Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Self Published

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: Christmassy, Humour, Forced Proximity (*November 18th Release)

Length: 227 Pages

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: amazon 

Blurb:

When is a kidnap not a kidnap? When it’s a rescue.

Rudolf Bell does NOT need saving. But after the worst performance of his life, there are those who disagree. All he wants is to have a good time and forget everything for a while. Easier said than done when the media have done a hatchet job on him. His career’s not over, though. Not until he says so.

Arlo Thomas has never forgotten the classical pianist who looks more like a rock star, even if his documentary about the precocious talent never saw the light of day. Seeing Rudolf’s bad press spurs him to drastic action. It’s not kidnap if it’s a luxurious cabin and it’s for Rudolf’s own good. Right?

When a rekindled friendship turns to passion in the remote winter wonderland location, Arlo’s determination to resist Rudolf slowly crumbles. As the days pass, Rudolf may have to admit he did need saving, and that Arlo’s the perfect man to do it.

It’s a shame snow melts and all good things must come to an end before Christmas.

Saving Mr. Bell is a MM snowed in, forced proximity, only one bed winter/holiday romance featuring a Christmas tree that just never seems to get decorated, snow, sledging, strip poker, underwear sharing, more snow, wolves of a non-shifter nature, a cozy log cabin, humor, snark, and two men who’ll hopefully learn during the course of their stay that there’s always a way to get something if you want it badly enough.

Review:

Rudolph Bell is a superstar classical pianist being run into the ground by his manager, Jade. Yes, he drinks too much. Yes, he’s done some drugs, and his manager wants him in rehab, stat! Tells Rudolph his father feels exactly the same way. Rudolph doesn’t agree. He doesn’t believe he has substance abuse issues, it’s just a way to unwind. Annnd… (re)enter Arlo Thomas, a documentary maker who once did a doco on the then seventeen turning eighteen-year-old rising star. Rudolph is now twenty-three. Arlo kidnaps borrows Rudolph, who is pretty drunk, outside a Salzburg nightclub and whisks him off to a cabin kilometres from anywhere. Okay. Rudolph is obviously not happy about someone kidnapping borrowing him, no matter the thought process behind it.

“But it’s for my own good?”
“You don’t have to say it like it’s an absolutely outlandish concept.”
“Oh, trust me, I do. It’s been six years, Arlo. People don’t stay incommunicado for six years and then decide they’re the person to swoop in and save them.”

At the cabin there’s no reception. No nearby neighbours, and the snow is falling big time. So they’re in for the duration. Besides, are there wolves in Austria? Rudolph does try to leave at the beginning but a near brush with hypothermia and the idea of wolves means he embraces his captivity log cabin lifestyle. Besides, Arlo, in the light of day, feels maybe he shouldn’t have borrowed Rudolph like he did, even if it was with the best of intentions, so he’ll take him back to Salzburg once the snow subsides. That won’t be for a few weeks. In the meantime, there is a piano that Rudolph can play while he’s there, although he treats it like a poisonous snake, and board games, and let’s not forget that snow. But there is no alcohol.

Rudolph decides to make the best of a… unique situation. Arlo is interesting and there was that connection at the time of the doco Arlo made about him. Since then, Arlo has carried on with his career as a serious documentary maker and has kept tabs on Rudolph’s career, which has taken a bit of a hit after his drinking, the headlines, and a disastrous concert in Germany. It’s Arlo’s mission to save Rudolph Bell, hence the title.

Saving Mr. Bell is really nice. It’s Christmassy. There’s a chopping down of a Christmas tree and subsequent verbal sledging about that. Rudolph has bragging rights about how he did it but the ancient one, Arlo, couldn’t. There’s also the other sledging, as in toboggining, in the snow. Board games. Poker of the strip variety and some more bonding over eleven days as the MCs rekindle something that was a spark but not the right time six years prior. Now, the men play at witty, sassy dialogue.

I paused on the next one. “I found one for you.”
“What?”
I held it up with a grin. “Bingo. I bet that gets your heart racing.”
“Six years difference,” Arlo said with wry amusement. “That’s all.”

And the sex is a bonus.

I’d found him handsome when I was seventeen, but now, he was the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. Definitely the most gorgeous that had ever blown me, and I thanked whatever gods had brought us to this point.

Getting to know each other in an idyllic location with no standard media, social media, or phones, all while the snow subsides into a postcard, it’s nice. More than nice. Rudolph does in fact need some saving because it would seem a couple of those around him see him as a meal ticket, especially Jade. He’s been so tired for so long he couldn’t recognise the burnout, until Arlo. Until this secluded cabin. Until being present and learning a few things about himself and himself with Arlo.

Overall:

Cheery. Cheeky, sweet, Saving Mr. Bell has spicy moments too. Some poignancy. The reindeer that appears between chapters is also a gorgeous touch. The dialogue was everything, humorous, snarky, eventually caring.

“How long can you stay here?”
“How long do you want me here.”
“How long’s a piece of string?”
“How long is the river Nile?”
“What?” I breathed against his hair.
“Oh, sorry. I thought we were just asking questions about how long stuff is.”

These are two great MCs. No drama. A little bit of ‘we’re enjoying ourselves now in this bubble but real life beckons, what’s going to happen then?’ I always enjoy that scenario. H.L. Day is really on point with Saving Mr. Bell. It’s a joy and I inhaled it. 5 Stars! 

“You’re going to kill me,” I gasped out when I came back to earth, Rudolph’s head resting on my shoulder.
He lifted his head to reveal a smile a mile wide. “Can you imagine? The papers would have a field day with that. Pianist and documentary film maker fuck each other to death in remote location. Was it a suicide pact? Was it a sex game gone wrong? Who knows? But we’ll waste thousands of column inches between now and eternity speculating about it and coming up with every permutation.”