Book 84: A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant

 Well, it's not gay, and it's not contemporary, but this was the Christmas romance novel I had been hoping for!!!!

This is an absolutely charming Regency historical romance novella that's the perfect length for its story, and so satisfying even while you of course know exactly how it has to resolve. In the days leading up to Christmas, Andrew Blackshear has gone to Lord Sharp in order to obtain a falcon. But he encounters his daughter Lucy instead, who is a free spirit and desperate to be a part of society beyond her father's home. She manipulates him into agreeing to take her to the house party she was invited to for Christmas, but then she drops off her maid, so she's unchaperoned, and then their carriage wheel breaks and they have an accident, so they have to rely on the kindness of a farmhouse in order to survive, which means posing as a married couple to save Lucy's reputation!

There is, of course, only one bed, and Lucy is the one who doesn't fear losing her reputation and Andrew is so moral and good, and you just like both of them so much and the situation resolves in exactly the amount of time you want it to. A delight, start to finish. 

Grade: A

Book 83: A Fortunate Blizzard by L.C. Chase

 The fifth and final gay Christmas romance novel of the year! This one is a classic snowed-in, there was only one bed setup, where flights out of Denver get canceled and so Trevor isn't able to fly home. Meanwhile Marc, a work-obsessed lawyer, is just trying to get home from the office but gets the last hotel room when the highways are shut down. He offers to share with Trevor, who is determined not to get involved emotionally with anyone because he has late stage kidney disease and only has a year to live unless he can find a transplant. 

I enjoyed this one, but it's again on the wrong side of "extremely serious issue" conflict, for me. And Marc doesn't really have much of an existence beyond lawyer who wants to make partner to make his family happy, except they disowned him for being gay, so. Not the worst snowed in together options out there, but not a winner for me, either. 

Grade: C

Book 82: Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner

 WELL. A friend who has already read all of the Queen's Thief books was extremely excited for me to read this one, and it did not take me long to figure out why. 

This book takes place in a completely new location, and the point of view character, Kamet, is one we only met briefly in a previous book (The Queen of Attolia, I believe). It turns quickly into a road trip, and specifically a GAY LOVE STORY ROAD TRIP, with an Attolian whose name we only learn at the very end of the book, but the reader is very clearly intended to have figured out who he is before then. It's both a romp and also just a lovely examination of the existing world from a new point of view. As with every book in the series, there's a lot that both the reader and the point of view character don't know, and don't know they don't know, and the payoff of this book is just so delightful. Kamet is one of my new favorites of the series, and the Attolian is now a firm favorite forever. The entire series is a wonderful read, but this book alone would be worth reading four books to get to. 

Grade: A

Book 81: A Christmas Reunion by Nic Starr

 Number four of the gay Christmas romance novels! In this one, we have no fake boyfriends or chance meetings due to a snowstorm, but we do have returning home and seeing your old flame again, who's now your biggest enemy. 

Hunter is from a small town where his family owns basically everything, and he's the prodigal son returned. Aaron is the equivalent of a townie, and now has a small store downtown a la David Rose in Schitt's Creek. They were best friends in high school, until a dumb asshole got between them, and now that Hunter's back the sparks have started to fly again! 

I really liked the premise of this novel, but it kind of fell apart toward the end. I know that this is in part a preference I have that goes against romance novel standard beats, but it feels like in too many of them there is a big confession or the like that involves too many openly expressed feelings, if I am honest. My kingdom for a Christmas romance novel that has the right level of conflict/suspense that I am looking for! This one is fine, but not exactly what I was hoping for. 

Grade: C 

Book 80: Mr. Right Now by Annabeth Albert

 The third of my gay Christmas romance novels! Another fake boyfriends one, although this one is much less bonkers than "my boss needs to believe I'm happily engaged or I won't get promoted." This one is much more classic, in terms of "my relationship ended suddenly and rather than tell my family I'm single again, what if I just pretend that the hot gay neighbor I've been checking out since I moved in is my boyfriend, instead?" (It does get a BIT into "I will deceive my boss in order to get a raise through my family situation," but it's not nearly as front and center.)

Both Russ and Estaban are charming and likeable, although Estaban's cultural background feels painted on at times, and the book does the whole "Spanish in italics" thing. But the book falls apart a bit when the "conflict" between the two of them is over Russ not wanting to rebound and so forth, and while it's closer to a novella than a novel already, I found it a bit tedious by the end. 

Grade: C 

Book 79: Better Not Pout by Annabeth Albert

 The second of our gay Christmas romance novels, this one also takes place in upstate New York with a grumpy older guy and a younger energetic guy who has resigned himself to not finding love by staying in his home town. But this time the older guy is a military cop about to retire, and guys, it is really hard to read romance novels about cops these days!!! This author writes a lot of military romances, which I generally have an easier time with than cops, even military cops, but boy. 

In this story the conflict is that Nick, the cop, is going to move away after he retires, so his romance with Teddy, the social worker who plays Santa's elf for charity every year in the small town he grew up in, has a built-in expiration date. Which is fine, except we all know that Nick doesn't actually want to move away, etc. etc., and even for a Christmas romance novel the conflict feels pretty strained. Still, I did actually like both Teddy and Nick, the cop issue notwithstanding, even if I've generally enjoyed other books by this author more. 

Grade: C

Book 78: The Christmas Deal by Keira Andrews

 Here is the first of the (mostly gay) Christmas romance novels I am reading this December!!

This is a classic setup - we have one sad desperate lonely grumpy not-out queer dude who is in need of a place where he and his stepson can live, since he's out of work after he was injured on the job, and another out-but-single gay dude who got abandoned by his former boyfriend and is estranged by his entire family but has a giant beautiful home, and a boss who inexplicably will only promote people who have stable family lives (since employment laws don't exist in this version of upstate New York). Grumpy guy, whose name is Logan, meets abandoned guy, whose name is Seth, through his sister, who is Seth's coworker. 

The whole story progresses about as you expect a Christmas romance novel to, and I largely enjoyed it, except it was a bit heavier on the angst than I really wanted. Just an endless stream of homophobic family stuff and personal loss and a difficult stepson and by the end I wanted a much less heavy story than it was. But it certainly delivers on the trope, so if "fake boyfriends" is a surefire winner for you, I recommend this. 

Grade: C

Book 77: A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

 Book for in the Queen's Thief series! In many ways the most straightforward book so far; it overlaps with The King of Attolia a bit and in general would be completely unclear if you hadn't read the first three books in the series, but Sophos is also a comparatively straightforward point of view character and also personality in these books. Even when he is posing as a slave in order to survive to protect himself and the throne, he is extremely clear-cut as a character. The sleight of hand that exists in the narrative is much more upfront as well; he knows things that his internal monologue doesn't reveal to the reader, but that feels considerably less shocking, narratively, than the reveals in the first three books. 

None of the above is a complaint, however! I still really enjoyed this particular installment, even if it's not my favorite of the series so far. It was nice in many ways to read something this direct in its storytelling, and I'm still loving this entire world. 

Grade: A