Reviewed by Elizabetta

TITLE: Let It Snow
SERIES: Minnesota Snow #1
AUTHOR: Heidi Cullinan
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: 228 pages
BLURB: The weather outside is frightful, but this Minnesota northwoods cabin is getting pretty hot.

Stylist Frankie Blackburn never meant to get lost in Logan, Minnesota, but his malfunctioning GPS felt otherwise, and a record-breaking snowfall ensures he won’t be heading back to Minneapolis anytime soon. Being rescued by three sexy lumberjacks is fine as a fantasy, but in reality the biggest of the bears is awfully cranky and seems ready to gobble Frankie right up.

Marcus Gardner wasn’t always a lumberjack—once a high-powered Minneapolis lawyer, he’s come home to Logan to lick his wounds, not play with a sassy city twink who might as well have stepped directly out of his past. But as the northwinds blow and guards come down, Frankie and Marcus find they have a lot more in common than they don’t. Could the man who won’t live in the country and the man who won’t go back to the city truly find a home together? Because the longer it snows, the deeper they fall in love, and all they want for Christmas is each other.

Warning: Contains power outages, excessive snowfall, and incredibly sexy bears.

REVIEW:

Can you say Goldilocks and the Tree Bears?

There’s a big ’ole winter snowstorm blowing through the northern Minnesotan backwoods. Frankie Blackburn gets lost easily, he just can’t figure out the GPS. It’s almost Christmas, and he’s on a short holiday, heading home just when the storm hits. Lost and alone on an isolated country road through the big, bad forest, he drives into a ravine to avoid hitting a moose.

Yes, all THAT and three bears.

Let It Snow follows a lost in the woods, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ kinda theme. Slender, blond ’n fabulously swishy (‘don’t call him girly’), Frankie thinks this is the end… they’ll find his fashionably-dressed, frozen-cold body out in the middle of nowhere…

But he gets rescued by three burly backwoods lumberjacks. They welcome Frankie into their snug-as-a-bug little cabin and all settle in to wait out the killer snowstorm. They’re quite the opposite of Frankie; the three woodsmen are manly-men. When he realizes they all play for the same team, Frankie takes to thinking of them as ‘the three bears’.

“They had thick muscles and beards and knew how to wrangle generators and drive snowmobiles… fell trees and drank whisky straight from the bottle. The three bears were gay, but they were the manliest of men.”

Papa bear, Marcus is gruff and hiding some deep hurt. The other two bears, Arthur and Paul, are a hot mess of a couple, given to loud bouts of BDSM sex in the quiet snowed-in nights. They’re oh so friendly, and Frankie is welcome too! Ooo-lah lah!

But their bed is too small for vanilla Frankie.

What has Goldilocks… erm… Frankie gotten himself into?!! Well, he gets to bunk with stand-offish but hunky Marcus in the only available bed left, a pull-out couch.

That bed is just right.

“God, you’re just so big and sexy. So fucking male it hurts.”

The author builds a real sense of community with the secondary characters in their small-town setting. The big storm brings lots of problems to the small town and our four guys lend helping hands in some pretty creative ways. What other entertaining pursuits can our industrious guys get up to in a white-out?  Lots of sweet, but with a smidge of kink to spice it up. The characters are endearing but far from perfect. Arthur and Paul have their issues, and Marcus and Frankie have their own fears to work out.

This is a light-hearted, fun-infused, snowed-in story just in time for the holidays. In the end it’s all about community; about letting go of fear and taking a leap of faith into love.

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A note: Don’t be put off by Frankie’s effeminacy… Cullinan writes him so well, it’s just a part of who he is, he’s such a sweetheart. Even better, Marcus digs it.

A coda: The soundtrack of Paul and Arthur getting it on up in the loft while Frankie and Marcus have to listen in, downstairs…  So Hot. I want more about Paul and Arthur, gotta have more!

Elizabetta rates it – 

BUY LINKS: Samhain Publishing :: Amazon :: Barnes & Noble

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Elizabetta is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ELIZABETTA’S REVIEWS
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