s vividly alive, scary and terrifyingly memorable.
Just as the men fighting to keep the bull riders safe and the bulls distracted until they can be lead away. These men, this team, from the young rowdy twin brothers to the older scarred veterans, are believable and so realistic that it’s hard to pull our attention away from them to focus on the other second main character.
Maverick “Mackey” Keyes, an older, heavily scarred bullfighter who lives for his team and the sport but now suffers from the consequences of his near constant concussions and other injuries. He’s a charismatic figure and a realistic character. However there’s aspects to his personality and character that deserve greater exploration than the authors deed to him. More on that later.
Sidney Scott, the new TV producer, doesn’t have the layers that the bullfighters have to his character but he’s still plenty interesting. A believable backstory, and a strong personality helps keep Sidney from fading when next to the magnetic bullfighters, their energy, that swoops off the page, even when they are puking their guts out in a bathroom.
Everything about the rodeo world jumps with a vitality and passion that pulls the reader in and makes us commit to the characters and story.
Which is why the less than stellar aspects of the story are so bothersome. Some spoilers below.
1. Bullfighter Injuries. Specifically Traumatic brain injury(craniocerebral trauma) . McKay suffered from a number of concussions. He’s just had another serious injury to the head. Yet this is barely a point of discussion. For a man with a need to protect his team and it’s members going forward, not taking proper care of his body seems counterproductive to that goal and endangering their contracts. Instead it’s puke your guts out, hide your symptoms and continue. Even in the relationship, this aspect is never addressed as a part of their future it is in other books with athletes who play sports (hockey, football) associated with this trauma.
I found this a missed opportunity, a relationship mistake, and unrealistic element for someone who wants a long term relationship but isn’t willing to discuss the issues he’s having with his future partner.
2. Brad. The member of the board who’s made out by the authors to be an important part of the storyline. He’s a malevolent figure, determined to ruin McKay and his bullfighters by any means. This element is built up throughout the novel, as Brad appears to keep approaching people to get dirt or ask them to slander the team to break the event contract. What happens to this dramatic story development? Nothing. Like a deflated balloon or false advertising, it vanishes without a conclusion. What a letdown.
3. Finally, under major narrative flaws, there’s Jack. One of the older bullfighters and McKay’s best friends with benefits before meeting Sidney. Spoiler alert. At the end, Jack, a interesting personality, appears without notice, frazzled and emotionally disturbed, at McKay’s ranch at Christmas time. He’s been in a car crash where there’s been a death and he needs a place to rest up.
Now as a team leader , does McKay gets any details? See if the fact that one of a fairly famous team of bullfighters was involved in a crash that caused a fatality would have caused any other ramifications? Endanger his friend or that ever present contract? Does any of the number of expected responses? No. It’s a matter of no questions and then let Jack walk away when he needed to be alone.
Then that’s it for Jack and that storyline.
There’s other less developed or dropped parts of this story but those are the main ones. And they are so obvious that they take away from the outstanding sections and elements of Cowboy Protection.
It leaves a reader, at least this one, wondering where the rest of the story is and why the authors didn’t follow up on the dropped threads. Especially when I know they are very capable of doing exactly that.
So if you are a fan of Tortuga and Payne, I’m sure this is already on your radar. If not, then consider if you are interested in reading this. I believe there’s better options out there from both authors.
Maverick “Mackey” Keyes keeps the rodeo cowboys safe on his watch and he knows how to make his bullfighting team walk the line. He might be starting to feel his years, but he’s a pro, and he’s not afraid of anything that might happen on the arena floor.
Sidney Scott knows how to go with the flow, so when his dream job passes him by, he grabs the chance to work the bull riding circuit as a TV producer. He’s going to do the job right, traveling with the show, even if he hears some rumbling from the riders.
Mackey and Sid butt heads more than once, but when it really counts, they manage to get on the same page. When Mackey is injured, Sid steps up to help, and things take a far more personal turn. They might have been able to ignore the growing attraction between them at work, but a long road trip over the Christmas holiday and time away from the other cowboys lets them find something together that neither of them expect, but both of them need.
Cowboy Protection is an opposites attract, rodeo romance featuring a bullfighter and a corporate suit, with a side of holiday magic.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer
The 12th story in the fantastic Harrisburg Railers series, Perfect Gifts is a heartwarming holiday tale of love in all its permutations. Couples, family, sibling, and deep friendship. Various relationships dynamics are featured here to a emotional, heartfelt display of love.
Ten and Jared are startled when their young daughter, Lottie, announces she wants a brother. Both had quietly been thinking of adding to their family but this prompts a immediate discussion and decision to foster and adopt.
Perfect Gifts is the story of what follows. The process, the anxiety of waiting for the call, and the stress and doubts when it happens.
The authors have created a holiday story that’s one for all seasons. When two boys , abused by some of the very people who should have been keeping them safe, come to find their forever home. It’s grounded in the older boy’s mistrust and pain, the younger brother’s hope and joy.
The characters are real , the elements believable, and the events that occur both heartbreaking and emotional.
A side storyline that involves a teammate and his brother is also a element that engages your heart with its high level of angst and anxiety for those who are part of this thread. It will be carried over into the next Railers book.
My only tiny issue is that I wish the ending had been longer. Not that it needs to be but I wanted more time with the new family. I was so connected to them every step as they formed a new family group that I really didn’t want to leave them there yet.
I hope to see more of them in future stories.
I’m highly recommending Perfect Gifts as a perfect holiday story.
Family comes first in all things. Whatever the cost.
Ten had always heard the saying ‘Out of the mouth of babes,’ but he’d not expected it to hit home as it had. After a comment from their daughter, Ten and Jared find themselves pondering an addition to the family. Moving into the adoption process is nerve-wracking and riddled with anxiety—kind of like how the Railers have been playing of late. Bringing two young men into their homes and hearts isn’t going to be a smooth ride. But with patience, humor, and love, the bumpy road might just be a little easier to travel.
Expanding their small family was always in the cards, but no one could have foreseen the process clashing with the worst ever start to a Railers season. A string of losses, a vital player missing from the defense, a captain in the emergency room, and winning a single game seems impossible, let alone getting the team to the playoffs. Faced with hard decisions, Jared refuses to take his work home, but it’s difficult when your husband is at the cutting edge of the losing streak. His focus fractures when one of the siblings they are matched with is frustrated, angry, and has a healthy dose of mistrust.
Jared and Ten’s parenting skills are tested, but they will do anything to make a place in their home the perfect gift for two children lost in the system.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.
The Real Kaimana by Xenia Melzer is a must holiday read. It’s a falling movie snowflake, a much needed hug, and that sexy fireplace burning ever so brightly in the cabin of your dreams. It’s the story that leaves you smiling, full of love and warmth at the thought of this couple and their happily ever after.
It’s low on angst, right on target with the balance between serious discussions about subjects such as body positivity, acceptance of one’s sexuality, and an emotional openness to life’s choices and new beginnings.
Melzer is a new author for me and I believe this is her first LGBTGIA story. I need to seek out what else this author has written because this is an amazing story.
The characters sing of life and joy while always staying grounded in a realistic foundation where families are capable of approving a son’s choices about his sexuality or career, and positivity about self image has no age restrictions or body types.
Travelogue blogger Quirin Brukmiller and businessman Kaimana Tilo will capture your heart from the start. They are so beautifully crafted, multidimensional personalities that I was swept into their lives and developing relationship and never stopped until the end.
I laughed with joy, stumbling along with them through all their discoveries and talks . And left them , far too soon, with their HEA.
I’m absolutely recommending The Real Kaimana (A Snowed Inn Romance) by Xenia Melzer and this collection. What a fantastic way to get into your holiday spirit!
