Oh how the tides of turned, these days I’m like GIVE ME ALL THE MM Holiday Romances, whereas when I first read Lane’s Christmas Kitsch back in 2013 I was much more cautious and actively staying away from them. At last check as I write this, I have over 22 books tagged with holiday romance. HA!
I have no memory of that first book I read which mostly tells me that it wasn’t bad. Looking back over my review and my rating of three-stars just reiterates it was a middle of the road book with no major problems and I kind of feel that’s where this one ends up too: probably not the most memorable book, but nothing so egregiously wrong that I’ll remember it only for that.
Winter Ball is a sweet friends-to-lovers “gay for you” romance featuring friends and soccer teammates Skipper, a tech help professional and impromptu coach of the team, and Richie, a mechanic working for his family junk yard who plays forward for the team.
I really liked how quickly Skip and Richie get together. It’s not forced and it doesn’t seem rushed because of how long they’ve known each other.
. . . this moment here, this was not a sudden shot-in-the-dark, holy-crap-look-what-random-chance-made-us-do kind of thing. What lived between them hadn’t changed overnight, wouldn’t change overnight, because this heat, this live electricity passing from Skip’s skin through to Richie and coming back again, this had been building. (36)
They just sort of fall together seamlessly one day when they’ve both realized neither has been able to maintain a relationship with a woman. And because of how quickly they fall together we get to see their relationship grow through the first stages of hooking up to actually becoming a relationship and this is where we find the crises of the novel.
Skip gets really sick at one point and we get this comedic gem,
Skip fell asleep with his arm over Richie’s tight stomach and had confused dreams about turkeys beating off and ejaculating gravy. Fucking cold medicine. (97)
But the we also get the stress of Skip being over committed at work (and an introduction to a future protagonist in the series) and then the friction of Richie taking care of and spending all his time with Skip causes trouble at Richie’s home where he rents an apartment from his dad and stepmom. There’s more drama around Richie’s family and it didn’t add much to the story other than to reiterate how not-great his family was.
This all builds to the series of coming out scenes from Skip and Richie standing up to Richie’s dad, a fellow soccer-team member outing them to the team and the team defending them, and ultimately Skip and Richie moving in together and starting their new lives together and their happily ever after.
The best scene of the novel was when their soccer team stood up for them and told the homophobic bully of the group (you knew who he was from the beginning) to sod off.
For the last half hour as the light died and winter took over their little corner of the world, Skipper got to play with his team. When he’d been a little kid hiding in his room, dreaming of a better future and friends, this moment here, friends calling his name and laughing and cheering him on, this moment was the one he’d been dreaming of. (143)
And it sets up for the rest of the series. I think it introduces us to the final few protagonists for the next two in the series: Summer Lessons and Fall Through Spring.
Recommendation: This was a quick sweet read. I liked both protagonists and the supporting characters and thankfully the sex scenes were well written and not too many or over the top, which sometimes happens when the protagonists meet pretty early on in the story. Even though I enjoyed it, I don’t think Lane will ever be in my “Top Tier of MM romance authors” where I absolutely have to read everything she writes, but she’s definitely firmly in the second tier where if I like the plot or I’m just itching for a MM romance novel I’ll seek her out.
Opening Line: “Scoggins was at it again.”
Closing Line: “Richie kissed him instead, and that was even better.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
Additional Quotes from Winter Ball
“‘I like,’ he said simply, and if Richie’s smile was a little wobbly, Skip couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t on solid ground either. The whole world trembled under the two of them, and the only time it felt right and solid was when they were close like this, close enough to touch.” (26)
“Small things. Perfect things. How strange that the smallest things made the big thing, the unspoken thing, perfect.” (30)
“Skip had never given himself credit for any sort of imagination. He could get soccer plays from books, but he didn’t make up any of his own. He could fix computers, but he had no urge to write his own code or design his own hardware or software. But he did read—mostly thrillers and espionage, because he liked to see if they got the tech things right.” (50)
“‘It’s… you know. Just… stupid dreams you have when you’re a kid. You’re going to be a movie star or an astronaut.’ You’re going to be an athlete and have tons of friends and someone at home who cares if you live or die. ‘But this… this, you and me—it’s nothing I ever dreamed of, you know? But it’s all I ever wanted.'” (151)
“I’m starting to think being a grown-up isn’t going to school or even paying your own rent. It’s learning to fake it when you got no other choice.” (153)
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