Tome Thursday: In Case of Emergency

Hello everyone!

As you may have gathered, just as I'm doing Hallmark Christmas movie reviews for my Tuesday blog posts, I will be doing a series of them for my book ones as well.

Last season, I picked Serenity Woods as my holiday author of choice.

This year, while I still have a few left by Ms Woods to get through, I chose someone else.

Keira Andrews is one of those writers I always pick up when I'm feeling a bit down and need some extra cheer, because not only are her character relatable, she also delivers guaranteed happy endings. So what more could you want from a book?

For these four weeks leading up to Christmas I'll be reading and reviewing her holiday-themed romances, though of course four blog posts is hardly enough time to get through them all.

I'll just do the four that I grabbed before holidays started.

And no, I'm not starting with her latest one, either. I think I'll leave that for next week. For this week, let's go with In Case of Emergency.

I've read and reviewed several of Ms Andrews' books by this point, though I won't be listing all of them at the bottom of this blog as it might get too cluttered.

I will, however, direct you to type 'Keira Andrews' into the search field on the main blog page, and you should get a nice list of all of them! And of course, make sure to check out her website and any of her social media accounts, because she's quite active there and you'll be able to stay in the loop about her work that way.

As mentioned before somewhere, she writes gay romance.

Yes, yes, get it out of your system now: homosexual people have sex and fall in love! GASP!

Shocking, I know.

When you've read through my sarcasm at how some people react to certain things, you'll be able to move on to the rest of the blog post.

In Case of Emergency tells the story of two former stepbrothers, Daniel and Cole. Well, Nicholas, but everyone calls him Cole.

Their parents were married only briefly and they hadn't stayed in touch, but just before the Christmas holiday during which Daniel was supposed to head off to a chalet with his potential boyfriend Justin, he gets a call from the hospital that Cole has listed him as his emergency contact, and he's hurt.

Annoyed, but mildly worried because he's generally a good guy, Daniel goes to the hospital and meets up with Cole again, who has a broken arm and a mild concussion from tripping up the stairs.

(How do you trip up the stairs? I'm pretty sure it's painful!)

This means he can't be left alone overnight, so Daniel, with a sigh and over Cole's protests, takes him along for the holiday vacation.

Justin seems to be alright with it when the message goes through, indicating he has a surprise for Daniel which Daniel is slightly hesitant about, but oh well. He's a bit busy helping Cole, who feels both as sick as a dog on the road and in pain.

Ouch, I know.

Still, Cole and Daniel also start reconnecting and discuss just about anything by the time they arrive to the chalet ...

... only to find that Justin wasn't really thinking about a secluded romantic holiday since he invited a bunch of other co-workers along for the, er, festivities.

Three of them are actually nice and ashamed for him, but Justin himself is just obnoxious and even lets slip later on that he took a bet to sleep with Daniel and it wasn't actually out of any romantic notion to begin with.

Furious, Daniel chucks all the party goers, Justin included, out of the chalet as soon as humanly possible.

Meanwhile, Cole needs his help with all the basic stuff since he can only use one hand, and he has to be woken up in the middle of the night and such, and also, because the chalet was originally full, Daniel and Cole end up sleeping in the same bed in one bedroom.

Which turns out to be handy for concussion symptoms in any event.

Anyway, after the guests take their leave - some of them remorseful and wanting to make amends later on - Daniel and Cole can actually explore the little village, see the new Star Wars movie (which both of them love) and grow closer.

As weird as it originally seems to them, their mutual attraction only grows, and in the end boils over in the hot tub.

Of course there's a hot tub involved. It's a romantic chalet!

Complete with a Yoda Christmas tree top, the two former stepbrothers decide to see whether or not they can make this romantic relationship work; Cole came out precisely because he'd had a crush on Daniel all those years ago, and Daniel might also find just what he needs with Cole as opposed to his threesome-loving ex.

Or, you know, Justin.

And a year later when they're hosting their own Christmas party (complete with Star Wars ornaments), Cole finds that Daniel listed him as his emergency contact.

And all is well in the world!

A fun, sweet, and occasionally scorching hot Christmas romance, it's a fairly quick read with realistic characters and pent-up emotion just bursting at the seams. I liked that Cole was the more confident of the two even though he was younger, and that Daniel seemed to accept it easily.

All in all, a lovely way to start these December book blog posts!

xx

*image not mine