Secret Guncle Must Love Dogs
Holiday, Short Read - LGBTQ Fiction
Dreamspinner Press
Nov 16, 2023
Kindle
78
Amazon
Veterinary student Dutton Glenroth isn’t on speaking terms with his sister, Mary, but he isn’t about to let his niece and nephew suffer because of it. He knows they have very little, so for the holidays, he makes up a basket of gifts for them and leaves it outside their door.
But the kids are getting older, and this year Dutton finds it difficult to pick out their gifts. When he asks for help at Foster’s Toys, he runs into Randy Grant, his high school crush, who even volunteers to wrap and deliver the gifts with Dutton. Suddenly Dutton’s normally lonely holiday has a spark of Christmas cheer. Will this be the year he gets the holiday he’s always longed for?
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Dutton Glenroth works part-time at the veterinary clinic and at the shelter. He is an amazing man with so much love to give but the animals are they only ones he has to give that love to. Dutton has a seven-year-old niece and a five-year-old nephew who his sister refuses to let him see. It had been two years since she told him that he would never be near her children until he gave up his deviant lifestyle. It seems that being gay is deviant behavior.
With Christmas coming up soon he had a man looking for a dog for his mother, the man was his high school crush Randy Grant. Dutton never thought that Randy saw him in school, but Randy did just didn’t know how to approach him. Now as an adult he is ready to show Dutton he likes him and wants to date him. He encourages Dutton to buy a Christmas tree, something he has done without for a few years since he had no one to share it with.
Randy is helping at his uncle’s toy store and Dutton brings his niece and nephew toys every year, anonymously, leaving the packages on the porch. If his sister suspected, it was from him she would throw everything out. His sister lives three blocks away and it breaks his heart that he can’t have a relationship with the kids, but his story is as old as time, being gay is reason enough to hate and have family walk away from you.
Randy and Dutton spend a lot of time together, Dutton will start veterinary school in the Fall and Randy wants to be a lawyer, but they are perfect for each other since they are both caring men who deserve to find a HEA.
Like so many others Dutton is alone all because of who chooses to love, it is a sad story that is played out too many times. When Dutton tells Randy his story, they both stop the trip down “Depressing Lane”, oh Mr. Grey I am so stealing that it is a sad but true saying.
This was a wonderful Christmas story while at the same time sad. But although Dutton lost a family, he has a chance at a new one, one filled with love. Hopefully the day will come when Dutton will go from Secret Guncle to just plain Uncle Dutton.