Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: An Ice & Snow Collection 
SERIES: Ice and Snow
AUTHOR: Jocelyn Drake
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 695 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 6, 2020
BLURB:
Get swept away in holiday love and laughter in this exclusive Christmas novella anthology.
Fall in love with fake boyfriends, second chance romance, and a little workplace heat.
Pick up four fun holiday novellas in one bundle!
Walking on Thin Ice (fake boyfriends)
It’s not easy for Spenser Roland to admit it, but he needs help. Christmas is just a few days away, and he can’t face the idea of showing up to his family’s gathering alone … again. They want to see him happily settled, but Spenser doesn’t date. He can’t risk it if he wants to protect his family. But one unexpected night with Evan Scott has him thinking that maybe he can strike a deal that will make his family happy and give him a little holiday cheer as well.
Evan never should have accepted a ride home from the sexy-as-hell corporate executive, but he’s proud that he stuck to his guns. He’s done with the one-night stand game. He wants something real. Something that lasts. But when Spenser returns, asking him to pose as his boyfriend over the weekend at a Christmas celebration, Evan is sure he’s lost his mind.
But he can’t say no.
Maybe it’s the shadow of loneliness in Spenser’s bright blue eyes that’s too much like his own. Or maybe it’s his heart-stopping smile.
Either way, Evan knows he’s on thin ice with Spenser, risking his own rules and heart, but Spenser is worth the risk.
Ice, Snow, & Mistletoe (second chance)
John Sullivan is escaping to Denver. Even with a massive snow storm on his heels, he plans to hide away in his cabin in the mountains and ignore Christmas. It’ll be just him and a bottle of whiskey until the new year when he must return to Cincinnati for his best friend’s wedding.
At least, that’s the plan until he runs into Oz at the airport.
Oz … the man who should have been just a fling. The man who was fun and laughs but quickly turned into so much more before he completely kicked John out of his life.
Oz who desperately needs his help…
John is ready to leave Oz stranded at the Denver airport in the coming blizzard, but he finds himself possibly staring down at the reason Oz pushed him away, and John can’t say no.
Second chances don’t come around often, but John is willing to fight for one with Oz.
Snowball’s Chance (enemy-to-lovers workplace)
Christmas is a time of love, second chances…and getting stuck on a project with the one coworker who drives you insane.
Adam Reynolds loves working as a graphic designer for Roland-Wainwright, but he could do without being tied to so-called marketing genius Jason Edmond. The man might know his way around a campaign, but he’s boring and far too demanding. Though, Adam has to admit that the man is incredibly sexy and maybe there is a little mystery about what he does when he’s not wrapped in his form-hugging suit all day.
Jason ecstatic to be selected to work on this unique marketing campaign for Roland-Wainwright, but he’s not looking forward to dealing with Adam’s know-it-all attitude. Okay, so maybe the guy creates visually stunning graphics that are so far ahead of his peers…and maybe he is occasionally distracted by Adam’s sinful mouth.
Jason and Adam must find a way to work together to complete the campaign without killing each other. And if they succeed, the prize at the end stands to change both their lives in ways they never imagined.
Defrosting Jack (bisexual awakening age gap)
Jack Reynolds never thought he’d be wading back into the dating pool at this point in his life.
To brave the singles scene, Jack decides he needs to lose his dad bod in favor of something a little more cut.
And getting back into shape is a lot easier with the help of his new friend, Corbin Barnes.
But then, Corbin just has a way of making everything easier and fun.
Even with his family drama, Corbin keeps Jack laughing with his amazing sense of humor and those sexy smiles.
Whoa…wait a minute! Sexy smiles?
Yeah, Jack can’t deny it. Corbin is a very sexy man.
Jack treasures his friendship with Corbin, but is he willing to risk it to take a chance on something that could everything he dreamed of…with a guy?
A very sexy, sweet, younger guy.
Jack might need a little Christmas magic to figure this one out and still get his happily ever after.
Defrosting Jack is a standalone MM holiday novella that has two cute kids, a meddling younger brother, a disapproving father, a sexy nun, a sprinkling of Christmas magic, and dirty fun with dessert.
