Rating: 4 stars
Buy Links:  Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novella

When Deacon Reid’s daughter, Zig, comes home upset about a school holiday traditions project, Deacon’s heart breaks for her. Like Deacon, Zig grew up with an addict for a mother and had to struggle to survive. Deacon adopted Zig as soon as he could, but he knows she suffered and coming up with happy holiday memories for her class project is not easy.

Deacon and his husband, Lang Harris, are determined to help Zig find a way to not only do the assignment, but to celebrate the life the three of them have built together. They decide to make their own, new holiday traditions by trying out all kinds of seasonal fun and figuring out just what they want their own holiday celebrations to entail. And when it is all over, not only do they have new traditions, but they have reaffirmed how happy they all are to be together as a family.

Tutus and Tinsel is the third story in Rhys Ford’s Half Moon Bay series and serves as a holiday follow up to the first book, the fabulous Fish Stick Fridays. While this story directly connects to that first book, Ford does a great job of catching readers up with the family, so you could pretty easily jump in here for this holiday novella. But of course, being familiar with the characters from the first book, as well as the series, will definitely enrich your reading experience.

I absolutely adored Fish Stick Fridays, both in book and audio, so I was really happy to catch back up with Deacon, Lang, and Zig. Honestly, I am not always a big kids in my books fan, but for some reason, Zig is one of the exceptions for me. She is just on the right edge of precocious for me to find her funny and charming. While the blurb led me to think this story is narrated by Zig, we are actually in dual POV between Lang and Deacon, which I think works well. It allows Zig’s project and the family dynamics to take center stage, but also gives us a chance to have some focus on the romance and the relationship between the men. I love how things have developed, both between Lang and Deacon, and as a family, so it is a nice combination.

This story isn’t particularly plot heavy as it’s mostly the group engaging in a variety of different holiday traditions to see what sticks, as well as reflecting on the bigger picture of how far they have all come. At times it did feel like we were treading the same ground over and over, but I do think that overall this one works really well.

So if you are a fan of Half Moon Bay, or just looking for a little holiday cheer, definitely check out this story. I found it to be charming and a nice way to bring the holidays into this fabulous series.

A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.