Review: 'Twas the Play Before Christmas by Kris T. Bethke

After the death of his wife, Nick Valenti is raising his twins on his own. It’s no surprise when his son, Quinn, gets a part in the holiday show, but Nick is amazed when he shows up at the parent meeting and finds his old high school friend is now his son’s music teacher.

Emmett James is full of passion and energy, and Nick is captivated by him. Volunteering to help with sets gives Nick the opportunity to get to know the man Emmett has become. Sparks fly, flirting ensues, and Nick wants nothing more than to see where the attraction between them goes.

With Christmas in the air, and holiday music helping them along, will Nick and Emmett find a romance that can last?

‘Twas the Play Before Christmas is a sweet little novella and something I’ve come to expect from this author around the holidays. She can always be counted on to wrap you up in some warm fuzzy Christmas love that will leave you smiley.

After the death of his wife five years prior, Nick and his ten year old twins have moved back home to be closer to his parents. They are a pretty picture perfect family, Nick runs a tight ship but he does it with love and respect, you can tell from their interactions they are all very close and love each other very much.

As the season for Christmas programs approach, Quinn, Nick’s son, is anxious to audition. Apparently he has an amazing voice and he’s very disappointed when he doesn’t get the lead. There was the obligatory teaching moment, which Nick handled perfectly, of course, and Quinn ends up being OK with being in the chorus, letting the older kids take center stage since it’s the end of their primary school careers.

When Nick goes to parent volunteer night he realizes that the school music teacher is Emmett James, his own school crush that made him begin to realize that he may not be as straight as he once thought. Nick volunteers to help build sets and he and Emmett end up swooning all over each other.

Nick is a super together guy with alpha level confidence and Emmett loves it. I personally like my MC’s a little more flawed, but I’m not going to knock the story because one of the MC’s isn’t necessarily my jam, because he was Emmett’s and that’s definitely more important. There’s virtually no angst and the conflict is only in the fact that they can’t really spend much time together until after the Christmas program due to sheer lack of time available.

The scene with the phone call though? The one where Emmett plays the guitar for Nick? Damn, that was romance gold right there and took this novella to a higher level for me. The author did a bang up job of showing me how the two MC’s felt for each other and I loved it.

A solid HEA is had, Nick and Emmett really are good together and, while the ending did move them forward pretty quickly and there was no real conflict that will make me remember the story long term (except maybe the sweetness of that phone call) it did make me feel all the holiday Hallmark feelings I love about Christmas stories.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**