What Happens at Christmas

By: Jay Northcote

Narrated by: Mark Steadman

When two friends pose as boyfriends, could what happens at Christmas turn into something more?

Justin is recently and unhappily single. Christmas is coming, and he doesn't want to face his ex alone at their office party. So Sean - Justin's best mate and long-time secret crush - volunteers to go with him and pretend to be his new flame.

Sean has always lusted after Justin from afar, but there's never been a good opportunity to ask him for more than friendship. Posing as Justin's boyfriend isn't a chore, and if Justin wants to rebound onto him, Sean's more than willing. At the party pretense and reality blur, and a kiss on the dance floor leads to a night of passion.

In the aftermath, they both assume it was a one-time thing until fate intervenes. Stuck together in London over the holidays, they give in to temptation again. But what happens at Christmas stays at Christmas...right?

©2015 Jay Northcote (P)2016 Jay Northcote

Sweet friends to lovers holiday romance.

Low on angst, sexy and fun story. There’s a brief fake relationship moment, which helps Sean and Justin to realize they have the potential to be more than friends. I loved how sincere their interactions felt, their wonder and excitement as sparks started to fly between them. Things moved swiftly, especially when the weather messed up their plans for the holiday, and they found themselves celebrating Christmas (alone) together, but it never felt rushed. Justin and Sean’s friendship was very convincing, a great basis for the deeper feelings that follow. They are both very likable, well-rounded characters, even for such a short story, and I felt myself rooting for them from the very start.

Narration: Mark Steadman’s performance of What Happens at Christmas was perfect. I loved his interpretation of Justin’s and Sean’s voices. The narration had just the right amount of emotion and acting, and his voice has a lovely, pleasant timbre. A wonderful listen.

Great Christmas Book!

Friends to lovers trope, this is a wonderful book to cuddle up on the couch with on a rainy day!

Great narration too!

A feel-good Christmas tale

This is exactly what my 2020 needed to kick off the holiday season- a sweet, low-angst read with a HEA full of hope and healing.

Adorable Christmas Story

Two good friends. One break-up. Posing as a couple to get back to the ex of one of the guys? Yes. Amazing. The two guys had crush on each other for ages but they did NOT TALK ABOUT IT. I mean, a lot could be saved if the two dumdums actually communicated. But their confusedness is just adorable, and despite all of that, it is quite a light-hearted romance story that features two long-time-friends-to-lovers <3

All aspects are just awesome <3

Sweet

This was a nice sweet slow walk from friends to lovers. Although friends since childhood, it took pretend boyfriend in adulthood to bring hidden love to the surface

A delightful and very British story

A wonderful friends to lovers and fake boyfriends Christmas story with oodles of feel good moments. It’s sweet, fluffy, and mostly angst-free. Another cracking and very British tale from Jay, with lots of sexy times for Justin and Sean.

Mark’s narration suits the age of the main characters and their London setting, plus he gave them a different voice so it was easy to distinguish the two guys. His long pauses were noticeable but not enough to detract from the whole story.

The perfect Holiday Romance...movie

OK so I say “movie” because of the brevity of the story. But that’s not a bad thing, it did feel like a holiday movie. Just the right amount of time to actually fall in love with good characters and have a perfect ending.

...and even if it had been a normal M/M romance, it would have gone on too long and I don’t think I would’ve survived the painful angst of unrequited love (I’ve been there, it sucks).

This one fits the bill...if you’re bill is lookin for holiday romance to scratch you unrequited ass for the holiday season.

Cheers Mates!🎄

A good, light read

Jay is one of my favorite M/M romance writers. His stories are always fun and uplifting. His "Not Just Friends" is one of my fav M/M R reads and his "Housemates" series is very fun as well.

The only sticking point in this book (as well as her other stories) is when he has his gay guys say and do things that gay guys just don't do. At first, this confused me, than I learned that Jay is not a cis male. THat explained the few times of disconnect.

The story has propelled by the actions of two guys who never say, "Hey dude, this is important to me and this is how I feel."

Believe me, gay guys will talk that sh*t out - especially late, at bedtime.

Perfect feel-good Christmas tale

I had forgotten how much I loved this story from when I read it ages ago, and the narration just made it that much better. Such a sweet story of two loves finding each other with well crafted, realistic characters. Mark's delivery was perfectly paced and made revisiting the story a whole new experience.

Gets you in a holiday mood!

Any additional comments?

Mark Steadman does a good job with the character voices and keeps a steady pace for the narration. My only complaint for the narration was I felt like he got a little heavy on pauses.

One of the things I felt that was needed to really get the narration right was the relationship between Justin and Sean and Steadman does well with both the external and internal dialogue.

The story was well written, and the characters well fleshed out...but damn the miscommunication bugged the hell out of me. This was 90% miscommunication but luckily, Northcote writes interesting characters, and it's such a short novella that there really wasn't a whole lot of time to get really annoyed.

Overall, it's a fun story with some pretty hot sexy times, good narration, easy flow, and a sweet HFN/HEA that put me right into a sweet holiday mood.