Holiday Outing by Astrid Amara

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Jonah has worked hard to find a way as far as possible from the small town in which he is born. He is now a successful gay novel author and openly gay man... but not with his family. The few times he comes back home, he returns the brooding teen who never found the courage to tell his parents. But this time, coming home for the Hanukkah holiday, he is firm in his decision to coming out... until he discovers that Ethan is staying with them for all the week; Ethan, the perfect son of his neighbors, the man to whom his mother always compared him, the successful doctor... how can Jonah compete with such perfection?

And then the unthinkable happens, not only Ethan is hitting on him, but he is also out and proud, and his mother seems to have no problem with that... but before Jonah could do anything, a family heirloom, a wooden box, disappears and at the same time, all the town is under a snowstorm, and Jonah's family, complete of an uncle, an aunt and three cousin, are blocked inside the home. Ethan and Jonah decide to play the role of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, but they seem more Miss Marple... everyone seems to have an enough good reason to steal the box, but an important clue will lead you to discover the culprit before the two heroes.

This is a light romance, and even with the little mystery, it's mostly funny; Jonah is the classical repressed teen who never found his way out of the hell who was his youth, even if he went far from it: he is still that young man who was starting to realize that he wanted someone he shouldn't do, someone like Ethan. A mother a bit too present and always worried for him probably didn't help, but Jonah couldn't see past his fears, and didn't realize that his parents loved, and love, him. Finding out that once more Ethan was the perfect son he wasn't, coming out to his parents, doesn't help. To not build an altar to the perfection of Ethan, it has to be say that when they were young, Ethan did a not so nice thing to Jonah, and this caused to Jonah to go through some very nasty moments, confirming his idea to not come out before leaving town.

There are some really funny moments, like when Ethan suggests that Jonah's mother would be more upset in discovering that his son smokes rather than discovering that he is gay, and when that happens... well you need to read the book to know what happens. This novel surprised me since the previous I read by the same author was good as well, but not at all a light comedy like this one: this book is the proof that, even writing light comedy, you can do a quality work.

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Comments

[galefreak.livejournal.com]

Hi Elisa, I just discovered your journal. What a treasure! Thank you for your review. I also thought this book was good. I decided to read Astrid Amara's other books as well, after reading this one. She is an excellent writer. I have "The Archer's Heart" on order, and highly recommend "Intimate Traitors" and "A Policy of Lies" as well.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I read Policy of Lies, that is quite different from Holiday Outing, but good as well, and still have to read Intimate Traitors, even if I bought that one. Elisa

P.S. and welcome in my f-list, I always like to "meet" new people.