Book 774: Winter Wonders (Holiday Romance #1) – Leighton Greene

If you ever wonder what happens when you chose a series by the first book’s cover and title and commit to reading all of them without reading anything about them you end up reading a trilogy of MM Holiday Romance novels set in the Kink/BDSM community of Los Angeles. I read this as my 15th and (surprisingly) final book of my 12 Books of MM Romance binge. For some reason I assumed the whole trilogy was Christmas/Hanukkah based, but I definitely got that one wrong with Taming Tristan representing Valentine’s Day and Star Spanked representing Independence Day, so here we are.

I’m glad I read it because it wasn’t something I would normally seek out and this first one was definitely a soft introduction to kinky MM romance with minimal scene play (learned that) and really just an exploration of the power dynamic between the protagonists Jon, an LA makeup artist reeling after a break up fleeing to the East Coast to job sit for a friend for the holidays, and Connor, an unsatisfied old-money east coast doctor looking for more out of life (and also reeling from the breakup of his engagement).

Apparently, one of the biggest tropes of holiday romances (or winter romances?) is someone driving their car off a road and being rescued by their soon-to-be prince charming—this was the third I read after Naughty & Nice and Tic-Tac-Mistletoe to feature this meet-cute. I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it as a meet-cute as it really makes the three who drove off the road seem incredibly helpless and incompetent and their knight in shining armor that much more masculine. It worked better in this book because of the whole D/s (Wikipedia page NSFW? – learned that too) relationship thing going on.

I liked that Greene did something similar to Walker in Tic-Tac-Mistletoe in acknowledging the holiday movie tropes in her book and it just made me laugh. Greene didn’t hit the nail quite as hard or frequently as Walker and it worked for me:

Besides, haven’t you ever wanted to do something like this, just for fun? Fake relationships are a staple of Christmas movies. Sandy B in While You Were Sleeping, for starters. (70)

Other authors have done the old money east coaster falling for west coast “trash” better, but Greene did a really good job of fleshing out the supporting characters, especially Connor’s mom—she was despicable. Not only did she fit right into the over-bearing over-controlling mother type, but Greene also had the upper-class east coast society pegged when it came to acceptance (we’ll say tolerance) of LGBTQ+ individuals, especially family members and the cachet they bring.

They’re a frightening combination of nosy and enlightened, these society types, very supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community, and you better believe they added each new initial to that acronym with glee. My wedding to Ryan was set to be the social event of the season—whichever season it finally happened. My own mother aggressively formed the first PFLAG in our area when I came out in high school. (100)

My favorite part of this book was Jon coming to the rescue with Connor’s mom and, even though he didn’t want to, making himself indispensable for her beauty routine and the massive party she was planning. Not only was Jon able to rekindle the romance for Connor’s parents, he was able to put himself out there and get his happily ever after even if all he wanted was a “man-diet.”

Recommendation: I enjoyed it more than I thought I would after I found out it was a kinky romance. A large part of this came from the slow introduction this novel provided to the series. Greene, via Jon, did a great job of introducing what I assume are the basics of a D/s relationship and wrote an engaging holiday story that I enjoyed reading.

Opening Line: “Jonathan Ashe hated snow.”

Closing Line: “Jon gave a happy sigh, stretching on the bed as Cooper kissed down his chest, making for his cock. ‘Yes, sir.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Winter Wonders
“He spent half his time in LA advising dumb, curious newbies to the BDSM scene to stay the hell away from mysterious strangers, and here he was, locked up in a cabin in the woods with a mysterious stranger. A hot mysterious stranger, but then, Ted Bundy had been charming too, by all accounts.” (10)

“Ryan Worthington (of the New England Worthingtons, as his mother always added when introducing him to people) had been her idea of the perfect gay son-in-law. And Cooper was just being silly and obstinate.” (57)

“Cooper seemed like he just hadn’t quite found himself yet.
Jon knew that kind of guy. Hell, back in LA, it was practically his side gig to take uncertain newbies under his wing; to give advice and help out other subs in the community. But that was the thing: he was used to dealing with that uncertainty in fellow subs.
Cooper, despite all the confusion, was definitely not a sub. And the last thing Jon was up for right now was to initiate a new Dom into the ways of things. Besides, where would he even start? Jon had never been with an inexperienced dominant. Not that he had anything against them, it was just that . . .” (69)

“‘It’s like a fairytale,’ Jon murmured. Cooper’s eyes were the color of winter, he decided: dove-gray around the irises, surrounded by a deeper, icy blue.” (96)

“He had to stop teasing Cooper. That almost-kiss had reminded Jon of the boundaries of their relationship, and he needed to stop pushing them. In the kink world, consent was key, and Jon was behaving like a jerk.” (119)

“He kept thinking about the reality of things. And the reality was, people didn’t meet their soulmates on lonely, snowy roads at Christmas time, and they didn’t get together with them for the rest of their lives, and there was no such thing as a Prince Charming. The reality was that Aschenputtel had gone back to sweeping up her ashes, and Cinderella had gone back to sweeping up her cinders, and Jon would go back to sweeping up the dregs of his life in LA.” (193)

“Cooper held the coat up and helped him into it. Jon had never been treated like this by a lover. It felt like all his romantic daydreams of the quarterback slinging his varsity jacket around Jon’s shoulders had come true. Once Jon was snug in the coat, Cooper put his own on, and took Jon’s hand.” (227)