Holly Folly EXmas

by Charity Parkerson

Life didn’t turn out quite like Caine hoped. He wouldn’t change a thing.
Through four years of high school, Caine secretly dated his best friend Mitchell. Their secret died a sudden death when Mitchell disappeared one night along with Caine’s sister, Sam. The pair moved away and married, cutting everyone from their lives. Caine was left behind, floundering and brokenhearted from the betrayal.

Three years have passed, and Mitchell and Sam are set to make their first holiday visit since they left town. A lot has changed since the pair last saw Caine. As much as Caine would like to skip seeing them, Sam is his only family and he doesn’t want to permanently lose their connection. It’s bound to be one heck of a holly folly Christmas with his ex. Especially once Mitchell finds out Caine’s secret.

Genres: M M Romance, Contemporary, Holiday, Short Stories, Romance, Christmas, LGBT

36 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2020

About the author

Charity Parkerson is an award winning and multi-published author with several companies. Born with no filter from her brain to her mouth, she decided to take this odd quirk and insert it in her characters.

*Eight-time winner of Readers' Favorite Awards
*2014 Golden Ankh nominee
*2013 Readers' Favorite Award Winner
*2013 Reviewers' Choice Award Winner
*2012 ARRA Finalist for Favorite Paranormal Romance
*Five-time winner of The Mistress of the Darkpath

**Connect with her online:
Website: charityparkerson.com
Facebook: facebook.com/authorCharityParkerson
facebook.com/TheMenofSin
Twitter: twitter.com/CharityParkerso

Reviews

[Kati *☆･ﾟ · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-read December 2025

Awwww, I've missed this so much. Best 36 pages ever. 🥰


re-read December 2023

I am so in love with this story. *sigh



5***** stars


* :•☆ *:･ﾟ

Well this was truly a surprise. YOU THINK, reading the introduction, you’re stumbling right into a cute second-chance romance, but it’s so not *lmfaooo
Didn’t see that coming.

At around 55% I needed to go back and read the beginning again bc I thought I missed something, I was so confused it gave me whiplash, like me thinking: Wait, what? What the hell happened in these past three hours????


This was brilliant, really. I loved it!!! ♡
A super lovely, super heartfelt, super short but also super hot holiday novella with a twist I can absolutely recommend. - for such a short story there is so much heart in it!! Truly wonderful.


* :•☆ *:･ﾟ

[~Nicole~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably Kati and I are the odd ones out who absolutely loved this but damn, it’s still good!!! 😍 Hot, tender, interesting with a twist (or two) and just the right amount of Christmas.

Reread December 2022. Still fantastic, still my favorite Christmas short read and yet still too freaking short. I wish it were a normal-length novel. 😭!

Why is this so shooort ?!!?!!! Loved it, I wish it were a longer novel. So goood. My favorite sort of taboo trope. And such a delightful plot twist -I didn’t see it coming at all. Good. Very good novella !

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I was actually so surprised with this? You expect the story to go a certain way, only for it to go somewhere completely different!
Such a fun, unique and special short with a high reread potential!

Thanks, Kati for putting it on my radar and reading it with me late at night 🥰

[daniella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story was really short but good! It captured the challenges and emotional journey of those left behind and the consequences faced by those who ran. It didn't shy away from the difficult moments, but still managed to bring it all to a positive ending.

[Vanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read: Dec 2025. Still one of my fav holiday books. ❤️

5 Absolutely LOVED it stars!! ❤️❤️❤️ This short recommended by my GR friends was the best holiday short I have read so far this year. 😍😍 It had all my fav tropes, hurt-comfort, age-gap, steamy kinky sex and a really cute and surprising HEA. I wish it was longer, but I guess the surprises in this novella wouldn’t have felt so exciting.. 🥰 Highly recommended!! 👍🏻👍🏻

Thank you Nicole, Kati and Cat.. ❤️❤️❤️

[Drache.... (Angelika) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea behind the storyline but the execution was sadly severly lacking in my opinion.

Between zero intimacy, feelingless sex scenes, stilted conversations (Caine and Tim), and unreasonable OTT behavior (Mitchell) there wasn't much left to like.

