Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Christmas Crackers
AUTHOR: Jay Northcote
PUBLISHER: self-published
RELEASE DATE: November 16, 2020
LENGTH: 411 pages
BLURB:
Three bestselling MM Christmas romances in one great collection!
***
Cold Feet: Best friends snowed in together. When the heat rises, will they get cold feet?
Getting snowed in at a remote cottage in Wales with someone he’d fancied for ages isn’t exactly how Sam expected to spend Christmas. His feelings for Ryan are pointless. Ryan’s straight—or so he thought.
Until now, Ryan’s kept his feelings for Sam buried. Why ruin a friendship over what might only be gay experimentation? Playing it cool seems safer, until a cold snap makes sharing body heat vital. In their Welsh safe haven, anything seems possible.
As Ryan’s reserve melts away, Sam wants more than stolen kisses under the mistletoe. But a sudden thaw means making decisions. They could face the New Year together—unless one of them gets cold feet.
***
What Happens at Christmas: When two friends pose as boyfriends, could what happens at Christmas turn into something more?
Justin is recently and unhappily single. Christmas is coming, and he doesn’t want to face his ex alone at their office party. So Sean—Justin’s best mate and long-time secret crush—volunteers to go with him and pretend to be his new flame.
Sean has always lusted after Justin from afar, but there’s never been a good opportunity to ask him for more than friendship. Posing as Justin’s boyfriend isn’t a chore, and if Justin wants to rebound onto him, Sean’s more than willing. At the party pretence and reality blur, and a kiss on the dance floor leads to a night of passion.
In the aftermath, they both assume it was a one-time thing until fate intervenes. Stuck together in London over the holidays, they give in to temptation again. But what happens at Christmas stays at Christmas… right?
***
A Family for Christmas: Zac never had a family of his own, but Rudy has enough to share.
Shy, inexperienced Rudy has a crush on Zac from the moment his new colleague walks through the door. On an office night out before Christmas, Rudy finds the courage to make a move, and they form a tentative bond. When he discovers Zac will be alone at Christmas, he invites Zac to come home with him.
Zac prefers to keep people at arm’s length. Yet when Rudy offers him a family Christmas it’s impossible to resist. With no parents of his own, Zac is pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by Rudy’s. The only drawback is that everyone assumes they’re a couple. Unwilling to disappoint Rudy’s mum and make Christmas awkward, they decide not to deny it.
It’s not a chore for Zac to pose as Rudy’s boyfriend, but the pretence makes him want things that scare him—things like a real relationship with Rudy. Zac’s suffered enough rejection in his life already and is afraid to risk his heart. If he can get over his past rejection and let Rudy inside his armour, he might get more for Christmas than he ever imagined.
REVIEW:
Christmas Crackers is a virtual box set/collection of three Jay Northcote holiday romance stories that were previously published separately in 2014, 2015 and 2016. There’s no new content here, although it is nice to have these stories packaged together for some easy holiday reading for first time readers, or as a reminder to those who read these when previously published. The three books are cute and heartwarming, but nothing groundbreaking. They get progressively better, starting with the first book, Cold Feet, through to the third book, A Family for Christmas, which is hands-down the best of the three. Perhaps this reflects the author’s increased experience and writing prowess as time went on.
The first book, Cold Feet, is well-written with two sweet characters, Sam and Ryan, who are best friends and housemates at University. They plan to spend Christmas break with one of their other housemates and his girlfriend at an isolated cabin. Sam is gay and out, and has had a secret crush on Ryan forever, but believes he’s straight. Ryan is bi-curious, maybe gay – he’s still sorting it out and hasn’t told Sam about his sexual identity exploration because he has a crush on Sam. I doubt I even have to tell you what happens next because it’s so formulaic: Ryan and Sam get to the cabin. Housemate and girlfriend are delayed. Unexpected snowstorm blows in, trapping Ryan and Sam at the cabin and preventing the housemate from arriving. Ryan and Sam are now isolated and crushing on each other. Add in lack of heat and sharing of a bed and you see where this is going, and know where it ends up. The story is sweet. There’s minimal angst even though there’s the typical confusion about each other’s feelings and what to do with what happened between them while stuck at the cabin. There’s a definite HEA and all the warm fuzzies that go along with it. The problem is, I felt like I’ve read this exact story many, many times before, and there was nothing particularly compelling about this particular rendering of this trope to make it enticing while reading, or memorable after I finished.
The second book, What Happens at Christmas, is another friends-to-lovers romance, with the fake boyfriend trope thrown in. This time, you have two childhood BFFs, Justin and Sean, with a lot of history and unresolved sexual tension between them. Similar to Cold Feet, the MCs have communication issues and misunderstandings, with a side of hurt feelings. In this one, though, the emotional aspect is developed more and Justin and Sean are given more dimension, which allows the reader to invest more in their struggle and cheer more for their ultimate HEA. But again, there’s nothing particularly novel about this story, so while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t compelling.
The third book, A Family for Christmas, is a definite improvement over the prior two books. This one also presents us with a bit of the fake boyfriend scenario, but it’s a bit different, mainly because the two MCs, Rudy and Zac, are complex and unique in their own ways, as is the scenario that puts them together. Both are introverted and hesitant, and in Zac’s case, held back by past hurts. He is alone and lonely, but doesn’t believe he deserves better and is afraid to put himself out there for friendship, no less romance. Rudy is sweet and affectionate, but sexually inexperienced and vulnerable. These two tentatively open up to each other over the course of the story and it is tender, heartwarming and really just, well … lovely. Rudy’s family is the vehicle that propels this romance and they are so unconditionally loving and welcoming, bringing poor lonely Zac into the fold and having patience with him as he battles with his fear of letting down his walls to let anyone in.
All three books have a sedate, unhurried pacing which really fits the content of the stories. The writing is consistently good, the characters are likeable and the couples make sense together. What differs from book to book is the depth of the emotions, the vividness of the descriptions, and the engagement created between the reader and the couples. In Cold Feet and What Happens at Christmas, depth in these aspects was lacking. The characters weren’t novel; they weren’t given complexity or dimension that would make them stand out from any other characters I’ve read in these same or similar scenarios. In A Family for Christmas, though, there was a definite creation of two people who I would remember for their unique personalities, quirks and struggles. Zac and Rudy were not cookie-cutter nor was the storyline itself trite. Additionally, there’s a host of well-developed secondary characters via Rudy’s family. I felt the holiday aspect most in the third book as well.
Overall, I’m not sure I would have read all three of these stories if they weren’t bundled together in this collection. The only one I’d recommend reading as a standalone is the third book, A Family for Christmas. The collection itself, I could take or leave.
RATING: 
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