Curl up with some new holiday book boyfriends now!
Author’s Note: The anthology contains previously released novellas and is more than 175,000 words. No new content has been added. Buy the ebook bundle and save nearly $2 compared to buying each individually.
REVIEW:
So originally I read these out of order with reading the second book before the first one 🙂 It’s wasn’t a huge problem, but I will say that reading them in order was a very enjoyable experience and there weren’t any spoilers then as I moved along. This is a really nice way to be able to enjoy the four stories of these related couples.
In Walking on Thin Ice, Spenser sees a guy he’s really interested in one night while he’s out at his favorite bar with his friend John. They are like brothers – roommates in college and besties ever since. But Spenser doesn’t do relationships. But Evan, the object of his desire, doesn’t do hookups. After a bad breakup with a gaslighting ex, he feels like he deserves a tomorrow. So they agree to disagree and just hang out – no hanky panky 😉
It’s close to Christmas and Spenser gets a rather hairbrained idea to take Evan home with him for the family Christmas party. He needs a “buffer” with his family. But when we find out what he really wants, it’s a bit late. Because Evan has been falling in love with not only Spenser but his entire family – well bar one – and the feeling is mutual. When there is trouble though, Evan can’t stay and watch Spenser suffer. And he won’t cause more pain for both of them. Luckily Spenser comes to his senses 🙂
In Ice, Snow & Mistletoe, the story of a bi guy, Oz, who drops the guy he’s seeing. Told in a series of flashbacks juxtaposed against present day, we find out how much Oz’s life changed and why he let John go. While Oz’s life has been taken over by overwhelming responsibilities, John has drifted, never forgetting the one guy he really felt connected to.
When they run into each other 5 years later in the airport and then Oz gets stuck out of town, they reconnect on a totally different level and John begins to understand what had happened years before. I like the way things weren’t just easily resolved in this one. There are definitely things to be worked out and the guys are able to do so at their own pace.
In Snowball’s Chance, Jason and Adam are two co-workers who don’t really like each other but are thrown together to work on a project. Adam is friends with Evan (from the first novella) and the company is RWE, Spenser’s family’s company. Assumptions are made about Adam and how he got the job and Jason has believed them. Jason doesn’t associate with anyone at work. He worked hard his whole life to get where he is and he’s buried under staggering student loan debt. He hasn’t seen his family in years. They are always in some sort of competition and that has them finding working together really difficult.
Turns out they are both dead wrong about a lot of things. And they have a lot in common. As they work on the project, they begin to put the pieces together. That is the catalyst for turning their relationship around and also for figuring out what they really want. Adam’s brother Jack in this one – great and supportive.
In Defrosting Jack, Adam’s brother Jack is coming off a divorce. He’s got two kids, a dad bod and no life. He decides to go to the gym and try to get back in shape for dating – at the behest of Adam and Jason 😉 But he finds a lot more at the gym that just a workout. He find Corbin. A friend with the potential for a lot more.
Corbin is not so satisfied with his life. His dad is a homophobic jerk, but he’s his only family. Working together is one thing, but his dad is disrepectful to Corbin on the regular. But he really looks forward to his workouts with Jack. And he’s really surprised when it seems like Jack might be interested in more since he was sure Jack was straight.
Luckily Jack has Adam and Jason to talk him through his newly accepted attraction to men and Corbin in particular. I loved the way their relationship developed and how honest they were. Everything wasn’t smooth sailing, but they were able to communicate and work through the issues.
Overall, this is a really good series. I thoroughly enjoyed each one of these couples and their path to their HEAs. It was really fun to see the couples from previous stories pop up in each of the subsequent stories. And I absolutely loved the supporting characters and most of the families – from Oz’s daughter Lily to Spenser’s parents and siblings and spouses to Jack and his kids. Definitely recommended for those in the mood for happy ending holiday stories over a number of tropes – from enemies to lovers to bisexual awakening to fake to real lovers to second chances. All very well done. As expected from this author 😉
RATING: 
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