Review: ~ Review by Ulysses
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2014
5 of 5 starsFor original review see The Prism Book Alliance Blog onlineI don’t usually give five star reviews.I am a fan of Kaje Harper’s books, so take that as a warning.I’m also a middle-aged gay man who really doesn’t need sex scenes in his romances. Just saying. But I do need love, and all the mess that goes with it. Kaje always gives us the love we need.This is a particularly well-crafted and balanced novella – really sort of an ultra-long story. The central couple is Jesse and Devin, but they’re not really all that matters here, which is why I liked it so much. Jesse’s parents are Gayle and Lloyd, and his younger sister is Emily. For the last several years, it’s been a warm, accepting family, in which the all-but-orphaned Devin feels he’s found something missing in his life, especially at Christmas.But this year Sam has turned up. Sam is the thirty-one-year-old ex-marine that Gayle gave up for adoption when she sixteen and scared. In her anxiety and desire to present her long-lost child with the kind of family she couldn’t give him as a baby, she hurts Jesse by asking Devin to stay away for Christmas Eve, when Sam is scheduled to arrive and meet his newly-found family. This is no spoiler: it’s all on the first page.And while this tale is indeed about Jesse’s anger and Devin’s reaction to this temporary prohibition, it’s also about Sam, the half-brother. For Sam has a secret, and one that worries him as much as Gayle’s need to hide her son’s boyfriend worries Jesse.Family is important to me, and I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family. Christmas is the time when family is both more necessary and more troublesome than at any other time of the year. Kaje Harper’s touching tale of Christmas love and caring is perfect for any time of year.