aeoliandeductress 's review for:

The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert

4.0

funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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 Hey, Future Me! A little caveat- you were on a holiday book binge this year (December 2025). So if you listen in the future and are less enamored, it’s cool. We just were loving the Christmas books this year! 

Synopsis: Gideon is a 40 something man who loves decorating for the holidays, especially Christmas. He’s also super involved in the neighborhood community projects, including an avid user of their What’s Up Neighbor app. He works in IT at a local university. He’s noticed his hot, silver fox neighbor (who’s about his age), but Paul is short on words and not interested in becoming part of the community. Gideon really wanted Paul to do decorations this year as they are accepting donations for those who come to view them, but Paul initially puts him off. Then Paul’s brother Brandon asks to not only come home for the holiday with his girlfriend, but wants to propose while he’s there. Paul panics but Gideon happens to be at his door and immediately signs up for the project. 

 

 

Gideon and Paul quickly develop more rapport than expected and attraction swiftly follows. They start fooling around early on. Gideon learns that Paul’s parents died in a house fire and that he had to raise Brandon. He’d also stayed closeted during that time out of concern for how the social worker would react. Paul learns Gideon may be Mr. Helpful, but he’s also quite lonely. His own family is broken up and scattered everywhere and his ex-wife is heading to Florida with her new family. (Gideon is good friends with them- both were closeted during marriage). They fall into “accidental dating” (as Paul terms it) easily but without talking, Gideon assumes it’s only until the lights come down. Fortunately, Paul learns to use his words and they get all the happy endings. Oh, and Brandon does get engaged. 

 

Thoughts: This was a dual POV and I’m very glad for it. It took a couple chapters to get going but getting the inner thoughts of each helped you understand both men better. I felt both characters were well fleshed out and this book in general dealt well with that idea of holiday loneliness that often isn’t talked about. I appreciate Gideon’s bossy yet insecure nature. Paul has a more typical romance hero personality- a bit gruff and surly, but cinnamon roll underneath. Practical to a fault. But I like that with him, we do understand a lot of it stems from being trauma locked. He couldn’t afford a lot while Brandon was growing up so even now that he has money, he doesn’t like to spend it frivolously but he also doesn’t seem to realize that life doesn’t have to keep being hard and he’s allowed joy. The sex scenes were good- not as great as some but solid. I have a soft spot for middle-age romances as I don’t think they are done often enough. This one has enough holiday magic to be interesting and seasonal, but plenty of deep relationship building as well.