Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Snowy Skies & Puppy Eyes
SERIES: Back to Belleville
AUTHOR: Fae Quin
PUBLISHER: self-published
LENGTH: 430 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2025
BLURB:
One secret Santa. Two lonely hearts. And a Christmas spent tearing down walls to let love in.
Jason Harker: I’ll admit it—I can be a little nosy. When you live alone in a town as small and close-knit as Belleville, other people’s stories have a way of filling the quiet. So when I find newcomer, Joe Milton, in the alley behind my store, cradling a bird like it might break his heart to let go, I make it my mission to befriend the enigmatic man. Only problem? Now the whole town thinks I’ve got a thing for Joe. Me? With a crush? On a man? No. That’s… definitely not happening. Probably. Maybe. But the more I try to prove to everyone that Joe and I are just friends, the more this surly, adorable man starts feeling like the best Christmas present I never asked for.
Joe Milton: Moving to a new town to start an apple farm? Ambitious. Trying to renovate a crumbling house by myself before my family arrives for Christmas? Possibly delusional. And just when I’m about to lose all hope and sanity, a secret Santa steps in to save me. But it’s his so-called elf helper who really catches me off guard. Jason Harker is kind, charming, and makes my heart race faster than my impending renovation deadline. This new friendship and the swirl of confusing feelings make me wonder if this Christmas might mend more than just this old house.
Snowy Skies and Puppy Eyes is a standalone Holiday MM romance with high heat, a HEA, and no cliffhangers. Includes a dislike-to-friends-to-lovers romance between a secret millionaire and a grumpy apple farmer. Together these two are tooth-achingly sweet. If you like heartfelt stories with holiday magic, positive mental health rep, graphic steam, and the slowest, sweetest of all burns then read on!
REVIEW:
Fair warning! This story really packs a punch.
Jason is a wealthy guy who somehow got the idea that he was not enough. His parents were too busy being generous that they didn’t spend time with their own kid. His father put the idea in his head that he had to be doing something of value to be loved. So he moved to a small town where he could be the anonymous benefactor of his fellow man. He’s driving himself to the bone around the holidays when people need more help than usual. And at the end of the day, he always spends Christmas alone. But then one fall day, a gorgeous young man is in the alley behind his grocery story holding a bird. Jason is determined to know this man.
Joe has moved to a farm outside Belleville to take over an orchard. Turs out that both the orchard and the house on the land is in much more of a state of disrepair than he’s been led to believe. He’s left home and had to return before and he’s determined to make it. On his own. Without help from anyone. He has to prove that he’s competent. He’s the youngest in his family and he’s tired of being the one who isn’t a success. So all of Jason’s MANY attempts to help him are going to be rebuffed.
Jason continues to try to help Jason without just taking over – suggesting markets and selling opportunities, etc. for his apples. Introducing him to people in the community. And making sure he’s fed. Then Joe gets so overwhelmed by the work he needs to do on his house before his family arrives for Christmas that he ends up breaking down on Jason. So Jason hatches a plan for a “Santa Fund” that helps people and he insists that Joe has been chosen for this gift. Reluctantly Joe accepts and he begins to work on the house in earnest. But he’s still got a lot of walls up. Funny thing though – Jason does too 😉
Jason and Joe on the surface seem to have nothing in common. Neither has been with a man before. Joe is much younger than Jason. Joe has a hard time talking to people. Jason is a bit of a magpie. Joe wants to be self-sufficient and Jason lives to help people. Nobody seems to care though. Everyone is team Joeson 😉 Mary, Jason’s ex-wife is definitely team Joe. The local book club? They come up with the ship man 😉 Even Madison, the surly teenage cashier at the grocery that blackmails Jason into buying her a fancy coffee machine so she’ll leave Jason alone with Joe? She really wants Jason to be happy.
Jason’s biggest fear is Joe finding out that he’s the “secret Santa” because this might be a lie of omission that he can’t come back from. Joe will never look at him the same way. The money always causes problems. He’ll spend another Christmas alone and sad 🙁
Oh these two! Joe truly is a the gorgeous guy with the puppydog eyes. Jason is smitten from the jump. Joe, not so much. He didn’t want to let anyone in. He was so determined! Jason would not be deterred though. He enlisted a lot of help to try to get Joe on his side and thankfully it workdd 😉 They become friends first. That friendship grows to more though and Jason is gobsmacked that Joe would want a guy like him. He’s never seen himself that way, despite his ex telling him that he is a good guy and deserves to be loved. That marriage is a point of failure for Jason that he feel bad about, despite Mary clearly still loving him. This is a super slow burn that the MCs don’t kiss until more than 50% of the way through the book, but it is oh so sweet when it happens. I loved the little twists and turns and surprises as Joe and Jason work their way towards the best Christmas ever. I loved seeing Paxton and Baxter again. One note from me – I skimmed a lot of the sex in this book – it just wasn’t my jam, but that’s a personal preference thing. I did love the and romance and deeply moving build of this relationship between two men who for their own reasons had not ever felt that they fit or were worthy or lovable enough to get their own happy ending. Thankfully they were wrong 🙂
RATING: 
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