When a travel blogger with a serious love for color and a billionaire with the most gorgeous dark eyes serendipitously meet at a hotel in the Colorado mountains, could it be the start of a true holiday romance?
Quirin Brukmiller grumbles when he is told he must go into the snow and cold to write a travel report about The Retreat, aka The Rainbow Inn, an LGBTQ-friendly hotel high up in the mountains. After some gentle persuasion in the form of free clothing from his favorite company, he packs his bags and is now ready to brave the snow for the first time. At the hotel, he has the most perfect meet-cute ever to be written for a rom-com and chooses to make the best of this golden opportunity fate has given him.
Kaimana Tilo just sold his biotech company for several billion dollars and came out to his parents. Both decisions went down like lead balloons with his conservative, money-loving family. To get some distance, a clear head, and to have his first appearance as an out gay man, he takes a trip to a charming inn deep in the mountains of Colorado. Before he has a chance to check into his room, he meets the man of his dreams. For once, life is smiling down on him, and Kai has every intention of keeping the colorful man who practically landed in his lap at his side.
When an avalanche blocks the road to the hotel forcing them to stay together longer, it is just the last sign that what they have is bound to last forever.
All the books in the Snowed Inn collection are standalone stories and can be read in any order.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer
Snowed Inn story Collection:
All the books can be read as standalones and in any order and all are available to buy or pre-order
Breakfast Included by L. A. Chase is another of the Snowed Inn holiday collection that shares a special weekend at a mountain resort called The Retreat and a avalanche as the dramatic event to launch 7 romances.
I enjoy seeing characters from the other stories gliding through each other’s romances, even if it’s just a mention.
Chase’s book has an unexpected reunion between friends who haven’t seen each other for 12 years. That’s when a passionate kiss , then a ghosting caused immense hurt when they were teenagers.
Now at a gay speed dating event held at The Retreat, composer Reno Pierce sees ex crush/friend Tate Boylan sitting across the table.
Like all the stories, it’s the avalanche that starts a conversation, reconciliation, and renews a shared passion for each other.
I enjoyed both characters. Oddly, I didn’t get as much depth from Tate Boylan as I did from the younger Reno Pierce as the one who was kissed and left. Reno’s still hurt by that years later, unable to move past it. Tate’s personality feels a bit less complicated but that could be contributed to the fact we have more “Reno” page time and history.
The dramatic element introduced near the end and Reno’s reaction felt less believable. As did Ricky, older brother to Reno’s, somewhat over the top response and immediate turnaround to the couple and events. Came off as contrived.
I enjoyed the story. It was sweet and romantic without leaving a long impression.
What’s worse than being stranded at a mountain resort by an avalanche three days before Christmas? Being trapped with your teenage crush—who kissed you and ran away.
Reno Pierce spends all his time creating music in his studio, quite happily alone, but at the insistence of his rom-com-loving dad, he finds himself at a Colorado mountain resort speed dating event. His dad wants Reno to bring his ‘Mr. Right’ home for Christmas, but what he finds instead is his teenage crush. Twelve years ago, he’d been head-over-heels in love with his older brother’s best friend, Tate. His straight best friend. But everything changed one magical night, when Tate kissed him like his life depended on it—and then ran away.
Six months after a bad breakup, Tate Boylan is still feeling the damage done to his confidence. Thanks to his hopeless romantic sister, who booked him a quaint cabin at a mountain resort and insisted he ‘boost his morale’ with a night of speed dating at The Retreat, he’s feeling much better. Until he sits at a table across from his best friend’s younger brother. The one he’d fallen for as a teen, kissed at a party, and never saw again.
Now that an avalanche has cut the hotel off from the rest of the world, Tate might have a chance to prove to Reno that this time he won’t kiss and run.
All the books in the Snowed Inn collection are standalone stories and can be read in any order.
Snowed Inn story Collection:
All the books can be read as standalones and in any order and all are available to buy or pre-order
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 