#kelly fox

[retropopcult]

The cast of Coach, 1989

[vanillapastemp3]

📸: Vixen Visuals

[cattatonically]

Frost Impressions - Kelly Fox (Christmas Falls: Season 2, book 8)

Synopsis

Living in a town named Christmas Falls with a name like Gray Frost, you’d think I loved Christmas.

On the contrary, I’d rather get a root canal than participate in anything remotely festive. Yet here I am—running the regional airport for commuter airlines and rich guys who have nothing better to do than fly in for the season.

Just today, I picked a fight with a pilot—the wealthy and wickedly attractive Sunny Day. He’s as irritatingly cheerful as his name would suggest, even when his plane breaks down. He’s a little less bright when he realizes I have the only spare bed in town.

The only point in his favor is that he hates Christmas as much as I do. When I find out what stole his joy, though, I have to wonder if the town’s charms can give him back the love he once had for the holiday.

Christmas Falls: Season 2 revisits a small town that thrives on enough holiday charm to rival any Hallmark movie. It’s a multi-author M/M romance series.

My Thoughts

Gray Frost is known as the Christmas Falls grump, taking the roll from his friend Griff. It’s not that he hates Christmas, but he isn’t into all of the fanfare and forced joy. And that, I can absolutely, 100% get behind. And though he comes across as rather brash and abrasive, he’s thoughtful and considerate, a fact that Sunny Day discovers much to his delight.

On the surface, these two appear to be complete opposites. But they’re a bit more similar than they think. And while first impressions were rather, well, frosty, those impressions don’t last very long. The more Gray and Sunny get to know each other, the more they grow to really like each other, and dig deeper under the surface, something Gray is quite talented at.

It doesn’t take long for him to see that Sunny, despite his namesake’s disposition, harbours some pretty intense anxiety. And while it isn’t something he likes to discuss, Gray allows him the space and time to do so.

And honestly, the discussions between characters, and in their inner monologues, around the topic of mental health, anxiety particularly, were pretty great. The idea that being authentic is more important than toxic positivity (though there is room for optimism) brought be great joy. I loved these discussions, and I loved that Gray made Sunny feel safe enough to be open and honest about the state of his mental health, and his anxiety.

And these discussions really led to both men choosing open and honest communication from the get go, which, as we all know, is something I absolutely love. I loved how close they grew to each other out of these conversations, and I loved how they acted on their attraction to each other with respect, and communication of boundaries.

On the surface, Gray and Sunny may have appeared to be completely opposite – and while they do differ in quite a number of ways – these differences proved to be the glue that held them together.

We’re nearing the end of our time in Christmas Falls this year, and there may or may not have been some subtle hints of a possible return next year. If there are plans for season 3, I’m here for it with arms wide open! You can call me a Grinch, but I will always love returning to Christmas Falls once a year to indulge in some festivities, adventures, and happily ever afters.

[hannaedits]

Book Review: The Crush (Lost Boys #2) by Kelly Fox

Read my reviews of previous books in the Lost Boys series: The Thief (#0.5) | The Skeptic (#1) Sometimes you don’t know how much you need to hear (read) something until it comes along at exactly the right time in your life. Fox has been one of my favorite authors since I discovered the Wrecked series a few years ago, and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by her, but The Crush will now always…

View On WordPress

[booksandwords]

Summer Makeover by Kelly Fox

Read time: <1 Day Rating: 3/5

The quote: “These aren’t even jeans. They’re shorts!” He shakes his head, sighing with dramatic disappointment. “No, we are not calling that tragedy shorts. What you’ve got hanging from your hips is the über-tragic, dad-jeans-cut-into-sad-jorts combo.” — Gregory

I'm going to start with honesty, if it wasn't for the cover I never would have looked at this, the title is uninspiring and the author is not someone I've read. I was drawn to this book by the cover, by the seemingly inverted colours, it's so striking and among the covers I was looking at unique. I was deliberately looking for novellas while waiting for the next day's release of one of Franklin U novels. This is I think the first book I've read that uses covid as a core element of the plot. It's actually post-covid, as the world is opening up and people are making themselves work presentable again.

Alright so I was torn on the rating for Summer Makeover instalove isn't my usual fare and I didn't know whether I wanted to judge it from an objective perspective or a subjective one. I've chosen subjective, so take this with a grain of salt if you like instalive you will likely enjoy this more than I did. There are two things in particular that pushed me to my 3-star rating. First, there is a continuity error that while minor enough still should have been caught, secondly the choice to write barebacking. I'll deal with the first problem here. There is at least one moment that I caught where the entirely wrong name was used for an entire conversation. Both are M names, Mildred and Molly, but while they are both character names, who they are is different. While it is understandable in the context that sort of simple editing flaw frustrates me.

The whole story (epilogue excepted) takes place over less than 24 hours. So very, very fast, but that is instalove in a nutshell. Gregory made me lol, loud enough to wake up the dog I'm looking after. Cal was well written in his down-to-earth self. Like the line about Seth throwing on the house to win him over makes more sense. As does the headhunting. Calvin is a living legend and at one point I actually found myself wondering how much of Gregory's reaction was attraction and how much of it was some kind of bizarre hero worship. There are some choice moments in the plot points, like Gregory being a total fanboy for Cal and them not only being in the same broad field (aerospace) but in symbiotic subfields. They are such an endearing couple.

There is a reasonable smut and character balance. Even if some of the character story is near necessarily done through exposition. Though I say the balance is good as one who is a lover of emotional romance there is too much smut for me but it is balanced for the genre. This smut is where the second issue comes in when combined with the short time frame, the smut is bareback and that made me uncomfortable. As best as I can see it is explained away with the line... "the two-week quarantine and invasive medical tests that were required just to be a part of this retreat/intensive nerd prom," and a confirmation that they are both okay with bare. I found the tests super weird and just a convenient way to allow Fox to not include safe sex. Like the conference was checking sexual health? If I found out that was required for conference attendance I would probably be saying f*** you, why? Even with the stakes in play at this conference. Sorry about this whole rant, I do like a little bit of realism in my writing.

On the writing there were some lines I quite liked that I will share here.

I wrangle my hair back into some semblance of a man-bun, which only moderately reduces the Tom-Hanks-talking-to-a-volleyball vibe. — This is just a perfect visual. (Cal)

“Okay, truce,” he says, holding up his hands. “I’m not jailbait, and you’re not ancient. Yet.” — This line just made me laugh. This is a sample of their dynamic and well Gregory in general. It doesn't hurt that I'm pretty sure at this point Cal looks older than he is and with his flattering green air Gregory looks younger. (Gregory)

“Quel horror. Tell me, Dr. Cal, how can you be so smart and so dumb at the same time?” — If you make 'Quel horror' 'quelle horreur' it's French translating to 'how horrible. I work in a school with exceptionally smart boys and I've come to the decision that the smarter you are the dumber you can be. (Gregory)

I take advantage and work quickly, finishing off his modern cut and razoring down that big beard of his into something you’d find on an Instagram Daddy. I mean, even if it’s not a kink I particularly enjoy, the scenery is, *chef’s kiss.* Or so I’ve been told. Anyway. — What can I say I laughed. The guy is a mood. I travel to various places for the scenery. (Gregory)

Damn, if I could get this man to look at me half as lovingly as he’s looking at my truck, I’d make him mine in a heartbeat. — I mean I'm with Gregory here. A good car, old or new, is worth the look he is giving her right now. Sorry not sorry, I spent too much time around cars as a teen. (Cal)

A piece of pushback... an element of the blurb is Opposites attract, instalove, 11k words. Calling these two opposites is disingenuous Cal and Gregory are both in aerospace and would have been working together for weeks even if they didn't have this meeting. They are opposites in appearance only. I want to end this review with the acknowledgements from Fox because they made me laugh. I know far too many people don't read them because they're either skipped by Kindle's to the start feature or they stop reading at the end of the story. I too have total respect for Dr Fauci and all the Chief Medical Advisors/ Officers globally. A particular shout out to Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton who went through a lot of crap as we were slammed into months-long lockdowns.

To Abbie: Who lets me use aloud and out loud interchangeably, even though it makes her eye twitch. To Dr. Fauci: Thank you for your tireless work communicating how to be safe during a pandemic. You’ve helped millions of people protect themselves and their vulnerable loved ones. To Covid: Seriously, fuck you. To the Delta variant: With a cactus.

[plentifulpronstar]

Kelly Fox

[hannaedits]

Review: The Wimberley Chronicles by Kelly Fox

Review: The Wimberley Chronicles by Kelly Fox

Wimberley has always been a source of curiosity for me after reading Fox’s Wrecked and Wrecked: Guardians series. It’s a private black ops program, it employs Hedy and the Bash Brothers, and other than that…your guess was as good as mine. It turns out, Fox initially wrote a book featuring the full story, then used it as background material for later projects. Now, she’s rewritten it and released…

View On WordPress