Elin Gregory

Another week, another recommendation 🙂

November/December is when all the publishers trot out their Christmas stories. I don’t normally make much effort to keep my reading seasonal – a good story should be a good story no matter what time of year you read it – but I had been keeping my eye open for this particular story, but a favourite author, and I’m glad to say that it was well worth the wait.

Merry Gentlemen by Josephine Myles has her trademark of plot plus no nonsense smut with a heaping helping of humour. Riley, career civil servant and dedicated city dweller, has taken on the responsibility for Bath’s Christmas Market. The last person he expected to see as a stall holder is his ex, Stan, six foot plus of Balkan gorgeousness who abandoned Riley and Bath for a patch of muddy woodland in Somerset. Riley would very much like Stan back please. Stan seems to want Riley but doesn’t want the city. Their will they, won’t they relationship plays out against a backdrop of squabbling stall holders, a vengeful herring gull, a boss on the make and a very unusual impromptu cabaret act.

Honestly guys I smiled all the way through this and was surprised into shouts of laughter several times. Perhaps I should say that ‘will they, won’t they’ doesn’t refer to sex – they do lots of that so the book is safe to read for those people who MUST have explicit sex scenes to feel that a book is worth reading – but the sex scenes are to the point, good humoured and keep the plot romping along at a canter. Great stuff!