Paul Carpenter has his life all planned out. Or at least his father does. The right school, the right degree, the right job. Paul is on track, until a bus accident has him sitting out a coveted internship, babysitting, or being babysat, by a grandfather he barely remembers during his holiday stay in a Florida RV park. His father’s reasoning? How much temptation can Paul find around a bunch of senior citizens playing bingo? There’ll be nothing to distract him from his studies.
It’s hard to muster his holiday spirit when Paul is used to snow and cold, not sun, surf, and plastic flamingos in Santa hats. But then Paul meets Kevin Lombardo, who offers to show him some new holiday traditions. Suddenly Paul’s fast track hits a curve.
Karen's rating:
From the Warmest Wishes Dreamspinner Press Advent Calendar
Hey it could happen…
Let’s consider a little thing called ‘the law of probability’…which takes more time to explain than I have so let’s just say that in simple terms it’s the formula that determines the likelihood of something actually happening…so, what do you think the probability is of an attractive 30ish gay man managing a trailer park largely frequented by seniors being the trailer park where another said 20 something gay man ends up with his grandfather for the Christmas holidays would be? I’m betting fairly slim now what do we think the probability of me enjoying said story would be…well, before I read I it, I would have told you the odds were fairly slim. So, all of this just goes to show you that even the best guess is never more than just that…a guess.
‘A Holiday Tradition’ was a cute, funny, holiday story about a young man trying his best to earn his father’s approval by being what he thought his father wanted rather than what he truly was and it takes someone who’s already been there to help him see that more important than being what someone else wants, is being who we truly are.
Paul Carpenter’s father has his life mapped out and Paul desperately wants his father’s approval so he’s determined to follow that plan even if it includes ‘babysitting’ his grandfather over the holidays. Spending the holidays with a bunch of seniors in a trailer park sounds like the ideal, distraction free location for him to catch up on his studies and complete the paper that’s going to keep him from loosing his year at school. Of course, no one told Paul that the owner/manager of said trailer park wasn’t a senior but smoking hot, gay man only a few years older than Paul.
Kevin Lombardo is a sexy, confident man who knows himself and what he wants out of life and one look at Paul and he knows what he wants for Christmas…at the very least.
Where this one fell short for me was in relationship to the ending. There was a time gap of about a year between the ending and the epilogue and it gave me a bit of a jolt. What I got as a reader was a few sentences…maybe, 3 or 4, explaining very briefly what transpired during that time and while I’m pretty sure that I didn’t want to relive the entire year I think maybe a little more detail would have kept me from feeling like things were suddenly being rushed along and easily taken my 3.5 stars and turned them into at least a solid 4 star read.
Once again, I enjoyed watching these two men get to know each other as they became friends. Paul’s determined to stick to his father’s plan, but Kevin’s equally determined to get to know Paul and to make sure he also has some fun. I enjoyed their conversations and the fact that while there was a definite attraction, they didn’t just fall into bed right away. While there was definite attraction and a kiss or two, what there wasn’t was any on page sexy times and that’s ok because after all it’s a Christmas story.
Chrissy Munder is a new to me author and for me this one held a lot of potential and I’m hoping to see what else this author has to off that I might enjoy as much or more than ‘A Holiday Tradition’.
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A copy of ‘A Holiday Tradition’ was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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