Release Day Book Review: Noel I Won’t by D.J. Jamison

Reviewed by Sadonna

 

TITLE:  Noel I Won’t

AUTHOR:  D.J. Jamison

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  190 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 19, 2025

BLURB:

Will I give my heart away this holiday season? Noel, I won’t.

When my first head chef gig implodes and I find out my dad has a health crisis, I go home for the holidays.

Only to find the lovable farmboy next door has moved in.

He’s helping my parents run our family’s Christmas tree farm. Has moved into my house. Has seemingly *replaced* me.

He may be gorgeous and a hard worker and even sweet when he wants to be, but I can’t step aside for him. Can’t let my parents continue to struggle with the farm.

Not even when we find new life for the farm–and for me as a chef.

Not even when Hopper warms my bed every night.

I might be falling in love–with Hopper, with my hometown, with a life I could never envision when I was eighteen and desperate to leave. But I vowed long ago that I’d never be happy in small-town Nebraska.

But when Hopper asks me not to leave him, what can I say except…

Noel I Won’t.

REVIEW:

Noel Grisold is having a career crisis.  He’s left his small town for culinary school and then worked his way up through the very difficult world of Chicago restaurant life.   But things take a sour turn and at the same time, he learns his dad has had a health crisis.  So he decides to return to is family’s Christmas tree farm and check to make sure his parents are ok.   He feel immense guilt for not returning or even communicating more often.  He didn’t love being the only gay kid in his HS and his memories are not encouraging 🙁  He’s also dismayed when he gets home and finds that the lights aren’t up as usual, the archway is gone and the event space room is full of boxes.  Hmmmm.  Maybe things had been sliding a bit even before his dad’s health crisis.

Hopper Kelly has been helping Maggie and Ed Grisold on the farm for some time.  In fact, he’s been living in Noel’s old bedroom.  But now Noel is coming home and Hopper needs to move out to a guest room.  When Noel shows up, he seems quite angry with Hopper.  Hopper isn’t sure why.  But he does know that he is NOT the Grisold’s son and it’s time he remember that.  Noel is prickly and downright hostile about some things – like a coffee mug – with Hopper.  What the heck?

Hopper and Noel continue to butt heads a bit, with Hopper pointing out that he has been the one taking care of things with his folks and keeping the farm going.  Noel is still feeling guilty but Hopper’s needling make things worse.  The truth is that both men are needed to get through the holiday season.  Noel is making cinnamon rolls for the shop, Hopper is taking the trees into town and Noel is going to make a heart-healthy Thanksgiving meal with the best selection from the Granville Farmer’s Market.

Hopper is really astonished and impressed with Noel’s cooking – not that he should have been surprised since Noel has his own restaurant.  But the Thanksgiving dinner is spectacular.  Then his dad shows up.  He’s half in the bag, demanding and frankly a bit embarrassing.  He’s lost his job and he clearly needs money – which Hopper is going to have to handle 🙁   But the Thanksgiving dinner starts a thaw between Hopper and Noel.

Noel realizes how much Hopper has been holding things together for his parents.  Hopper realizes that Noel’s life in Chicago is not some easy life and that Noel has a lot  on his plate too.  They both have an eye-opening moment and it turns out that they have a lot more in common than they think 😉  In fact it turns out that their “interests” line up quite well.  And thus begins a fling?  I Holiday romance?  But what happens when Noel goes back to his life in Chicago??  How can Hopper get him to stay?

OMG!  I love this!  For fans of DJ Jamison’s other series, there are a number of cameos from characters in Granville.  If you haven’t read these previous series, it does work fine as a standalone (but I highly recommend all of these other series).  This is a really wonderful holiday story with all the feels!  Hopper and Noel are two guys who really could use a good holiday season.  While they are start off with a bit of hostility, things begin to come together fairly quickly.  Despite the issues that both are facing, this really ends up being a fairly low angst story with a lot of fantastic holiday content – from Thanksgiving to Christmas trees to holiday craft fairs and family time with a dash of humor and a ton of heart.  I absolutely LOVED this and I highly recommend this as a wonderful holiday treat 🙂  DJ Jamison has done it again.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon