Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

A gay hallmark Christmas story. You get basically what you expect from the description. A short, light read with a returning to the hometown to unexpectedly find love trope.

3.5 stars
Burying the Hatchet is a sweet little holiday novella about coming home again and second chances for a first love.

Clayton Osborne hasn't been home in five years but when his mother falls ill he returns to his country roots to help the family's tree farm and see his ailing mother. Little does he know the source of all his teenage angst and lust happens to be working at the farm is all his burly, flannel, ax-wielding glory.

Jake Carver has been working at the NorthStar Tree Farm since as far back as he can remember. And he loves it like it was his own. After Mrs. Osborne took him in 5 years ago he has poured his whole self into that farm. With the return of Clayton, the once star of his very confusing teenage dreams and his greatest regrets, he might just get his biggest wish at a second chance.

Overall, the book was a sweet story of coming home and forgiveness. Jake was a confused teenager and equally lusted after and tortured Clayton for his own inward disgust at his feelings for him. Clayton was alternately in love with Jake despite all the cruelty often flung his way and ran away at the first chance possible. There wasn't much of a story beyond the angsty reconciliation of feelings and the impending lust explosion between the two. We maybe got to the "I love you's" a bit soon for my taste, I would have preferred a bit more story development, but it's a holiday novella. So, beggars can't be choosers.

Burying the Hatchet is cute, feel-good, smexy, and holiday-y. Just right for the holiday season.

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: December 7, 2020

This LGBTQIA+ novella was a cute small town enemies to lovers holiday romance. While It’s short and sweet with minimal character background and so many cringey pet names in the sex scenes, I still enjoyed the characters together and was rooting for them.

This was a cute fluffy book that you read on vacation. It's not memorable but was an enjoyable way to pass the time.
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Former-Enemies-to-lovers? Perfect!
A sweet little read, easily finished in one sitting? Awesome!
Two very graphic sex scenes? No, thank you.
I was so mad about those two sex scenes, this book was perfect for a five star-rating! It had a sweet Christmas rep, former enemies to lovers, two characters that were not perfect but also no assholes - they were human. Probably the most realistic characters I've been reading about for today.
And then there came the sex-scenes and my five stars rating went down the drain. Can we please stop calling people "Baby" during sex?! Am I the only one who's uncomfortbale with this? Am I only one who thinks it's, well... creepy? Yeah? Well, then...

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A new author for me, I'll be looking at whatever A.C. Thomas brings us next.

Ms. Thomas writes a fabulous sex scene. Spectacular dirty talk, great chemistry between the characters, and their unique personalities really come through. The dynamic between the men, present throughout the whole story, culminates in their love making and works perfectly.

With flashes of some really lovely stuff, A.C. Thomas overdoes the descriptors a bit, and there's lots of similes between emotions and the winter weather. It's clever, just a smidge too much of it for me.

Finally, while I know this is a feel-good Christmas romance, I'd have liked the ending to have wrapped up differently. Either the opposite outcome, or maybe one or two more chapters..? And I'm not saying another word, because I don't want to spoil it. I do recommend this one.

I really, really don’t like it when I get totally frustrated with a main character in a book. To be fair, Clayton grew on me…eventually. I even understood his feelings toward Jake, given their past. I just wish he would have given Jake a chance, along with the benefit of the doubt a lot sooner than he did. It seems it was obvious to everyone but Clayton that Jake wasn’t the same boy he left behind. *sigh*

Regardless of my feelings toward Clayton in the beginning, I still enjoyed Burying the Hatchet. I can blame a lot of those feelings on the fact that the book is told totally by Clayton’s POV – which meant readers spend a lot of time in his head. That made sense to an extent, but it would have been nice to be in Jake’s head for at least a little while. His actions and the little tidbits that he gave away let readers know that things weren’t exactly as they seemed…even before Clayton left his past behind.

Burying the Hatchet was a nice Holiday diversion. The characters were witty and the story was full of feels and even a Christmas Miracle or two. ❤

I absolutely adored the book. I think this is my seasonal favourite. I was head over heal with the two main characters and their struggle to forget the wrongs done to them in the past. The story was pulling on so many of my heart strings, which I found really surprising and just shows the great writing style. I'm normally not a fan of the teenage bully trope in romances. I do not take joy in reading detailed descriptions of people being bullied just for it to be explained as a 'oh when a boy likes a girl he teases her' cliché. But in this book it was very tactfully done, in the way that the bullying was mentioned but not in excruciating details and it was very well woven into the storyline and made sense with the bully's positions in life and why he did it. I just got sucked in right from the start.

