Title: Mr. Frosty Pants
Series: Home for the Holidays: Book One
Author: Leta Blake
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 281 Pages
Category: Holiday Romance, Contemporary
At a Glance: The residual joy of Joel and Casey’s new beginning is the stuff of holiday romance, so give yourself the gift of a smile and read this book.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Can true love warm his frozen heart?
When Casey Stevens went away to college four years ago, he ghosted on his straight best friend, Joel Vreeland. He hoped time and distance would lessen the unrequited affection he felt, but all it did was make him miss Joel more. Home for the holidays, Casey hopes they might find a way to be friends again. But Joel’s frosty reception reminds Casey of just how hard he had to fight to be Joel’s friend in the first place. It’s going to take a Christmas miracle to get past that cool façade again.
Joel isn’t as straight as Casey believes, and his years of pining for Casey have left him hurting and alone, caring for his abusive father and struggling to get by. Unable to trust anyone except his rescue dog—and with no reason to believe Casey is interested in him for more than a holiday fling—Joel’s icy heart might shatter before it can thaw.
Can Casey and Joel’s love overcome mistrust, parental rejection, class differences, and four long years apart?
Review: Leta Blake challenges the idea that you can’t go home again in her holiday gift to readers, Mr. Frosty Pants, a friends to ex-friends to lovers romance that begins in childhood and is filled with heartwarming moments and second chances.
Casey Stevens and Joel Vreeland grew up on opposite sides of the proverbial tracks, but that didn’t matter to Casey. All he wanted was to be Joel’s friend…even if it didn’t seem like Joel wanted that sometimes. Joel’s and Casey’s parents couldn’t have disapproved more of their friendship, Casey’s parents because they’re wealthy, social climbing snobs; Joel’s father because he’s a mean and hateful and bitter man who has absolutely no use for his own son let alone a boy like Casey. Blake establishes these as important factors in Casey’s return to Knoxville for the first time since he came out to his parents and then left for college three and a half years earlier.
And, thoroughly ghosted Joel in the process.
The tenderness of Casey and Joel’s past is firmly rooted in the fact that they were head over heels in love with each other, but neither knew the other was gay, forget entirely smitten. Their reunion is anything but easy, Joel’s hurt and insecurities a definitive factor in the pain he feels at Casey’s perceived abandonment, but in many ways, Casey is still the same guy he was when he left for New York—tenacious and not letting Joel get away again, even if it is only a friendship he’s fighting for since Joel is straight. Or so Casey thinks until a confession and a first kiss set things in motion.
There is a series of reveals that Leta Blake weaves seamlessly into the story which bring into focus not only where things went wrong when Casey left for school but why they did, and why Joel is so fearful they will go pear shaped again if he opens himself up to the hope of a future that might include Casey loving him. Joel’s heart is a tender and fragile thing, but his courage is based in want—the deep and desperate want of perfect moments with Casey, even knowing it will end when Casey returns to NYU. This story is just so beautifully done, filled with longing and the burgeoning wonderment that Joel might get the one thing he never dared to wish for—Casey. And it’s all wrapped up in the magical sentiment of the holidays.
Mr. Frosty Pants is a story of letting go and holding on, of growing up and learning what to let go of because it’s toxic and to hold on to because it’s transformative. The conflict isn’t drummed up for the sake of drama. Rather, the sorrows are real, and there are no Big Misunderstandings to muddy up the purity of Casey and Joel’s fragile but deep and enduring love. The residual joy of their new beginning is the stuff of holiday romance, so give yourself the gift of a smile and read this book.
You can buy Mr. Frosty Pants here:
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