Homo for the holidays was a cute short story about a man finding himself in New York around the holidays. Realizing the importance of his family and his best friend at the key themes of this story. I do feel like the cover and title were a bit misleading. Not much homo or holiday cheer. I also was shocked it was closed doors.

I don’t read books by and about white people, but gave this one a chance, since it keeps popping up as a suggestion. It’s the literary equivalent of a gay Hallmark movie. Mitch’s go-to expletive was overused and got on my nerves. The romance component was predictable. It was a nice listen while I cleaned my kitchen.

I went in with very low expectations, mostly consisting of smut. Was surprised to find instead a PG-13 friend-to-lovers “true meaning of Christmas” story. Unexpected but not unwelcome.

Mitch loves living in Hell's Kitchen. He spends most of his free time at the gym, at gay bars, and on hookup apps. When he unexpectedly gets the week between Christmas and New Years off work, he lies to his family and says he has to work to reclaim some free time for himself and avoid holiday squabbles. But his best friend David goes home too, and Mitch finds out that he's lonely in the life that he's built.

This was....odd? It's not a romance, though it has an HEA. It's not really a Christmas book except it happens over the holidays. Despite its outstanding cover, it's actually closed door. It's a character driven short story that primarily takes place at a bar over a lot of alcohol. Mitch and David are both hooking up with other people for a large portion of the book.

But.... I didn't hate it and don't regret the time I spent reading.

What can I say about this book. It wasn’t horrible not written well. This sadly was worse than cheesy fanfic I’ve read. This book was trying to be a spicy rom-com that fell very short. It felt like the sex scenes didn’t fit. Honestly, I realize what it reminded me of. A cheaply made, horribly written story for an adult sex film.

I have to admit that I was expecting a completely different story when I picked this book. I actually had this booked for “Spicy Saturdays” and then I read the story. Matthew Cooper gives a sweet clean romance.

In saying that I should also say that Mitch has non-romantic sex with other partners, but the author does not go into details. Nor is there really a lot of romance on the page.

Homo for the Holidays is about growing up - not so much in age, but in maturity. Mitch decides to stay home for the holidays. He doesn’t want to deal with homophobia or family drama. He just wants to relax and chill. He doesn’t want to go home and feel unwanted by everyone except for his mother. In making this choice, he ends up going on an emotional journey that leads to awareness of self.

Cooper doesn’t give Hallmark solutions to the problems. They allow reality to still be reality, but for Mitch to mature and look at it from another vantage point. As I’m typing this, I keep thinking about the ghosts of Christmas past visiting and changing Ebenezer’s viewpoint. There are no ghosts here, but Mitch is influenced by the people who are always there in his life. He hears and this time he actually listens.

Homo for the Holidays is a sweet holiday romance with lots of friendship packed in. I really liked this quick read. If you are looking for clean and sweet romance, then Mitch and David are your holiday choice.

I haven't rate a book so low in a very long time but honestly it was too much confusing for me...

First of all, I couldn't understand if Mitch and David were just best friends or interested in each other and until 65% of the book, Mitch is still hooking up with other people or thinking about that.

Second, when David is basically groped at the bathroom by his date, Mitch acts like it's funny, he doesn't intervene and laughs it off saying David is too romantic, but when he sees Isaac again at the gym he gets all angry.

Finally at 80% Mitch feels butterflies in his stomach when he sees David after the holiday, makes his love declaration, but it's not clear how he got there. His internal turmoil about happiness wasn't satisfying nor deepened enough.
David is shocked by Mitch's admission and between all the people in the world he goes right to Andy (Mitch's hookup) to talk about that?
What Andy did for both of them was nice, but it wasn't enough to improve the story.
The ending was also nice but kind of abrupt.

Thank you so much for this E-Arc copy!

I found the book very funny and enjoyed the premise, however I wasn't really picking up on the chemistry between Mitch and David, and felt that all the characters overall felt a bit flat. For a standalone novella though, I think this book wasn't too bad.

Overall, 2/5 ⭐️ for Homo for the Holidays.

This story was tough to get through due to the writing and lack of character develop or plot line. As a novella, it was expected to be a short story but personally wasn’t engaging to keep my attention for long.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔 (This is for Mitch, you don’t know much about David)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋 (For the kiss between the mains...)
Sex Scene Length: 0
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 0
Humor: Yes
Perspective: third person only from one hero (Mitch)
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: immediately
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after

Should I read in order?
I think this is a stand alone.

Basic plot:
Mitch manages time off for the holidays and wants to fully feel free – have fun, drink, hook up...but he ends up not finding happiness until he realizes what he’s been hiding from his best friend.

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary romance – though I’d like to note that this book reads way more like a romantic fiction than an actual romance.
- friends to lovers
- holiday themes
- M/M relationship
- shorter novel
- low steam – there’s mention of sex happening but no on page details (fade to black)

My thoughts:
I liked parts of this one – it had humor and characters I loved. But ultimately this just didn’t read like a romance to me though it is a love story with a happy ending.

This story focuses on Mitch and his struggles. It features multiple one night stands he has, while his best friend is a step away. He doesn’t work up the courage to share his feelings until the end of the story, so I was just kind of confused about how this book was going to end up since I didn’t read the synopsis before diving in. I just kept waiting for it to fall together and didn’t love that Mitch needed his hand held for most of it to help him figure everything out.

Hey why the heck not

Short, sweet, and pretty much what it says on the tin. The holiday season forces a big city boy to examine his feelings for his family and his best friend. Cute. This book did have some grammar and spelling errors, which really detracts from my opinion of a book, and the story and writing is nothing special. I also have to wonder whether July is a good time to publish holiday themed stories. If nothing else, this book gave me a cute romantic scenario to rotate in my mind for a while.

i love these movies and these types of books. they are just what the world needs sometimes. they arent fluff(too many people call them out for it), they are clever and full of love and we could all learn a bit from them. i also love in this one it was a non hallmark romcom. because sadly,angrily we all know this would make it into hallmark. ugh i could start...but i wont.
this is a cute and delightful romance. its got those blushing, and shy causing moments for both reader and character alike haha.
the relationship felt like it was building all the time on something more and more solid. i was rooting for them all the way through. there was such fun and smiley moments for us to read. just so real and just what i needed from this book.the relationship was lovely,it was already strong but with love, and the turning of feelings you could just see it becoming even stronger. i liked how i go away from the end of some books imaging how happy the two could be after it. they are the best books for and and the books that i know then have touched me most.
we need more books like this. sorry to say it though. but just unapologetic love stories. bring them on.

This was a 50/50 read for me. I absolutely loved the lighthearted Christmas romcom vibe. I’m obsessed with those kinds of stories and movies, so I really enjoyed that aspect. I liked the characters, their interactions, and the way they went about their lives. It was fun and entertaining.

Where it fell a bit flat for me was the romance. I didn’t really buy it, and ironically, I thought Mitch had more chemistry with a different character. The romance felt rushed toward the end, which created a confusing contrast with the rest of the story. I would’ve liked to see more moments where their lingering attraction came through, even if they didn’t realize it at first. Their interactions felt more superficial and friendly rather than building towards an “Oh my God, I think I actually love you” moment.

It was still an entertaining and fun read, though.

Okay so I went into this without any expectations at all and it ended up being such a cute little story and David is such a sweetheart of a character but the pacing of the romance is so off and didn't feel like it was thought out well enough that it felt forced and rushed, the last third of the story had a complete tonal shift that did not work well