Title: The Christmas Toast
Series: N/A
Author: Nya Rawlyns
Genre: Christmas themed contemporary
Length: Novella (60 pages)
Publisher: Nya Rawlyns (December 6th, 2013)
Heat: Moderate
Heart: ♥♥♥3Hearts
Reviewer: Eli/Mandingo
Blurb: Alan Randall Liebowitz is a man stuck in a pattern: right before the holidays his current significant other goes walkabout, leaving him alone … again.
Jacques Lambert is an up and comer chef with a bright future. Until his partner with benefits runs off, leaving him bankrupt and relying on the kindness of his family.
The local college holds night cooking classes, for seniors mostly. Jack’s sister talks him into applying for a teaching spot. Alan’s neighbor talks him into expanding his horizons.
When a lonesome foodie meets the chef of his dreams, more than the scallops are flambéed.
Review: This is a Christmas story that combines two broken-hearted men who’ve both been betrayed by love but who both have a love of food, one a foodie, the other a Chef. It’s clearly a match made in heaven.
Alan is a very realistic and likable character. We all know Alan, especially the Alan who’s booting his horrible lover from his life and wrecking his apartment in the interim. We also know Jack, the man who’s been hurt and is lying in the corner like a whipped dog licking his wounds and looking at the entire world like it’s out to get him. Then …
There’s the meeting, the insta-attraction, the flirtation, the trip home, the deserted soup and of course the huge internal crisis resulting in a run worthy of Usain Bolt’s world record. This, of course, is followed by the literal and metaphorical slap on the head and the realization that love at first sight is very much real. There is grovelling, hot sex and what do you think? Exactly, the happily ever after – it’s Christmas and miracles are very very real.