Title: Hometown Christmas
Author: Garrett Leigh
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novella (164 pages)
ISBN: 1913220184
Publisher: Fox Love Press (21 Nov 2019)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts
Reviewer: Prime
Blurb: Can Yani and Gavin go from friends to lovers this Christmas?
Yani Nicolaou is sworn off love for good. After fleeing a bad break-up in London, the only blood, sweat, and tears he has left are for his gyro stall at the Christmas market. Rebound fling? No thanks. He’s sticking to one-night-stands.
Ex-army vet Gavin Richie has even less capacity for romance. Managing a homeless shelter while recovering from injury keeps him far too busy. So what if he’s often alone? He’s content being single, or so he thinks until a chance meeting lights a spark he can’t ignore.
Yani is the warmth and affection Gavin hadn’t known he was missing. As Christmas lights up the city, their lives entwine in more ways than one. Falling for each other is easy. Holding on is harder, unless a hometown Christmas proves their love can last longer than the festive season.
Purchase Link: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Review: Hometown Christmas is a standalone Christmas story by Garrett Leigh.
I love a good Christmas romance and I looked forward to this one. Leigh is a fantastic writer that I’ve always loved for the sweetness in the romance, although Hometown Christmas also has the teeniest dash of angst (it works well, I’m not one for much angst in my stories, I love my sweet romances). I also love Leigh’s really down to earth and totally relatable characters. Overall, I find their books full of characters with big hearts that feel real.
Hometown Christmas follows the MCs Yani Nicolaou and Gavin Richie. Both men are at a cross roads in their lives. Yani has decided to make some massive changes in his life after a messy breakup and general dissatisfaction with where his life was going. He leaves London and sets roots in Leeds, where Yani finds the new lease on life he had been looking for. He is passionate about working for himself, where he gets to meet plenty of people and is now near one of his good friends, Bex. Yani isn’t looking for romance, he wants to make it on his own first and doesn’t feel the need for a string of one night stands.
But everything changes when he meets Gavin at a cafe. Gavin is ex-military and is back home in Leeds (has been for a couple years now), where he finds happiness in managing a homeless shelter. He is always in need of volunteers, and it seems like it’s chance that they guy he met at a coffee shop is now volunteering a shift cooking at the shelter.
This sets the scene as their lives bring them together. Gavin and Yani have a lot in common and are a really, sweet and gentle couple. While I wouldn’t call it insta-love, their romance explodes and despite a few bumps it’s clear that things will eventually fall into place for this two kind-hearted men.