Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Faux Ho Ho

SERIES:  Little Village

AUTHOR:  Nathan Burgoine

NARRATOR:  Giancarlo Herrera

PUBLISHER:  Bold Stroke Books

LENGTH:  4 hours and 38 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  July 20, 2022

BLURB:

Silas Waite doesn’t want his big-C Conservative Alberta family to know he’s barely making rent. They’d see it as yet another sign that he’s not living up to the Waite family potential and muscle in on his life. When Silas unexpectedly needs a new roommate, he ends up with the gregarious—and gorgeous—personal trainer Constantino “Dino” Papadimitriou.

Silas’ parents try to browbeat him into visiting for Thanksgiving, where they’ll put him on display as an example of how they’re so tolerant for Silas’ brother’s political campaign, but Dino pretends to be his boyfriend to get him out of it, citing a prior commitment. The ruse works—until they receive an invitation to Silas’ sister’s last-minute wedding.

Silas loves his sister, Dino wouldn’t mind a chalet Christmas, and together, they could turn a family obligation into something fun. But after nine months of being roommates, then friends, and now “boyfriends”, Silas finds being with Dino way too easy, and being the son that his parents barely tolerate too hard. Something has to give, but luckily, it’s the season for giving. And maybe what Silas has to give is worth the biggest risk of all.

REVIEW:

Note:  This is the 4th book in this series, but can certainly read as a standalone.  It does however, contains spoilers for a previous book in the series.

Silas is an adorable guy living in Ottawa. He’s got a job and he’s working on an app that is a gamification of Pride information.  His family who thankfully lives far far away in Alberta happily lets him be – for the most part.  His father and now his brother are Conservative provincial politicians who like to trot Silas out to show how “accepting” they are.  Although of course that is just PR.  Unless Silas is going to  change who he is, it’s fine for him to stay in Ottawa.  When Silas’s perfect roommate and bestie move out to move in with their boyfriend, Silas needs another roommate.  Enter Dino – Silas’s polar opposite.  Dino is a big guy – a personal trainer who ends up being a much better fit than Silas ever thought he would be.  Despite their pretty opposite personalities, families, jobs, physical appearance, etc., they really work well together.

When Silas’s family try to force him to come home for Thanksgiving, Dino butts into the conversation and tells them that they can’t because they already have a previous engagement 😉  Silas is so gobsmacked, he doesn’t contradict Dino.  And so they end up at Dino’s boisterous family Thanksgiving 🙂  Everything’s going along perfectly until Silas gets an unexpected invitation in the mail.  Her sister (the only person in his family he really cares about and cares about him as more than a PR stand-in) is getting married.  And she’s invited Silas AND Dino!  UGH!  He really wants to go and he doesn’t want to go alone but he doesn’t think he can stand it.  Dino volunteers to go as his boyfriend and they can get a nice trip out of it.

Of course you know that can’t go smoothly.  With family drama, Dino and Silas trying to negotiate this new twist to their status and then a nasty ambush, everything is about to come crashing down.

This was an absolutely ADORABLE and fun holiday story with some fun twists.  I loved the way the chapters skipped back and forth from the present day leading up the wedding and then back over the previous months of Silas and Dino living together and learning about each other.  They really become true friends during the time they live together.  Dino dates other people and goes about his life.  Silas is working and working hard on his app.  He’s also learning that many of his assumptions about Dino are wrong.  He sees the gentle side of him.  Dino takes him under his wing and teaches him things that Silas would never in a million years have thought he could do.  They have FUN!  Like a lot of it – at the gym where Dino works, at Pride, with Dino’s family, and of course with their friends.  It’s clear that these guys “get” each other.  I adored the climactic moments of this story and the way the crappy family treatment comes back to bite the culprits in the ass 😉  Silas’s sister and her husband are completely supportive and could not have cheered Silas on more.  There were so many lovely moments in this story I couldn’t even choose a favorite.  Just a perfectly formed story with a lovely holiday thread through the whole thing.  I am so glad there are some more stories in this universe because this author has a wonderful way of capturing the people, the places and the feelings.  Highly recommended beautiful *chef’s kiss* little morsel!

This is only the second audiobook I’ve listened to by Giancarlo Herrera and like this first one, it was brilliant.  Just the right amount of enthusiasm without being over the top.  The voices and accents were perfect.  I really felt Silas’s longing for something more in this story.  It was wonderful to see his evolution from the invisible black sheep of his family to someone who was confident in himself and his desires and his love for Dino.  Dino is the opposite – playing everything pretty laid back and close to the vest so as to not run over Silas or scare him away 🙂  I even loved his evil laugh for the family friend who gets the drop on Silas’s a*hole brother.  Just a tour de force performance of this sparkling story.  I really hope that this narrator will continue with this series.  He is definitely a very talented performer!

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Audible