The Peppermint Schnapps Predicament by Clare London

39 pages

2017 Advent Calendar Daily – Stocking Stuffers

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK

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!

Review

This here, The Peppermint Schnapps Predicament, is thirty-nine pages worth of seasonal fun that had me either laughing out loud or smiling from start to finish. Frankie and Bill are the ultimate and most joyous proof that opposites do indeed attract.

Frankie is totally over the top, which becomes very clear as soon as the story kicks off.

“I guess you might say my current predicament is punishment for my sins.

What sins? you may ask, amazed that a cute twink like me with such angelic features and a sweet sunny disposition could be so debauched.”

Bill on the other hand is adorably gruff and totally in denial when it comes to how he sees himself, his life and especially Frankie. He tries very hard to convince both himself and the reader that Frankie is something of a walking and talking disaster but can’t deny the attraction he feels, no matter how hard he tries.

In fact, neither man is exactly how they at first appear. Frankie has a lot more going for him than his flamboyant style and lighthearted approach to life and his job seem to indicate, whereas Bill isn’t really the bullish business man he portrays while at work.

Trapped together in the tiny and locked store room is the perfect situation for these two men, who may or may not have been admiring each other from a safe distance for some time, to get closer to each other and discover that sometimes there’s more to a person than what we see at first glance.

Lighthearted, fun, sexy, and totally heartwarming, The Peppermint Schnapps Predicament is a wonderful little treat and a very worthy addition to my collection of holiday reads.

Analog to Digital - Posy Roberts - Review Tour

Length: 13,655

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Dreamspinner | AllRomance | B&N | KOBO 

Blurb

All Ethan wants for Christmas, and the rest of his life, is Toby.

For years, Ethan and Toby have said they’ll never marry, despite Ethan’s secret wishes. So leaving sunny California for snowy Minnesota to witness his sister’s vow renewal is not how he wants to spend his Christmas Eve. It’s the second time she’ll say “I do” in less than a year, when Ethan saying those words to Toby even once is hopeless.

In the run-up to the ceremony, Toby seems to avoid Ethan, and doubts grow in his absence. Ethan can’t help noticing Toby spends more time with Ethan’s family than with him. Little does Ethan know, Toby has desires of his own. But if Toby doesn’t find a way to reveal them, Ethan could leave for home without him.

Excerpt

LOOKING UP from the doodle I’d started on a cocktail napkin, I ordered. “Surly Furious. Two, please.” It was the beer I’d begged my sister to ship to me from back home. I wanted to give my employees a taste of Minnesota, even if they relentlessly teased me about my accent and “unfathomable” work ethic. I didn’t end up owner of a top-rated design house by the time I was in my midtwenties by phoning it in, so I never let their jibes bother me much.

The server reached for glasses after cracking each large can with a pfft and pfft, but I waved him off. “We’ll drink ’em right from the can, thanks.”

“Certainly.”

I slipped a ten in his tip jar and turned to the center of the distinctive ballroom, where people were dancing. His thanks trailed after me as I made my way over to Toby, who looked ready to blend into the leather couch while the room buzzed around him.

I pressed the chilled beer into his warm palm. “Here. This is the one I told you about.”

He took a sip and looked at me with dark eyes before taking another few swallows. He smiled when he finally set the can down. “It’s good. Real good.”

“Told ya.” I leaned in and kissed the beer foam that clung to his mustache. His beard brushed my chin, and as much as I wanted to get lost in his kisses, I was there as the boss tonight and couldn’t really let go like I wanted.

“Look at you two! So in love.” Stella, my right-hand and necessary coconspirator in most projects, plopped herself in the chair next to me and sipped at a neon-pink drink garnished with at least three fruit kabobs. Her eclectic style, mostly latent punk rocker meets Vargas pinup girl, was in full bloom. She would’ve fit perfectly on the nose of an Air Force plane or at any dance club in the city.

I smiled at her as I leaned against Toby’s shoulder. The sparkle in her lined eyes made what she was about to ask obvious.

“When are you two going to finally tie the knot?”

“We’re not,” Toby said without a second’s hesitation.

I crossed my feet at the ankles to ward off any evil as I lied through my teeth. “It’s not something either of us has ever wanted. No need to be tied down to a person. God knows I’m tied down by enough strings to this business, which grows busier by the day.”

Stella studied me out of the corner of her eye, skeptical. I talked shop to shake her focus.

December 29 - V's Reads, Out Of My Head, Hearts on Fire Reviews, Dog-Eared Daydreams, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, BooksLaidBareBoys, More Books Please Blog, The Way She Reads, Keysmash, Gay Book Reviews

December 30 - Bonkers About Books, The Day Before You Came, The Geekery Book Review

January 2 - Making It Happen, Wicked Faerie's Tales & Reviews

January 4 - Bayou Book Junkie

January 6 - Bella's Blog, Books Lovers 4Ever, MillsyLovesBooks, Jim's Blog, MM Good Book Reviews, Slashessed.

