Title: A Family for Christmas
Author: Jay Northcote
Publisher: Jaybird Press (self published)
Length: 44,000 words approx
Genre: Contemporary m/m romance, feelgood, heartwarming
Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh
Release Date: Friday 18th of November 2016
Series info: This book is a standalone
Rate : 4 Stars
Zac never had a family of his own, but Rudy has enough to share.
Shy, inexperienced Rudy has a crush on Zac from the moment his new colleague walks through the door. On an office night out before Christmas, Rudy finds the courage to make a move, and they form a tentative bond. When he discovers Zac will be alone at Christmas, he invites Zac to come home with him.
Zac prefers to keep people at arm’s length. Yet when Rudy offers him a family Christmas it’s impossible to resist. With no parents of his own, Zac is pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by Rudy’s. The only drawback is that everyone assumes they’re a couple. Unwilling to disappoint Rudy’s mum and make Christmas awkward, they decide not to deny it.
It’s not a chore for Zac to pose as Rudy’s boyfriend, but the pretence makes him want things that scare him—things like a real relationship with Rudy. Zac’s suffered enough rejection in his life already and is afraid to risk his heart. If he can get over his past rejection and let Rudy inside his armour, he might get more for Christmas than he ever imagined.
The toast had popped, and when Rudy went to get the butter out of the fridge, he automatically straightened the photo of his family in its magnetic frame, a shot of them from last Christmas at the dinner table, all wearing paper hats and raising their glasses at the camera. He froze, staring at their smiling faces, as another memory from last night came back to him.
Oh my God. Had he really invited Zac home for Christmas, or was that a dream? Nope, Rudy was pretty sure it was real now the details were coming back to him. But the weirdest part was that Zac had said yes. Maybe he just said yes to shut Rudy up and was hoping he wouldn’t remember.
“You all right there?”
Zac’s voice made him jump guiltily. “Yeah, sorry. Miles away. I’m in a bit of a daze this morning.” He got the butter out and put it on the kitchen table. On autopilot, he gathered plates, knives, spreads and the coffee. Zac was still standing awkwardly in the doorway. “Have a seat.”
As they poured, spread, ate, and drank, the silence between them grew until Rudy wanted to hack through it with the butter knife. He had no idea where to begin, but they needed to leave for work in half an hour and he couldn’t leave things like this. Rudy had to know what was going on.
Was Zac seriously planning on coming home with him for Christmas? Rudy didn’t regret issuing the invitation, other than how hopelessly needy and overeager it made him look. He liked Zac—okay, he fancied him too, but that wasn’t the point—and he didn’t like the idea of Zac spending Christmas alone. Nobody should spend Christmas alone unless they really wanted to, and Rudy had got the feeling that Zac didn’t. Zac’s excuses about being antisocial hadn’t rung true after how he’d opened up last night, and his defensiveness had come off as protesting too much.
Rudy began tentatively. “So… um. About this Christmas plan….”
“Look, it’s okay. You were drunk. I’m sure you didn’t really mean to invite me home with you for Christmas. Don’t worry about it.”
“No! That’s not what I meant.” Rudy drew in a breath to give him the courage to be honest. “I did mean it. Okay, yes, I was drunk, and I wouldn’t have had the guts to ask you otherwise. But I’d really like it if you came.” He met Zac’s dark eyes and willed him to believe him. “It would be cool to get to know you better, and my family would be totally fine with it. I don’t like to think about you being on your own on Christmas Day—unless you really want to be.”
Zach shrugged, his shoulders tense and eyes wary. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
A wave of pity swept over Rudy, but he instinctively knew that if he let that show, it would be a mistake. Instead, he shrugged. “Well the offer’s there. It’s your call.”
Zac took another bite of his toast and chewed slowly while Rudy waited. He could almost hear the gears turning in Zac’s head as he weighed his options. Finally he nodded. “I’ll come.”
Happiness flooded Rudy and he couldn’t stop a huge grin from spreading over his face. “Brilliant. I’ll phone Mum later.”
