Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Self Published 

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: Christmas Theme, Cozy Mystery Aspect, Low on Steam, Plenty of Humour, All Rather Adorable

Length: 202 Kindle Pages

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: amazon 

Blurb:

Harvey Novak loves living in Christmas Falls. He loves his job running the Festival Museum too, except when it means he has to deal with his ex, who’s putting together the town’s newest tourist brochures. There are a lot of things Harvey is willing to do for Christmas Falls, but playing nice with the guy who cheated on him isn’t one of them. When a real-life Christmas mystery falls into Harvey’s lap, it offers the perfect distraction. And the guy with the mystery is pretty distracting too.

Sterling van Ruyven has come to Christmas Falls to look for his long-lost uncle, and enlists Harvey’s help to track him down. It’s all business—if there’s an extra van Ruyven heir out there somewhere, Sterling needs to know about it. He isn’t expecting to actually enjoy spending time in this ridiculous Christmas-themed town with the cute guy from the museum.

Their fun flirtation turns into a holiday fling, but that’s all it can ever be. Harvey’s heart belongs in Christmas Falls, and Sterling hasn’t found his yet. But maybe Christmas is the time for miracles after all.

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:

First of all, this is part of a series. Season 2? Anyway, I haven’t read any of them before this book which wasn’t a problem. I am truly a bit of an “I’m pretty well over it” reader at Christmas time because a lot of the stories are the same and they’re often so saccharine if I had all my real teeth, they’d have big old tooth decay potholes in them. I really do need a point of difference in my Christmas reading. This is a Christmas cozy mystery romance, and I like a cozy mystery so I was here for Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew’s Harvey and Sterling’s “research project.” It’s true that this book is also very sweet and as I just mentioned it’s not new for seasonal reading, but it has a very real tug at the heartstrings romance going on underneath the sweetness. It’s also really humorous, and there’s that mystery element. The characters were very well developed and easy to love. Harvey is funny and just plain adorable. Sterling already has a subconscious concept about how stifling his life is, he just requires a Christmas Falls romance zhuzh. I mean, come on, your half-arsed bah humbug can’t defeat the atmosphere of a town that celebrates Christmas all year round.   

This hotel took the whole Christmas theme way too seriously. And so, I realized twenty minutes later as I was heading downtown and had to stop for a reindeer when I was crossing the road, did this whole crazy town.

Sterling’s grandfather has just died which means the business is about to be reorganised with Sterling closer to the helm. That’s what he’s been groomed for. However, he takes off on the quiet to find his Uncle Freddy who disappeared decades ago. Sterling would have Harvey – us – believe his search for his uncle, old photo in hand taken at Christmas Falls around 1990, is purely business related. That he’ll make sure the family empire can go to him with no surprise family member coming for him or his father. Pssh. Sure, Jan.

Harvey and Sterling connect because of a meeting between snow and a car, and it’s Christmas Falls, and the story just flows along beautifully from there. Sterling has that old photo he wants to find out more about and Harvey is interested in the story of someone looking for his lost uncle. Also, Harvey loves love. Sterling initially can’t get his mind around someone helping through kindness and a genuine interest. The helpful, peace on Earth vibe of this town.

Harvey believes Sterling really does love his long lost uncle, that it’s all about a Christmas miracle. He wants to sleuth the hell out of this because of his love of the author Trixie Belden. He’d also like to be a part of Sterling’s Christmas miracle if it’s at all possible because the more he’s with him, the more he’s falling. But it’s kind of hard for him to believe he and Sterling could share a future together. Sterling is so dapper, so handsome, he’ll have to go back to Manhattan when this “research project” is over.

Harvey is a trivia king and works at the local Festival Museum complete with the weird-arse mechanical Santa of 1993 and an evil-eyed elf, and his octogenarian assistant, Martha. BIG shout out to Martha. A woman I aspire (to continue) to be when I hit my eighties. 

“Okay, fine. He’s cute, and he’s nice, and he’s invited me to dinner tonight.”
 “Oh, you lucky thing! If I were fifty years younger and didn’t have a plastic hip, I would bang him like a drum.”
“Martha!” 

Harvey believes he’s a tad too random or too much of an oddball for a nice relationship. His last boyfriend, Steven, a total and utter arsehole, contributed to Harvey’s belief he’s not boyfriend material. I was willing the happy family miracle, for Freddy to be found, and also the Christmas boyfriend miracle for Harvey. With Sterling. This being a romance, the odds were always stacked in Harvey’s (and my) favour.

I might have warned Sterling not to get too excited, but I couldn’t stop the warm bubbles of anticipation flooding into my bloodstream at the thought of discovering Freddy’s boyfriend’s identity, and maybe even finding the two men themselves. I loved my job and my life here in Christmas Falls, but, let’s be real, it wasn’t very exciting. And now a real-life mystery had landed in my lap, courtesy of a handsome stranger, and, even better, it came wrapped around a love story.

The quirky town of Christmas Falls, and it’s small town love for all, was cleverly introduced while the MCs were searching for Sterling’s Uncle Freddy. Harvey took Sterling out and about looking for the boy in the cap. It would seem to the closeted Sterling that maybe Freddy was also gay, found a boyfriend, or a new life – both – and stayed away from the toxic, homophobic van Ruyven family. Who could blame him? It’s all set up for a lot of fun, love, and some intrigue.

You know, if the characters littered throughout the pages of No Business Like Snow Business could educate the rest of the world right now on how to live in harmony and humour with sugar cookies, hot chocolate, hamburgers & fries, random trivia, and helpful, patient, loving attitudes, the world would be a fabulous place. No Business Like Snow Business is 5 Stars! all the way.