My Thoughts

Analog to Digital is a wonderful and sweet Christmas story, a bit of a comedy of errors really.

Poor Ethan, for years he’s been telling his boyfriend, Toby, that he’s not interested in marriage just because he believes that’s how Toby feels. Deep inside Ethan wants nothing more than to be Toby’s husband but he can’t figure out how to share that truth. A visit home for Christmas and to watch his sister and her husband exchange wedding vows for the second time within a year is about the last thing he wants to do. But Toby insists and Ethan loves Toby, so they go.

Things go from bad to worse when Toby keeps on disappearing on Ethan, going off on missions he never has a satisfactory explanation for. Ethan moves from bemused through uncertain to fully convinced that Toby is hiding something from him and maybe even putting distance between them.

What happens next probably won’t come as a huge surprise to the reader but Ethan certainly didn’t see it coming. I read the final fifth of this book with a huge grin on my face and happy tears burning in my eyes once or twice, delighted to see Ethan get everything he thought he would never have.

As always Posy Roberts gave me characters who felt real. Sure, I wanted to slap Ethan once or twice for allowing his doubts to cloud his mind so very fast, but whether I liked them or not, his thoughts and actions were realistic. Toby was utterly adorable, even if he should have realised the turmoil he was creating for Ethan. In fact, I guess it was the fact that these two men weren’t perfect and did stumble once or twice, that made me like them so much.

If you’re in the mood for a Christmas story that will lift your spirits and make you grin hugely, I’d recommend you pick up Analog to Digital asap.

About Posy

Posy Roberts writes about the realistic struggles of men looking for love. Whether her characters are family men, drag queens, or lonely men searching for connections, they all find a home in her stories.

Posy is a Jill of all trades and master of the drill and paintbrush. She’s married to a partner who makes sure she doesn’t forget to eat or sleep during her writing frenzies. Her daughter, a budding author and cinematographer, helps her come up with character names. For fun, Posy enjoys crafting, hiking, and singing spontaneously about the mundane, just to make regular life more interesting.

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Teddy Bears by Brandon Witt

Short Story – 16k words

Dreamspinner Press 2016 Advent Calendar

Buy Links:     Amazon         Amazon UK    Dreamspinner

The blurb:

Other than working the front desk of a gay bathhouse in Denver, Brian McKay is a bit of a recluse. At the best of times, his social life consists of work, role-playing games at a local toyshop, and making YouTube videos with his Teddy Bear hamsters. The arrival of the holidays—with the annoying music, Christmas shopping, and all the reminders of how he disappointed his father—just reinforces his reclusive nature.

When James Olsen, a gorgeous daddy bear who frequents the bathhouse, notices him, Brian is at a loss. He’s not proud of his own bear status or his struggle with weight. The idea that James has interest in him beyond an easy hookup is more than Brian can fathom. But with a little bit of holiday magic, James might help Brian learn to accept Christmas again—and himself.

My thoughts:

‘Teddy Bears’ is the most adorable bah-humbug to the-joys-of-Christmas holiday story. It is quite impossible not to feel for Brian McKay. He’s such a nerdy dork he both made me smile and broke my heart. To say this man has body issues would be a gross understatement. He doesn’t like the way he looks and can’t believe anybody could possibly find him attractive. In fact, he is so certain he’s destined to be alone he’s even given up on dreaming about a happy ending. His dislike of Christmas runs very deep and is rooted in bad childhood memories, and as the day comes closer, Brian gets ever more grumpy.

Enter James Olsen who is everything Brian desires and admires in a man and therefore completely out of Brian’s reach—right? Wrong! When James looks at Brian he doesn’t see an overweight and unattractive nobody, he sees a man he wants to spend time with. All he needs to do is convince Brian that he is really interested and not just feeling sorry for him.

The story of Brian’s slow realisation that not only is James really attracted to him but he also deserves that interest is wonderful and very well written. Rather than through a blinding moment of insight it is James’s wooing of Brian through an interest in his hobbies, an obvious attraction, and a genuine date, that Brian comes to accept his own worth.

I loved how this book was both very sexy and almost innocent at the same time. The contrast between the free-for-all nature of the bathhouse and Brian’s almost prudish self-consciousness was both poignant and very clever.

Brian being willing to settle for the memory of one good night with James all but broke my heart. His subsequent journey put it back together again in the best possible way. Brian’s belief in Christmas miracles came through James, for me it came through Brian’s courage and Brandon Witt’s wonderful writing.

Between Brian finding his happy ending and Spike and Angel (read the book if you want to know who they are) this story was nothing short of adorable. As Christmas stories go, this one is a keeper!

You can find Brandon in the following places:

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