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.

Thank you to Netgalley and NineStar Press for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.