Rating: 5 ‘Holly-berry & MY T’ Stars

Publisher:

Genre: Gay Holiday Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Christmas, Family, Friends-To-Lovers, Second Chance Romance, Series, Small Town

Length: 188 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

Blurb –

Hoping to give his young daughter, Holly, the joyful childhood he had, Trevor moves back to the one place he’s always considered home—Christmas Falls.

As happy as he is to be back in the festive atmosphere of the small charming town, it’s nothing compared to how excited he is to spend time with his best friend, Trey.

Taking over the family bookstore in the town he grew up in was all Trey had ever wanted. Until Trevor walked back into his life, proving his childhood crush had never completely faded.

And Trevor’s daughter? Well, the adorable girl quickly claims a piece of Trey’s heart.

With the help of a little holiday magic, these two men and one very determined little girl may get exactly what they need—a family.

Christmas Falls is a multi-author M/M romance series set in a small town that thrives on enough holiday charm to rival any Hallmark movie.

Review –

Under the Mistle-tome is the fifth book in the Chester Falls series, and the fourth one by an author I’ve read and enjoyed before.

It’s also my favorite book in the series so far. As soon as the book introduced Holly, Trevor’s four-year-old daughter, I was a goner. I’m a sucker for kids in the real world, and that often carries over to the books I read.

Like Jem and Murphy in Silent Knight, Trevor, an artist, and Trey (aka T or Mr. T throughout the book), a bookstore owner, were the best of friends when they were kids. It broke both their hearts when Trevor’s family moved away from Christmas Falls ten years before. They kinda/sorta kept in contact via social media, but that pretty much stopped on Trevor’s end five years before. Oh, he still kept up with what was going on in Trey’s world, but he didn’t share anything about his own other than some of his art.

This starts with a prologue that takes place the Thanksgiving before the actual story begins. Trevor and Holly are celebrating the holiday with his parents. His mother Edith is a real treat. Not. She’s a snotty snob who looks down on people, including her only son and his daughter.

Every year, for every holiday meal, I hoped it would be different, only to have my dreams dashed.

Trevor dares to throw out how he wants to take Holly to Christmas Falls the following year so she can experience what he did before his family moved away. Mean old Mom doesn’t take that very well, but Trevor’s father encourages it.

It’s now a year later and Trevor has come back home, his little girl in tow. He surprises Trey by showing up at the bookstore for a children’s story event. Watching Trevor and Trey reconnect after so many years was so sweet. Even sweeter was watching Jean, Trey’s mother, welcome Trey home like a lost long son, and accepting Holly as a member of the family like she was born into it.

Trevor didn’t just come to Christmas Falls for a visit. He had a realtor find him a house to buy, then he packed up and moved back home. Holly has taken to the town as Trevor had hoped she would, having the time of her life seeing all the Christmasy stuff and spending time with Mr T, what she calls Trey.

She takes to Trey right off. As for his mother, Jean…she’s the type of mother everybody would love to have. She’d always loved Trevor when he was a kid, considered him one of her own, and the same applies to Holly. She and Trey’s father were wonderful.

At first, Trevor and Trey spend as much time together as they can reconnecting. Of course, Holly’s with them too, which is just fine for Trey because he’s already fallen head over heels for the little girl. He’s long been in love with her dad, and apparently, Trevor feels the same about this childhood best friend. They finally take their relationship to the next level and it’s game over for both of them.

There’s zero drama or angst in this book. It’s a feel-good story throughout. The only thing I can think about that was bad would be Trevor’s snobby mother. The author tried to make good with Edith later, and maybe she did, but I’ve met too many people like her in the real world. For that reason, I couldn’t bring myself to give the woman a pass.

As with the books before it, Under The Mistle-tome has an epilogue that takes them down the road a bit. In this case, it’s the following Christmas. Had the book ended after the last chapter, I’d have been happy. The epilogue, however, just added to the overall sweetness of the story.

I adored these guys together. Neither man had their foot out the door of the town like some of the characters in the other books. There’s no internal monologue about not being sure if they want to stay in Chester Falls. There’s literally no drama at all. It was simply two former best friends reconnecting and discovering that they belong together forever. Holly just made everything complete.

Holly tickled me.

“My friend Johnny at school said that his new daddy stayed the night with his mommy all the time, and that’s how they got married. You have to be Daddy’s boyfriend first,” she said seriously, staring at T. “But then you can have a lot of sleepovers with Daddy, and then you can move in with us…”

~~~

“I wanted another mommy because Johnny said another daddy made his mommy so happy, and she stopped being sad after his first daddy ran out like a good fernothing hoebag.”

~~~

“I heard you talk to Mommy in Heaven while you packed up your room, and you told her all about Mr. T, and how maybe you’d take her a… uh, do what she said and talk to Mr. T about how he’d always been the one.”

~~~

“My Daddy and MY T, kissing in a tree, d.B.r.t.G” Holly laughed. “Johnny taught me that.”

I’d love to be introduced to this Johnny kid. He cracked me up without even being in the book. 🙂

I know a lot of readers aren’t big fans of super sweet books, and they need a little drama in their reading. Usually I need a little conflict as well. But there are also times I need sappy sweet love stories that give me all kinds of feels before it’s over. This definitely did that for me.

Christmas Falls is every bit as awesome as it has been since the first book. It’s way over the top during the holiday season, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.