The Christmas Visit by Marshal Thornton

41bm+ZkSRdLTitle: The Christmas Visit
Author: Marshall Thornton
Genre: Contemporary/Holiday
Length: Novella (63 pages)
Publisher: Marshall Thornton (September 29th 2012)
Heat Level: Mild
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3.5 Hearts
Blurb: A Chicago art director in his early thirties returns to his tiny Upstate New York hometown to spend the holiday with his recently widowed father only to find himself involved with his boyhood crush, now a closeted sheriff’s deputy. It’s sentimental and sexy, with a bit of mystery stirred in.

Product Link: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Visit-Marshall-Thornton-ebook/dp/B008GHMRFK

Reviewer: Tams

Review: He left his childhood home and the boy he loved for an Art degree and promising career in Chicago. Now he’s back home after his mother’s passing to spend Christmas with his father. He has never forgotten that day by the lake with Travis, he doesn’t think he ever will, and all the memories come flooding back when he sees Travis for the first time in years.

Travis very unhappily married, but married nonetheless, so the two dance around their obvious attraction in the beginning. Travis’s sickly wife seems to be hiding a secret of her own though, a secret that lands him in the ER and breaks the remaining fibers holding together the façade of a happily married couple. Will he finally get the man he’s always wanted? Or will Travis once again be blinded by loyalty instead of love.

This was a fast-paced story and there was a lot of content for so few pages. I was impressed with Thornton’s ability to keep me in the dark about certain aspects and characters in the storyline, and while he was supposed to be a secondary character, his widowed father almost stole the spotlight. I don’t usually care for cheaters, but Thornton managed to give a valid reason Travis was all but shoved into his arms.

There were a few times the story didn’t flow well from one place to the next and I thought that he could have at least been given a name, having a nameless narrator was a little off-putting for me. But overall, I enjoyed this story. Not the usual Christmas fluff and stuff type of story, this one has a bite to it, but if you are a fan of the genre, I believe you’ll find something here you like.