Cupid Christmas

Title: Cupid Christmas
Author: Lex Valentine
Cover Artist: Winterheart Design
Publisher: Pink Petal Books
Amazon:
Genre: Contemporary M/M/ holiday
Length: short story/40 PDF pages
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

Review Summary: A delightful holiday story about two men re-connecting years later and realizing that their love still burned as bright as in the past.

THE BLURB

It’s another Christmas at Forbes Ranch and this year the family is playing Cupid with Grayson and Jared’s best friend Steve Yarrow. Years before, Steve’s heart was broken by the love of his life Dalton Emory who left him to further his career by marrying a woman with a rich daddy. Now, divorced, outed and publicly humiliated, Dalton is trying to build a business and keep a low profile. He doesn’t believe he deserves a second chance with Steve after the way he hurt him. However, Dalton didn’t reckon with his former lover’s interfering friends, the depth of Steve’s love nor the forgiveness the spirit of Christmas can offer. Can one lonely, broken cowboy forgive himself and accept the love that has always belonged to him? And will the Forbes tradition of Christmas Eve Happily Ever Afters give Steve and Dalton the future they never thought they’d have?

THE REVIEW

Lex Valentine has written an emotional Christmas tale that made me choke up.

Steve and Dalton had been lovers 10 years ago but Dalton was deep in the closet and at 24 he sold his soul to a rich rancher who made him an offer that included his daughter’s hand in marriage. It didn’t seem to matter to him that Steve was in love with him or that the betrayal would be almost more than he could bear, Dalton was hell bent on having his cake and eating it too. Steve cut his losses because he didn’t want to be Dalton’s dirty little piece on the side.

Dalton’s marriage didn’t mean that he had stopped having sex with men and eventually a decade later he was caught red-handed by his wife giving oral sex to a man. He lost everything — his self respect most of all. He was blackballed by his ex father-in-law and couldn’t find a job anywhere. Now a lot poorer, he had started a livestock company but he was almost destitute. Steve on the other hand was very successful on the rodeo circuit but he never recovered from what Dalton had done to him and had not had another relationship in all those years, preferring one night stands.

Their friends decided to set them up at Christmas since it was obvious that they were still in love with each other. When Steve saw Dalton again he was a different man, a lot humbler and beaten down by life. He apologised sincerely for all the hurt he had caused Steve, and it was obvious that he still suffered from the shame and humiliation of being outed but felt he deserved what had happened to him because of how much he had hurt Steve.

This book illustrates the power of love lost and regained, how two men who cared about each other a long time ago were able to transform that love into an emotion that was different and better now that they had been through the worst that life could send their way. Dalton’s personality had made a 180 degree change – he was no longer the self confident, arrogant man who had married for money but Steve didn’t want the beaten, abjectly humble man, he wanted the former take-charge person he knew and loved. How they compromised to make the new relationship work was very satisfying. It probably would have been easy for the characters to take up where they had left off but they realized that the feelings they had for each other when they were much younger probably wouldn’t have withstood the challenges of time. Now they were more mature and their love had evolved, making it much richer.

I love the way this author’s characters come alive and I have enjoyed all of her M/M books. This holiday short was a treat and showed that a good read doesn’t have to be a novel if the characters are three dimensional and the plot is believable.

Definitely recommended.