Christmas Kitsch by Amy Lane
Contemporary new adult M-M romance.
When Rusty goes off to college, he is a bit confused about his best friend Oliver. His college experience forces Rusty to face some truths. He’s more interested in Oliver than any female. Coming out is painful when Rusty’s parents cuts his finances and throws him out of their house. Oliver’s family is supportive and Rusty soon finds himself surrounded by good friends.

Lots of emotional ups and downs with the pain of self discovery, parental abandonment, finding love and good friends, and learning self strengths and pride in accomplishments.
A holiday novel because there are some pivotal scenes during the Christmas season.
First love. Forever love. A heartfelt romance for that feel good and satisfying story. ( )

This is a good story. I really enjoyed the characters, even the antagonist were fun. ( )

Even if part of the story takes place under Christmas season, this is not “only” a seasonal romance. Rusty and Oliver, our boys, met during their last year in high school; Rusty’s life is already set ahead of him, he will go to Berkeley, he will become a lawyer and at the right moment he will married a nice girl, possibly from his same neighborhood, and they will have a white fenced house with 2.5 kids. Only that Oliver messes up everything, only being Oliver. Rusty only knows he likes Oliver more than all the other girls he went out with, and when he is at Berkeley, he misses him so much; doesn’t help that college is not really his cup of tea, and on the contrary of many boys his same age, Rusty is not able to fake it just for the thrill to have some years away from home at his parents expenses.

Coming back home to Oliver means that Rusty will have to change all his life, the only life he knows; but Oliver and his family are there to replace everything he is losing, and some more.

Truth be told, even if it wasn’t for sure nice to lose your family at only 18 years old, Rusty is way luckier than many other boys; when he was complaining his home wasn’t good enough to have Oliver over, I was thinking, but you have an home! And it has even more than 1 room, and it is all yours. Here, sincerely, Rusty proved how spoiled he was before meeting Oliver, how he was able to consider everything for given. He is not a bad guy, he has the heart in the right place, but he was raised by the white elite, and they taught him that he was one step above everyone else, especially Oliver, with his mixed cultural origins and his just a touch too brown skin. In a way, I think his parents were more upset that Oliver wasn’t a WASP than the fact he was a boy.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1626490872/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Four stars. Highly recommend. ( )

Four stars. Highly recommend. ( )