Hiya…Happy New Year’s Eve to you. I hope that you’re able to see in the New Year with the person you love mostđ„° If not, this might just be the perfect story if you plan on curling up with a story to warm your cockles…
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RELEASE BLITZ
Book Title: Resolutions for an Arbitrary Holiday
Author: Nell Iris
Publisher: JMS Books
Cover Artist: Written Ink Designs
Release Date: December 30, 2020
Genre/s: Contemporary, holiday M/M Romance
Trope/s: Meet cute
Themes: Being true to yourself, New Yearâs Eve, holiday
Heat Rating: 1 flame
Length: 20 849 words
It is a standalone story.
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Buy Links
JMS Books | Amazon US | Amazon UK
B&N | Kobo | Apple Books
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56393590-resolutions-for-an-arbitrary-holiday
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Two strangers, a twisted ankle, an ancient stone ship, and a New Yearâs Eve theyâll never forget
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Blurb
Petter sneaks out of the New Yearâs party he didnât want to go to and treks to an old burial site heâs dying to see. Alone. Without telling anyone on a freezing December night. Without cell serviceâŠa huge problem when he twists his ankle.
Someone passes by Isakâs house on the path leasing to the stone ship. When the person never returns, Isak worries and sets off to investigate. What he finds is Petter, a pack of sparklers, and an instant connection.
Under a starry sky, they learn they have a lot in common. Will the attraction burn hot and fizzle out like the fireworks going off over their heads when they return to the real world? Or will it deepen, grow, and turn into something real? Something everlasting like the stone ship?
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Excerpt
âDid you come here to ring in the new year?â He nods toward the bottle still positioned between my legs.
âYeah. Iâve always wanted to visit this place and since I was dragged to the village, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I even brought sparklers.â I pull them out of my pocket, holding them up for him to see.
âBubbly and sparklers by the stone ship. Sounds like the perfect New Yearâs celebration to me.â
I stare at him. He sounds serious enough, not like heâs mocking me. And he doesnât know me, so he wonât know what buttons to push to get me to agree to do shit I donât want to, like my friend Jonas, whoâs the sole reason for me being here. âYou canât be alone on New Yearâs Eve, Petter. Only losers and people with no friends stay home alone on holidays. Besides, you donât want Maja to think youâre not her friend, do you?â Bastard played me and used his girlfriend to get me to agree, knowing how much I like her. More than him, most days.
But this guy, this stranger, seems honest. âYou really mean that?â
âI do.â He grabs the bottle and takes a swig, his face scrunching up in a grimace.
âYeah, I know,â I snicker. âItâs vile. Serves me right for grabbing someoneâs bubbly from the fridge before heading up here.â
âIâm not a wine expert, but that wasâŠâ
ââŠtoo sweet,â we say simultaneously.
He nods. âExactly.â
I smile.
âListen. What do you say we ring in the new year a bit early? New Yearâs is just an arbitrary mark of the passage of time invented by humans anyway, so who says we canât do it now? Light some sparklers, tell each other our resolutions. Try not to barf as we drink more of this.â He holds up the bottle. âThen I can help you down. Call a doctor if you need one. Or take you back to your friends if you prefer. I assume youâre at the Andersson house for the party?â
I raise an eyebrow. âHow did you know?â
âItâs a teeny tiny village. Everyone knows whatâs going on in their neighborsâ houses.â
âReally? That canât be good?â
âIt has its downsides, thatâs for sure. But Iâm mostly fine with it.â
âOkaaaay.â Because surely, he doesnât mean the neighbors know everything? Not what other people have in their nightstands and stuff? Ew.
âSo what do you say?â He nudges his knee against my leg.
âSure. I approve of the plan.â
Isak removes his gloves and holds out his hand. âLet me light the sparklers. Did you bring a lighter?â
âYeah, hang on.â I dig into my pocket without taking off my mittensâmy fingers are pretty coldâuntil I find it. âHere you go.â
âAwesome. Are you the kind of person who makes resolutions?â
âUsually not.â I accept the lit sparkler he holds out to me. Iâve loved these things since I was a little kid, even more than fireworks, and up here, in the howling wind with a sky full of stars above my head, in the company of a kind stranger and huge ancient stones, theyâre more beautiful than ever.
âBut this year is different?â
âYeah. Iâm doing someâŠsignificant changes in my life this coming year, so I thought âwhy not?â It canât hurt, right? Even if I agree with you about the arbitrariness of this so-called holiday.â
âYou do?â
âSure. Itâs not a thing we celebrate because of some natural phenomenon, like the solstice. Itâs just to mark that the Earth has done another lap around the sun. I mean, thatâs great and all, but why do we need to celebrate it?â
Isakâs face lights up in a wide grin. âYes! This is what I always say when people complain because I refuse to embrace the spirit of the holiday.â
I return his smile. âExactly!â
âIâll drink to that.â
About the Author
Nell Iris is a romantic at heart who believes everyone deserves a happy ending. Sheâs a bona fide bookworm (learned to read long before she started school), wouldnât dream of going anywhere without something to read (not even the ladies room), loves music (and singing along at the top of her voice but sheâs no Celine Dion), and is a real Star Trek nerd (Make it so). She loves words, bullet journals, poetry, wine, coffee-flavored kisses, and fika (a Swedish cultural thing involving coffee and pastry!)
Nell believes passionately in equality for all regardless of race, gender or sexuality, and wants to make the world a better, less hateful, place.
Nell is a bisexual Swedish woman married to the love of her life, a proud mama of a grown daughter, and is approaching 50 faster than sheâd like. She lives in the south of Sweden where she spends her days thinking up stories about people falling in love. After dreaming about being a writer for most of her life, she finally was in a place where she could pursue her dream and released her first book in 2017.
Nell Iris writes gay romance, prefers sweet over angsty, short over long, and quirky characters over alpha males.
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Author Links
Blog/Website | Facebook Author Page | Facebook Profile
Twitter: @nellirisauthor | Instagram: @nell_iris | Goodreads
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Giveaway
Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win
a choice of one of five ebook copies from Nell’s backlist
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