Winter Wonderland (Brooklyn’s Review)

Title: Winter Wonderland (Minnesota Christmas, #3)
Author: Heidi Cullinan
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: November 10, 2015
Genre(s): Contemporary, Holiday
Page Count: 205
Reviewed by: Brooklyn
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Finding Mr. Right can be a snow lot of fun.

Paul Jansen was the only one of his friends who wanted a relationship. Naturally, he’s the last single man standing. No gay man within a fifty-mile radius wants more than casual sex.
No one, that is, except too-young, too-twinky Kyle Parks, who sends him suggestive texts and leaves X-rated snow sculptures on his front porch.

Kyle is tired of being the town’s resident Peter Pan. He’s twenty-five, not ten, and despite his effeminate appearance, he’s nothing but the boss in bed. He’s loved Paul since forever, and this Christmas, since they’re both working on the Winter Wonderland festival, he might finally get his chance for a holiday romance.

But Paul comes with baggage. His ultra-conservative family wants him paired up with a woman, not a man with Logan’s rainbow connection. When their anti-LGBT crusade spills beyond managing Paul’s love life and threatens the holiday festival, Kyle and Paul must fight for everyone’s happily ever after, including their own.

“A ten-foot-tall snow penis towered over Paul Jansen’s front steps. Again.”
Any book that begins with that phrase has to be fun. I mean, come on! Snow penises.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. That’s exactly how everyone judges Kyle Parks. By his appearance. He looks like a twink. He has a very youthful face. So everyone treats him like he’s still a kid. And I was just as frustrated about it as he was. He is so loving and fun with his twin sister, who has Downs Syndrome. He is a nurse at a care center for seniors. He has a heart of gold.

At first Kyle is shot down by Paul because Paul’s view of him is the same as everyone else’s. He thinks Kyle is too young for him, or he’s too old for Kyle. And he’s not interested in a swishy bottom boy. But after following some advice from Paul’s friends, Kyle begins to win him over with his charm, his down to earth personality and his control in the bedroom.

We also get to see a lot of the guys from the previous two books. Marcus and Frankie, Gabriel and Arthur. The six guys team up and work together to pull off the biggest winter festival ever. The first annual Winter Wonderland that will put the town of Logan on the map. But Paul’s homophobic family might just ruin it all, not just for Paul and Kyle, but for the whole town.

This book is the perfect feel good holiday story to get you in the Christmas spirit. It’s just like the Hallmark and Lifetime movies that Paul loves so much. If they made this book into a movie, it would incite the same feelings of love, joy, family, warmth and smiley goodness.

There is just a little bit of drama, and it’s wrapped in so much happy that it’s hardly noticeable. Your heart clenches occasionally, but those moments are brief. And it ends with the classical, magical happy ever after.

If you don’t have time for a Hallmark movie or your power is out and you just need that feel good holiday movie fix, just curl up with this book and a cup of hot cocoa this holiday season. It will most definitely do the job.

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