Blame It on the Fruitcake

Title: Blame It on the Fruitcake (Sleigh Ride – 2015 Advent Calendar)
Author: Pat Henshaw
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1st 2015
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Page Count: 65 pages
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 1 flames out of 5
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Blurb:

Will the magic of the holiday season—and a fruitcake—help motorcycle mechanic Sam and new neighbor Jay get together?

Fruitcake is the laughingstock of the holiday season. But can it be an aphrodisiac instead? Motorcycle mechanic Sam McGuire is surprised to find a gaily wrapped box on his doorstep with a piece of fruitcake accompanying an invitation to a holiday party.

Wondering if he’ll fit in, Sam attends the party—mostly to get more of the fruitcake he falls in love with—and meets Jay Merriweather, his new neighbor. The lure of Jay’s big family and its holiday tradition of enjoying Grandma’s fruitcake hook Sam, as does the sexy man himself.

But Sam can’t imagine why handsome, college-educated Jay would want someone like him, who was raised in a children’s home and barely graduated high school. Maybe the magic of the holiday season can help two men who seem so different come together like the ingredients in a well-made fruitcake.

Sam McGuire is a motorcycle mechanic who was abandoned as a baby and raised in the Children’s Home. It’s left him with a bit of a skewed sense of worth. When he meets his new neighbor, Jay Merriweather, he’s impressed by more than his location scout job, designer clothes and close-knit family. Jay is everything Sam never knew he always wanted. After a hot-as-fire kiss Sam agrees to a date with Jay when Jay gets back into town.

Jay’s little brother Brian is housesitting and proceeds to size Sam up…and can’t figure out what his brother sees in Sam. Sam was already worried he wasn’t good enough for Jay, a thought process that’s fostered when Brian makes a thoughtless comment.

When Jay returns he has his work cut out for him to convince Sam he’s not only good enough but also the absolute right guy for him.

If there was one thing you knew growing up in the Home and being passed over for adoption time after time, it was your place in the world. I knew mine. I was proud of what I’d made of myself. Unlike a lot a guys who started out where I did, though, I didn’t feel like I had to squeeze myself into a social strata I didn’t understand and that didn’t want me. Jay was a puff of smoke, but that’s all he was—a dream.

Told entirely from Sam’s POV, I would have liked to have read about Jay’s feelings of dealing with Sam’s emotional changes. There’s a lot of “tell” in this and not a lot of “show”, and I don’t just mean the fade to black sex (which boo hoo by the way!), but the feelings and working out of some of the conflict happens off page as well.

Enjoyable, but I wanted more.

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