Why I read it: I bought this one because I liked the look of the blurb.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When David, a single father, vows to get laid just once before the year ends, he doesn’t figure on losing his cell phone—and with it one very revealing picture. Lucky for him, his phone is found by a disarmingly handsome man who might be perfect for the kind of casual Christmas fling David is after.

Go-go dancer Craig never would have guessed that the guy with the cute cock shot would turn out to be a doctor. Or that he’d find himself lying about his night job and worrying David will find out the truth. To complicate matters, each of their hook-ups requires days of planning. Yet before he knows it, Craig has a new boyfriend, and possibly a whole new family.

David’s ready to dive head-first into something new, but if Craig’s going to commit, he’ll need to come clean about his job, his past, and—most of all—the naughty picture that drew him to David in the first place.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I quite enjoyed this book – it was fun and sexy and kind of sweet, but an abrupt end, even with a brief epilogue set 10 years later, let the story down for me a little at the finish.

David is a nice guy and a devoted dad, who is trying to re-enter the dating scene about a year after the death of his wife in a car accident. David isn’t interested in dating or hooking up with a girl because, as he puts it:

Not a day passed that he didn’t have a thought he wanted to share with his wife. Even though he’d always known he was bi, Ana had been his best friend. Maybe that was why he couldn’t fathom dating another woman. If he was going to find a new lover, it had to be a different kind of person. A whole new relationship and not trying to recreate what he’d lost.

which I could go with for the sake of the story. I didn’t take the narrative to suggest that David would never be attracted to another woman ever. That said, later in the book David and Craig have a conversation where David admits to being “mostly gay” (Craig’s phrase) in terms of physical attraction. I guess that maybe explains this:

I’m not too old for this. At thirty, a lot of guys went to bars and dance clubs. Maybe not men who’d spent their twenties in medical school and trying to cram their bisexuality into a relationship with a woman.

which troubled me a little because I don’t think that bisexuals necessarily are always unsatisfied unless they’re in an open or poly relationship. But what do I know really? Maybe it is that way. It’s just that I know bisexual people who are happily coupled and mainly or exclusively monogamous so I know it must be possible – I don’t know if they’re the exception however.

Anyway, leaving aside the heavier aspects of my thoughts about the book and moving on to the story, I found it easy to read and entertaining. The style was simple and not verbose and the story moved along at a reasonable clip without being too fast. Craig is studying and doesn’t have a loving family. He was raised by foster parents who turfed him out when he came out. He is renting a room with a guy he knows but Joachim is almost always taking advantage of him in one way or another. Craig just wants to finish his degree and get a job so he can afford a place of his own. Dancing at gay bars helps to fund his studies – in addition to other part time work. He’s not an escort but many guys make the link so Craig is at first reluctant to tell David what he does. (Even though David did see Craig at the bar dancing and was definitely attracted, he didn’t recognise Craig in a different environment and with clothes on). David is a doctor so Craig feels a class difference keenly. David isn’t terribly fussed however.

I really felt for Craig when he was trying to find a place he and David could have some alone time and he had to go to some extraordinary lengths because his roommate (who held the lease) was such a douchebag.

The connection between Craig and David was strong and they had good chemistry. I’d have liked to have seen the relationship develop further than it did in the book. As it was, there was a rather hopeful beginning, an abrupt end and then an epilogue which gives a snapshot of their relationship 10 years later. I was grateful for that at least because it showed me that they did get their HEA but I really wanted a bit more of the in between. But maybe that’s too much to expect of a 100ish page novella.