It's a shame really, this book should have been longer, with better writing, even please just some hint of chemistry and feelings throughout the book not just on the last 5 pages, it could have been good.

Instead it was poorly written as if the author just didn't care enough for their characters.

The only character I felt truly empathetic with was poor Sam. What a mess she had to deal with.

[Cat the bookworm (semi hiatus ish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good for a novella.

Quite often, novellas are too short to have be a proper plot - what I really appreciate about this one is that we get a short “introduction” that gives us context: a few years earlier, Caine’s secret highshool sweetheart Mitchell took off with Caine’s sister, leaving Caine heartbroken. Now, 3 years later, Mitchell and Sara return for Christmas to visit Caine and Mitchell’s father, Tim.

I won’t spoil anything more, because there’s a rather surprising plot twist I don’t want to deprive you of, but it’s short, hot and with enough depth to stand out amongst other shorties. Thx to my friends here who made me pick it up ❤️ (you know who you are…)

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always in awe of authors who manage to pack quite a bit of story into very few pages. In a mere 36 pages I learned a whole lot about Caine, Tim, Mitchell and Sam and how their lives became intertwined. And since there was a bit of unexpectedness involved, I'll leave it at that. Thanks to Nicole for recommending this to me! It was exactly what I was looking for to fill some time before a book release.

[⋆｡°✮ Lucy InTheSky ✮°｡⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read Little pest and Breathe from this author (both were terrible for me), but this novella was a definite step up.

💙SPOILERS AHEAD💙

This was a very short story about Caine, a young man whose highschool sweetheart, Mitchell, left him, eloped with Caine's sister and got married.

Caine's mother died, he lived on his own, was getting over a heartbreak, but there was always one man persistently by his side - Tim, Mitchell's dad, who was 16 years his senior.

The story takes us to Christmas holidays 3 years later, where all four characters meet again and we find out Caine and Tim are actually married, they have a happy, wonderful relationship that I simply loved and I honestly wish the story would be longer, because it sounds like both MCs are pretty wonderful.



The interesting thing was that Tim has been closeted for most of his life and when he realized he had feelings for Caine, I absolutely loved his courage and determination in pursuing Caine, even though it might've been seen as morally wrong, but Tim was a really mature character and definitely sure of his love for Caine and sure of their relationship , basically.


The spice was great, even though there wasn't that much of it, their dialogues were good and pure happiness was radiating from those pages.

I wish the book would've been longer, I think it has great potential.
I'm wondering whatever happened to Mitchell?

[Lily Loves 📚 · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a sweet read! I wish this was a full length story!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The summary for this is a bit vague on what to expect, but it’s a short, sweet Christmas novella with a central relationship that filled me with joy. For such a short story, the love, chemistry, and devotion were all palpable. There was a little bit of angst, but never at the expense of the main couple. I would absolutely read a longer novel about these two, but it still was satisfying as is.

[Iman (hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

WOW not what I expected at all. I thought it was a second chance hahahahh. What a sweet twist! 💜 I feel like I should read this again to get the whole grip of the story. Maybe soon or for Christmas later.

[Rin (indefinite hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need this in a full novel! Such an emotionally charged fun little story.

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank God I give it a try. When I read the synopsis, this book is a no go for me because I'm afraid this story will be bad or even worse, turned out it was very good.

What Mitchell did to Caine is the worst. Betrayed his love and trust by eloping with his older sister and never look back ever since. Caine left alone to nurtured his brokenheart after his mother passed away after Mitchell and Sam went to Texas.

And now, the couple want to spend Christmas back in town. Is Caine ever ready to face his ex and his sister again after 3 years and Caine has something he kept for years after Mitchell's betrayal. A secret that can tear their family apart.

[Franki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this short story, but the way it’s written the time line is confusing at first. It’s like it wants you to think it’s the beginning of things when it’s not. I’d have liked it better had it been a clear timeline and events from the get go.

[Shelba · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could be cute if you ignore the horrendous editing. There are sentences where words are missing... like a lot of them. The wrong tense is used often. I typically don't read Charity Parkerson, and this short story was a good reminder of why.

Also it seems a bit odd that you wouldn't have told your son/sister that you're getting married. It's also a bit odd that you wouldn't have told you father/brother that you're pregnant. And if Sam didn't know about Caine & Mitchell's relationship, then it makes it strange that these four people are so estranged from each other.

