Candy Man by Amy Lane

What it’s about Adam Macias has been thrown a few curve balls in his life, but losing his VA grant because his car broke down and he missed a class was the one that struck him out. One relative away from homelessness, he's taking the bus to Sacramento, where his cousin has offered a house-sitting job and a new start. He has one goal, and that's to get his life back on track. Friends, pets, lovers? Need not apply.

Finn Stewart takes one look at Adam as he's applying to Candy Heaven and decides he's much too fascinating to leave alone. Finn is bright and shiny—and has never been hurt. Adam is wary of his attention from the very beginning—Finn is dangerous to every sort of peace Adam is forging, and Adam may just be too damaged to let him in at all.

But Finn is tenacious, and Adam's new boss, Darrin, doesn't take bullshit for an answer. Adam is going to have to ask himself which is harder—letting Finn in or living without him? With the holidays approaching it seems like an easy question, but Adam knows from experience that life is seldom simple, and the world seldom cooperates with hope, faith, or the plans of cats and men.

Available at: Dreamspinner Press

KindleRomance’s Review
5 Stars! A lovely holiday treat, light on angst and heavy on hope.

I loved this magical holiday story! Darrin runs Candy Heaven, and he has some strange ability to see bits of the future. His pixie stick is telling him that he needs to hire Adam Macias in order to give him the help he so desperately needs. I thought it was interesting to get two points of view in this story with only one from a main character. It worked very well in this story. Adam has a lot of issues to deal with, and I loved getting to know him better. Since Darrin runs the store, and also has to step in a few times to save the day, it was great hearing his thoughts, too.

I adored Adam. He has not had a great life, and things continue to go wrong for him. However, that doesn't stop him from trying so hard to move forward. Every time a new obstacle is thrown in his way, he just moves it and carries on. The only thing he's really bad at is accepting help of any kind from anybody, and after hearing about his upbringing, I could certainly understand why. I loved the different ways the author used Adam's drawing skills to further the story along. Meeting Finn was the best thing to ever happen to Adam, and he isn't quite sure what to do about it. Thank goodness Finn wasn't easily put off by Adam's behavior. These two were made for each other, and I enjoyed every minute that they were together.

I loved how the author managed to touch me with this story without a horrendous amount of angst or anything over the top, but with a very beautiful story about how love and friendship heals.

*A copy of the book was provided by Dreamspinner Press in exchange for an honest review*

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