Posts Tagged With: Holiday – Christmas

Book Review: The Probability of Mistletoe by E.J. Russell

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: The Probability of Mistletoe
Author: E.J. Russell
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Keith & Parker
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 43 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: When software engineer Keith Trainor decides to start his own company, he knows exactly who he wants as his partner: Parker Mulvaney, his best friend from high school. But in the ten years since graduation, their contact has dwindled to nothing, and it’s all Keith’s fault. If he hadn’t tried to kiss Parker under the mistletoe at the winter formal their senior year, Parker wouldn’t have bolted. At their ten-year reunion, Keith intends to do everything in his geeky power to make amends.

Parker should have known that scheduling the reunion the day before Christmas Eve was a recipe for a headache of monster proportions. But when Keith sends a text that he’ll be attending, the evening doesn’t look so bleak. Can an unnecessary makeover, a nostalgic breakfast, an abortive shopping trip, and a whole lot of mistletoe culminate in a long-overdue first kiss? Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Puzzle Box by C.C. Bridges

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: The Puzzle Box
Author: C.C. Bridges
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: James & Cole
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 31 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Elementary school art teacher Cole Peters is expecting a lonely Christmas this year while his longtime boyfriend, James Carducci, is on deployment with the Army. However, a box from James contains puzzles that lead Cole on a scavenger hunt through the greatest moments of their relationship. Together with his best friend Liz, Cole works his way through each clue.

The final puzzle could lead Cole to a gift beyond his wildest expectations. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Pining for Perfect by Ki Brightly

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Pining for Perfect
Author: Ki Brightly
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Asher & Stokely
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 61 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Stokely leads a solitary life, trying to do all the right things. He has a solid, respectable job, a properly decorated, respectable apartment, and goes to work every single day, no matter what. But it’s Christmas, and he hates Christmas, especially since his one guilty pleasure, listening to Asher Banks on the radio, is ruined with upbeat, holiday garbage.

Asher is the polar opposite—he loves Christmas to a fault and schedules himself into the ground with fundraisers to help the local community. When Asher and Stokely meet during one of the holiday spectacles Asher has thrown together, sparks fly, but neither one of them has ever had a real Christmas—or a real home. Will they be able to make one with each other? Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Red Popcorn Strings and Gumball Rings by Nell Iris

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Red Popcorn Strings and Gumball Rings
Author: Nell Iris
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Casey & Ellis
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 46 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Christmas is coming, and young couple Casey and Ellis are very much in love. Unfortunately, they’re also the definition of dirt poor, and they don’t have the money for nonessentials like decorations. Or a turkey. Or gifts. Between the recent death of Casey’s beloved momma and Ellis’s estrangement from his family, all they have is each other.

When Ellis finds the saddest-looking Christmas tree south of the Mason-Dixon Line thrown away outside his workplace and brings it home to Casey, things look up. Life is still a struggle, but wealth isn’t always measured in money, and what seems worthless to others is often invaluable to the people who love it. Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review: O Hell, All Ye Shoppers by Louisa Masters

Reviewed by Ami

Title: O Hell, All Ye Shoppers
Author: Louisa Masters
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Ethan/Ty
Genre: MM Holiday
Length: 28 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at:  Amazon 
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Ethan Hall plans to fill Saturday, December 23, with junk food and bad TV, a day just for him amid the holiday chaos… until his baby sister calls and begs him to go collect a present for her. At the biggest shopping center in Australia. On the busiest shopping day of the year. Hell no. Right?

Ethan’s soft heart gets the best of him. He battles through the parking lot, and in the main shopping concourse, he’s trampled, elbowed, and bombarded with terrible holiday music. Then he enters hell itself, a specialty store aimed at women… where he meets Ty. They bond in a sea of estrogen and manic shoppers, fighting together to attain freedom, only to find they’re not quite ready go their separate ways..
Continue reading

Categories: 3.5 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: An Open Window by Rick R. Reed

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: An Open Window
Author: Rick R. Reed
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Henry & Jim
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 21 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Two men. One Christmas Eve that changes the courses of both their lives.

