Reviewed by Sammy

TITLE:  Angels in the City

AUTHOR:  Garrett Leigh

PUBLISHER:  Fox Love Press

LENGTH:  243 pages

RELEASE DATE:  December 3, 2020

BLURB:

A fake relationship with a stranger. An office romance with doughnuts and white knights. An addictive arrangement—friends with benefits—fast turns to love.

Jonah Gray is rich, successful, and the most eligible bachelor in the city, according to his mother, at least. But the truth is, despite her efforts to pair him off, he’s fine on his own. All he needs is a date to the Christmas ball.

Sacha Ivanov is a lone wolf, content in the cycle of long days, late nights, and anonymous hook ups, but when a chance encounter in a broken-down lift brings a gorgeous copper-haired CEO into his life, everything begins to change.

As Christmas fast approaches, a favour for a stranger blooms into something more. He doesn’t do second dates or relationships. But for kind-hearted Jonah, his angel in the city, he might just change his mind.

Angels in the City is a Christmas themed MM friends-to-lovers, forced proximity, office romance. Expect fraught days, steamy nights, and true love built around festive snacks and Christmas trees.

REVIEW:

Jonah just needs to make his annual appearance at his parent’s holiday ball and then he can finally call it a day and go home. Hopefully his mother won’t have yet another date in tow for him or badger him about the fact that he is now old enough to be bringing home someone serious. Serious doesn’t cut it for Jonah as his work is about all he can handle these days. But a short elevator ride later, Jonah finds himself passing off the new guy who works next door to his own offices as his faux boyfriend and wondering just how he managed to do it. The guy, Sacha Ivanov, is amazingly hot and a bit mysterious—also frustrating as the guy can’t seem to offer up a straight answer to anything Jonah asks of him. But a one night hook-up doesn’t need to be transparent so Jonah takes it all in stride, until the idea of just being Sacha’s go to sex buddy loses its shine and he wants more—something Sacha has warned will never happen.

Garrett Leigh’s new Christmas story, Angels in the City, is out and it’s incredibly sexy, romantic and heart-warming—a trifecta of plusses in any romance category. First off, Jonah is so incredibly sweet. He is kind to his employees, respectful and loving to his parents and just an overall thoughtful guy who tends to listen and learn about people and their needs without being apparent about it. Then we meet Sacha, who we know is hiding a past full of painful memories that include the death of his beloved mother and a drunk and unfeeling father. It’s as if Sacha has cut part of himself off from others—never getting too involved, viewing his staff as idiots and convincing himself he needs no one but his own company to be happy.

I never felt he was antisocial or mean-spirited rather just astoundingly blunt and truthful—until it came to his own personal needs for affection and friendship and that is where Jonah comes in to blow the lid off of everything Sacha holds dear. The idea that he could enter into a no strings relationship of enjoying Jonah physically and then walk away is a fallacy that Sacha tries to cling to for way too long—almost derailing the fact that they are both rapidly falling for each other. It will take Sacha finally talking sense to himself and almost losing Jonah in the process to finally wake up—and, as a reader, I am so glad he does.

Angels in the City is a well-written romance that time-wise may seem to boast an insta-love theme but it feels like so much more than that. Even though the story focuses on just a few weeks prior to Christmas it feels like these two dance around their attraction for months—in a good way. Author Garrett Leigh manages to make you sit on the edge of your seat hoping Sacha finally gives in to what you already know is the best thing that could ever happen to him—Jonah. Between Sacha’s acerbic wit, Jonah’s loving heart and the side cast of characters who see it all coming together before the two men in this story do this novel is one that will brighten a holiday bookshelf quite nicely.

RATING:

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