[Mirjam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short Christmas story with a twist you just do not see coming. Being a short story, it is amazing how much it actually contains.

Worth the read!

[Jax · Rating 1 out of 5]

Luckily I haven't often paid for writing this bad. It's like something you'd find on literotica. DNF @70%.

[Camila T 🍉 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, fast, funny

[Lady Macbeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
I've never heard of this book until it appeared on my updates.
It was an amazing read with twists I did not see coming, I genuinely thought it was just a second chance romance.
Anyway, I don't want to say anything nor talk about any characters because I would leave spoilers and every reader has the right to freely enjoy this little gem.
I just say that I loved everything about it, except the lenght. A hundred of pages more would have been better.

Absolutely recommended.

[Miss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is too short to be so confusing.

Chapter One of this sets a stage where Caine seems to be crushing on Tim, the father of Caine's ex-secret boyfriend. I was instantly for those two to get together rather than there being any kind of rekindling of things with the ex, Mitchell. Tim and Caine passionately ending the chapter together seemed sudden, but excellent.

Then Chapter Two...reveals Caine to be wearing a wedding ring. And Tim is wearing a matching one. This literally reads like the pair somehow got married in the three hours that Mitchell and Sam were delayed in arriving. I went back to the beginning three times to try and make it make sense. I get that the author was playing coy with Caine's "secret" but the reveal was absurdly out of nowhere based on the first chapter. I was sure that Mitchell and Sam had failed to show that Christmas then Caine and Tim got married before the Christmas in chapter two where the couple finally shows up like the following holiday. Those chapters just do not make sense as being within the timespan of a few hours.

I also have issues with pretty much everything Mitchell in this and his part just doesn't work, for me, with the pace and tone of this short story. All of those critiques aside, I do very much enjoy this author's style when it comes to sexy and/or fluffy times so I love the parts that are focused solely on Caine and Tim.

[Kendra T · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a short story, this sure told a lot of information. The story starts off a bit generically, but it builds bit by bit as the story goes on. Caine’s ex ran off with his sister 3 years ago and this is the first time that he will see them. Caine’s life is so much better now. The only thing that I didn’t like was that because of the slow telling of the story, we missed a bit of the real depth of relationship at the beginning of the book to make us feel for Caine and Tim rather than make it seem focused on Marshall. I feel like I would’ve liked a little more “love” between Caine and Tim before Marshall came home, but that would’ve been hard to do without more pages. Still really good, though.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The price of lies

This was a really good short, which manages to tackle a story that could have been depressing and instead brought it through to a very positive ending. It is a story of two sides. There is the side of those who have been left behind and the way they have moved forward to try to make a life in face of that. Then there is the side of those who ran and the consequences of that when they return. Despite following through to a good ending it does not shy away from the pain and heartache it takes to get there. Great little short!

[Denise GremoryKohta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is why I love this author so much. One of the many reasons. So much in such a short read. Normally little reads like this are nice but don’t hit me deep in the feels. Oh man did this one though. I wanted to slap Mitchell even though I felt bad for him too. And poor Sam. Seriously, all the feels here.

[Tan✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Nicole for the rec!! This was arguably the sweetest novella I’ve ever read!

I loooved the characters and it’s rare to actually feel like they love and care for each other so deeply even in a full length novel, so I’m surprised this gave me all the feels in so little pages. Highly recommend!

And it’s been knows that ex’s dad is my fav kind of forbidden relationship ;)

[Devoted❤️Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected

This quick read packs a sweet, steamy and unexpected punch. “I love you. No one can break us.” All I’ll say about Caine and his true love is that I think they make the best Christmas present of them all.

[Yvonne M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

I loved this book so much. I loved


I loved this whole story, the love that grew between these two men was great. I hope these two grow together and I would love read a continuation of the love they share.

[gung-ho_reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun twisty romance with some smut. the turns this novel took was so funny and yet lead to a sweet small town story i loved. Caine and tim were cute - Mitchell was really losing left and right here despite the narrative having compassion for him, the reveal was great revenge to read for him.

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Anna Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely Xmas story! I like Charity's shorts!