Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Mr. Jingle Bells
SERIES: Home for the Holidays
AUTHOR: Leta Blake
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 480 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 1, 2021
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Opposites attract as frosty business partners become fake boyfriends in this Christmas gay romance!
Playing fake boyfriends starts their sleigh ride into love!
After an emergency forces Ashton Sellers from his apartment, all he wants for Christmas is new lipgloss, zero contact from his abusive family, and a place to stay for the holidays. Cue his business partner begrudgingly taking him in.
Walker’s a fuddy-duddy with no sense of fun, but he does have a safe, warm home with four adorable dogs and delicious food on the table.
If it turns out Walker’s also a secret softy with a tender side and a hot body beneath his endless parade of golf shirts? Great, good, cool. And if Walker wants Ashton to pretend to be his boyfriend for his sister’s Christmas-themed wedding? Awesome, amazing.
Could Walker be the safe haven Ashton missed out on as a child? Could they be falling in love for real?
But when Ashton uncovers a painful mistake in Walker’s past, it hits too close to home. As the jingle bells quiet and the snow settles, will Ashton be able to forgive Walker, or will their relationship be over before it ever truly begins?
Mr. Jingle Bells is a gay Christmas story by Leta Blake featuring forced proximity, opposites attract, fake dating, office romance, steamy scenes, and a taffy-sweet happy ending. It’s set in the Home for the Holidays universe, which began with Mr. Frosty Pants, but can be read as a standalone.
Content warnings for childhood abuse, past addiction issues, PTSD episodes, and gambling.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the third book in this series but can be read as a standalone. It does contain spoilers for the first book 🙂
Walker and Ashton are coworkers and partners with Casey (one of the protagonist from Mr. Frosty Pants, book one of this series) in their advertising company. Walker is completely befuddled by Ashton. He’s everything Walker is not – femme, beautiful, happy and bouncy. Walker actually avoids him whenever he can. He’s sort of content with his life – even if he’s not exactly “happy”. When Ashton has an issue with his apartment, Casey suggests Walker step up and help – and maybe they can get to know each other a little better.
Both Walker and Ashton are operating under a lot of misconceptions about each other. Both are putting on a public face that perhaps doesn’t match was going on under the surface 🙁 Ashton has been through a lot of family trauma and abuse and is dealing with PTSD. Walker has his own share of family “stuff” to deal with, but as the two spend more time together, they get closer. Ashton has to overcome some pretty big hurdles to give this a real try. And when it turns out that there is another “secret” that Walker hasn’t shared, he’s not sure that he can get past it, despite what he and Walker have been building.
Well. This was a lot 🙂 I was not expecting a Holiday story to be this long or cover this much stuff. Both of these guys have more than a steamer trunk’s worth of baggage. They should be calling for a porter! While I enjoyed this book, I feel like maybe it was a little too much? Kinda like that Coco Chanel saying – when you’re ready to live the house, take one thing off 😉 I am a huge fan of this author and she can really write beautiful and touching stories. There are indeed some really touching moments and also some very funny moments. I have to say that it took me a while to warm up to these characters and it took me far too long to read this book which says something to me. I felt like the pacing was slightly off for me at points and maybe that bit of drag slowed me down. But there are wonderful supporting characters and thankfully they helped guide our two MCs to get their acts together 😉 If you feel yourself getting stuck, keep going. The resolution is worth it in the end 😀
Recommended for those who like a little angst with their holiday cheer – especially those who love fake boyfriends, opposites attract, workplace romance and forced proximity stories.
RATING: 
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