Review: The Christmas Deal by Keira Andrews

Title: The Christmas Deal

Author: Keira Andrews

Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited

Length: 250 Pages

Category: Contemporary, Holiday Romance

At a Glance: Keira Andrews knows how to bring the feels, and definitely knows her way around a holiday romance. Check this one out, guys!

Reviewed By: Jules

Blurb: Will fake boyfriends become the real deal this holiday?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year—except ex-Marine Logan is jobless and getting evicted. Worse, he’s a new single dad with a stepson who hates him. A kid needs stability—not to mention presents under the tree—and Logan’s desperate.

Then he meets lonely Seth and makes a deal.

Can Logan temporarily pretend to be live-in boyfriends to increase Seth’s chances at a promotion? If it provides a roof over their heads for the holidays, hell yeah. Logan considers himself straight—he doesn’t count occasional hookups with guys—but he can fake it. Besides, with his shy little smile, Seth is surprisingly sexy.

Make that damn sexy.

Shocked that Seth has only been with one man, Logan can’t resist sweetening their deal to teach him the joys of casual sex. No strings attached. No feelings. No kissing.

No falling for each other.

Easy, right?

Review: Fake boyfriends seems to be the trope du jour in gay romance this holiday season, and Keira Andrews delivers her take on it with her new release, The Christmas Deal. Andrews packs a lot into Seth and Logan’s story, including family loss, homophobia, financial hardship, and a major “bisexual awakening,” as she describes it in the blurb. Even though parts of the plot were maybe slightly far-fetched, I had a ton of fun with the story, and really loved Logan and Seth together in the end!

I’ll start by talking about Logan—the character who has the sexual orientation epiphany in the book—because he was, for me, a tough nut to crack. I was worried for a while, because I found him extremely difficult to like for a decent portion of the book. BUT, little by little, I began to get past his crass gruffness, and understand how his experiences might have shaped and influenced him. I think part of the reason I had a difficult time with his personality, was because his sister Jenna (who was also Seth’s co-worker) was nothing like him. She was open and accepting, where he seemed very short-sighted about some things, particularly surrounding his opinions on bisexuality.

However, I thought Andrews did a good job ultimately presenting his orientation. Logan had always identified as straight. Sure, he had hooked up with guys many times, both in the Marines, and in the bunkhouse at the train yard, but the distinction for him was that with guys it was just about getting off.  He’d only ever had romantic feelings for women. Only dated women. It might not make sense to a lot of people, it definitely didn’t make sense to Seth initially, but it was how he identified. To Logan, if there were no feelings involved, it basically didn’t count. As he did begin to develop feelings for Seth on top of the physical attraction, though, and began to care about him with, you know, boyfriend feelings, he started to open to the idea that he was, indeed, bisexual.

Seth, on the other hand, I loved immediately. He was super sweet and sincere, liked and respected at work, and seemed surprisingly healthy and whole despite the assholery of his family, who disowned him when he came out to them as a teenager. In fact, they disowned him at Christmastime, essentially ruining what was previously his favorite time of year. But, with Jenna, his best friend at work, throwing him into the middle of a fake boyfriend scheme to improve his chances of getting the promotion he deserves, maybe this Christmas that will all change! Logan needs a place to stay, and Seth needs a boyfriend – so a deal is struck.

I loved how willing Seth was to open his home to Logan and Connor. I enjoyed how the relationship progressed, and how patient and astute Seth was with respect to Logan’s situation with Connor. He had excellent parenting advice for not being a parent himself, and was a great buffer between the two when needed. Connor was still very much hurting from the loss of his mom, and one hundred percent taking it out on Logan. And, with Logan being as he was, the two of them were constantly at odds. Until Seth started to soften them up. 😊

There was some levity—Seth and Jenna’s coworker Matt constantly stage-whispering or mouthing ‘Caper!’ was hilarious—and some tender moments. I truly did love watching Logan come to the realization that he was falling in love with Seth. And, I absolutely adored the end of the book. Keira Andrews knows how to bring the feels, and definitely knows her way around a holiday romance. Check this one out, guys! ❤️

You can buy The Christmas Deal here:

[zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B0818WHJPN?d” style=”black” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon/Kindle Unlimited [/zilla_button]