Listen, this book is, by no means, perfect. But it is so incredibly valid.

It gives exactly what it promises: cliché gay romance, in the festive season. It really doesnt go a lot deeper than that, though it touches on the topic of grief (quite extensively i must add), but it never gets heavy to any degree or capacity. Its a super warm, light, feel-good, fluffy book, and that is simply exactly what i wanted of it.

I do insist: not perfect! My main critique is that it reads like a first draft. Like it wasnt edited AT ALL. As an editor myself (not in practice, but in theory, because i was trained for it for four years after all), that is ENRAGING to me. Because this book has an editor! I checked! And that is someone who did not do their job. During a light read i did in bed at 1 am, i caught:
- gramatically incorrect sentences
- straight up clunky ones that could have easily been tweaked so that it would say the exact same thing, except more clearly and better sounding
- missing words. Just. In the middle of the sentence.
- misuse of words that definitely do not mean what the author seems to think they mean
- instances in which a character says something in the narration and IMMEDIATELY AFTER says it in the dialogue. Like, miss thing u could simply say that thing just once
- dialogue repetitions??? The sheer amount of times each character used the expression "it sure is" jesus christ i dont wanna see the word 'sure' ever again in my life
And you know what? This is not the authors fault. That is LITERALLY an editor's job. Somebody got paid for a job they didnt do! (Hire me maybe? Promise i can do a better job than whatever the fuck THIS is)

Aside from that, there are a couple other issues along the line of... the characers falling in love in 3 days and then moving in together after dating for a week. Thats... thats something! Avoidable, too. Its a fade to black scene! Just say they dated longer! Also: for a whopping day and a half, main character 1 insists on Not Having Sex because It Must Be Special. And then they fuck and it lasts like, seven seconds tops and its not special at all. Which is FINE but it honestly made the million times the Main Character Breathed Heavily Into The Other Main Character Trying To Contain Himself feel like an absolute waste of time. Just. Pacing things! With all these issues, i genuinely thought this was the authors first book. And then i got to the end and saw a two page list of all the books shes written before. So. Not a first book. Just a terrible editor who really really should step up their game. YOU HEAR ME??

On the bright side: Main Character has the CUTEST dog ever, whos actually a character and wears a raincoat and little booties. He also lists Adam Lambert as his celebrity crush which, love to see it, immaculate taste. Theres infinite praise for Legally Blonde. Also, its a cliche christmas gay romance. What IS there not to love?

Personally, i can absolutely see past the flaws because overall, it gave me what i wanted! Christmas gays! Yay!