Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  The Geek who Saved Christmas

AUTHOR:  Annabeth Albert

NARRATOR:  Tim Paige

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

LENGTH:  7 hours and 1 minute

RELEASE DATE:  December 14, 2021

BLURB:

His grumpy neighbor needs some holiday sunshine….

Gideon Holiday is the perfect neighbor. Need a cup of sugar? Spare folding chair? Extra batteries? He’s always ready to help. And he’s waited years for his hot, grumpy, silver-fox neighbor, Paul, to need him. For anything. But right now, Gideon would be happy if he could just get the Scrooge-like Paul on board with the neighborhood holiday lights fundraiser.

Paul Frost has no intention of decking his halls or blazing any Yule logs. Even if his spunky bowtie-clad neighbor does look perfect for unwrapping, Paul would prefer to hide away until December is done. But when his beloved younger brother announces an unexpected visit, Paul needs all the trimmings for a festive homecoming – and fast.

Luckily, Gideon is there with a color-coded plan to save Christmas. Soon Paul’s hanging lights, trimming trees, and rolling out cookies. And steaming up his new flannel sheets with Gideon. How did that happen?

It’ll take some winter magic to preserve their happiness and keep these rival neighbors together longer than one holiday season.

Contains mature themes.

REVIEW:

Paul Frost (perfect name) is a bit of a bah humbug at Christmas – no decorations, no furniture even in his house that he’s lived in for years.  Gideon Holiday (perfect name 😉 ), his next door neighbor, happily leads the neighborhood Christmas decorating each year.  They use the decorations as a draw for donations for charity each year.  Paul never takes part.  But this year, something has changed when his younger brother Brandon wants to provide the perfect Christmas backdrop for his perfect proposal to his girlfriend.  Enter Gideon and his plan – which is totally his strong suit 😉

Along the way, they spent a lot of time together of course.  Paul’s past provides clues to why he doesn’t celebrate the holidays.  Gideon’s happy demeanor are hiding a lonely guy who hasn’t had much luck after the breakup of his marriage in connecting with anyone.  His “bossy” persona seem to put people off 🙁  But as they work on redoing Paul’s house and getting his holiday on, they also figure out that they are extremely attracted to one another 😉  They work together well to pull off the perfect backdrop for Brandon and maybe there will be a merry Christmas for Paul and Gideon as well 😀

I think this might be in the running for my favorite Annabeth Albert story yet!  And I am a huge fan.  This holiday story of a grumpy and sunshiny (although part of that may be a bit of a mask) hits every single note.  Honestly, this should be a Hallmark Christmas movie 🙂  You’ve got the opposites attract, the ex that is still in the picture happily as friends, the long awaited Christmas reunion with brother who haven’t spent much time together, the stick up his ass neighbor pissing in everyone’s cornflakes, and the organized neighborhood (HOA) leader.  Add to that the desire to provide a “perfect” Christmas for a much loved sibling and the backdrop for the “perfect” proposal and you’ve got a lot to get done in a short amount of time.  Gideon and Paul have a lot in common that they don’t realize at first.  But as they work together to create this perfect holiday, they come to like and understand a lot more about each other.  I enjoyed the reveal of their backstories.  There are of course a few bumps along the way, but there is also a lovely epilogue with all the feels you could ask for.

Tim Paige is fast becoming an autobuy narrator for me.  His work in the romance genre is vast and his MM romance titles are growing in number all the time.  He does a fabulous job performing this story – not just narrating.  I loved this voice choices for the gruff Paul and the upbeat Gideon.  The secondary characters added a lot of color to the story and were well chosen.  Tim puts just the right amount of emotional heft into the story at the heavier moments but is also good at conveying the lighter side of life with the humorous the fun moments too.  And the steam was definitely there 😉  I think this will definitely be a holiday favorite and a multiple time audio treat for me.  Highly recommended!  This is definitely one of my favorite holiday stories this year.

RATING: 

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