Title: What Happens at Christmas
Author: Jay Northcote and Mark Steadman
Publisher: Jaybird Press
Release Date: November 11th 2016
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Blurb:
When two friends pose as boyfriends, could what happens at Christmas turn into something more?
Justin is recently and unhappily single. Christmas is coming, and he doesn’t want to face his ex alone at their office party. So Sean—Justin’s best mate and long-time secret crush—volunteers to go with him and pretend to be his new flame.
Sean has always lusted after Justin from afar, but there’s never been a good opportunity to ask him for more than friendship. Posing as Justin’s boyfriend isn’t a chore, and if Justin wants to rebound onto him, Sean’s more than willing. At the party pretense and reality blur, and a kiss on the dance floor leads to a night of passion.
In the aftermath, they both assume it was a one-time thing until fate intervenes. Stuck together in London over the holidays, they give in to temptation again. But what happens at Christmas stays at Christmas…right?
Mark Steadman does a good job with the character voices and keeps a steady pace for the narration. My only complaint for the narration was I felt like he got a little heavy on pauses.
One of the things I felt that was needed to really get the narration right was the relationship between Justin and Sean and Steadman does well with both the external and internal dialogue.
The story was well written, and the characters well fleshed out…but damn the miscommunication bugged the hell out of me. This was 90% miscommunication but luckily, Northcote writes interesting characters, and it’s such a short novella that there really wasn’t a whole lot of time to get really annoyed.
Overall, it’s a fun story with some pretty hot sexy times, good narration, easy flow, and a sweet HFN/HEA that put me right into a sweet holiday mood.
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