A cute and fun holiday romance that definitely was a feel good read. Heads up that it does get steamy especially at the end. I do love an enemies to lovers story but I did find myself having mixed feelings about them resolving their past differences.

Thank you to NetGalley and NineStar Press

This was a very sweet story about a man who returns home to his family Christmas Tree farm and finds that the boy he had crushed on in high school was now a man and working on the farm. I really enjoyed this one. I read it in one sitting. I really loved the second chance aspect of this.

I think I would have enjoyed this way more if there was more character development and discussion of their past, though this was a novella so it is understandable that there wasn’t a lot of room for more character development.

I did really enjoy the characters of Clay and Jake. I found their relationship very interesting considering they used to sort-of be friends to where they are now, years later. I think overall this is a very sweet Christmasy story. It all takes place in the lead up to Christmas, so for some pure Christmas romance I highly recommend.

Rating: 4/5

It's nice to see some LGBTQ representation in this genre. Burying the Hatchet is a fun, light-hearted Christmas romance a la Hallmark, but with steamy sex scenes! The characters are likeable, if a bit underdeveloped (no more so than most romance characters).

Clayton returns home to his family's tree farm just before Christmas to help out while his mother is hospitalized. He finds his old high school frenemy, Jake, working at and living on the farm. As the men spend more time together, and Clayton learns more about Jake, romance blossoms.

This is a very enjoyable story and I would definitely read more from this author and this publisher.

This was a very quick read - felt like it took maybe an hour to complete. The story itself was paint by numbers; none of the characters felt fleshed out and we never got much in terms of a back story. Strip out the overly long sex scenes and what remained was a skeleton of a plot with some cardboard characters.

Story: Clayton returns to his small town New England home to take on the running of his mother's Christmas Tree Farm. It's usually a big deal for the area and though he will miss his big-city life, he also wants to ensure that nothing happens to the farm while his mother is in the hospital. Upon returning, he finds Jake tending the place and preparing for the Christmas season. Turns out Jake was his old best friend, somewhat rival, and has been working for Clay's mother for several years. But Jake was cruel to Clayton before Clayton left the town and Clayton has never forgiven his old friend for the hurts. But were both mistaken about what happened in the past?

The story takes place over a few quick weeks and involves a small blonde city boy and a dark skinned, curly haired, big burly lumberjack type who sounds like he has a vocabulary just short of a parrot. Clayton is incredibly rude, insulting, and just unpleasant to Jake for the first part of the book. Jake is mostly silent, lumbering around doing work and not finishing sentences when he did actually talk. Both felt like racial stereotypes and I was very uncomfortable with their characterizations, especially with Clayton lording over farmhand Jake and telling him what to do.

Of course, the story will end up with the usual mistaken assumptions and we'll get long sex scenes with moments of calling each other cutesy "Angel" or "Baby". I can't really say there was any organic development of the plot and it pretty much was "oh, I made a mistake in the past, forgive me and let's make out." It felt too pat and too easy and I wanted more. Especially since there were no side characters, it felt very shallow.

In all, it is fairly brainless and sweet - a Twinkie of a book that is overly sweet and not very filling. But I know there are many who are looking for just that. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Despite the fact that my kindle app has a BUNCH of holiday books on it from the time I bought some massive romance bundle on a whim (back before I had even started reading adult romance too lmao), I decided to request a few wintery/Christmas themed books from NetGalley, Burying the Hatchet included to try to make things feel more normal and holiday like. And while I'm not sure that part actually worked since my life is pretty far from Clayton and Jake's, it was a really sweet holiday romance that lowkey reminded me of a cross between Taylor Swift's "Christmas Tree Farm" and "'tis the damn season" which is a HIGH compliment coming from me since I downright adore Miss Swift.

Burying the Hatchet is a novella that follows Clayton, as he returns home for the first time in seven years to run his mother's Christmas tree farm, while she's in the hospital only to find that his former frenemy and secret crush, Jake, still works there. As the days til Christmas dwindle, so does the distance between them, leaving them no choice but to confront their past.

There's not a whole lot I can say about this without spoiling things since this is a novella, but I enjoyed reading this. It had some beautiful descriptions, and I really like the way Jake's character arch was written. I did feel like some of the story's conflicts felt a bit forced, in order to make the misunderstandings between Clayton and Jake last longer, but it was easy enough to overlook, especially since it was such a quick read.

If you're looking for a holiday read, or a novella to help you reach your end of the year Goodreads goal, definitely try picking this one up. It had such a fun setting for the season, and has a nice Christmas magic touch to it (but not like actual, literal magic, please do not read this and then expect that).

Clayton returns to his ailing mother's Christmas tree farm from his fancy job in Chicago to find that his high school nemesis and secret crush, Jake, is still helping out on the farm and living in the guest house. With Clayton's mother unconscious in the hospital, the the two men will have to put their differences aside and keep the farm running through the holiday season. But as secrets from the past are revealed, they realize they're developing more than a working relationship.

Burying the Hatchet is a pretty generic holiday romance with a healthy dose of steamy scenes. While the story has potential for complexity and nuance, the telling of it falls flat. The characters' actions are reduced to a play-by-play physical description with little digging into their psyches and emotions. It feels full of untapped potential. For example, I can only think of one supporting character who actually speaks on the page. This felt like a basic outline of a plot designed just to give some exposition for the sex scenes.

That's not to say that one couldn't enjoy this book. For me, it doesn't have enough plot and character, but if you want something short, festive, and sexy, Burying the Hatchet would be perfect!

This book is going on my list of favorite Christmas reads for the holiday season.

The plot is pure Hallmark. You’ve got the guy who’s left his small town for the big city of Chicago but has to return home when his mother becomes seriously ill. There he encounters his sometimes friend, sometimes tormentor—and, always, his secret crush—and the two of them are forced to work together to save his mother’s Christmas tree farm. Romance blooms, but with one of them having a life elsewhere, it’s surely destined only to be a holiday fling, right? 😉

Everything about this enemies-to-lovers romance worked for me. A Christmas tree farm is of course the perfect setting for holiday cheer, but Clayton and Jake have a painful past to work through first. The two men engage in a delicate dance, as old hurts caused by Jake’s internalized homophobia and bullying behavior give way to understanding and, finally, to love.

The story hits all the emotional notes. It has some darker moments, given that Clayton's mother is in a coma, but Clay’s sass and flair for drama add quite a bit of humor, too. The back-and-forth bantering between the two of them can be absolutely adorable (the candy cane scene!), and at times I found myself smiling as I read. They can also be tender and sweet with each other when they are hurting, as when Clayton comforts Jake after learning that Jake’s father rejected him because he’s gay.

Barring a lack of detail in a few areas that could have used some fleshing out, this Christmas romance is just about perfect. You can practically smell the pine while reading, and Clayton and Jake gave me all the feels. Highly recommended!

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

A cute, quick Christmas romance! For what it is, I give it 5 stars. It’s got a backstory, good characters, enemies to lovers trope: what more could you want! It’s very cheesy, but plays out like a Hallmark movie, so if that’s what you’re looking for in your short holiday romance books then this is a winner.

Burying the Hatchet by A.C. Thomas is a short and sweet holiday novella following Clayton and Jake after Clayton’s mother falls ill and can no longer take care of the family’s tree farm. Clayton is happy to be back in his small town but not so happy to have to work with his high school bully, Jake.

This was really cute. I think the author did a good job of balancing tone in this novella. It’s dealing with heavy subjects like past bullying and internalized homophobia. However, I think the novella still manages to keep the atmosphere light. Reading about Jake and Clayton realizing their love and having the strength to go for it was really sweet. I will say, part of the reason I took a star off was because I felt like the past could have been addressed a little better. I don’t want to go into spoilers in this review, but something about the way Jake talked about bullying Clayton in the past really rubbed me the wrong way. However, I also feel like my gripe with this could be because I am asking for much more character development than may be possible in a novella. Regardless, I was able to see past that and still root for Clayton and Jake to have their HEA in the end.

A sweet mlm winter tale of love, grief, forgiveness, and coming home. I really enjoyed it and found the characters charming. I was glad that the misunderstandings that happened only persisted for a few pages at most.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Burying the Hatchet" was the most perfect holiday romance.
I absolutely adored it, from start to finish, and the only thing I could have asked for was maybe a hundred pages more of Clay and Jake cutting down trees and celebrating Christmas and being adorable and lovely.
It's full of some of my favourite tropes (childhood enemies to lovers? Check. Size difference? CHECK.) plus a whole lot of found-family vibes that just whacked me in the head and made my heart break.
I adored both of the MCs and the ending was lovely and hopeful. I cried and laughed and sighed.
It was the perfect book for the holidays, full of Christmas spirit, and, especially in this hellyear, it was just the kind of story I needed.