Marshall: Book 1 - Mayfair Model series by Claire Castle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sweet.

Touching.

This book melted my heart. The way Claire Castle describes the feelings of her characters is inspiring and I lived for the dialogue between them.

Marshall is a closeted runway/ad model with a reputation for being gruff. He has no one in his life but his overbearing homophobic mother because giving anything away would potentially ruin him. Since he adopted Jess, his pretty puppy, he has something to look forward to at the end of each day.

Stuart is an artist and a dog walker. When he takes up a new client, Jess, he realizes he's never met the owner, but can feel the desolation from his space when he's in his home. After a one night hookup with a nameless man, Stuart can't believe it when he sees him again...and is the owner of Jess.

I loved both MC's. They were true to their character and honest and at times very raw. They both gave and gave without reservation and it was so fun to read their story.

The dialogue was engaging, sweet, sexy and fun. Stuart was snarky and kind and I was overwhelmed at the feelings that Marshall could convey through his stuttering words and gestures.

This was a very well done, fantastic story of two men who find what they've been missing and realize they can be more, together.


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Walking In A Winter Wonderland by Claire Castle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have a love/hate relationship with novellas. I love the quick draw in. I love that there isn't enough time for games. It gets real very quickly and is just enough to give you that boost of romance when you need it.

I hate that you don't get much character depth and I'm not into the whole idea of insta-love, which is typically what happens in a novella. I like a sweet, slow burn.

Claire Castle has a way with words. This novella was everything I love, and somehow she managed to skip the insta-love and give me a little burn too. It was a wonderful surprise.

The story took place over the Christmas holidays with Colton just moving to town and Winter visiting for the season. Winter was carefree and sweet and seemed to have an endless need to make people happy and it was very charming. I loved that he was described as a rugged lumberjack, yet was such a gentle guy. Colton had a bit of a rough relationship in the past, so he was more emotional and reserved, but had such a wild side that was super fun to explore. I loved how much they loved each other. The strength of the relationship jumped off the page and felt very real.

This was a fun, sweet, sexy holiday romance with a HEA very low on angst and totally worth the read.

*Galley copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. Cross posted on http://gaybook.reviews/ *

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