Henry’s homeless and only wants a warm place to sleep on the coldest night of the year. A forgotten open window in a darkened house entices Henry inside with the promise of warmth and comfort. He knows it’s bad, but he promises himself he’ll be out before the owner wakes on Christmas morning. Except he oversleeps and the homeowner, Jim, discovers a bearded stranger sawing logs under his dining room table. When the shock and the drama that ensues dies down, Henry and Jim discover that they might have found, quite unexpectedly, the Christmas miracle they’d both been longing for—love and home. Continue reading

Categories: 3 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Hope Is the Thing with Feathers by Brandon Witt

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
Author: Brandon Witt
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Samuel & Raymond
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 48 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Fifty-six-year-old Samuel Phipps is all alone on his small farm in the Ozarks, with nothing but a menagerie of chickens, pheasants, turkeys, and other birds as company—which is just the way he likes it. In fact, if Samuel had his way, he’d tear down his neighbor’s house so his solitude could be absolute. One day Faloola, his favorite turkey, escapes, forcing Samuel to make the trek next door. When Raymond Webber—sixty-seven—answers the door as naked as the day he was born, Samuel doesn’t know whether he’s more annoyed… or attracted. The two men are opposites in every way—Samuel is serious, while Raymond believes in free love and herbal relaxation. The weeks leading up to Christmas are rocky to say the least, but some holiday spirit might help them get past their differences….
Continue reading

Categories: 2 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Thirty-One Days and Legos by S.A. Stovall

Reviewed by Ami

Title: Thirty-One Days and Legos
Author: S.A. Stovall
Series: Ranger Station Haven #2
Heroes: Carter/Owen
Genre: MM Holiday
Length: 57 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: A Ranger Station Haven Christmas Novella

Park rangers Carter and Owen Williams have decided to expand their family and adopt two brothers—boys they rescued a year before when they tried to escape the foster system and flee to Canada. After completing their parenting classes, Carter, a reserved man who enjoys the simple life, swears he’ll be the best father possible. His patience is tested, however, when one brother adopts a cat out of the snowy Voyageurs National Park and the other brother refuses to talk about what’s bothering him.

Owen wants to make sure their first Christmas together is a special one, and he decides all of December should be a celebration. He has an activity planned for each of the thirty-one days, but none of them seem to go off without a hitch. The cat has fleas, the boys need to attend a court hearing, and Carter is more than a little overwhelmed.

But Carter is 100 percent determined to make his new family work. He just has no idea how….
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Peppermint Schnapps Predicament by Clare London

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: The Peppermint Schnapps Predicament
Author: Clare London
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Frankie & Bill
Genre: M/M Contemporary
Length: 39 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Frankie Faraday is a promising young salesperson at Mason’s Emporium. Bill Mason is his boss, the son of the store’s founder, and the object of Frankie’s long-suffering, deeply devoted crush. Bill is steady and sober; Frankie is frivolous and flaky. Or so they seem to each other, until the night of the annual inventory, when they’re trapped together in the Seasonal Gifts storeroom, with nothing but candy and peppermint schnapps to sustain them until they’re rescued. And then the real truths—and something definitely more intimate—emerge!
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Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Book Review, LGBT, Nikyta's Reviews, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Mature Man’s Guide to Surviving Change by Chris Scully

Reviewed by Ami

Title: The Mature Man’s Guide to Surviving Change
Author: Chris Scully
Series: 2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers
Heroes: Joel/Perry
Genre: MM Holiday
Length: 66 Pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2017
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: In the sunny playground of Palm Springs, growing up was something confirmed bachelor and bad-boy chef Joel avoided at all costs—until a close friend’s death made him reevaluate his priorities. Ever since, he’s been dedicated to helping his widowed friend Perry get back on his feet by teaching him to cook and providing a shoulder to cry on. But when Perry announces that he’s ready to start dating again and then begins receiving gifts from an anonymous secret Santa, Joel is forced to confront the feelings he’s suppressed for so long.

As Joel struggles with jealousy and guilt amid the holiday season, he must decide if he’s ready to grow up and reach for what he’s always wanted but never thought he could have.
Continue reading

Categories: 4 Star Ratings, Ami's Reviews, Book Review, LGBT, Published in 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment