What Happens at Christmas by Jay Northcote

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Title: What Happens at Christmas
Author: Jay Northcote
Published by: Indie
Release Date: November 19, 2015
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 113
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, LGBT, Holiday
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

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 pretence 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?

My Review:

4.5 stars — This is probably going to be a short review, b/c I can’t seem to find my words today!  Sometimes the brain just doesn’t want to cooperate you know??  Plus, this book was short and fun, sometimes there’s just not much to dissect!

Both Sean and Justin were very likable characters.  I love that they were a bit different, but fit together really well, you know?  Justin was a more stereotypical gay guy…not flamboyant, but as he said in the book, even from young everyone knew he was gay and it wasn’t really a question.  He was super endearing, and I loved how he felt so comfortable in himself and who he was and what he wanted.  Sean was sort of on the other side of the spectrum, more quiet and reserved.

You could truly feel their friendship chemistry and how much they cared for one another.  I actually understood why they were both reticent to let the other one know of their feelings, even though that’s usually not one of my favourite tropes/plot devices.  But it was kind of fun to see them get that push when trying to make Justin’s ex jealous.  I appreciated that while they were guarded for longer than I’d like, it didn’t drag on super long either.  And their friendship chemistry definitely translated into great steamy chemistry in this case — some very hot scenes!

I really loved the little bit of closure Sean got at the end of the story…I honestly had expected the story to end once they got together for real, but I appreciated that Sean got that bit extra.

And OK, I know this is going to come across silly, but finally in an m/m romance they talk about cleaning in the preparation!  I always wondered about that, and as a straight girl who’s not interested in anal, I had no idea what the process was…it’s always skipped in the books I read, so I was starting to wonder if no one cared.  And that was a tangent you all didn’t need to know about…

So yeah!  Perfect little M/M read for the holidays…