The Merriest Misters - Timothy Janovsky - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Timothy Janovsky

NARRATORS: Mark Sanderlin and Zach Barela.

GENRE: M/M Christmas Romance-Drama.

PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A Christmas MM romance-drama with a married gay couple at the centre of attention. Fabulous inclusivity, a plot with some atypical writing choices (especially considering the genre), shallow main characters, somewhat YA/NA in tone. Might work better for you if you like NA romances.

Plot Preview:

Patrick and Quinn have been married for not even a year and the cracks have already begun showing up. Patrick is very work-obsessed, which leaves Quinn feeling neglected and frustrated at having to handle the domestic chores alone.

When Patrick ends up hitting a “burglar” with a frying pan on Christmas Eve, they both are stunned that they’ve knocked Santa Claus unconscious. Santa’s flustered assistant, an elf named Hobart, insists that one of the two men take over Santa duties to save Christmas. Little do they realise that their duties weren’t meant to last only till Christmas morning. Will their struggling marriage be able to handle this added pressure?

The story comes to us in the alternating first-person perspectives of Patrick and Quinn, from two timelines.

This is my first proper M/M romance novel. For some reason, I have never found M/M blurbs appealing, though I have read and enjoyed plenty of F/F love stories. This book’s blurb reminded me of Tim Allen’s ‘The Santa Clause’ movies, which I had really enjoyed back in the day. Though the book didn’t entirely satisfy me, it is partly due to my reading preferences, and I hope I have a better experience with the next M/M story I might happen to pick up any time.

Bookish Yays:

🌈 A “romance” where the couple is already married and their relationship is somewhat fragile – quite unusual for this genre. It was refreshing to see a young couple struggling with the requirements of domestic living.

🌈 This might be a negative for some readers, but I truly appreciated how the plot shows one of them being dominant in the relationship without even realising how it affects the other one. Fictional gay relationships are always depicted as 100% positive. This book shows that they are as normal and as problematic as any straight relationship.

🌈 Every time there’s a white character in the book, the writing introduces them as such: “a white man”. I have rarely seen books introduce any white characters by referencing their skin colour, so kudos to the author! Let’s hope this becomes the norm. The default character colour in Western books shouldn’t be assumed to be white.

🌈 The rep is outstanding: a gay couple, a lesbian couple, a trans character, an ace character… At times, it did feel like there was a checklist being ticked off, but on the whole, it was a big positive.

🌈 Some chapters are termed “memories”, and these offer a flashback glimpse at how Patrick and Quinn first met and came together. These were well-written, and quite important in understanding their present difficulties.

🌈 A minor thread focusses on the issues faced by public school teachers (as Quinn is one) due to fund cuts – too short to be a major arc in the plot, but an important topic nonetheless.

🌈 Quinn has a "camp sensibility", a feminine side that he secretly acknowledges but struggles to show openly. I loved this writing choice! This portrayal is usually avoided in fiction as it is considered stereotypical or offensive. But Quinn's character development is very positive, showing him slowly embracing his "feminine side" without fear of rejection.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

⛅ I'm not a big fan of the whole “Christmas is RUINED without Santa and presents” trope. The book focusses only on the commercial aspects of Christmas such as gifts and lavish lunches and decoration. But given the premise of the book, I was kinda prepared for it.

⛅ While the Christmas setting does add some holiday spirit to the plot, the main storyline isn’t about Christmas but about the couple. The holiday vibes hence felt somewhat subdued, even in the location where everything should have felt most Christmassy.

⛅ The steam level is lukewarm – plenty of references to sex, no open-door action. This is good for me as I don’t enjoy steam in any romance books, regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the couple. But there are some corny references connected to the libido that made me cringe.

Bookish Nays:

🌧️ Patrick and Quinn are just twenty-six, which means they are new adults in their approach towards everything, including each other. This might be fine for readers in that age group, but much-older-moi found their actions tedious and their behaviour juvenile most times. It felt like they had much growing up to do individually and as a couple.

🌧️ Way too much anatomical focus in the writing! Almost every scene involves some mention of lips or eyes or hands or legs or whatever, along with various adjectives to describe them. (The word ‘eye(s)’, for instance, pops up a whopping 142 times in the book, with about a third of those references having descriptive adjectives.) Such writing makes me feel like the relationship is based primarily on physical attraction than on genuine feelings. Not my cup of tea at all. Might not be an issue for other readers.

🌧️ Way too much miscommunication between the lead pair! Also a lot of overreactions and hyperdrama - annoying after a point.

🌧️ Too hazy detailing about what happens back in regular life after the duo take up the Santa "job". Many things are conveniently glided over. I felt especially sorry for Patrick's friend who ended up waiting for his architectural contribution for more than half a year with no information or apology from Patrick.

🌧️ Broad daylight in the North Pole in December? Bruh!

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at a little over ten hours, is narrated by Mark Sanderlin and Zach Barela. The narrator who voices Quinn didn’t have my preferred kind of voice. He was a bit too high-pitched, which ended up making Quinn sound even whinier than he was. Patrick’s narrator was much better for my ears. Regardless, I appreciate that the two have voices so different from each other’s, especially because both narratives were in first person. The distinct timbre of the voices helped me keep track of the two perspectives easily.

All in all, this was a good first experience of a M/M romance, but I do wish the characters had behaved more maturely and the Christmas setting had been put to better use. At the same time, the nays are because of my personal reading preferences. The right reader ought to like this work better.

Recommended to M/M romance readers looking for a story more focussed on repairing love than on new love.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for providing the ALC and St. Martin's Press for providing the DRC of “The Merriest Misters” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.