Eli Easton
Books: Romance | LGBT
Daddy Dearest: Angels Sing (2019)
Gifts for the Season: Winter & Christmas MM Charity Anthology (2020)
Angels Sing (2019)
Jamie Bailey has been a single dad since he was eighteen.
He still managed to go to college, but stayed in his small town to help his uncle run his bookstore (after all, his uncle gave him a job when he was an eighteen-year-old single father trying to go to school).
Stanton Potter likes being a coach in the local elementary school. But he is not prepared when the first-grade teacher is placed on emergency bed-rest for the remainder of her pregnancy and he is asked to step it.
And to run the Christmas pageant.
It was a cute story, and I did love that Jamie was such a dedicated father, and that Stanton really did enjoy teaching elementary school–even if he wasn't prepared to deal with a classroom of first graders.
She actually did a good job getting first graders down.
"And guess what we get to do just before Christmas break?" The kids stared back at him cluelessly.
"Trick or treat?" Winston suggested.
"Bake cookies!" said Emma.
"No, no." Stanton shook his head. "We put on a Christmas pageant! And your moms and dads and your families get to come and watch you. Isn't that great?"
It was an interesting sociological experiment, because half of the little faces in his class looked excited and half looked horror-stricken.
I was a bit uncomfortable with how Jamie ended up a single father, and I didn't quite believe Stanton's mom. And I didn't love how the boinking got shoehorned in even though it would have cost Stanton his job.
But it was a cute escape.
Rating: 6.5/10
Gifts for the Season: Winter & Christmas MM Charity Anthology (2020)
This
is an anthology of short stories, which are always to have some stories
that don't work for me. The issue with this anthology is that there
were short stories–most of which were quite good–and there were tales
that could not stand alone outside of the stories from which they were
obviously pulled. Which for someone who loves short stories was
aggravating, and I ended up skimming the worst offenders.
- A.E. Via – An Unworthy Gift
- Lane Hayes – Out for the Holidays
- RJ Scott – Single Dad Christmas
- Eli Easton – Twelve Days of UPS
- Annabeth Albert – Must Be Santa
- Joanna Chambers – The First Snow of Winter
- Clare London – Five Gold Blings
- Posy Roberts – Sojourn for Christmas
- Suki Fleet – Sometimes, Always
- Garrett Leigh – No Place Like Home
- Felice Stevens – The Gift of Forever
- VL Locey – Dressed in Holiday Style
- Annabelle Jacobs – Driving Home For Christmas
- Amber Kell – A Santa for Trin
- Alex Jane – Homestead for the Holidays
Eli Easton's Twelve Days of UPS may have been my favorite story in the anthology. It's set in actual 2020 with the pandemic as the backdrop.
In this strange new world, a man who took such care about germs out of concern for others was suddenly… sexy? It showed a maturity and thoughtfulness.
Someone is sending Paul random Christmas presents, and he doesn't know who or why, but the conversations with the UPS guy are definitely the highlight of his day. It's a very sweet story, and surprisingly I liked the pandemic insert and how masks and distancing were worked into the story.
This anthology had a couple of good stories, but also had some that actually mad me mad a wasted time even skimming them. But then anthology is for a good cause (The Trevor Project) so get it and just skip the stories that don't stand on their own.
Publisher: Love Lane Books Ltd
Rating: 6/10