They stared at each other for a moment, and then Zac smiled too—a little uncertainly, but Rudy would take what he could get from Zac. His gaze dropped to Zac’s lips, and something twisted in his chest as he thought about kissing him last night. They really ought to talk about that too, but Rudy was afraid that if he brought it up, Zac would insist it was a drunken mistake. As long as the kiss went unmentioned, Rudy’s hope could live on.
...they were only friends—colleagues, really. This was all a Christmas fling, an illusion brought on by circumstances that, once the holiday season was over, would melt away like a snowflake on the palm of his hand...
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Zac
Life teaches Zac not to let himself close with anyone. Being abandoned by his family since he was child, years in many foster families and run from home since young age had taught Zac to distance himself from everyone to protect his heart from being hurt and disappointed.
When he met Rudy at his new working place, Zac start to feel something towards this shy-geeky-guy.
But years of lessons teach him not to easily give himself to someone else, so he shut down his feeling and playing cool.
But when Rudy offer him something he craved for years - a family, will Zac finally break his own wall he'd build for years?
Rudy
Shy-geeky and inexperience has put Rudy under the radar with lack of love 'experience' and friends. Only his family and some of his coworkers that make him feel a bit comfortable.
Rainbow Futures was a small, rapidly expanding charity that focused on LGBT+ youth and education. Rudy had worked there doing web design and copywriting since he graduated two and a half years ago.
Then come Zac, the new social media and PR manager for Rainbow Futures who wore an invisible “Keep Out” shield like armour. And Rudy can not handle his sudden crush on Zac. He want to have good interaction with Zac, but Zac seems to distance himself from everyone and keep people around him at arms-length, and this make Rudy didn’t have the confidence to try and break through that barrier.
Until one night, on his office break party and shot of lots tequila pushed Rudy over his shyness and bravely start a conversations with Zac.
Under the tequila buzz, Rudy bravely said “You have beautiful eyes” to Zac and Zac replying with “And you have beautiful lips” - their drunkenly night ended with Zac must spent the night at Rudy's place (and i must tell you that NO, there's NOTHING happened at that night!!!!) just to woke up in the next morning with shocking fact that he'd been asking Zac to spent the Christmas with his family!
Then, what will happen next?
Will there's a chance for their feeling to grow when Rudy's family had mistaken him as Rudy's boyfriend?
Will their fake relationship turned holiday fling will growing into something real?
Find the answer in this sweet holiday story!
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There's a lot book out there with a pretend boyfriend theme.
Some feel way too cliché, but lot of it feels not. In a good author hand, a very cliché theme can be as fresh as a brand new story.
This is not the first pretend boyfriend story from Jay Northcote, but he made this story like its a brand new theme he wrote.
Right when I need a sweet story to light up my mood, Rudy & Zac came to me with their sweet Christmas story that succeed melted my heart.
The slow burn totally 'killed' me, BUT everything WORTH to wait and was placed in perfect time that will make all the butterflies in your tummy go crazy!
I have constantly blushes and a crazy urge to cuddling with someone (well, at least I have my Jay Blue ~ a cute blue teddy bear - to cuddling with! Lol!) when i read this story and YES! - a bit envy with Rudy for having Zac with him, but yeah...again I'm in love with the way Jay put the growing feeling between his lovely characters into something that feels so real & natural without sounds too cheesy.
And last but not least, The Family!
I give all credits to Rudy's family in this story. Rudy's family totally light up the Christmas. This is what A family for Christmas should be...heart-warming, caring and full of love!
Jay Northcote never failed me with his sweet-heart warming-christmas-story and that's why i love his writing and have the giddy feeling each time his new book is coming.
Thank you for all the butterflies in my tummy, Jay.
A family for Christmas is definitely another RECOMMENDED READ for this holidays!
Happy Christmas to y'all...
ARC is kindly provided by the Author in exchange of a fair and honest review.
