“I’m telling you. Hartbridge at Christmastime. Like it or not, Cupid hides in the Christmas trees, taking potshots at people. No one’s safe.”
After losing his father and having his husband walk away from their marriage days later, Gunter Zuniga moves to Hartbridge looking for a fresh start. Clay Henderson has his hands full helping his dad run the sawmill in town, he doesn’t have much time to date or explore his bisexuality. But then he’s called out to deliver firewood to the old Nolan house and he’s instantly intrigued by the handsome new owner. Clay may not have much spare time for dating and Gunter may not be looking for romance but the Hartbridge Christmas Cupid has other plans for them.
…he made me feel all warm and woozy.
He made me . . . want to be with a man. I wanted to try it. I wanted to know what it was like. I wanted to feed that half of me that I’d starved for far too long.
The Hartbridge holiday magic did it again! I love that it’s become a running joke in this series that if you move to town during the holidays, you’re going to wind up falling in love. Hamish and Jayden, the town’s first two “victims”, took Gunter under their wings as he found his true love. I love this growing friend group and how heavily the characters from the previous books feature in the subsequent ones. In addition to the sweet romances, there’s a great found-family aspect to the series.
As for Gunter and Clay, they were so cute together. Gunter had only recently gotten out of his marriage but I enjoyed that instead of that causing him to be hesitant to start anything with someone new, he adopted a “life’s too short” mentality instead. Clay knew he was bisexual but wasn’t out and had never been with a guy before but meeting Gunter made him want to wake up that side of his sexuality that he’d kept buried for years. I loved his journey, he was completely smitten with Gunter but also hesitant and scared of how things might change if he came out. Gunter was so wonderful in how he supported Clay’s coming out journey. This whole aspect was so well done and helped these guys connect on a deeper level.
The romance was sweet and low-angst, and there were so many funny moments with all the side characters. Jayden and Hamish were so much fun anytime they appeared, and Clay’s dad Cliff was a riot. I love this town so much, and I’m glad I still have a few chances left to revisit Hartbridge in the next two books!
“I met my forever the day I met you, Clay. You delivered a load of firewood and got out of that truck and you smiled at me and bam! That Hartbridge Christmas Cupid got me good.”
The Book Boyfriend Addict 