Reviewed by: Sue Eaton

TITLE: A Sucker for Christmas

SERIES: Tinsel & Tentacles Multi-Author Series

AUTHOR: J.P. Sayle

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 222 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 4, 2023

BLURB:

An annual Christmas vacation to Australia gives two long-term friends more than they bargained for—love. But one of them has a secret that could suck in more ways than one.

Fitch found his soulmate, Shaun, when they were both four years old, but they were separated by two things, a couple of oceans and their age. Not to mention the secret Fitch has been keeping. The fact you can turn into an octopus at will isn’t the kind of thing to be sprung on anyone, especially a soul mate.

Every winter, Shaun heads down under to spend Christmas with his family. For the last twenty years, he’s spent his favorite holiday surfing and lazing around on golden beaches with his best friend, Fitch. Shaun wants more than friendship, however, but has no clue how to get the man of his dreams to see him as more than a friend. Enter Mandy, Shaun’s sister, and Christmas is all set to become an adventure with hilarious consequences.

Fitch and Shaun are about to find out how to deal with the discovery that true love comes with suckers.

REVIEW:

This was a very cute Christmas romance, set in the sunshine of Australia featuring surfing, beaches and two best friends.

Fitch and Shaun have been best friends since Fitch found Shaun lost on a beach when they were 4 years old.  For Fitch this meeting came with the realisation that Shaun was his mate, though at such a young age, he thought Shaun was someone to be friends with and someone he wanted to keep around and play with him.  Shaun became best friends with Fitch, someone he played with, surfed with, spent time at each other’s houses and generally did all the things best friends do.  Then one year Shaun moved overseas, but despite the distance between them they remained best friends regularly speaking over video and the phone.  Every year at Christmas time Shaun comes back for a month’s holiday to spend with his parents and sister, Fitch and his family.

Fast forward 20 years and Fitch despairs of ever moving out of the friend zone with Shaun, it would be difficult at anytime to go from best friends to something more but for Fitch he has a very big secret he has been hiding from Shaun, a secret that is at the very heart of what Fitch is and a secret Fitch believes will send Shaun running away from him.

The confusion from both Fitch and Shaun as they try to work out how to take the step from friends to lovers, with both worried about the other and how to broach the subject.  It is a typical bloke situation with neither being very good with words and how to express their feelings.  They are scared to wreck their friendship which both hold dear.  They are also totally oblivious to how the other feels, which is funny but also had me shouting at the book, just man up and talk to each other.

Thankfully Shaun’s sister takes charge and speaks to both individually and coaches them on how to proceed.  Their first date was funny and exactly how you expect it to end, not a total disaster but close.  Both their families were rooting for them, and everyone was in on Fitch’s big secret except Fitch doesn’t realise everyone knows except Shaun.

Can Fitch take his courage in his hand and tell Shaun not only how he feels but exactly what he is?  Can Shaun tell Fitch how he feels, and will he accept how different Fitch is?

A wonderful friend to lovers book with a Shifter twist and a sunshine Christmas feel.

RATING: 

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