Reviewed by Carissa

 

TITLE:  The Healing Power of Eggnog

 

SERIES:  2013 Advent Calendar – Heartwarming

 

AUTHOR:  Jamie Fessenden

 

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner Press

 

LENGTH:  68 pages

 

BLURB:  

 

Will Sutherland hasn’t been home to see his parents in four years—not since they reacted badly when he came out. This Christmas, he’s finally worked up the courage to go home, where he’s surprised to find they’ve taken in a boarder. Ryan Bennett is just a couple years younger than Will, cute, sweet… and openly gay.

 

As Will deals with his jealousy of the man who’s been receiving the love and acceptance he was denied, Ryan finds himself falling for Will’s brooding good looks. But Ryan also suspects the Sutherlands may be using him as a pawn in their long-standing conflict with their son. Will this Christmas finally tear the family apart, or is there a chance they can put their hurt and anger behind them?

 

REVIEW:  

 

After four long years, Will Sutherland has come home.  But what exactly he is coming home to, he has no idea.  When he left it was in a cloud of anger and hurt, so he doesn’t really expect to be welcomed home with open arms.  When his parents send their boarder–who Will didn’t even know existed–to pick him up instead of doing it themselves, Will is pretty much convinced this trip home is going to be a disaster.  But they did send that card, saying they wanted him home for Christmas.  They wouldn’t do that just to shut him out, right?

 

Ryan Bennett has spent the last two years happily living with the Sutherlands, ever since his own parents threw him out of the house for being gay.  He doesn’t have a clue why Will vanished from the family picture four years ago, but if he was anything like the surly, annoying man he picked up at the bus-station, Ryan is willing to bet it was Will’s own damn fault.

 

Except, when Will starts to relax, and Ryan starts to see the truth behind Will’s stony facade, things start to become heated between the pair.  Well, when they are not yelling at each other, or reverting to playground levels of maturity–apparently the silent treatment never does go out of style for the truly petulant.  When the truth comes out, and hearts become entangled, a trip back to the ol’ family abode might just spell the end of Will’s hope, or the start of a beautiful beginning.

 

Books have an odd way of seeking me out at the hour of most need.  Since I had scheduled this book at the beginning of the month, I had no idea that today, right now, this was just the book I needed to remind me that no, I cannot go rampaging on an entire half of my family tree.  Maybe it was knowing that my family could actually get worse, or that there is hope at the end of this bloody long tunnel, but this was just the book for me today.

 

I liked Will’s anger, leaned on Ryan’s charm, and needed the all-around happy ending for this family.  While becoming boyfriends, and spilling the L word only 48 hours since meeting is a tad bit unbelievable, it was nice to read.  If only because I was craving something that had a happily-ever-after.  The mix of angry Will and loving Ryan just hit the spot for me.  And I loved that Ryan did have a temper on him, they just had to hit the right combination of buttons, and hello Righteous-Fury Ryan!

 

This book is about learning from your mistakes and not staying mired in them past the time to let them go.  It is about family and new love.  It is about how I clearly need to go to the store and pick up some eggnog, because I now have a serious craving–even though I would probably have to dump a bar-full of alcohol in it to reach the proper Sutherland ratio of drunk and morning-after regrets.

 

This book was very nice, and kept outside forces from making want to blow something up, so I’m all for recommending it.  It is short, sweet, and packed full of hot little moments that are only eclipsed by the emotion that has worked its way out of the story and into my heart.  (Though, that could be the rum talking.)

 

RATING:  

 

BUY LINKS:  Dreamspinner Are Amazon